The Holy City

Chapter xxi. presents a vision of the holy city—the New Jerusalem. An angel came to John, and “talked with him, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the Bride, the Lamb’s wife.” “And,” saith the Revelator, “he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God: having the glory of Deity. And her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” The “One sitting upon the throne,” represented in the vision of chapter iv., is likened to a jasper stone. The city had a wall great and high, and had “twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.” The holy community, comprised within the city, will exist as the “Commonwealth of Israel,” referred to by the apostle Paul, in the epistle to the Ephesians (ch. ii. 12). Even “the Israel of the Deity.” “And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”

Paul, addressing the believers, says: “Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone” (Eph. ii. 20). “And the city lieth foursquare,” as typically represented in the “Breastplate” worn by the high-priest under the law.

The wall thereof he measured, “an hundred and forty four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.” The angel-man of this measurement, is identical with the rainbowed angel of chap. x. Christ and the saints, in the perfection of oneness and completeness, as the multitudinous manifestation of the Name. The “mighty angel, clothed with the cloud,” having completed his mission of war and conquest, is revealed in a more glorious and perfect organization, the “Holy city,” to be thenceforth the Queen city of the world. “And the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.” So pure will be the tried and perfected Faith of that community of faithful ones. Its perfections being also symbolically represented in the king’s daughter, whose “clothing is of wrought gold”—“all glorious within.”

“And I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.” “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” Therefore is the light of the city likened to a “jasper stone, clear as crystal.” “Jasper being a stone of varied hue, is used as an emblem of the Spirit of the Deity condensed into substance.” Jasper being the “first foundation” of the city, and the building of the wall of it—the Spirit of YAHWEH-Elohim has laid the foundation, and His Spirit and His glory have raised the superstructure, according to the word unto Zerubbabel, saying: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Yahweh of hosts” (Zech. iv. 6). The Spirit, in His fulness of glory through Christ is the Light of the city. “And the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it”: “and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.” “The light” of the city in which the “nations shall walk,” will be seen to be the light of truth and righteousness. For, saith the prophet: “Jerusalem shall be called, ‘A city of truth.’” The prophet tells of the time when Israel shall be brought “a present unto the Lord of hosts,” “to the place of the name of ‘Yahweh Tz’vahoth,’ the mount Zion” (Isa. xviii. 7). Mount Zion is the place where the Lamb and His glorious company are represented at one time as standing. Their symbolic number, “An hundred and forty-four thousand,” with the Lamb, “Having his name, and the name of his Father written in their foreheads” (Rev. xiv.).

“At that time,” saith the prophet, “they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord: and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the Name of Yahweh, to Jerusalem”: “neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart” (Jer. iii. 17). “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. ii. 14). “Then will come to pass the word that Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, ‘As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Yahweh’” (Numb. xiv. 21). “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together” (Isa. xl. 5). The “Hidden Period” foreshadowed in the cloud-covered glory that encircled the cleft Rock, will then disclose its flood of glorious light to all the inhabitants of the earth. And “the ministration of the Spirit,” the “ministration of righteousness,” far exceed the glory of the dispensations that are past. The “Goodness” of Yahweh will be realized in its fullest munificence. And the mercy, through the judgments, shine out in healing beams of golden light.

Of Christ, the Word through the prophet, saith: “And he shall stand and feed in the strength of Jehovah: in the majesty of the name ofYahweh-Elohim. And they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth” (Mic. v. 4). “His name shall endure forever; his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.” … “And blessed be his glorious name forever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory” (Psalm lxxii.).

The glory of His name, “Emmanuel”—“God with us”—will then be established in the splendor and beauty of Royal estate; an ever-present reality among men. And the acclamation of the angelic host at the time of His birth will then become an accomplished fact, as they sang: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will among men.”