The New Jerusalem: Not a Physical City

The total conclusion of the entire sixty-six books of the Bible is the New Jerusalem. The ultimate consummation of all that God is and of all His work and achievements, from eternity past to eternity future, is the New Jerusalem.1 Today, as people read about the New Jerusalem, written in the book of Revelation, they interpret and say that the New Jerusalem is a physical city, mansion, and building. They said that it is where we are going to lodge for eternity. In this paper, we will see if the New Jerusalem is truly a physical mansion or is it a wonderful and mysterious corporate person. Using library research, I will take up four things. First, I will describe the New Jerusalem as literally described. Second, I will discuss the traditional teachings concerning New Jerusalem as a physical city. Third, I will point out at least six reasons why the New Jerusalem could not be a physical city. Finally, I will discuss that the New Jerusalem is a corporate person or a personal building. The importance of this paper is to let the readers know the real, biblical, scriptural, and spiritual meaning of the New Jerusalem. This will open their eyes to see the New Jerusalem not as a physical city or mansion but as a personal building.
By reading the Bible, we can see God. Although God is a mystery, the Bible reveals Him to us in a great and clear way. The Bible also shows us the source of the universe. We do not need to grope ourselves like blind men to know the source of the universe, and we do not need scientists like Darwin to tell us our beginning. When we come to the first verse of the Bible, Genesis, it tells us that God created the heavens and the earth. The Bible also tells us where man came from. Man came from God and was created by God. When we come to the Word of God, we receive or can attain much knowledge and revelation or even visions concerning God and His economy. But we are always trying to know the result, the issue, of the sixty-six books of the Bible. According to the black and white letters, we all can see that the last item of the sixty-six books of the Bible is the New Jerusalem.
In Revelation 21:2, we see that the New Jerusalem is a city. As a city, there has to be a foundation. The foundation of this city is built with precious stones.2 This foundation has twelve layers of precious stones. These precious stones have variety of colors. The first is green, the second and third are blue, the fourth is green, the fifth and sixth are red, the seventh is yellow, the eighth is bluish-green, the ninth is yellow, the tenth is apple-green, the eleventh and twelfth are purple.3 The length, the breadth, and height of this city are equal. It is twelve thousand stadia in its dimension.4 Through this measurement; we can see that the New Jerusalem is cube. This city has wall for its protection. Its wall is built with precious stones and jasper.5 It has not only wall but also gates. It has twelve gates. These gates are for the entrance to the city. Since the city is cube it has four sides. In each side, has three gates built with pearls. Each gate has an angel. As we enter the city we can see only one and unique street, built with gold, which leads us to throne of God and of the Lamb.6 In the middle of the street there is the river of life flowing. On the side and on the other side of the river has the tree of life. The city proper is gold that is why this city is called the mountain of gold. In Revelation 3:13, we can see that the city has no temple because the temple and the pillar is the God Almighty and the Lamb. In verse 23 of chapter 21, it says there that the city has no needed neither of the sun nor of the moon for its light, because the glory of God illumined it and its lamp is the Lamb. On the top of the city, we can see the throne of God. There is no problem to the throne because the unique spiral street will eventually lead the people to the top of the golden mountain with the throne.
Probably, through the description of the New Jerusalem, from the book of Revelation, many considered such as a physical and a heavenly city, mansion, and building. This is the traditional teaching concerning the New Jerusalem. All of us, however, have been somewhat influenced by the traditional teachings in Christianity.7 There was a gospel song about the New Jerusalem which told people how good heaven is. According to this song, the streets in heaven were gold, and the gates were made of pearls. According to the traditional teaching, the New Jerusalem is such as physical as it was described.8 This concept occupies our thoughts, so we believe that the Bible ended with a heavenly city. With our mentality occupied with such a concept, we would never think that the New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of the entire divine revelation.
The thought that we adopted was that the New Jerusalem was simply a wonderful place, and we never gave any room for another thought to come in concerning the New Jerusalem. Because of the descriptions, people translated the New Jerusalem as a physical city. The other reason for this is that of John 14 in which the Lord Jesus is talking about His going to prepare many abodes in His Father’s house. They equated this house with the New Jerusalem. This gives an idea that it is truly such a physical building because of the words written in verses such as house, abodes and prepare. According to their interpretation, the abodes that Jesus was preparing are the New Jerusalem.9 That is why most of the readers of the Bible scholars don’t spend much time in understanding the last two chapters of Revelation because they think that the New Jerusalem is the many abodes that has been prepared by Jesus for us. They believe that the Lord will bring us to that many abodes, New Jerusalem, after His second coming. Her are some traditional teachings written in books which are teaching the people that the many abodes is the New Jerusalem and is something or is truly a physical city to lodge in. “The Quest Study Bible” notes the Father’s house with heaven. “The Nelson Study Bible” emphasized that humans are longing for a secure place in heaven after Christ second coming.” Inside Heaven’s Gates” told us that our comfort consists in having a home in heaven, a place prepared for us. “Foundations of the Christian Faith” taught us that Christ prepare heaven for us. “What the Bible Reveals about the Heaven” teaches that our prepared place is in heaven. “The Gospel of John” emphasized on the human need for a prepared place. “The Theology of John” teaches every believer, each child of God, will have suite of rooms, with each suite individually designed and prepared. All those quoted phrases are titles of books that equate the Father’s house with heaven and even the New Jerusalem. They said so because they believe that the New Jerusalem is for His children to lodge and in John 14, it talks about abodes to lodge in. This seemed to be the official, traditional teaching. No matter how widespread these things are, we must know that it is altogether contrary to the divine revelation in the Scriptures and is false. So what is really the meaning of the “abodes” and “Father’s house” in John 14?

