The New Jerusalem is a city described in Revelation 21 and 22. It is usually interpreted as heaven. Alas, that just does not fit the chapters. Someone asked me on a private religious forum why I list my city of residence under my name on the forum as the “New Jerusalem.” In this blog post I will explain why.
When the heavenly Jerusalem is referenced elsewhere in the Bible it is not meant to be a literal city. Here is Paul in Galatians 4:
25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.
Paul here is making an analogy with the present city of Jerusalem and non-Christian Jews. But Gentile (Galatians is unique in that it is primarily addressed to Gentiles) and Jewish Christians do not "dwell" in that city-even if they happen to live there. Instead they dwell in the Heavenly City. We are children of the Promise like Isaac:
28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. 30 But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” 31Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
The Heavenly Jerusalem in Galatians is not a physical place. It is not even a non-physical heavenly place. It is Christians living on the earth that dwell in that heavenly city.
Whoever wrote Hebrews had the same point in chapter 12. In this case the analogy is between Sinai and the Heavenly Jerusalem.
18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.”21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
The point that the author here is making is that we have no reason to fear, and that we can approach God. The way he makes his point is that we Christians "have come" to something. And this something is explained with a series of metaphors, all to explain something that is hard for us to grasp. Note that the author does not say we will come to the heavenly Jerusalem: he says that we have come. So here the going to the city and the church are linked as one. (The word Church is being used in the nonphysical sense.)
Does this fit Revelation 21-22? Revelation 21 tells us:
2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
So what is the bride of Jesus the Lamb? Jesus in the Gospels refers to himself as the bridegroom. But who is he to marry? Revelation 19 tells us that He is to marry the saints:
7 Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
8 Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.”
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)
So does Revelation 21 tell us explicitly what the city represents?
9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
So we who are the bride of Christ are collectively the city—or in the city, just as we are members in the Church, collectively we are the church. Who is outside the city?
27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
These people are outside the city just as such people are outside the church.
I am not denying that there must be an ultimate home of some nature for Christians out in Eternity. But I am saying that Revelation 21-22 is not talking about this. Many Christians are so stuck in a template of a literal interpretation that they cannot see the forest for the trees.
I can hear the objections: “But in the city there is no death!” and so on. But that is because too many of us are stuck in a western literalistic mindset. In this blog I have often called this a template. Let me give you a parallel example from John 11:
26And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
I quote from the King James here as it is closer to the Greek and it makes my point. Here is the NIV makes a correct interpretation of the verse.
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Do we believe this? If taken literally this is obviously false, since many Christians have died. In a metaphorical way this is a deep truth, a “deep magic” to quote Aslan the Lion. I am suggesting that the parts of Revelation 21 & 22 that say these same kind of things be interpreted in the same way one must interpret John 11.
To a degree the interpretation I am advancing here does not speak well for the church as a whole. Revelation 22 tells us that the city is to bring certain benefits to the nations. (And if the city is heaven, who are these nations?)
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
Are we healing the nations? I think not. As the Casting Crowns song puts it:
But if we are the Body
Why aren't His arms reaching
Why aren't His hands healing
Why aren't His words teaching
And if we are the Body
Why aren't His feet going
Why is His love not showing them there is a way
There is a way
Why aren't we bringing healing to the nations? Could it be that we are so heavenly minded we are no earthly good? So I tell everyone (and myself!) that I dwell in that city as a reminder that we Christians all have a calling and we need to be about it.