At last, we have come to the great climax of the Book of Revelation. John sees the planet and its atmosphere restored back to its original perfection (Revelation 21:1), with an exquisite beauty and tranquility beyond comprehension (1 Corinthians 2:9), and far exceeding that which we shall witness in the Kingdom Age (the Millennium). There will be no more sin and death on the new earth, for Satan and his devils, as well as Death and Hell, shall have all been cast into the Lake of Fire. It is not a brand-new planet that John saw, but the same planet made new again, having passed from one form to another after having been burnt-over (2 Peter 3:10-12). The redemption of the creation is now complete, for the creation was made for redemption having always been an eternal attribute of God.
When God created the earth in the beginning, He established it as the headquarters of the universe because He was going to tabernacle Himself upon it eternally, veiled in the corporal body of Jesus Christ. Elohim who dwelt alone with His eternal thoughts then became Melchizedek who created all things; but as Jesus Christ in the Eternal Kingdom on the new earth, God will rule and reign with His glorified Bride over the universe. As the new birth ultimately brings us into a new body (a glorified body), so by the new body we will be taken into the new earth!
The veil between Heaven and Earth will be lifted, and the seventh dimension (Heaven) will blend itself into the new earth (Time will be dissipated as Eternity sets in) which will be the eternal home of the Bride of Christ after Her having enjoyed a millennial honeymoon in the Kingdom Age. The marriage took place under the prophet’s ministry, and the Marriage Supper takes place in Glory (after the translation of the saints); then the Bride comes back to the earth (Revelation 19:11-14) for the honeymoon in the Millennium, and finally settles-down with Christ in Her eternal home on the new earth.
With us in the Eternal Kingdom will be the 144,000 Jews, the foolish virgins, those who did not take the Mark of the Beast, and those who did good to the Bride. And in what bodies shall they be in? The Bride alone will be in a glorified body that has the creative power of the Spoken Word, that can travel at the speed of thought, that can transcend dimensions and so much more, whereas all others will be in Adamic bodies of flesh and blood like what Adam had before he fell. All of us will remain in the very bloom of youth and there will be no more marriage and the bringing forth of children, for every person that was ever destined to share a part in Eternity will be there then. For all Eternity, God shall be continually unfolding more revelation about Himself to us, and we shall never cease to marvel in awe at His infinite wisdom and at the detail and perfection of His magnificent creation.
There was no more sea when John saw the planet and its atmosphere recreated back into a heavenly state. The earth is currently three-fourths covered in seawater, but then it shall have immensely more land. Great lakes, streams and rivers, and other bodies of water will still exist, and the contours of the planet will be shaped by various landscapes and covered-over with the lushest vegetation. As with the creation of Genesis chapter one, so in the new earth, the planet will be filled with all kinds of animals, birds and marine life.
The new earth is the future home prepared by God for the Bride and Bridegroom. Now it is ready to be settled upon. John sees the holy city, New Jerusalem, descending from Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Such words take us back to Revelation 19:7 where the Bride had made Herself ready for the Marriage of the Lamb by becoming one with the Word. She is called a holy city, New Jerusalem, because as a city is made up of many houses, so the Bride body is made up of many citizens. Jesus said in John 14:2: In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. God’s house or domain (His kingdom) does not consist of many apartments, but is made up of many theophanies; the celestial bodies of His family of saints.
John was then carried away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, that he might see the holy city, New Jerusalem, descending from Heaven (Revelation 21:10). It was the angel who showed John the city (Revelation 21:9), because it would take the prophet-messenger, William Branham, to reveal the Bride to Herself out of the scriptures. When John saw the New Jerusalem and the citizens that it is composed of, among those citizens was John himself. John saw himself! How relevant that is for today concerning the elect of God. When the prophet preached the message and revealed the Bride out of the pages of scripture, the Bride members (like John) would see by revelation that they are a part of God’s elect lady, the holy city… New Jerusalem!
The holy city, New Jerusalem, has a twofold fulfilment. It is firstly representative of the Bride of Jesus Christ; and secondly, it is a supernatural city on the earth where the Bride of Jesus Christ shall live. The city of saints is said to descend from Heaven (Revelation 21:2). It is not descending from Space. To understand this better we must remember that the Bride will be reigning with Christ over the earth in the Kingdom Age (the Millennium). Revelation 19:11-14 shows how Heaven opens and Christ and the Bride return to the earth after the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Glory. But when the Kingdom Age draws to a close, and Satan is loosed to deceive the nations and make war against Christ (Revelation 20:7-8), then the enemies of Christ shall be destroyed by fire (Revelation 20:9), and the entire earth shall be burnt (2 Peter 3:10-12) after the second resurrection. So before the earth is entirely burnt, Christ and His Bride return to Heaven, for that is where the Great White Throne of Judgment shall be convened. Then when the judgment is finished and the earth has been made anew, Heaven will open up again, and Christ and the Bride shall make their grand entry into their newly waiting eternal home.
