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All
the sects whose teachings and practices are based on the writings of
spiritist Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) deny that the New Jerusalem is an
actual heavenly city, for Mr. Swedenborg in his book The Heavenly City wrote: ‘I will also say a little about what Jerusalem refers to
in the Bible's spiritual meaning. "Jerusalem"
means the religion's philosophy. It has this meaning because it was the one
place in the entire land
of Canaan
that had the Temple
and the altar, where the sacrifices took place--which means that divine worship took place in Jerusalem. Also,
that was where the three yearly festivals were celebrated, which every male
in the land was required to attend. So in the spiritual meaning, Jerusalem refers to
the religion's worship. This amounts to the same thing as saying that Jerusalem means the
religion's philosophy, since our worship is dictated by our religious
philosophy and practiced according to it. It is called "the holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of the sky" because in the
Bible's spiritual meaning, towns and cities symbolize different philosophies.
A "holy city" stands for a philosophy about divine truth, since
divine truth is what the Bible calls holy. It is called "_New_ Jerusalem" for
the same reason the land is called new. As I just said, "the land"
stands for a religion, and "Jerusalem"
means this religion's philosophy. It is described as "coming down from
God out of the sky" because all divine truth comes out of heaven from
God, and this religion gets its philosophy from divine truth. Even though Jerusalem was seen
as a city, it does not refer to an actual city. This is very clear from the
way it was described: Its height was the same as its length and width: 12,000
stadia [1,379 miles]. (verse 16) The measurement of its wall, 144 cubits [216
feet], was made "by human standards of measurement, which an angel was
using." (verse 17) It was "like a bride ready for her husband."
(verse 2) And later, "The angel said, 'Come, I will show you the bride,
the Lamb's wife.' And he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem."
(verse 9) The Bible calls religion the bride and wife of the Lord: his bride
before they are united, and his wife after they have
been united’.
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The
apostle John wrote: “And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had
the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying,
Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me
away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great
city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory
of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper
stone, clear as crystal; And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates,
and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the
names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: On the east three
gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west
three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the
names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked with me had a
golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.
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. And he measured the wall thereof,
an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that
is, of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the
city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of
the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first
foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth,
an emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite;
the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the
eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. And the twelve gates were
twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the
city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
And 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 honour into it. And the gates of it shall not
be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall
bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise
enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever
worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in
the Lamb's book of life. And he shewed me a pure river of water of life,
clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the
midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the
tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits,
and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the
healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse:
but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall
serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their
foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle,
neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall
reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 21:9-27; 22:1-5).
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In
the twentieth century God showed the heavenly Jerusalem to some
believers. One of them is Boris Pilipchuk, who in 1996 died and after a
little while was restored to life by the Lord. Here is what our brother Boris
says about his departure from the body and his brief stay in heaven: ‘Then I
began to ascend from the earth. The earth became smaller and smaller. It
became so small, and then it disappeared totally. My transportation was
accompanied by a continuous whistling in my ears. Then I ended up in an
extraordinary place, that was so illuminated, that I
began to feel good. I saw a golden staircase, that
shone with rays of glory. The staircase was rather wide. On either side of
the staircase were golden railings, along which from the end to the top were
winged angels in white clothes, with golden belts. Their hair was white, their faces shone so much, like lightning, their
eyes were like two lanterns. They had human faces. Their hands and legs were
the color of shinning copper chips. On the outside the angels were like
humans. Around the staircase and under it, stood a great number of angels,
and their number, I simply cannot describe. These were without wings. All the
angels were singing psalms. And surprisingly, I did not know, what language
they were singing in, but at that moment I completely understood the words of
the psalm. They sang: “O worthy are you Lord of all glory and praise. You,
Lord, created the heavens and the earth. You are worthy of our praise!” Then
I saw an extraordinary light at the end of the staircase. But the light
wasn’t like that of the sun or of welding instrument, which has a harmful
effect on the eyes. The light was extraordinarily bright, but did not hurt
the eyes, warm, calming, full of joy and peace. I was full of delight, to
such an extent that mere words cannot describe how I felt. My delight
continued to increase and there was no limit to the joy I felt. I don’t know
how to describe this vision, this feeling, in words, but I would like you to
imagine the picture the Lord showed me. Later on, I heard a voice, coming
from the place where the wonderful light was, which said: ‘My son, come to me
and I will show you something. I will help you”. From the great number of
angels, two angels walked up behind me. One stood on my left and the other
stood on my right, just a short distance from me. I didn’t turn my head
around, I didn’t look behind me and I didn’t gaze around me, but it appeared
as if I could see 360 degrees about me. I wasn’t nervous and didn’t feel any
form of discomfort. I was absolutely calm and so joyful to extent, that I
cannot describe how I felt, not then and not now. I didn’t ask anyone any
question, such as ‘where am I?’ ‘What happened to me? What’s going to happen
later on?’ I felt completely confident in myself, as if I was standing in a
familiar place. I felt as if I lived there permanently. Then the Holy Spirit, transferred me to a vast open plain, in which very
beautiful white horses pranced. In the center of the field, stood a great big
city, in the form of a cube. When I noticed it, I began to draw close to it.
