Zion, Mount Zion, and The New Jerusalem
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Zion, Mount Zion, and The New Jerusalem are all figures of speech, which symbolically represent the same thing — the New Testament Church. Literal Zion represents the (literal) hill on which the (literal) holy temple stood, which was in (literal) Jerusalem. It represented not only the mountain called the holy mountain, but the city of Jerusalem, the temple where the Jews worshipped and the people who worshipped. Zion (the literal hill) represented not only a place but a state or condition. It included the holy city in which the temple was built, the hill and immediate territory round about Jerusalem. One became an inhabitant of Jerusalem by natural birth because he was a Jew or descendant of Abraham. “And of Zion it shall be said: This and that man was born in her; . . . the Lord shall count when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there.” (Psalms 87: 5, 6.) The people became a part of Zion by natural birth just like we became a part of the body of Christ the church by spiritual birth. There was a record kept of all the births in (literal) Zion, there is also a record kept of all the spiritual births in spiritual Zion, which is the church. The former was a literal record, while ours is a record in heaven. “Be glad ye children of Zion and rejoice.” (Joel 2: 23.) “Deliver thyself, 0 Zion.” (Zechariah 2:7.) God wasn't talking to the mountain, which was called Zion. Zion Included the mountain, the city of Jerusalem, the temple where the Israelites worshipped, and it also included the people who worshipped there. These sacred (literal) things and (literal) chosen people, typify the church and people in the New Testament dispensation. “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; . . . . But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly.” (Romans 2:28, 29.) That's in the new dispensation, by a spiritual birth, we become spiritual Jews, inwardly. The literal Jews were those who descended from Abraham. The spiritual Jews are the spiritual descendants of Abraham through Christ. “If ye be Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed.” (Galations 3:29.) By spiritual birth we become spiritual Jews, or the true Israel of God, Mount Zion, and New Jerusalem. “But ye are come unto (the hill) Mount Zion; and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem . . . and church of the first born, which are written in heaven.” (Hebrews 12: 22, 23.) This Mount Zion is a holy mountain, just as Jerusalem is called the holy Jerusalem or the holy city. This mountain is holy because its inhabitants are cleansed from sin and made pure and holy. The wolf, the leper, the lion, the bear, and adder and asp nature is cleansed out of all who inhabit this mountain, so that “they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.” (Isaiah 11:9.) This applies to people who before becoming Christians had a beast nature likened to a bear, to dominate, a lion to devour, etc. But on coming into this holy mountain which symbolically represents the church, they become cleansed or saved from their beast nature and become peaceable and harmless, hence, “shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain." "And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And there came unto me one of the seven angels. . . saying, come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife, and he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.” (Revelation 21: 9, 10.) Here we have the figures of the mountain, the city, and the bride, all combined representing the same thing; and the writer of the Hebrews in the twelfth chapter, verses 22 and 23, calls it the church of the first born, which are written in heaven. [ The End ]


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