the New Jerusalem

[newbie]

Rev 21:16  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.


I've always wondered if this city could be a great big pyramid shape rather than a box-like we usually see in pictures.  The base of the pyramid would have length and width of equal size.  The height of the pyramid the same coming up from the center of the base square.   

The bible refers to Mount Zion often as this future city is to resemble a mountain of sort.  What do you think?  Do we have any mathematicians out there?

12,000 furlongs = 1,500 miles as a reference...  that's pretty big for sure... 

[Ed Sutton]

It has been drawn by artists as a pyramid & as a cube

[V. Hahn]

Some years ago at Michigan Camp Meeting I talked to a man at a exhibit of what the earthly Sanctuary looked like.  He told me he believed the New Jerusalem would be a pyramid.  I had never heard that before, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. 

Such a huge city in a pyramid shape I would think would have a VERY mild slope, but no matter where you were in the city you could see the throne of God at the pinnacle.

Also, Satan also has a counterfeit for everything that he envy's about God.  Perhaps that's where the idea for the pyramids of Egypt came from!

But I guess we'll have to wait and see what our future home will look like for sure!  Can you imagine how glorious it will be?  I can't wait!

[V. Hahn]

[V. Hahn]

[V. Hahn]

[V. Hahn]

[dedication]

These are things not revealed, thus we really don't know.   All ideas on this are just "wondering"....

Interesting pictures!

A pyramid style may be correct.
The ancients had such a fascination with pyramids.  We see them built not only in Egypt, but also in the America's, in India, the ziggurats of Babylon, and several other places.  Why this fascination with pyramids?

The ones in Egypt are built and positioned (scale models) of the stars in Orion's belt.

EGW mentions that "heaven" is in Orion --

She "saw"...  The atmosphere parted and rolled back; then we could look up through the open space in Orion, whence came the voice of God. The holy city will come down through that open space. EW 41

Also, the fallen angels know what God's city looks like -- they were there once upon a time.

The deductive reasoning == satan was inspiring people to try and create replicas of "heaven" on earth?

Others think it may be "a mountain" rather than simply a geometrical shape.


Remember too -- Eden was on earth, guarded by God's angels, until the flood.
Some have "wondered" if Eden was also a mountain.   Four rivers flowed from it to water the whole earth according to Genesis 2. 
The Garden of Eden is IN the New Jerusalem when it comes down from heaven!
Maybe a literal mountain is thus also in the New Jerusalem?

At the end of one thousand years, Jesus, the king of glory, descends from the Holy City, clothed with brightness like the lightning, upon the Mount of Olives—the same mount from whence He ascended after His resurrection. As His feet touch the mountain, it parts asunder, and becomes a very great plain, and is prepared for the reception of the Holy City in which is the paradise of God, the Garden of Eden, which was taken up after man’s transgression. Now it descends with the City, more beautiful, and gloriously adorned than when removed from the earth. The City of God comes down and settles upon the mighty plain prepared for it.—3SG 83, 84.

But consider:
The United States is 2,800 miles across from its eastern seaboard to its western coast.  Vertical Length: 1,582 miles.

A city 1,500 miles square would cover more than half of the United States -- as is pictured in a post above.

The length and width isn't the real  problem though it's the height --  with a city that is 1500 miles high  it would throw the whole orbit of earth out of orbit.
Our highest mountain is only 5.5 miles high!
Commercial airliners fly around 7.4 miles high.

1,500 miles high is out in space!


Some did some studying on how people in John's day measured cities and said:
"Ancient cities usually were measured in size by their circumference.”
That means the circumference of four equal sides is 1500 miles, not each side 1500 miles.
Thus they calculate each side is 375 miles -- and the height being the same would also be 375 miles.

However, even 374 miles high -- is still very high!  But at least it's still  (barely)  in the Thermosphere surrounding the earth.
I'm sure God could thicken the atmosphere out in the thermosphere to sustain life if that is the case.

But yes, it is an interesting question.
Of course -- any difficulties we can be sure God can handle them, no problem.

Maybe the city goes INTO the earth as well as reaching up into space -- who knows?








 



 

[newbie]

thank you so much for all your responses.... 

dedication:  yes it would be high but the cube would be high too... God knows and can make whatever adjustments need to be made...

the good news is, is that it is so big which means there will be many there...Praise God

[Ed Sutton]

Luke 24:39  Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.


1 Corinthians 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

The glorified Jesus was flesh and bones not flesh and blood .  Once I read in an RN magazine talking about hyperbarics that if a person did not use a Krebs Cycle for metabolism, blood would not be needed, and a person could not drown or asphyxiate from lack of air.  Krebs Cycle  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citric_acid_cycle 

If glorified bodies do not have blood / not use a Krebs Cycle for metabolism - hight / atmosphere would not be an issue.

Could the fly over air space of the city be included in the measurements ?

[newbie]

interesting point Ed....

the atmosphere before the flood was way different than now... so that all could be back like when in Eden...

and dedication, just thinking that the spinning of the earth should be less complicated if the new Jerusalem were a pyramid shape rather than a cube...

[newbie]

  really like this picture