In understanding this, we can then examine the description of the New Jerusalem, seeing its application to either the Bride of Christ and to the structure where She shall live. The Garden of Eden where Man and Woman dwelt in the beginning was in one sense a type of the Millennium, but in a more perfect sense, the Garden of Eden represents the New Jerusalem (the actual city) where Christ and His Bride will spend Eternity. The city is a glorious one, having the Glory of God (Revelation 21:11), for its citizens are all in glorified bodies radiating the very Shekinah Glory of God Himself.
John speaks of the light of the city and says that it is “Her light,” like unto a precious jasper stone. The use of the feminine (Her light) is a confirmation to the truth of the City being made up of Christ’s Bride and that the Glory of God is shining forth from within Her. Not only is the Light of the Bride likened unto jasper, but the wall of the City is made of jasper (Revelation 21:18). The wall of the city represents the 144,000 Jews that surround the Bride as Her attendants. Their being likened also to jasper shows that they and the Bride have received the same revelation. The Bride receives the revelation of Christ under the seventh seal, and the 144,000 Jews receive the revelation of Christ under the seventh trumpet.
The description of the city and the wall shows that the 144,000 Jews are connected with Christ and His Bride in the redeemed inheritance. The wall of the city is Jewish, with twelve gates, twelve angels, twelve tribes (Revelation 21:12), twelve foundations, twelve apostles (Revelation 21:14), and measuring one-hundred-and-forty-four cubits high (Revelation 21:17), whereas the city itself is made up of the Gentile Bride who came through seven church ages. The gates of the wall bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel shows that the city and its wall represent the uniting of Israel and the Church of the living God.
The wall and its gates also represent salvation and praise (Isaiah 60:19) inside which the Bride is gathered, whilst the pearl of the gates represents wisdom (Revelation 21:12). The twelve angels standing at the gates of the wall are similar to the elders in the Old Testament who stood at the gate of a city (Ruth 4:1-2). The elders stood at the gates because the access was not available for just anybody to enter through. They are acting as guardians or judges, for when a person had a matter to settle, they would speak with the elders at the gate. The Church has been set up by God in exactly the same way, and here in the new city, the same pattern remains as a testament to God’s unchanging way of administering His Word. Furthermore, the twelve foundations of the city wall bearing the names of the twelve apostles further testifies to the Church of the living God being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:19-22).
The arrangement of the wall and its twelve-stone foundation remind us of the high priest’s breastplate in the Old Testament. Both are of a square arrangement, and whilst the breastplate had four rows of three stones, the wall will have three stones on each of its four sides. The setup of the city also reminds us of how a Christian home ought to be. The husband represents the Lamb in his home (the city), the wife represents Jerusalem, the children represent the inhabitants of the city, and the wall of the city is the Word of God that shuts the family in the presence of God. The city’s street of pure gold reveals to us the futility of trusting in gold and silver and the financial system. Everything in this world is about gold and the acquisition of wealth; but in Eternity, gold will simply be the paving stones under which we shall tread upon. The gold of the city is like unto transparent glass, representing the purity and Deity of God in whom there is no deceit at all.
The city is foursquare, its length, breadth and height being equal (Revelation 21:16). It is not a cube that John saw, but a pyramid! John saw New Jerusalem as a pyramid city, because when the seven Angels made visitation to the prophet, they did not come to him in the shape of a circle or a square, but came to him in the shape of a triangle or pyramid! The physical city where the Bride and Christ shall live measures at approximately 1500 miles (twelve thousand furlongs) in length, breadth, and height, whilst the surrounding wall of the city measures at approximately 216 feet (one-hundred-and-forty-four cubits) in height.
It is necessary here to take a moment and examine the city in its physical sense. We have already stated that the New Jerusalem is the Bride of Jesus Christ, but it also represents the palace or future home where She shall live with Christ. The pyramid structure is a supernatural one, or a trans-dimensional city. As human beings with carnal thinking, we tend to think about the engineering logistics of such an enormous city; how immense its foundations must be, the staggering amount of material needed to build it, and its effect on the delicate balance of the earth etcetera. But such concerns are unnecessary, for the pyramid city is created by God and will not be subject to the laws of physics that govern the physical world, for it is a supernatural city governed by the natural laws of a higher world that God has blended into the physical world.
