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Two Jerusalems

The name Jerusalem in the Hebrew language is a plural name.  The city's name tells us that there are more than one.  In the shops of Jerusalem you can purchase paintings showing a heavenly Jerusalem above the earthly Jerusalem.  Jewish sages say that Moses went to Heaven and spent 40 days there.  He brought back the pattern of the heavenly tabernacle to be replicated on earth.

Psalm 122:3 Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together.  ⁴ That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD , to praise the name of the LORD according to the statute given to Israel.  ⁵ There the thrones for judgment stand, the thrones of the house of David.  ⁶ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:

The "closely compacted together" of verse 3 speaks of the two cities becoming joined with a passageway, becoming one.  In verse 6 the word "peace" is the Hebrew word shalom, which can be translated "whole".  So we can pray for the wholeness of Jerusalem.    Visit our teaching "God's Place" to read of Jacob's ladder with angels going to and from Heaven from the point on earth we now call Jerusalem.

In the climax of the ages all things, including heavenly and earthly Jerusalem will be unified, put together.  Ephesians 1:9  Making known to us the mystery (secret) of His will (of His plan, of His purpose). [And it is this:] In accordance with His good pleasure (His merciful intention) which He had previously purposed and set forth in  Him, ¹⁰[He planned] for the maturity of the times and the climax of the ages to unify all things and head them up and consummate them in Christ, [both] things in heaven and things on the earth.

The mansions Jesus is building are in heavenly Jerusalem.  John 14:¹"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me. ²In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. ⁴You know the way to the place where I am going."

John 3:3  In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."  The phrase that is translated "born again" can be translated "born from above".

We are citizens of heaven, heavenly Jerusalem.  Soon we will have heavenly bodies.  On earth we are ambassadors of heaven, we visit and work on earth and return home to heaven periodically. Galatians 4:26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.   Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.  II Corinthians 5:20  We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

After being born from above we are a new species, an entirely new creation.  II Corinthians 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  Colossians 3:1  Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Abraham was only passing through the earth, looking for heavenly Jerusalem.  Hebrews 11:9 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: ¹⁰   For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.  .... 16  But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

This scripture clearly shows that Jesus and God the Father are in heavenly Jerusalem.  Also, heavenly Jerusalem has a mount Zion just like earthly Jerusalem.  The two cities are mirror images.  Hebrews 12:22  But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, ²³to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, ²⁴to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

After the Millennium, after Satan is thrown into the lake of fire, after The Great White Throne Judgment, heavenly Jerusalem will come to earth to stay.  Revelation 21:1 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. ¹¹It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. ¹²It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. ¹³There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. ¹⁴The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.  ¹⁵The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. ¹⁶The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 1,400 miles in length, and as wide and high as it is long. ¹⁷He measured its wall and it was 200 feet high by man's measurement, which the angel was using. ¹⁸The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. ¹⁹The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, ²⁰the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.  ²¹The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.  ²²I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. ²⁴The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. ²⁵On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. ²⁶The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. ²⁷Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Note:  This article was written from notes taken listening to a message delivered by Mrs. Billye Brim at Eagle Mountain International Church on September 27, 2003.

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