In the Father’s house—that is, God’s corporate, organic, spiritual dwelling place—there are abodes. The word “abodes” (not mansions) is the correct translation here. The same word appears in the singular in verse 23: “Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves Me, he will keep my word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” An abode is a dwelling place. The many abodes in verse 2 and the abode in verse 23 are dwelling places. Taken together, verses 2 and 23 reveals that the many abodes in the Father’s house are the many believers of Christ. In the Father’s house there are many abodes, many dwelling places. The Father’s house is the Body of Christ…composed of the believers as members…and every member is an abode of the Father’s house.10

Although we may accept the teachings about what has been taught in the traditional teachings, we should not forget to give a room for the other truths that are real and significant. This proves (the quotes above) that the many abodes don’t mean the New Jerusalem because the abodes are the believer of Christ and the Father’s house is the Body of Christ. So, now we have an understanding that the “Father’s house” and the “abodes” are not the same as the New Jerusalem. But there is still a problem because if we are not going to consider John 14’s abodes and house as the New Jerusalem, there is still that would confuse the people about the description written in Revelation 21 and 22. That may be the reason for being a physical building.
Here are six reasons why the New Jerusalem could not be a physical building. At this point, let us be open-minded and open our spirits to receive this revelation.
First, we must realize that the first verse of the book of Revelation tells us how this book was written: “The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him to show to His slaves what must swiftly take place; and He made it known by signs.”11 This verse tells us that the Lord Jesus made this God-given revelation known to us by signs. The word “signs” is important here. The word “signs” is the key word to interpret the entire book of Revelation. Revelation is a book of signs. Every number in this book is a sign. The lampstands are signs. The Lamb who was slain is a sign. The lion is a sign. The seven stars, bowls, four creatures are signs. In Revelation 12:1, the universal woman crowned with twelve stars, clothed with the sun, and standing on the moon is a great sign. Also, in Revelation 12, the great red dragon is a sign. In chapter 19 we see a bride, the wife of the Lamb, who is clothed with righteousness, is still a sign. What is the last great sign in Revelation? The last sign of this book, which is made known to us by signs, is the New Jerusalem. This is a great sign. The descriptions concerning it are all signs. Now if you consider the other items in Revelation as signs and interpret it but you don’t consider the New Jerusalem as a sign, but as if as it is described, then you are not consistent and you oppose the Word of God that it is a sign. Signs are physical things and their interpretation has to be under the authority of God.
The second reason that we could not say that the New Jerusalem is a physical mansion or a physical city for God’s people to lodge in is that it is altogether not logical to say so.12 Why is it not logical? If we are going to consider each characteristic and description of this city we could not say that it is not logical or illogical. The New Jerusalem, the holy city, is a golden mountain. This mountain is twelve thousand stadia with three dimensions. The length, the breadth, and the height of the city are twelve thousand stadia. Twelve thousand stadia is about thirteen hundred and fifty miles. Such a high mountain has only one street that goes down spirally from the top of the mountain to reach all the twelve gates on the four sides of the city. If this is a real city to lodge in, we must ask how all God’s redeemed from the time of Adam to the coming generations could lodge there? The number of these people is absolutely large and huge. The space is not enough for them. The gates of the city are built up with pearls. If this is a real city, where could God take such a big pearls for the gates of the city? The city has no light because the lamb is the lamp. If this is a real city, where can God get a lamb to shine? Have you ever seen a lamb that can shine or that is used as a lamp? And this one lamb shines the whole city. How come? The street is spiral from the top of the mountain down below. If this were a real city, after the people reached the top, what would they do? Are they going down again? If they go down, what would they do? Are they going up again? Can you imagine the life being there? Hence, this city could not be a physical city because it is altogether illogical.
