Revelation 21:22

“The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.”

The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, fulfilled completely all that the sacrificial events of the temple promised – forgiveness of sins, peace with God the Father, a place in the new Kingdom of God in which people from all cultures find a place, where the Spirit of God has full sway, where a new people from all the world embrace, as one person, Jesus Christ and all he is and will be, the Alpha and the Omega.

When Jesus shouted from the cross, as best he could hanging between heaven and earth, “It is finished,” he proclaimed that now He and his Father are the New Temple, whose foundation is in heaven, not on the rocky outcrops on the mountain of Zion in Palestine on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea.  God’s salvation is lived in a Kingdom whose only King is Jesus Christ him self and whose throne is in the heavenlies.

This vision that John is now comprehending puts everything into perspective.  The Kingdom of Christ does not have  a physical place on the earth. It is just as real in Tibet as in Australia, or here in Lancaster.  It is global, not attached in any way to any place on the earth.

This is a truly breath-taking, revolutionary vision of reality.  I do not find it easy.  For example, I know that Jerusalem is a place and many Old Testament prophecies appear to promise that Jerusalem will again be the center of eschatological events.  That concept is hard to square with the visions we are now focusing on in the Revelation Jesus showed to John.

Had I been John’s shoes I might have asked, “Why is the nation of Israel not even mentioned?” “Is there no ‘Holy Place’ on the earth today?”  “What, exactly, is the Holy City, our place, now and forever?”  “Where am I in this city, where is my nation, my culture, where is my denomination, where is my bank in this Holy City?”

It is all quite confusing unless my heart is redeemed, my mind renewed and my vision clarified. So many things I consider very, very important are not even mentioned in the Revelation.  It is an entirely new way of thinking about ourselves, and who we are in the new Kingdom of God that Jesus spoke about again and again.  Is this vision an illusion or is it real? I must decide. Is what I call “figurative” the real thing, after all?