p. 350 | Untitled article by J. Oswald, A. M.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, November 19, 1867

THE NEW JERUSALEM NOT A MAGNIFICENT EMBLEM.

By J. Oswald, A. M.

THE KINGDOM WHICH SHALL NOT BE DESTROYED — ITS METROPOLIS; OR, THE NEW JERUSALEM.

There is nothing said in the seventh chapter of Daniel of a city, in connection with the kingdom, which shall succeed the Gentile governments, and which the Lord God shall set up, and which the saints of the Most High shall take, and possess forever, even forever and ever. But whilst there is nothing said of a city in this chapter, there is elsewhere in the sacred volume, in connection with the new state, yet future; and hence an inquiry on this subject is legitimate and proper in its place. To our notion or conception of a kingdom, the ideas of a king and subjects are essential and inseparable, and almost, or quite equally so, the idea of a royal residence. The king must be somewhere. God is the great King. The universe is his dominion. All creatures are his subjects,—are supported, governed, blessed, sustained, regulated, ruled, and overruled by Him “who telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names.” He fills immensity and eternity, yet of the heaven of heavens we conceive as the peculiar and favorite place of his residence,—as “the throne of God; the seat of universal and endless dominion, where the divine authority is peculiarly exercised and made known, and the splendor of the divine government exhibited with singular effulgence and glory.” Having premised thus much, I remark that the kingdom spoken of by the prophet, in this chapter (Dan. vii), will have its metropolis; and, in proof hereof, I offer:—

First, an argument drawn from analogy. That this kingdom will have its metropolis, capital, or royal residence, is rendered plausible, and may indeed, I imagine, be clearly inferred from the fact that all the preceding kingdoms had their chief cities. The first in succession had its Babylon, with its defiant and seemingly impregnable walls, its temple, its lofty tower, its hanging gardens, and its gorgeous palaces. A great city, the glory of the kingdoms, whose beauty, strength, and magnificence, made it the wonder of the world. Enriched by the spoils of subjugated nations, Babylon seemed, in the day of her prosperity, exempt from the vicissitude and decline which are incident to other haughty piles of grandeur, the displays of human art, of human wealth, and of human power. But her pride and luxury, her cruelty, and sacrilegious impiety, wrought her downfall, and caused her to share in the ruin of Sodom and Gomorrah. Again, the second, or succeeding kingdom, too, had its capital, like Thebes of Egypt, long since a desolation, and so also the third, especially in its divided state. The Ptolemies reigned in Alexandria in Egypt. The Seleucidæ at Antioch in Syria, &c., &c. And finally, the fourth kingdom had Rome in Italy, in Europe, as its center of power, and the “little horn,” or the beast out of the sea, or Popery, the self-same city. For Popery not only attained to the imperial power, but also the dragon’s seat. That, then, which was common to all these governments successively, and not sinful per se without a declaration, or intimation at least, to the contrary, we should naturally look for, also, in this kingdom, but in surpassing beauty, undecaying permanency, and in transcendent glory,—a city which no enemy shall successfully beleaguer, no time waste, no fire consume, no earthquake shake down; in which the man who suffered, and wept, and died, for six millennia, shall suffer, and weep, and die no more, monuments of the might and magnificence of grace divine, and pillars in the temple of our God.

Secondly, the Biblical argument, or the Scripture references to a city not of this age. “For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” Gal. iv, 25, 26. Again, “By faith he” [i. e. Abraham] “sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which had foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Heb. xi, 9, 10. “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city.” Rev. xx, 9. “And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Rev. xxi, 2. “And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God; and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like to a jasper stone, clear as crystal; and 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. On the east, three gates; on the north, three gates; on the south, three gates; and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth four square, and the length is as large as the breadth; and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length, and the breadth, and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, a hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper; and the city was of pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl; and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. 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. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day; for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Rev. xxi, 10–27. “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. xxii, 14. “And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Rev. xxii, 19.

Now if there were no Biblical references to such a city, or if the sacred Scriptures were altogether silent on this subject, all that we might say or write in this behalf, however ingenuous or beautiful, would be the work of mere fancy,—idle conjecture only, and for sound instruction, solid comfort, and well-grounded hope, just worth nothing at all. But the references and notices in Revelation are, as we have seen, ample, and should, we think, be satisfactory to every inquirer after the truth.

The names by which this city is known in Holy Writ, are, as the attentive reader will have observed, the Jerusalem which is above, in contradistinction to that which is on earth, or now is,—the city which has foundations, i. e., durability, permanency, which shall never become a heap of ruins, or as Sion be ploughed like a field—the beloved city,—the New Jerusalem, and the holy city.

