‘‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’’Revelation 21:5
John the revelator wrote: ‘I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is…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.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true”’ (vv. 2-5). When an atheist died and his friends filed by his casket, one of them remarked, ‘How sad – all dressed up and nowhere to go!’ Not so for the believer! As a redeemed child of God, you’re assured of a home in heaven and citizenship in ‘the new Jerusalem’. John continues, ‘The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city’ (v. 15). The city is an exact square of about fourteen hundred miles (see v. 16). It would stretch from the Carolinas to California and from Canada to Mexico. It’s approximately twenty-one times the size of the UK, ten times the size of France, and bigger than India. And that’s just the ground floor! It’s as tall as it is wide; six hundred thousand storeys high – more than enough room for billions of people to come and go. So here is the question: when you die, will you go to heaven?
