I quite like the informal format of a blog. I can get things down in precisely the way they stumbled out of my brain and that is quite acceptable. Where to start putting to virtual paper the concept of the City of God is quite another matter. I feel I must be precise and meticulous and excruciatingly thorough. So lets start with this:
Main biblical mentions
My intention is not at all to be exhaustive here, but the main mention of the City of God in Scripture is in Revelation 21 and 22. Then there are other mentions in Isaiah but especially from Isaiah 60 onwards. The Isaiah scriptures are interesting because though they rarely mention the City of God by name, they describe the same things mentioned in Revelation. Then there's the famous passage of scripture in Ezekiel outlining his vision of the glory of God and the temple and the river and the ecosystem surrounding it.
Yep, The City of God describes this present age
A cursory look at Revelation might have one thinking that its description of the City of God is a depiction of the after life. Revelation 21 starts verse 3 this way...
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Revelation 22:3-4 NIV
Sounds like heaven, right? The narrative continues in verse 22…
I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The 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.
Revelation 21:22-23 NIV
But this is where it begins to get weird.
The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing 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.
Revelation 21:24-27 NIV
What nations are these in heaven that live outside the boundaries of the City of God? What Kings are these whose splendour is sourced from outside the heavenly gates? Who are these shameful and deceitful that will be barred entry?
Isaiah 60 echoes the language of Revelation…
“The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.”
Isaiah 60:19-20 NIV
Now look at Isaiah 65
“Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.”
Isaiah 65:20 NIV
The one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child? What is going on here?What place is this? When is this? Its clearly still in a time when sin and death still exist. But How can it be? On what planet is there a reality where infants don’t die? The world described here - its impossible!
Now, many scholars believe that this describes the Church in the period the Bible calls the millennium - the thousand year period where the devil is imprisoned before his final release and ultimate destruction. This may well be the case, But this site is not about the millennium. My point is, its about a time IN THIS WORLD, ON THIS PLANET!!! I think the apt exclamation is “What on earth!!!” Or is it “Oh my ‘world’!!!”
Dad jokes aside, let me put out a question:
What will it take for us to consider and accept a "City of God" - the kind of world the above scriptures describe?
Its easy to accept a millenium in some distant future that feels more like myth than fact. It doesn’t affect our present day. I submit to you that it is critically imperative that we allow ourselves to begin to imagine the idea of “the City of God” as described in scripture as a conceivable present day reality and here’s why:
Even though omnipotent God has His plan for humanity He always requires our participation in the process.
He requires our participation in the preparation AND the execution. He needs someone to believe it and prophesy it today before He accomplishes it tomorrow. Then He looks for someone who has been readied as a vessel fit for good use to bring it about. He is the builder but we are His workmen. And nothing eternal can be built that He is not not already building! The fact that God has elected to do it this way, involving us, is a mystery and a wonder.
Who in Old Testament times could have imagined a time when humanity’s sins and lawless deeds would be remembered no more? Who could have imagined the freedom of the life on the other side of the cross where anyone can approach the throne of grace and commune with the almighty God as our Father in the holy of holies? Yet God spoke of it through His prophets. For me, the idea of the City of God is a similar paradigm breaker. The question is who is willing to take Him at his Word? I’m reminded of Jesus who queried in Luke 8:18, “when the son of man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” - men and women prepared and ready to execute His will?
The foundation of the Apostles and Prophets
What I am actually describing is the prophetic and the apostolic at work here.
The prophetic as divine preparation and the apostolic as supernatural execution.
And as Ephesians 2:19-22 puts it, on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ Himself as the chief cornerstone, the Church is being built to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.
Selah
“A dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.“ My goodness! Sign me up! That’s what happens when we do this properly and build on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. There’s something key in there. We need to investigate this idea further, though perhaps not today. But It feels like our future as a Church is somehow tethered to us getting this right.
Perhaps I’ve said enough for today. Suffice it to say I think the Church needs to remember who we are and begin to imagine the possibility of an impossible City in our day. And be prepared to be used to bring it to pass.
As a segue into Part 2, one characterisation Revelation 21 gives for the city of God is “there will be no more death”. The writer says he saw a new heaven and a new earth because the old ones had passed away. So what are we saying here? I’ve got questions! A new earth? No more death? This is a lot. See you in the next post.
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