Its beauty, purity, and consequent desirableness to all saints are wonderfully great, and must be full of comfort, consolation, and edification to all who, feeling themselves pilgrims and strangers in this present evil world, sigh for a better, are expectants of a permanent, holy, and happy residence beyond the grave. Dr. Dwight, little as he seems to have truly apprehended this subject (for he speaks of the holy city, New Jerusalem, as a magnificent emblem only, of the future state and residence of the redeemed), could, nevertheless, speak and write beautifully and eloquently of this sublime and bright abode. Hear him: “The foundations of the heavenly city are garnished with all manner of precious stones. Its dimensions are wonderfully great. Its wall is of jasper. Its buildings are of pure pellucid gold; its gates are pearls; its watchmen are angels. The throne of God and the Lamb, is in the midst of it. Out of this throne proceeds the river of life, and on its banks stands the tree of life, yielding the various fruits of immortality. No temple is found there. No night overcasts the sky. No moon shines. No sun rises. The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of this divine residence; the sun which shines with the splendor of everlasting day.” How beautiful must that residence be, what its magnificence and glory, where the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are so intimately and peculiarly present! How desirable that abode to the renewed, sanctified and blood-washed soul, from which everything abominable is excluded, and into which nothing that is unclean shall ever enter,—in which the voice of crying is heard no more, and there is no declining of strength, no exhaustion by suffering, and no death, but all the redeemed are as the angels of God! Those who regard the New Jerusalem as emblematic only, it would seem, must necessarily deprive themselves during their earthly pilgrimage, in part at least, of the consolations of Abraham, the friend of God, who while dwelling in tents in the land of promise, looked for a city which has foundations, whose maker and builder is God. Yes, this city, New Jerusalem, is not an emblem merely. “There has existed in every age of the world a longing after a state on earth more pure, permanent, and divine than any yet realized. Travelers have explored all realms, and poets have embodied their highest presentments, and traditions have handed down dim and distant recollections of departed beauty, as pledges of its return. From Cain to Job, and from Job to Abraham, and from Abraham to Columbus, weary humanity has been in pursuit of a city that hath foundations, and ‘desiring a better country, that is, a heavenly.’ This glorious city is the response to these yearnings; it is the coronal of the brightest hopes,—the consummation of the grandest prophecies,—the satisfaction of the deepest and most earnest yearnings of the human heart.” I believe, in the language of the eloquent author just quoted, that “it is plainly a literal city,—a material as well as a moral structure,—for risen bodies as well as regenerated spirits; and thus, matter, as well as mind and conscience, will reach its perfection. This city will show what a renovated earth is capable of; what an array of glory, order, harmony, and perfection this chaos shall become at the bidding of Him on whose head are many crowns. It will be that brilliant focus on which shall converge all the beams of material and moral glory, which are at present scattered over all the realms of Deity.”

The capacity of this city is great, as it evidently must be, to afford room for a countless multitude of inhabitants. The security it gives is perfect, surrounded by a great wall and high. Rev. xxi, 12. Its access is easy,—twelve gates,—an equal number on the east, and on the west, on the north, and on the south. As respects the extent of “the holy city, New Jerusalem,” it may, perhaps, be desirable to enlarge somewhat in this connection. Revelation is specific and full on this subject. “And the city lieth four square; and the length is as large as the breadth; and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length, and the breadth, and the height of it are equal.” Rev. xxi, 16. On this verse, a distinguished commentator, in his “Notes,” uses the following language: “As eight furlongs make a mile, the extent of the walls, therefore, must have been 375 miles.” Now, with all due deference, I remark that there is no allusion whatever, in this passage, to the walls of a city on the one hand, and on the other, it is a debatable question certainly, whether our author’s dimensions, 375 miles, as given in his notes, or those of his analysis on the same chapter, be the more correct,—in which, speaking of the city, he says: “It

