New Jerusalem
From Freepedia
New Jerusalem is the concept of Jerusalem (in the definite or indefinite sense) as being renewed or rebuilt, either in the present day or in the future, either at the Temple Mount or in a different location. Definitions of "New Jerusalem" differ from theology to theology.
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New Jerusalem in the New Testament
In the New Testament, the term New Jerusalem occurs two times: verses 3:12 and 21:2 in the Book of Revelation. It is mentioned in 21:16 as being 12,000 stadia by 12,000 stadia at the base. A stadion is usually stated as 185.4 meters, therefore it has a base of:
(12000*185.4/1000)² ≅ 4.9 million square kilometers (larger than the 3,892,685 km² of the 25 states of the European Union in 2005, but smaller than the 7,617,930 km² of Australia)
If in the form of a pyramid, the New Jerusalem therefore also has a volume of:
(12000*185.4/1000)³/3 ≅ 3.7 thousand million cubic kilometers.
If in the form of a cube, it would have a volume of:
(12000*185.4/1000)³ ≅ 11 thousand million cubic kilometers.
Church of the New Jerusalem
Ecclesiastic Swedenborgians often refer to their organizations as part of or contributing to the New Jerusalem as explained by Emanuel Swedenborg in such books as New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine and Apocalypse Revealed and Apocalypse Explained. According to these books, the New Jerusalem described in the Bible was a symbol for a new dispensation that was to replace/restore Christianity. Also according to these books, this New Jerusalem began to be established around 1757.
New Jerusalem in America
Lutheran minister John Christopher Hartwick unsuccessfully attempted to establish the utopian community of New Jerusalem in Otsego County, New York and elsewhere.
Latter-day Saint Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. prophesied that the New Jerusalem would be established at the site of the current city of Independence, Missouri.
