The pearly gates are a myth Ron, I will not be going there, God has but one name, of course it is pronounced differently in various languages, but for us who speak English, His name is Jehovah sir.
"Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away ..." Rev. 21:1
All former things will pass away (Rev. 21:5) Behold He will make ALL THINGS NEW!
"And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the
holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. 12
It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. 13
There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. 14
And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them
were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15 The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall. 16 The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and
he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal. 17 And he measured its wall,
seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are
also angelic
measurements. 18 The
material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19
The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; 20 the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. 21
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass." Rev. 21:10-21
Some myth. This is not symbolic language other than verse 11 describing her brilliance. No, symbolic language does not describe something with such detail, specific stones, specific measurements, the size of the city: 1500 miles x 1500 miles x 1500 miles. This is the New Heaven. Why would you be surprised of the construction? We've seen all those actual stones yet not in those amounts. Man has never made anything quite like that, so why would you suspect Heaven to be anything less than what is described here? Why the height of 1500 miles? We look up at the sky and see several miles and beyond. Outer space is 62 miles. But let say heaven had multiple dimensions, layers upon layers. In other words, plateaus upon plateaus of people living in their environments - a quite different reality. Let's imagine the first level to be 10 miles high, that would accommodate mountains and many layers of clouds. So you could realistically have 150 levels x 2 million square miles. Did you ever wonder what heaven is like? Come on, use your imagination. That's plenty of room for a few billion souls. And with multidimensional eternal bodies capable of appearing, ascending, traveling distances with a thought ... frankly equivalent to: Beam me up Scotty to level 486, I want to visit the Apostle Paul with his mansion next to what looks like Yosemite. My environment would look like Kauai ... I like snorkeling and swimming with the turtles. Some may like the mountains, skiing - that will be their heaven. JW's seem to have this vague and lackluster view of place not knowing what anybody does nor can do. This is all conjecture of course, but not scripture, that is to be taken literally.
