I wish you would explain about the New Jerusalem. A friend says that there is no Bible authority to show that the Holy City will rest upon the earth, and that the texts concerning it are spiritual, and not literal. While he admits that the Holy City will come down, he says that we are not told that it will rest on the earth.
Trifling with God's Word
What difference does it make what the Bible says, if it does not mean what it says? If the texts concerning the relation of the New Jerusalem are not to be taken literally, what evidence have we that the texts which mention the city as existing at all, are to be so taken? If the Bible does not mean what it says, that the New Jerusalem will be on this earth, how can we know that there is, or is to be, any New Jerusalem whatever?
Further: if some or all of the statements in the Bible are to be taken in a "spiritual sense," whatever that may mean, and are not to be considered as literal, who is to decide what they mean? If the Bible does not mean what it says, then everybody is free to attach whatever meaning to it he pleases, and one person has as good a right to his opinions as any other person has.
But in that case the Bible might as well not exist; for what each man believes is, not the words of the Book, but his own notions; the Bible then serves merely as a peg on which to hang human opinions, and any other book would do as well. Or, if it be admitted that there should be some definite standard for agreement, then the only resort is a Pope whose utterances shall be regarded as infallible and final. In either case the Bible becomes of secondary importance.
It is strange how many who repudiate the Papacy will nevertheless follow it in every essential particular. They differ from the most zealous Roman Catholic only in this, that they follow another pope, or several of them, instead of the one who lives in the Vatican. The Bible may speak in the plainest terms; but if some friend speaks otherwise, they either ignore the Bible completely, or else are thrown into confusion, and say, "Well, we don't know what to believe."
In this the people have no intention of setting the Bible aside. They think that they believe the Bible. If told that they have no confidence in it, they would be surprised and shocked; yet that is the case. Is this not self-evident? If I have a friend who daily tells me various things, but as soon as anybody casts a doubt upon his word, or tells me something contradictory, I am thrown into confusion, and do not know what to believe, would not my friend be justified in saying that I have no confidence in him? and would it not be a proof of great love and patience if he still continued my friend? If I do really have confidence in my friend, I shall believe his word, no matter what anybody else says; for I know that he is truthful, and that he does not tell a thing that he does not know.
Why can we not deal as fairly with God's Word as with the words of our friends? Do you not see that when we doubt whether the Bible means what it says, we are either casting reflections upon God, or else we are indicating doubt that the Bible is His Word. If we assert that it is His Word, but still insist that it does not mean just what it says, then we virtually say that God has trifled with us, or else that He is not able to express himself in terms adapted to human understanding, and that He is dependent on some man or men to help Him.
But in this case we not only belittle God, but we elevate man above Him; for the person or persons who must interpret God's meaning to us, if there were any such, must necessarily be able to understand God's thought better than He does himself. In short, if the Bible does not mean what it says, then there is an end of everything, and every man is thrown upon his own strength and wisdom for salvation. Which shall it be-God's Word or man's word?
God's Word All Spiritual
Now before we come to the main question, a few words concerning the terms "spiritual" and "literal." We must accept the Bible as being literally true, as meaning just what it says, or else throw it away entirely; that is, we must either believe it or not believe it. But, at the same time, if we really believe it to be God's Word we must accept it as being wholly spiritual. Every expression in it is spiritual, because God is Spirit. "We know that the law is spiritual." (Romans 7:14)
Christ said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." (John 6:63)
So there is nothing in the Bible, not a single statement, that is not spiritual. But this does not mean that there is any such thing as a "spiritual sense" in which the Scriptures are to be understood. That is to make nonsense of the Word.
The language of the Bible is to be understood as a straightforward, simple, honest expression of truth. When God uses human language the words mean just the same that they mean when men use them. This is self-evident from the fact that the Bible came through men, who wrote just what they had experienced or seen and heard. The Bible is both literal and spiritual. It means just what it says; but it is spiritual in that it makes the believer spiritual, delivering him from the bondage of the flesh.
We can go still further, and say that the Holy City itself will be spiritual. Every inhabitant of the earth will also be spiritual. But they will all be very real. This is evident from the fact that people who truly believe are spiritual now. There are people whom we meet day by day who are spiritual, yet no one would claim that they are not literal beings. "The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges all things." (1 Corinthians 2:14-15)
Jerusalem, the Joy of the Earth
Let us now read a few texts about the city itself. The patriarchs "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth," (Hebrews 11:13) because "they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He has prepared for them a city." (Hebrews 11:16)
And this prepared city is one "which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." (Hebrews 11:10; See Hebrews 6:10-17)
In Zechariah 14:4-6 we read that in the Day of the Lord, when judgment is executed, the Lord shall go forth, "And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley. ... And it shall be in that day that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the forward sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and winter shall it be. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day there shall be one Lord, and His name One." (Zechariah 14:4,8-9)
What those "living waters" are may be learned from Revelation 22:1. They are the river of life which flows from the throne of God. This, together with the fact that God is in the midst of the city, the King of the earth, shows conclusively that the city will be on this earth. It is the New Jerusalem, because it will occupy the site of old Jerusalem.
Again: after the city comes down, with all the saints of God in it, the second resurrection, the resurrection of the wicked will take place, when Satan will go out among them with his final deception, to make them believe that they can capture it, and thus possess the earth. John, seeing future things in vision, describes it thus: "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." (Revelation 20:7-9)
If the city were not on the earth, the wicked could not go up on the breadth of the earth and compass it about. That will be the "day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men," (2 Peter 3:7) to which the earth is reserved, when the righteous in the city will dwell safely in "the devouring fire" and "everlasting burnings." (See Isaiah 33:14-15)
Still further: when the New Jerusalem comes down from God out of heaven, it will be said: "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them." (Revelation 21:3)
God will then "indeed dwell with men on the earth." (2 Chronicles 6:18)
So the apostle continues his prophetic description: "I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it." (Revelation 21:22-24)
Then will it be said: "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge." (Psalm 48:1-3)
The verses following those bring to view the same event that is described in Revelation 20:7-9.
The Power of God's Protection
What of all this? Why is it worth while to take so much space merely to show that the city of God is actually to be located on this earth? What difference does it make to us whether it will be or not?
You may be sure that if it were of no present, practical benefit to us the Bible would not say anything about it; and the benefit is just this: It shows us God's power to save. The walls of the city will be called Salvation, and its gates Praise. (Isaiah 60:18) When it comes down on the place where the mount of Olives stands, then "shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks." (Isaiah 26:1)
We often quote for our present encouragement: "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you; because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." (Isaiah 26:3-4)
But few stop to think that this applies especially to the people in the New Jerusalem when the host of the ungodly, with Satan at their head, encompass the beloved city, to take it. They will greatly outnumber those in the city; but: "God is known in her palaces for a refuge," (Psalm 48:3) and the righteous will not fear. Yet their safety in that awful time will be no more than that of everyone now who trust in God for salvation from the assaults of Satan. Or, to put it in another way, our present assurance of deliverance from the attacks of the devil is the fact that God will preserve all the righteous from his assaults on the beloved city.
Are you not glad that God tells us those things in His book? and is it not comforting to know that they are all literally true?--Present Truth, January 16, 1902.