The City Above by Josiah Clarke

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Sep 23, 1875

The City Above.

By Josiah Clarke

"For he looked for a city, which hath foundations, whose maker and builder is God." Heb. 11:10.

The city here spoken of is doubtless the same as that mentioned in Rev. 21, also the paradise of 2 Cor. 12:4 and Rev. 22. The clause "which hath foundations," is doubtless the twelve foundations of Rev. 21, verse 14; the first a jasper, the second a chalcedony, etc. (Verses 19, 20).

Paradise is where the tree of life is; for it is promised in Rev. 2:7 that "To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." And the tree of life is in the New Jerusalem; for it is said, in Rev. 22:2, "in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life." And the personal pronoun "it" refers to the Holy City of Rev. 21:2, for the 22 chapter of Revelation is a continued account of the city of Revelation 21; doubtless the paradise to which Paul was taken in his vision, mentioned in 2 Cor. 12:4.

This Jerusalem is said by Paul, in Galatians 4:26, to be the mother of us all. In what sense is Jerusalem above the mother of us all?

It appears from the Bible, that there is a city yet to appear, coming from Heaven to earth; see Rev. 21:2, and that city is the Jerusalem now above, in Heaven, Galatians 4:26; and this city is of vast dimensions and of surpassing glory and beauty; see Rev. 21 and 22. This city is called the bride; see Rev. 21:2. Also in 2 Esdras 7:26, it is said that "the time shall come that those tokens which I have told thee shall come to pass, and the bride shall appear, and she coming forth shall be seen, that now is withdrawn from the earth." Also in 2 Esdras 13:36, it is said that Zion shall come, and be showed to all men, being prepared and builded, like as thou sawest the hill graven without hands; see Dan. 2:34, 35.

The city above, the bride, the Jerusalem, then, is no less than the Paradise, the Eden, of Genesis 2 and 3, from which man was created; thus the mother of us all. It was desolate when Adam was excluded from it, and will remain so until its original possessor returns to claim its glories through the Mediator. It is called the desolate in Galatians 4:27, as it is contrasted with the earthly Jerusalem of verse 25.

It is a vast city, as to its size (see "Thoughts on Revelation," page 312), and dates back to the creation of the world, and it is very fitting that the volume of holy writ should begin and end with an account of Paradise.

Paradise, then, with its lofty walls of jasper, its pearly gates, its streets of gold, its twelve foundations of precious stones, with its tree and river of life, and its garden inclosed, stands waiting the resurrection of Adam, who, through Christ his Redeemer, and for his own posterity, will, with abounding praise, take joyful possession.

Now it waits its time. Its original possessor is banished and sleeping in quiet repose. But time hastens on, and soon he will awake, a conqueror over death, through Jesus Christ; and great will be his joy and surprise to see his beloved Eden again, no more to be driven forth, a fugitive from justice, but renewed in heart and in form he will there view his work, left so suddenly and sadly six thousand years ago, and will take up the thread of life where he left it when he tasted the forbidden fruit and fell. JOS. CLARKE.