JACQUES GAUVIN, RELIGION

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A New Jerusalem

The concept of a New Jerusalem comes from the Bible. Still many wonder, will there be an actual New Jerusalem someday? Some theologians believe that this is merely symbolism and that the New Jerusalem is strictly spiritual. Other theologians believe the Bible and that there will someday be a New Jerusalem according to the dimensions given in the Bible, fully visible and inhabited by God's chosen people transformed into spirit beings. God the Father and Jesus Christ His only begotten Son will also dwell there with transformed mankind on a New Earth, according to the Bible. True religion requires belief in the Bible, the Word of God, without it you have nothing. Many people make bold statements but unless they are in accordance with the Bible it is just so much hot air that contributes negatively to global warming.

Here are a couple of scriptures that describe New Jerusalem:

Revelation 3:11–12 (NKJV)
Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.

Revelation 21:2–5 (NKJV)
2Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” 5Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

Can anyone who does not believe these things consider him or herself a Christian? Can anyone who does not believe these things expect to participate in this promised eternal existence in the Kingdom of God?

Revelation 21:9–27 (NKJV)
9Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”
10And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
11having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.
12Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
13three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.
14Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.
16The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal.
( Amos 7:7 (NKJV) Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand. )
17Then he measured its wall: one hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.
18The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
19The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald,
20the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.
21The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
22But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
23The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.
24And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.
25Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there).
26And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.
27But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Mark 16:15–16 (NKJV)
And He (Jesus) said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

Some people imagine in their hearts that the Old Testament is done away with. They do so to their own misguided and self-inflicted detriment and destruction. Read here a couple of Old Testament passages and see if they contradict in any way what you just read from the New Testament.

Isaiah 65:17–19 (NKJV)
For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, And her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

Isaiah 66:22–23 (NKJV)
For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the LORD, “So shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the LORD.

New Jerusalem and new earth to scale assuming that the new earth will be equal in size to the present earth.

May 25, 2017 Jacques Gauvin

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