is square, the length being as great as the breadth, and its height the same. The extent of each dimension is 12,000 furlongs.” But he proceeds: “Of course, this must preclude all idea of there being such a city literally in Palestine.” But where in the sacred volume is it said, or even remotely intimated, that this city must be wholly in Palestine? And is that a fair deduction, that because it cannot be wholly in one particular country, which the sacred Scriptures do not teach, therefore there will be no such city at all? Palestine was only a type of the bright and better land,—of the rest which remaineth for the people of God. Earth, the whole earth renovated, is the antitype, and if little Palestine could not contain the city, even with the doubtful dimensions of our author above given, earth is capacious enough to receive the New Jerusalem, in all its length, and breadth, and height,—on the magnificent scale set forth in the Apocalypse. Finally, our author, in his comment on this (16) verse, speaking of the height of the city, remarks: “Of course this cannot be understood literally; and the very idea of a literal fulfillment of this, shows the absurdity of that method of interpretation. The idea intended to be conveyed by this immense height would seem to be that it would contain countless numbers of inhabitants.” Query. What is to contain countless numbers of inhabitants? Barnes said in his notes on verse 2 of the 20th chapter of Revelation, concerning the New Jerusalem, that “it is a representation of the heavenly state, under the image of a beautiful city.” Query 1st. How many inhabitants can a representation contain? Query 2d. How many, or what number of inhabitants can a state, divested of the idea of locality or place, contain? But if this is not the meaning which our author attached to the word state, but associated with it locality or place, then why may not the place, or residence of the redeemed, be a city as well as anything else? Wherein, then, is “the absurdity of that method of interpretation,” which with, or in accordance with the word of God, maintains that a city, whose maker and builder is God, is the final abode of the Lord’s ransomed, in which there is room enough for all the saints who have already put off this earthly tabernacle, and room enough for all who shall yet believe, and hereafter enter into their rest?

Concerning that great city, the holy Jerusalem, John made this record: “And I saw no temple therein.” Rev. xxi, 22. No temple. “This,” says one, “sounds like discord in the harmony of heaven,—it looks as if it were the projected shadow of No God!—it seems out of place. No tears, one can easily admit as an Eden feature, and joyfully anticipate as a blessed fact; but no temple seems a gap in the landscape,—a stain on the glory,—a cloud on the bright sky.” Yet the seer of Patmos recorded what he saw and heard, and what he saw and recorded is true. A house of prayer, with all the appointments of Christianity, is needful for man in his present state, to aid him to do right,—to stimulate, to arrest, to arouse, to awaken and improve him in holiness, and to fit or prepare him for his high destiny. But in the future age,—in the new world,—in that bright and sublime abode, to which the Christian looks forward with a joy which is unspeakable, and a hope full of glory, such structures made by man’s hands,—reared by human labor, and which decay and crumble into dust, will be no more needed, and hence, will have no further existence. But to particularize: a temple is a place, structure, house, or building to which sinners are invited, and in which they are called to repentance: but from heaven all sin will be excluded, and every finally impenitent sinner banished. In heaven there will be no sinners to repent,—no sinners except such as did repent in the time accepted, and are blood-washed, justified, sanctified, and glorified. Hence, for sinners there will be no temple needed in heaven. Again, a temple is a house in which God’s people meet for communion with each other, and their Maker,—with the Father and his Son, Christ Jesus, to increase their faith, to enkindle their love, to invigorate their hopes; in a word, in ordinances of God’s ordination to seek God. But in the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem, God the Judge of all is present, and Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant. There, faith is lost in sight, hope is swallowed up in the fruition, and consequently the ordinances of the present age are useless. The saved will have nothing for which to pray. Inward distress they will feel no more. God shall wipe all tears from their eyes. Outward calamities never befall the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem,—nor fiery trials, nor scorching persecutions. All the fiery darts of the wicked, for them shall have been quenched forever. “The sun shall not light on them, nor any heat.” All their desires are satisfied. Every wish of their souls crowned with enjoyment. “They shall hunger no more; neither shall they thirst any more.” The possession and enjoyment of all good is theirs. “The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of water.” The knowledge, moreover, of the redeemed, is in an important sense, perfect. They require no prophets, apostles, or ministers to teach them. They see Christ always. The time for sacraments and ordinances will have passed away,—hence, because not required, because useless, there will be no temple for the saints in that better land. Finally (not to speak of pagan structures for idol-worship, nor of Moslem mosques, consecrated to the false prophet, nor of Socialian communities, in which the divinity of the great Redeemer is denied), a temple is a building consecrated to the service of God,—solemnly set apart for external worship and ordinances, in which it is our duty here to wait upon God. They are human structures, of perishable and perishing materials, and like everything sublunary, though strong as the gates of Thebes, massive as Egypt’s pyramids, and enduring as the columns of Parthenon, they are temporary still, and destined to decay,—to moulder and crumble into dust. Like the age or dispensation to which they belong, they are not eternal. Temples, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, belong to time. “No temple,” as here used, is emblematic of eternity. Temples, such as men’s hands rear, are significant of decay. “No temple,” in this connection, teems with the ideas of indestructibility, permanency, eternity. In a word, the seer, John, saw no temple in the beloved and holy city, such as had stood on Mt. Zion,—such as he had seen in Judea, and at Jerusalem in his day. He saw no special building set apart for divine worship. The New Jerusalem was templeless,—it was all temple,—all consecrated. No unhallowed spot was there. None for common or profane uses. “The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.”

