Summarize

"Let us now show briefly how we may recover the original order in which these chapters were written. The first three verses of the twentieth chapter recount the casting down of Satan into the abyss and his imprisonment therein for 1,000 years. The traditional text next gives a vision of Christ's Kingdom on earth for 1,000 years, but makes no reference to the seat of this kingdom and yet such a reference cannot be wanting. Was the historical Jerusalem intended as such? This is impossible for two reasons. In the first place it was in ruins. In the next the attitude of the Seer was so hostile to it, that, even if it had not been in ruins, he could not have regarded it as the seat of Christ's Kingdom. As far back as Revelation 11:8 the Seer speaks of the historical Jerusalem as that 'great city which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt where our Lord was crucified'. The historical Jerusalem is thus excluded. If then, our author gives any description of the new centre of Christ's Kingdom, where is it to be found? The answer is at once obvious, if we look further on. It is in Revelation 21-22. Here we find the description of two different Jerusalems. One of them is called 'the holy city of, New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2), the other 'the holy city Jerusalem (Revelation 21:10). Both are said to come down from heaven, but the former is said to descend from the new heaven on the new earth, whereas the context of the second vision presupposes the descent of the second city from the first heaven on the first earth. The vision of the New Jerusalem is seen from some point in space; for the Seer tells us that the first heaven and first earth had already passed away (Revelation 21:1). With this fact he had acquainted us already in Revelation 20:11 where we read: 'I saw a great white throne and him that sat upon it, From whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, And no place was found for them.' A description of this New Jerusalem is given in the opening verses of Revelation 21, but this description breaks off fragmentarily with Revelation 21:4, the last line of a four-line stanza being omitted. Happily, as we shall discover presently, this fourth line and the two final stanzas of the description are preserved in Revelation 22:2-5. Let us now turn to the second vision which deals with the second city, 'the holy city of Jerusalem.' Now, we should observe that whereas the first vision (Revelation 21:1-5) presupposes the destruction of the first heaven and the first earth (Revelation 20:11, 21:1), the second vision on the other hand (Revelation 21:9-22:2, 14-15, 17) presupposes both as still existent. The Seer, who in the first vision had seen from some point in space the New Jerusalem descend from the new haven on the new earth, sees in the second vision from a high mountain on the earth the holy city Jerusalem descend descend from heaven to the earth which the Seer is standing. In keeping with the fact just stated we recognize the thoroughly material nature of this second city. It is, therefore, a city most suitable for the present earth. This city was of pure gold. It had walls of jasper and gates of pearl, and the foundations of its wall were of twelve different precious stones. Now this conception of the Holy City during the Messianic reign was one long familiar to the Jewish nation. Thus in Is. liv. 11-12 the earth Zion is described as follows: 'Behold I will set thy bases in rubies, And they foundations in sapphires. And I will make of jasper thy pinnacles, And thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy border of jewels.' And in Tobit 13:16-18: 'And the gates of Jerusalem shall be builded with sapphire and emerald, And all thy walls with precious stones. The towers of Jerusalem shall be builded with gold, and their battlements with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with With carbuncle and stones of Ophir, And the gates of Jerusalem shall utter hymns of gladness, And all her houses shall say: Hallelujah.' The holy Jerusalem, therefore in the second vision is essentially that which was expected by the Jews on the present earth as the capital of the Messianic Kingdom. The passages from Isaiah and Tobit guide us in the interpretation of this city constructed of gold and precious stones in the Apocalypse. These are not to be taken literally. They are poetical and suggestive: symbols of the spiritual glory that belongs to the chief seat of Christ's Kingdom. Every good and perfect gift cometh down from heaven. The City of God will notwithstanding all hindrances be realized on earth And yet there are elements in the description that cannot be interpreted symbolically. Thus we conclude that the city described in Revelation 21:9-22:2, 14-15, 17 is the seat of Christ's Kingdom on earth.