The new Jerusalem is not heaven nor heaven on Earth. The new Jerusalem is a city, but more specifically it is known as the bride of the Lamb. You see, New Jerusalem, Bride of the Lamb/Christ, Zion, Church are all synonyms: they are the same thing. Once a new earth is in place, the new city will descend upon it. Yeshua will establish His throne there. It will be a sort of capitol of the world. Again, it's a city. To understand the whole fold of events involving the New Jerusalem, you have to understand and study the fold of events of a jewish wedding.
Let us look and see.
Re 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
"as a bride" is not "the Bride". It is figurative describing quality, not content. It does not say, The bride of the Lamb adorned for her husband, it says, AS a bride.
Babylon is figured as a woman as well. It is figurative, not literal. Yet we know Babylon will be a literal place from which the apostate Jews will carry out their commerce and control, the present Jerusalem being to hotly contested for by the enemy and his lesser minions of war, therefore unfit for their plans to rule without the presence of Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Your contention that," Jerusalem, Bride of the Lamb/Christ, Zion, Church are all synonyms", is not like you Evenom. You are more sufficient of yourself in study and understanding to put forth such an assertion. It would be too easy to dispute this with the multitude of Scriptures disproving such a claim, and space will not allow for it. I ask you to be honest here, and allow God's word to precede conjecture as being truth.
Though you are correct to point out the New Jerusalem is not heaven, nor heaven on earth, it is nonetheless, heavenly in character, for in it dwells God amongst the people of His creation. It is temporary in existence, not being the consummation of His plan to become All in all.
You say that understanding the Jewish wedding assists in coming to a realization of the Bride analogy, and you are most correct. The Bride of Christ, the faithful Jewish dead of the former resurrection and the elect Jewish remanant saved of the tribulation period, do indeed comprise the Bride of Christ, who are on the earth already when He returns to judge the nations. It is totally Jewish, and there is no contingent of the nations or Gentiles. It is comprised of His people alone.
His throne is established prior to the New Jerusalem descending out of heaven to earth, not after. His rule and reign is one of judgment and justice, to the end of reconciling all things. Until that reconciliation takes place and the enemy is finally deposed after being loosed for a season, the God of Heaven cannot dwell upon His earth.
Re 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
I would assume that the Lamb is not going to marry a place of habitation, the New Jerusalem in this case, over His betrothed adulterous wife, Israel. It is totally unreasonable to conclude He is marrying a "thing". In the Gospels the references to the Bride and the Bridegroom, adultery, whoredoms, and such like, should present the clearest evidence of the nature of the Bride of the Lamb.That is unless we gravitate towards the unsoundness of "spiritualizing" difficult declarations of God, for the various reasons towards accomodating our notions.
fivesense
The new Jerusalem is not heaven nor heaven on Earth. The new Jerusalem is a city, but more specifically it is known as the bride of the Lamb. You see, New Jerusalem, Bride of the Lamb/Christ, Zion, Church are all synonyms: they are the same thing. Once a new earth is in place, the new city will descend upon it. Yeshua will establish His throne there. It will be a sort of capitol of the world. Again, it's a city. To understand the whole fold of events involving the New Jerusalem, you have to understand and study the fold of events of a jewish wedding.
Let us look and see.
Re 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
"as a bride" is not "the Bride". It is figurative describing quality, not content. It does not say, The bride of the Lamb adorned for her husband, it says, AS a bride.
Babylon is figured as a woman as well. It is figurative, not literal. Yet we know Babylon will be a literal place from which the apostate Jews will carry out their commerce and control, the present Jerusalem being to hotly contested for by the enemy and his lesser minions of war, therefore unfit for their plans to rule without the presence of Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Your contention that," Jerusalem, Bride of the Lamb/Christ, Zion, Church are all synonyms", is not like you Evenom. You are more sufficient of yourself in study and understanding to put forth such an assertion. It would be too easy to dispute this with the multitude of Scriptures disproving such a claim, and space will not allow for it. I ask you to be honest here, and allow God's word to precede conjecture as being truth.
Though you are correct to point out the New Jerusalem is not heaven, nor heaven on earth, it is nonetheless, heavenly in character, for in it dwells God amongst the people of His creation. It is temporary in existence, not being the consummation of His plan to become All in all.
You say that understanding the Jewish wedding assists in coming to a realization of the Bride analogy, and you are most correct. The Bride of Christ, the faithful Jewish dead of the former resurrection and the elect Jewish remanant saved of the tribulation period, do indeed comprise the Bride of Christ, who are on the earth already when He returns to judge the nations. It is totally Jewish, and there is no contingent of the nations or Gentiles. It is comprised of His people alone.
His throne is established prior to the New Jerusalem descending out of heaven to earth, not after. His rule and reign is one of judgment and justice, to the end of reconciling all things. Until that reconciliation takes place and the enemy is finally deposed after being loosed for a season, the God of Heaven cannot dwell upon His earth.
Re 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
I would assume that the Lamb is not going to marry a place of habitation, the New Jerusalem in this case, over His betrothed adulterous wife, Israel. It is totally unreasonable to conclude He is marrying a "thing". In the Gospels the references to the Bride and the Bridegroom, adultery, whoredoms, and such like, should present the clearest evidence of the nature of the Bride of the Lamb.That is unless we gravitate towards the unsoundness of "spiritualizing" difficult declarations of God, for the various reasons towards accomodating our notions.
fivesense