Once more, the metropolis of the kingdom which the Lord God shall set up, and which the saints shall possess forever, requires no natural or material light. “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.” Rev. xxi, 23. “Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.” Isa. xxiv, 23. The sun and moon were made to give light, &c., to earth and earth’s inhabitants, in or during the present state, or condition of things. It is not said that they shall cease to be,—have their light quenched,—become extinct or annihilated, but only that there will be no need of them in the New Jerusalem state. Their light will be unperceived amid the intenser brightness of the rays of the glory of God and the Lamb, as the stars now vanish from the firmament, before the rising of the orb of day. Hence we understand how there shall be “no night” in the heavenly city. No night in the physical, natural, literal sense. No spiritual night, but, on the contrary, clear, unerring knowledge, unspotted holiness, and everlasting joy. No darkness at all can ever gather over the place irradiated by the divine light,—when and where he is present who is the fountain of light.

Finally, the inhabitants of the better land shall not say “I am sick.” Isa. xxxiii, 24. There shall not be “any more pain” in the celestial city. Rev. xxi, 4. They, the saved around the throne, have done with the present age and state, and have done, consequently, with sickness and the anguish of nature, with all sorrow and vexation,—with suffering and mortality forever. No crying will break in upon the harmony of the blessed. No sighs interrupting the “new song” of the redeemed. No anguish disturb the saint’s everlasting rest. The disciple of feeble, sickly constitution will have left all his maladies behind him. When his sleeping dust, at the voice of the Son of God, leaps forth from its prison-house, the grave, spirituality, power, glory, incorruptibility shall be the attributes then, of his once feeble, suffering frame. The martyr, too, for the religion of Jesus, will be pursued by relentless persecutors, and assailed by cruel tormentors no more. Heathen fury will not be able to reach the ransomed in their Father’s house, and anti-Christian wrath will be unseen, unfelt, and unfeared in the kingdom of the saints.

The locality of the metropolis of the kingdom of the Most High, which the saints shall take and possess forever, even forever and ever, is earth. This earth so long cursed by reason of sin,—the arena of conflict so protracted and fierce,—the scene of so much suffering, of sorrows so deep, and of woes unutterable, “needs but his” (Christ’s) “blessing, and it shall then bloom like the rose; it waits for the touch of his consecrating footsteps, and its every desert shall smile.” Christ’s by right and purchase, it shall be restored to more than Eden loveliness, and be the place to which John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, come down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Rev. xxi, 2. The precise locality of the city, i. e., in what particular quarter of our globe it will be more especially situated, is not positively or directly taught in the sacred Scriptures, but the locality of the seat or throne of the great King,—the choice of the Lord for his habitation forevermore, is revealed, and hence I imagine, we may know, or recognize the locality of the city, if not by direct teaching, by unmistakable inference. “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” Ps. ii, 6. “Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.” Isa. xxiv, 23. “For the Lord hath chosen Zion, he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it.” Ps. cxxxii, 13, 14. And again, verses 17 and 18: “There will I make the horn of David to bud; I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. His enemies will I clothe with shame; but upon himself shall his crown flourish.” Zion will be the seat of the great King, and the inference, manifestly, which we are left to make, is, that on, and around about Zion, will be the holy city, New Jerusalem, in all its length, and breadth, and height, and magnificence, and glory. Zion was the name of the loftiest mountain on which Jerusalem was built, on one of the eminences of which (Moriah) the temple was erected, and on which the citadel of the Jebusites stood when David took possession of it, and transferred his court thither from Hebron, whence it bears the name of the city of David: and from his having deposited the ark here, it is also frequently called “the holy hill.” When “the times of the Gentiles” are fulfilled, during which Jerusalem was to be, was and is, trodden under foot,—when David’s descendant, according to the flesh, but David’s Lord, shall come, he will dwell in his chosen or desired habitation,—shall sit upon his throne, and “shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem before his ancients gloriously.” We stand on the shore of eternity’s wide sea, whose constantly approaching waves already fling their dashing spray at our very feet. When our foothold on time,—when the isthmus on which we stand is washed away, we shall be engulfed in destruction and perdition forever, or when the crisis comes, as the Lord’s ransomed, we shall leap into God’s paradise, the expectants of the new world, whose metropolis is the New Jerusalem, and whose Sabbath is a thousand years.—J. Oswald, A. M.