Revelation 21:1 - 27
ESV - 1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
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If you look carefully at the descriptions of Eden, it is far from 'natural and organic.' That has become the poetic description over many generations, but we actually see something comparable to 'high tech' interactive allegorical representations like talking snakes, fiery cherubim and allegorical trees, even GOD Himself walking about in a quasi-human Form and speaking in an audible voice from out of the air. We easily forget that humans are made in GOD's direct image and likeness. Anything we can possibly manage to invent or create is only a distant 'copy' of something GOD already has and which is far superior to it. That includes everything we call 'high tech.' Humans now have talking snakes and donkeys, etc... by using animatronics and animation. We sometimes use them to tell stories, entertain ourselves or even teach lessons. Why wouldn't GOD? The Bible is surprisingly specific when it comes to describing the New Jerusalem. We are given its exact physical dimensions, including describing it as a perfect cube, equal on all sides and in width, length and height. The New Jerusalem extends 1,380 miles square, with 216 foot high walls. That means that its domain extends out equally in all directions over an area about half the size of the United States in a perfect square, including extending into what modern humans call the 'exosphere' where there is no breathable air and temperatures are extremely cold. So part of it includes 'space,' but its walls are only 216 feet high, implying that its protected habitations are no more than 20 stories tall. We are among the first generations to be able to imagine how we could actually, 'meet the Lord in the air,' (1 Thessalonians 4:17), or make enjoyable use of areas in our planet's exosphere. Eden is also described as having perimeters that can be entered and exited which were located at the mouth of four named rivers in the areas known today as Arabia, Sudan, Iraq and Iran, (Genesis 2:10-14). GOD's 'perfect square' of 1,380 miles would fit nicely in this location also. Upon humans being thrust out, scripture tells us that Eden and its 'tree of life' were guarded against further entry by 'the cherubim and the flaming sword which turns in every direction.' (Genesis 3:24). Satan has clearly been busy concocting silly myths to mock GOD's 'heaven' with depictions like Star Trek's 'the Borg' which is a civilization of half-flesh half-robotic culture assimilators traveling around in space in a giant cube and behaving like a colony of bees or ants, enslaved by a 'hive-mind' that gobbles up and homogenizes every other culture and civilization it meets while exploiting the new technologies to further strengthen its own growing collective. The term 'square' has also come to mean, 'uncool, culturally homogenized, lacking in individuality and personal self-expression, rejecting personal freedom and embracing the boring or pointless collective group think.' Nothing could be less true about GOD's 'heaven.' We are given such vivid descriptions so that we can set our minds upon it and receive the REAL narratives from Christ over generations. "Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth." (Colossians 3:1-2). Scripture even states that we are already there, only learning here on earth how to realize outwardly what is already true inwardly by the grace of GOD and by His amazing gifts and riches imparted to us through Christ: "But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved---and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:4-7).
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