But I approached it in a different way, not as a man normally walks on the
ground. I moved without my feet touching the ground, it was as if I was
sliding. The angels escorted me. The closer I approached the city, the more
intense was the delight I experienced, from what I saw. There were very high
walls, which were multiple in number and of various colors. There were 12
colors in all, which radiated and shone like a bright light. (Later on, after
my resurrection, when I studied the 21-22 chapter of the book of Revelations
in the Bible, I found a confirmation of what I had seen). I saw the
foundation of the city, which was made up of 12 precious stones of this world.
I saw a pearl gate, three on each wall. The pearl gate was very big, higher
than two meters. I didn’t measure them, but one pearl was larger than two
meters, in my opinion. I saw only six gates, because the Lord led me into the
city through one of its corners. I saw the two sides of the cube. Then the
Lord led me through one of the gates into the city, as we passed through
them, I saw two inscriptions. One of them was above the gate and the second
was under the gate. One of the names of the tribes of Israel was
written above the gate, and under it the name of an Apostle was written.
Unfortunately I do not know which gate the Lord led me through, into the New
Jerusalem, but now I would like to know that. When I entered into the city
through the gates, I stood still in admiration: The city was made completely
of gold. The gold was so pure and I had never seen such brilliance before. I
had seen how brightly gold articles in a jeweller’s store shone, but this was
not comparable, to what I saw at that moment. Gold streets, houses of gold,
gold doors – everything was made of gold, transparent like glass. I could
never have imagined that gold could appear transparent and so pure. I read
about this in God’s word, but I could not really imagine it, to me this issue
was concealed. I just couldn’t imagine how a hard metal could be transparent.
Now that I saw it, I just wanted to touch it. I touched the walls, I entered some houses and scrutinized everything. I
did not ask the angels, where I was to go from here. I seemed to know the
way. I was overcome with such a feeling as if I was in a place of my own. As
I continued my way further into the city, close to the center, I saw a large
tree in one spot. The tree had pear-shaped fruit on it. The size of the fruit
was about the size of two average sized fists put together. The leaves on it
reminded me of the leaves of a lime tree, only they were larger and like
leaves of burdock. When I got near the tree, I wanted to take a fruit from it
and began to reach for one. Suddenly with enthusiasm, I was surprised that
the hand that I stretched out, was not like an
ordinary hand, it was transparent. When I was about to pluck a fruit, the
angel who stood a little distance behind me, on my right side, stretched out
his hand and stopped me. Gesticulating with his finger, he told me that for
now, I shouldn’t pluck the fruit. Then something I didn’t expect took place:
Without any form of regret, disappointment from the angel’s action, I left
the tree. Generally speaking, within the city, I never experienced any kind
of discomfort, or disorder. When I left the tree, I saw an extraordinary
bright light at the center of the city. It was very interesting that I didn’t
see any shadow not from the trees and not from the houses. There were no shadows
there and neither were there any lamps. I didn’t see the sun nor any object
that gave light, but the light was extraordinary bright and so pleasant to
the eyes, to the extent that I was so delighted beyond measure. I cannot
adequately describe in words, the extra unusual condition of my soul… When I
saw the center of the illumination, I bowed my head and felt an overwhelming
urge to bow my knees. But the angel supported me and I heard a voice, “ My son, I have shown you all that is necessary for you at
this time, and you should return now, to declare My Glory, power and
dominion, to declare all that you have seen and heard”. Then I began to pray
and implore the Lord, asking Him to let me remain there, where I was. I
cried, “Lord I don’t want to return”. But the Lord said, “You have a wife,
and three children. You have to return to them, for it is not time for you to
be here yet”. Then again I began to implore the Lord, ”Lord,
I don’t want to return. Allow me to remain with beside You”. But the Lord
said to me,” My Son, be meek and self-controlled, do not murmur, go back. You
have to declare My Glory” (read the entire testimony which is here).
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