New Jerusalem is Coming Down

The city is a foursquare city. The width is exactly the same on all four sides and the height is equal. Twelve thousand furlongs is fifteen hundred miles. To imagine a city that is fifteen hundred miles square and fifteen hundred miles high that is surrounded by jasper walls is breathtaking. The highest mountain in the world is less than six miles high (Mount Everest – 29,035 feet) and the highest in America is less than four miles high (Mount McKinley – 20,320 feet). We are speaking of a city so massive that our minds can only imagine its grandeur. The city of New Jerusalem is 7,920,000 feet high compared to Mount Everest at 29,035 feet. This comparison makes Mount Everest appear to be nothing but a molehill.

The total wealth of this entire earth does not hold a light to the wealth of this new city. The gold that has been mined and minted during human history is minute compared to the gold in this city. It would not be enough to pave the streets of one level of this city and this will be a city of twelve foundations or levels. Each level will be one hundred and twenty-five miles high or 657,700 feet, over twenty-two times higher than Mount Everest. The height of the walls on each level is 144 cubits or approximately 226 feet. These walls are not provided to keep the glorified saints in or out. Nothing is more beautiful than the present massive stone walls of present day Jerusalem. These stone walls have a golden hue appearance as they are beautifully lit at night or in the sunshine. But, the walls of New Jerusalem will be primarily wrought of jasper stone. Jasper is a dark green semi-translucent to opaque form of semi-precious chalcedony. Its beauty is rare. It is readily acceptable to a fine polish and has the physical properties of those of quartz. No one would think of building city walls out of jasper in our present world. The expense would be totally prohibitive to the richest person but certainly not to our Father. The entire walled structure of this city, all twelve levels, will be jasper and pure gold. It appears that the outside formation of these walls is jasper, with the interior of the walls being pure gold.

The foundations at each level are one hundred and forty-four cubits, which is approximately 226 feet high. These foundations are then garnished with twelve manners of precious stones. The first foundation is garnished with jasper on jasper. We can certainly expect that the garnishing jasper will be of a different shade as the jasper wall, which comprises the wall’s structure. There are different colors of jasper depending on the location where it is mined. The second level will be garnished with sapphire stones. The color of a pure sapphire is sky blue; using it to garnish the jasper will be extraordinary. The third level will be chalcedony, which can be any color of the rainbow from pale blue to yellow, brown, or gray. The fourth level will be garnished with emeralds. The finest emeralds are more valuable than diamonds; they are magnificent gems of the most beautiful green color.

The stone used to garnish the fifth foundation is sardonyx or onyx. This stone varies in color; it may be translucent or opaque and is often striped. The sixth stone used for garnishment is sardius, possibly the red variety that is highly polishable and extremely beautiful. The seventh level is garnished with chrysolite, which is a form of topaz of Tarshish. The garnishment of the eighth level is beryl, which is actually colorless, but reflects a great variety of colors depending on foreign substances it contains. It is indeed a precious stone. The ninth garnishing stone on the ninth level of this city is topaz, which is called by some, the "gem of the setting sun." Sometimes, it is said to be the color of gold or peach. The tenth level is chrysoprasus, which is called the apple and is a light green variety of agate. It is a very rare stone.

The eleventh foundation of this magnificent city is jacinth. The jacinth is a red variety of zircon, which is found in square prisms of different shades. The last of the twelve levels is garnished with amethyst. This is a royal purple and a fitting crown for the city. Imagine the crown of this city of transparent purple quartz that is decorating the jasper translucent walls with the gold within reflecting throughout the foursquare city.

Beautify all of this with gates of pearl, each gate one pearl carved into form to be twelve matching gates into the city. Each gate will be fifteen hundred miles high. Glowing through each gate will be streets of pure gold. It is hard to imagine the beauty of a solid pearl gate set on the walls of this city. This city reflects the creative masterpiece of a Groom full of love for His eternal Bride.

New Jerusalem Looking for a City with Foundations

The Saints of God will soon be raptured to the city of New Jerusalem and be given our mansion to possess for eternity. Jesus said plainly, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." (John 14:1-2) We can know that this breathtaking city is finished because John saw it and described its beauty in Revelation chapters twenty-one and twenty-two. This city is our destination if and when we are raptured.

Jesus Christ was talking about the Rapture when He spoke of the mansion He was going back to Heaven to prepare. I used to think that I would not receive my mansion until after the Marriage Supper and the one thousand years of His glorious New World Order. The Bible is clear that the City of New Jerusalem is the city of His Bride and the raptured saints are going to possess this city as their eternal inheritance. We will also possess eternal glorified bodies and will ascend and descend just like the angels do presently. During the Millennial Kingdom, we will be His kings and priests and reign over the earth but will also move between Heaven and earth freely.

This was the same truth that Abraham understood when the Bible spoke of his looking for this great eternal city. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." (Hebrews 11:8-10) Abraham was a rich man and certainly lived in splendor, but his heart was set far above his earthly surroundings. I do not know of any Biblical statement that ever spoke of the Heavenly city, so this revelation was a testimony to AbrahamÂ’s great experience with God. He was a heavenly-minded saint whose heart was set on his God

Our nation and people are so rich and full that the Heavenly city has lost much of its appeal. But to the dedicated saint that has experienced the very presence of God Himself, there is a sense that this worldÂ’s best is nothing compared to this city. The great need of our church world is to move beyond the sights and sounds of religion and to meet God in His excellent holiness, and, then and only then, will we start looking for a city with foundations.

The very statement "with foundations" is where the eternal comes into view. Look at the great cities of the world and then remember how many ancient ruins of past great cities we have read about or even visited. I have visited the ruins of Ereck (Genesis 10:10), Babylon, Hatzor, and Nineveh, all of which are in Iraq. IÂ’ve been to many additional ruins of ancient Israel, such as Capernaum and Caesarea, and have read of many others and have studied their great history. But, thatÂ’s about all there is left except for a few treasures discovered in these ruins. They all are now past history, and each great city of this present world will be left in ruins as each culture ends its hold on survival.

The great revelation of Nebuchadnezzar interpreted by Daniel reveals that human government will be short lived compared to eternity. This great revelation said that all earthly kingdoms and empires will be broken down and destroyed, and our God will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. Here are GodÂ’s words, "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure." (Daniel 2:44-45)

The great saints that knew God have looked past the glitter of human works and longed for a city with foundations. Nothing created by man is eternal because it has no foundations in the eternal sense. Jerusalem, the worldÂ’s capitol in Biblical language, has been wrecked so often that archaeologists find cultural ruins on top of cultural ruins spread beneath its walls.
Abraham knew there was something better, a "city with foundations," that would exist in a frame of continuance unknown to the human logic. ItÂ’s impossible to think in this realm without having met the Master of all life and redemption. Worldly men will read this Prophetic News Alert and laugh at my simpleminded thinking. The scientific thoughts of our educated society sees no realm but the one where the senses of touch and sight are the limit. Abraham had met and talked to God and the result was the utter surrender of his life to faith while living in the real world. He walked with his head in the sky and his feet on the ground.

This is real Christianity. This is where the Saints of God live. We are not earthbound, we are only tolerating life until He releases us. Paul said, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Phillippians 1:21) Hebrews describes these saints that have already made the mental transfer and are just waiting to be set free. The writer said, "Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection." (Hebrews 11:35)

LetÂ’s work with God until we get as close as Enoch did that our Father simply says, "Just go home with me to My house!"

Joseph R. Chambers