New Jerusalem

While we are told little about the New Heaven and the New Earth, we are given a much more detailed physical description of the city New Jerusalem.  Revelation 21:9-14 describes John’s initial impression.  “And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.  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 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.”

From a distance the City looked like an enormous fortress or castle, but was far more beautiful than any man made castle, made of polished stone.  As they approached the city, he saw the gates were made of pearls with three to each side, and a sign bearing the name of one of the tribes of Israel at each gate.  The foundation stones of the wall were marked with the names of the twelve apostles.   When they arrived, John observed details he had not been able to see from a distance.   First he describes the size in Revelation 21:15-17.  “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 foursquare, 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, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.”

The city is twelve thousand furlongs square and of the same height. Since a furlong is about one eighth of a mile this makes the city about one thousand five hundred miles on each side.   If located in the United States, it would cover an area almost half the size of the United states, reaching from Boston to Key Largo Florida, and extending west to Lincoln Nebraska.  It will be almost three thousand times as tall as the highest building on earth and six times as high as the international space station.  To support the weight, the walls will be two hundred sixteen feet thick at the base.  It is one gigantic fortress. 

Next, John describes the materials the city is built of, in revelation 21:18-21.  “And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was 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, chrysolyte; 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.”

The walls are built of dense highly polished jasper stone, and everything is overlaid with the purest gold.  The footings or foundations of the wall are decorated with various precious and semi-precious stones, much like a public building might use slabs of marble to cover the concrete footings in a basement.   With only one gate every five hundred miles, the gates must be huge, but each one is made out of a single pearl.  Like the rest of the city, the streets are paved with the purest gold.  That our rarest and most valuable items are used as building materials emphasizes how poor and worthless our present wealth is. 

On this present earth, such a city would not be possible.  The weight of the walls would dislocate the various tectonic plates causing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.  In our present world, people often need oxygen to survive at the tops of our tallest mountains and no one survive without it at the space station, yet the city is six times that tall.  As we said earlier, clearly the New Earth is different than the present one.  Because of God’s presence, there will be no need for a temple to worship him, as Revelation 21:22-23 tells us.  “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.”   I assume that if the sun and the moon still shine, because of the light of God and of Christ, they will be like turning on the yard lights on a sunny day.  They will not even be noticed.