The revelation concerning the garden of Eden, as the beginning of the divine revelation in the Holy Scripture, contains four matters (Gen. 2:8-14, 18-24). First, there is the tree of life as the center of God’s eternal economy (v. 9a). Second, verses 10 through 14 speak of a river flowing into four heads to reach the four directions of the earth. Third, at the flow of the river are three kinds of precious materials: gold, pearl, and onyx (vv. 11-12). Here these materials are scattered and not yet builded together. Fourth, there is a couple, signifying Christ and the church (vv. 18-24; Eph. 5:22-29, 32). The wife came out of the husband (signifying Christ) as a part (a rib, signifying the resurrection life of Christ) of him taken out of him in his sleep (signifying the death of Christ) by God, which part God built into a woman (signifying the church)-Gen. 2:21-22a. Then God brought the woman to the man and made her one flesh with him as her husband to be his counterpart as his increase and expression (vv. 22b-24; John 3:29a, 30; Eph. 1:23).
The revelation concerning the New Jerusalem, as the ending of the divine revelation in the Holy Scripture, also contains four matters (Rev. 21:1-22:2). First, there is the tree of life as the center of God’s eternal economy (22:2). Second, according to 22:1 a river of water of life flows to reach the four directions of the earth (cf. 21:13). Third, there are three kinds of precious materials: gold, pearls, and precious stones. These materials are built together into a city, the city of New Jerusalem, by the processed and consummated Triune God (21:18-21). Fourth, the entire city is a couple. The processed and consummated redeeming Triune God in Christ is the Husband. The chosen and redeemed people of the redeeming Triune God are the wife, produced by the processed and consummated Triune God through Christ’s death and resurrection with the divine life of the redeeming God as the element to be His counterpart as His enlargement and expression in eternity (vv. 2, 9; Eph. 1:23; 3:19).
What is revealed in these two parts of the divine revelation in the Holy Scripture is the central line of the entire divine revelation throughout the entire Holy Scripture. This central line should be a controlling principle to our interpreting and understanding of the Holy Scripture.
Next, we need to see that the New Jerusalem is the unique, divine, and organic building in the entire universe. The New Jerusalem is unique; there is no building like it on earth. The New Jerusalem is also divine; that is, it has the same nature that God has. Furthermore, the New Jerusalem is organic. This means that it is living, that it is full of life. In the entire universe only the New Jerusalem is such a divine and living building.
Let us now go on to consider the different aspects of the holy city as the unique, divine, and organic building.
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