The third reason why the New Jerusalem could not be a physical mansion is that Revelation itself tells us that this city is the wife of the Lamb. According to the entire Bible, there is a divine romance between God the Creator, the Redeemer, who is the male, and His redeemed people who are the female.13 This is a basic thing revealed in the Bible. In the Old Testament God told His redeemed people, Israel, the He was their husband and that they were His wife such as Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 3:14; 31:32 and Hosea 2:19. When the Lord Jesus came, John the Baptist told his disciples that Christ was the Bridegroom coming to take the bride that is the church (John 3:29). Then Paul told us in Ephesians 5 that the wife typifies the church and the husband typifies Christ (vv. 24-25). Therefore, Christ is the husband and the church is the wife. Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:2 said that he had betrothed us as a virgin to one husband who is Christ. The wife is the aggregate of all the overcoming saints from Adam until the Lord comes back. The aggregate of all the Old Testament overcomers and the New Testament overcomers is the wife in Revelation 19:7 who will be ready for Christ’s wedding. The New Jerusalem is the consummation of God’s counterpart, the aggregate of all His redeemed and perfected people. The whole Bible reveals to us that God is the universal husband and His redeemed and perfected people are the universal counterpart to match God. If we have known this universal divine romance then this needs a consummation and the consummation is the New Jerusalem as the wife of the Savior and Redeemer, Christ. Remember, Christ cannot marry a physical mansion or a city but a corporate person.
The fourth reason that the New Jerusalem is not a physical building is that Revelation tells us that the New Jerusalem is God’s tabernacle and the temple of God.14 John said that he did not see a temple in the city for its temple was the Lord and the Lamb. The tabernacle in the Old Testament is not only the dwelling place of God but also the dwelling place of His serving priests. The serving priests who served God dwelt with God in the tabernacle. Hence, the tabernacle is both the dwelling place of God and His priests (the ones who served Him). Priests are God’s serving ones. In Revelation 22:3 we are told that the perfected believers in eternity will be God’s serving ones. Therefore, all of them dwell in the tabernacle with God. According to typology, the tabernacle was a precursor of the temple that brought in the temple. John did not see the temple because he saw that God and the Lamb was the temple, which means that God and the Lamb will become the dwelling place of His serving ones. The tabernacle is God’s dwelling place with His serving ones and this God who dwells in the tabernacle is the temple that is the dwelling place of His serving ones. Our dwelling place for eternity is God Himself. We will not dwell in a big mansion but we will dwell in God. We are His tabernacles and He is our temple. We dwell in Him, and He dwell in us; this is mutual dwelling in the New Jerusalem.15 The New Jerusalem could not be a physical city because it is God dwelling in His redeemed people and His redeemed people dwelling in God for eternity…. This is the mutual dwelling, mutual abiding and mutual habitation for eternity.
The fifth reason why the New Jerusalem could not be a physical city because it is the consummation of all God’s building.16 Can you still remember that first, God charged Noah to build the ark. Then we see that Abraham was looking for a city with a foundation to build a tabernacle. Later, the Israelites entered into the good land and built a temple. In the New Testament, the Lord said that He would build His church. He also told the Jews that if they will destroy the temple (His Body), He would raise it up in three days. Peter rebuked the Jews by saying that they, the builders, had rejected Christ as the cornerstone of God’s building. Paul told us that we are the house of God and God’s building. Paul as the wise master builder laid the foundation, and we have to build upon the foundation, taking heed not to build with wood, grass, and stubble, but with gold, silver, and precious stones. In 1 Peter 2:4-5, Peter told us that Christ is the living stone and we are the living stones to be built up into a spiritual house. The materials that are used in the New Jerusalem signify the believers and the Triune God built up as one entity. This is the consummation of all the building in the divine economy of God. The materials that are being used to form the New Jerusalem are God and His chosen and perfected ones.17
Now we must see the final reason why the New Jerusalem could not be interpreted as a physical mansion. Our God is the great Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father has an eternal plan with a marvelous economy and the Son accomplished this economy by becoming a man, by His living on this earth, by His dying on the cross, and by His entering into resurrection and ascension. The Son’s achievements were excellent, marvelous, and very meaningful. Then the Spirit came to apply all that the Son had accomplished to us. The Spirit’s work is to regenerate us and now is working within us to transform, redeem, and even make us like Christ. By all of these, the church is produced and built up and there is a kingdom for the overcomers to rule the nations with Christ for a thousand years. The great Triune God with all His achievements and workings throughout the ages surely needs a marvelous consummation. Can you imagine how God went through many processes just to be in man and for so many years He waited to be with His redeemed and perfected ones and for so may years that He waited for this New Jerusalem because this is the consummation of all that God is and His achievements, then this New Jerusalem is just a physical city? Can you imagine that the great God from eternity past to eternity future would just consummate in a physical city? The consummation of all His works and achievements has to be great, glorious, amazing, perfect, marvelous, and not even all the brains of humanity could understand this wonderful consummation. Hence, this wonderful consummation would be the New Jerusalem for eternity.18
Those are the six reasons that show us that the New Jerusalem could not be a physical mansion or a physical city for God’s redeemed people to lodge in.
