Click
on the small picture below to see the big picture
6.
Map of the New Jerusalem
A
map to the rest of the locations in the bigger picture of Heaven,
north, south, west, as well as east where we began our
tour.
Since
we can only get a glimpse of Heaven, we show a map revealing that
we're only seeing the East end of it. In this foursquare City we can
guess its North, South, and West entrances are similar to this one.
It is most likely that all twelve of the entrances to Heaven will
have the same beautiful boulevard view because at certain times
people could be arriving at many different gates.
Not only is Heaven in a square shape but as we said earlier, what we are showing you in picture form is only one layer of the City. The Apostle John in Revelation tells us further he saw Heaven as a cube in shape. This is reminiscent of the Old Testament Holy of Holies and Ark of the Covenant, both built in cubic shape according to God's command to Moses (Moshe). This gives Heaven, the City of God, a grand total size of 3 billion, 375 million (3,375,000,000) cubic miles! Such dimensions stagger our imaginations. Those who have studied Heaven's dimensions have guessed that it can house from 28 billion to 30 trillion people (see "To Heaven and Back," p. 205). That means there will not be any property shortage for our wondrous Home above.
Each gate is made of a giant pearl or a gate covered with mother of pearl, or a gate carved out of one pearl as a sculpture such as Michael Angelo created when he carved from one piece of marble. If a human being can carve from marble such wonders, then God can not only carve such a gate but He has no problem of creating the pearl from His own hand also. Jesus called those He came to save "pearls of great price" (Matt. 13:45-46) "The great price was His life, the life of God incarnate" 1 (John 10:18). Looking at the gates makes us stand in wonder as we consider His love for us.
This is an awesome picture of Heaven given to the Apostle John. He was caught up into Heaven in a vision, saw it, and then wrote about it (Revelation 1: 12-19). Scripture says he was shown, what was, what is, and what is to come; that is a picture of the past, present and future (Rev. 1:19). John was so close to Jesus Christ while He was on earth, that we take his vision seriously, though some Bible expositors think the Book of Revelation is simply symbolic or historic.
The Apostle John was not the only one who wrote about Heaven - the place of the abode of God, His angels, and the saints. That Jesus Christ spoke of it as recorded in thirty-nine places in the four Gospel records. A favorite quote is when He said, "I am going to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me" (John 14:1-3 JB). Also Ezekiel, Isaiah, Moses, and the Apostle Paul speak of Heaven, to mention some of the most prominent ones.
Consider this, if John was not speaking from God's inspiration -- how did he know two-thousand years ago that the dimensions he penned in Revelation would take care of all the people who lived and died previously right up to the present population of the world and beyond? We can be sure he did not own a calculator!
Notes 1. Rita Bennett, To Heaven and Back (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), 113.
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