The Resplendent City

An Angel had taken John into a wildness to show him Babylon the Great. Now one of the same angelic group conducts John to a lofty mountain. What a contrast he sees! Here is no unclean, immoral city like the Babylonish harlot, but New Jerusalem - pure, spiritual, holy - and it is descending from heaven itself. - Revelation 17:1, 5.

Even earthly Jerusalem never had a glory such as this. John tells us: "And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls which were full of the seven last plagues, and he spoke with me and said: ' Come here, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife.' So he carried me away in the power of the spirit to a great and lofty mountain, and he showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God and having the glory of God." (Revelation 21:9-11) From the vantage point of that towering mountain, John surveys the beauteous city in all its lovely detail. Men of faith have been in eager expectation of its coming ever since mankind's fall into sin and death. At last it is here! (Romans 8:19; 1 Corinthians 15:22, 23; Hebrews 11:39, 40) It is the magnificent spiritual city, composed of 144,000 loyal integrity keepers, resplendent in its holiness and reflecting the very glory of Jehovah. Here is the grand Revelation climax!

Next time: Continue with The Resplendent City

Revelation Its Grand Climax At Hand! Watchtower Bible And Tract Society, 1988