If the New Jerusalem is not a physical city, then what is it? The New Jerusalem is a personal building.19 When we say physical city, it is built with physical materials such as gold, silver, and precious stones. The personal and physical buildings matters most on the materials being used in the building. When we say it is personal, we refer to the materials in the building as persons, living persons. The New Jerusalem is a personal building hence, it is built up with living persons such as the Triune God and His chosen, redeemed, transformed, and glorified people.
Now here are some proofs that the New Jerusalem is truly a personal building. Revelation 3:12 says, “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall by no means go out anymore, and I will write upon him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” The point of this verse is crucial—in the coming temple of God, the pillar is a person. He who overcomes will be made a pillar in the temple of God. We have seen already in Revelation 21:22 that John the beloved, writer of the book of Revelation who has seen such a vision, told us that he saw no temple in the New Jerusalem because the temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. Here, the pillar is the person who overcomes and the temple itself is a great Person, God. Could it be that the pillar and the temple in the city is a person and not the whole city? If the person is the pillar of the city that is so big, how could this person hold the city?
The New Jerusalem, as we have seen, is the consummation of all the building in the Bible. In the Old Testament, physical matters typify the tabernacle and the temple. In the Old Testament there is a physical gold in the tabernacle. But when we come to the fulfillment of God’s building in the New Testament, there is nothing merely physical. The stones in God’s building are living persons. When Peter came to the Lord the first time, God called him Cephas, which means a stone.20 Peter then wrote in his first Epistle that the Lord Himself is a living stone and that the believers are living stones. Paul also told us that as a wise master builder he had laid the foundation of God’s building upon which we, the believers, should build with gold, silver, and precious stones. Surely the stones and the living stone here are not physical things because they typify the perfected believers and the Almighty God. These are persons confirmed by Paul’s Epistles, who are living stones. Eventually, these Persons become the New Jerusalem.
We may ask ourselves, if we are believers of Christ, if we are living stones now. It doesn’t mean that when you are a believer then you immediately become a living stone. This becoming a believer is one step to become the living stone. The Lord after He died became a life-giving Spirit.21 This gives life to us in order for us to be living in eyes of God, because fro Him we are all dead. Then what is this Spirit doing in our spirit? This Spirit is the One who will transform every believer to be worthy to be built in God’s building.22 God’s building is built with gold, silver, and precious stones. These materials typify the Triune God. Hence, we must be one of these materials for us to be built in the New Jerusalem. How can we have this? The way is to have that Spirit work in us and transform us to be precious stones. This Spirit dispenses the divine life in us. This divine life would transform our whole being to be such living stones. If we are already failed with the divine life, we become the materials for the New Jerusalem as living stones. Eventually, we are being built in the New Jerusalem and we dwell in the New Jerusalem. If we are like these, we are the overcomers. An overcomer is a person who overcomes all the trials and circumstances during his days, the one who let the Spirit of life work within him to be precious and the one who live with, by, through, and from the Triune God.23 Hence, when all of God’s believers will be transformed into precious materials, the New Jerusalem is formed wherein God and His believers are becoming one for eternity.24 This is why the New Jerusalem is a personal building.
The New Jerusalem is the bride of Christ. This means that the believers, being the New Jerusalem, will marry Christ. If the New Jerusalem is a literal city, how could God marry a physical city? The New Jerusalem has to be a corporate person, believers, because God is a great Person. The believers with the Triune God are not going to the New Jerusalem but are becoming the New Jerusalem.25
Therefore, the traditional teaching about the New Jerusalem as a physical city is false. It is false because the New Jerusalem is a sign. It has to be interpreted in such a way. If you consider it as a physical city, there is no interpretation after all. The characteristics and descriptions of the New Jerusalem made it illogical to say that it is a physical mansion. The New Jerusalem is the bride of the Lamb and a bride should not be a physical building. The New Jerusalem is the consummation of all the building work of Christ and His believers and this building is not physical but Christ being built up in His believers and His believers being built up in Him. The New Jerusalem is the consummation of the temple and tabernacle in which the believers are dwelling in the Triune God and God is dwelling in His believers. The New Jerusalem is the consummation of all that God is and all His achievements. So it has to be great not just a literal city. The New Jerusalem is a personal building. It is a personal building because the persons, God and the believers, are the building materials for the New Jerusalem. In this paper, I have shown six reasons why the New Jerusalem could not be a physical city. Therefore, the New Jerusalem is not a physical city but a Personal corporate building.
Several studies should be done. This paper can’t expose everything about the New Jerusalem. I hope that I have successfully covered everything that I want to discuss.