Furthermore, because the height of the pyramid city is 1500-miles, it will extend into Earth’s exosphere, or the farthermost reaches of Earth’s atmosphere in Space. And how shall the saints breathe at such a height? Well, they will have glorified bodies whereby theophany and flesh are united. The theophany allows the saints to contact the supernatural world whilst the flesh allows them to contact the physical world. So for them to be in Earth’s exosphere, or even in the farthermost reaches of the universe for that matter, poses no problem at all, for the saints do not live by the bloodstream (their bodies will have no blood); they do not need air to breathe or food to eat or water to drink in order to live, nor are they affected by altitudinal temperature changes etcetera. The very essence of their being will entirely pulsate by the Holy Spirit.
It is interesting to make note of the twelve stones selected for the foundations of the city wall (Revelation 21:19-20), for they reveal to us something wonderful. In our modern era of advanced scientific discovery, an amazing revelation surfaced when working with purer light. Natural light comes in all directions, but laser light runs in one direction. And then there is cross polarized light. A polarized filter allows a small amount of light to pass through, but when another filter is put at right angles to the first filter, then the filter becomes very fine so that only very straight light can pass through.
Very thinly cut slices of precious stones have been put under this purer light for microscopic examination to see what the effect would be. When this cross polarized light was shone through them, one of two entirely different things happened: (1) the anisotropic minerals were able to be penetrated by the pure light due to their inconsistent properties in all directions; (2) the isotropic minerals could not be penetrated by the pure light because their mineral properties blocked the light in every direction.
Some of these precious stones which are anisotropic by nature, when placed under pure light, whatever their natural colours are, they will turn into all the colours of the rainbow and make the most fantastic patterns. Other precious stones which are isotropic by nature, when placed under pure light, lose all their colour and go black (such as the diamond and ruby for example). Each of the twelve stones named in Revelation chapter 21 are anisotropic so that in pure light they are far more beautiful and create a most fantastic display of pattern and colour. How mindful God is of all things, even to the choice of stones which shall delightfully astonish us all by reflecting the most glorious colours and patterns!
Whereas the earth will still orbit the sun and rotate, thus bringing day and night, the city itself shall always be lit by the Shekinah Glory of God. This reminds us of the Tabernacle of Moses. The outer court was lit by the sun, the Holy Place was lit by the Menorah (the seven-branch candlestick), but the Holy of Holies was lit by the Shekinah. The city represents the Holy of Holies in the new earth, and shall unceasingly enjoy the warm light of God’s beautiful presence. The sun, moon and stars however shall continue to perform their functions throughout all eternity, for they are a part of God’s eternal purpose concerning the earth. Scientists may make educated claims as to when the sun and the stars shall expire, but the Bible makes very plain that they shall exist with us always!
To the gates of the walled city shall come the nations of the saved (Revelation 21:24) bringing the tithes of their increase to it. These nations of peoples are those who were granted eternal life at the Great White Throne of Judgment, their names having been found on the Book of Life at that time. Here they are following a God-ordained principle of tithing that was first demonstrated by Abraham to Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18-20) and shall continue on into Eternity.
But who alone shall enter the city? Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Revelation 21:27). We have learned about the Book of Life in Revelation chapter 20, but here we come to understand that it is the Bride alone who may enter the city, for only She has Her name written in the Lamb’s section of the Book of Life. Let us close this chapter by looking at the Lamb’s section of the Book.
By the sex birth, the record of our fallen nature was entered in the Book of Life, and all the deeds done in the old nature were recorded against our name. The fallen nature we had by default represents the old husband; thus we loved the things of the world because of our sinful birth. But then came a spiritual death to self, a dying of the old nature by the rebirth. The rebirth is what separates us from the first union to the old husband (nature) and unites us by marriage with Jesus Christ (the new Husband).
The new union is not of natural life, but of eternal life, and the new birth that brought us into marriage with the new Husband (Christ Jesus) gives us a new name in our taking the name of our new Husband. By virtue of our marriage to Christ, the old book or record of deeds done in sin and trespasses is gone and buried with the old husband, for God has plunged the old record beneath the Sea of His Forgetfulness, and our name is transferred to the Lamb’s Section of the Book of Life. The use of the word “transferred” simply means that God is no longer looking at our natural life in the flesh, but is looking at our new life lived by the Spirit. Our life lived by the Spirit is what is recorded in the Lamb’s section of the Book of Life, for the Lamb’s section of the Book is in actuality the marriage certificate, and the Spirit of God in us is the evidence of our union with Christ, where we are not only forgiven, but are justified as well.
To be justified means that we never did any of the former things in the flesh. The old record of our marriage to the old husband (the fallen sinful nature) is divorced, dead, buried, and forgotten in the sight of God, and thus not even in His memories. It is because of our being justified by faith that God can look upon us and see a virgin Bride. Christ bore our shame on Calvary because we were predestinated to be His Bride from before the foundation of the world. Our union to the old nature had to die by the rebirth because the gene of God within the soul was always written in the Lamb’s section of the Book of Life, and would receive and unite with the Truth in its appointed time and season.
Go to Revelation Chapter 22