New Jerusalem is a Living, Spiritual City
Revelation is a book of symbols with spiritual significance. These signs are not literal or physical. For example, the woman at the beginning of chapter 12 is not a single human mother, and the beasts in chapter 13 are not four-footed animals.
We should not think that the church is an actual lampstand with seven shining lamps. Likewise, we should not think that Christ is literally a lamb (Rev. 5:6). In the same principle, we should not consider the New Jerusalem a material city. The New Jerusalem is Christ’s wife, and He, of course, cannot marry a physical city. Since we do not take the other signs in Revelation literally, we should not interpret the New Jerusalem as a literal, physical city for us to dwell in.*
In Revelation 21:22 John tells us, “I saw no temple in it [New Jerusalem], for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” In Revelation 3:12 the Lord Jesus promises, “He who overcomes, him I will make a pillar in the temple of My God.” Both of these ae signs that New Jerusalem is a living city, not physical.
All God’s New Testament building work is spiritual, accomplished by His rich supply to the believers and His growth in them. This is true in 1 Corinthians 3 “you are God’s cultivated land, God’s building,” Ephesians 2:21, “in whom [Christ Jesus] all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord,” and 1 Peter 2:5, “You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house.”
All of these show the preparation of New Jerusalem as God’s dwelling place for eternity.
* Life-Study of the New Testament, Conclusion Messages: The Church, the Kingdom, and the New Jerusalem, message 257, p. 2688, by Witness Lee. Published 1998 and © by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, California.
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