Let's dig into how the New Jerusalem fits this idea and confirms that believers now enter the heavenly realm, not a realm near earth. The New Jerusalem isn't a future physical city, but a present spiritual reality - and it's the destination of the redeemed.

1. The New Jerusalem comes down from Heaven - it doesn't replace Heaven
Revelation 21:2

"Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

The city is from Heaven - it originates in the divine, spiritual realm.

"Coming down" is covenantal language, not spatial. It means God is now dwelling with His people (see v.3), not that a literal city lands on the planet.

After 70 AD, the church becomes the full expression of the New Jerusalem spiritually, not physically.

2. The city is the bride, the Lamb's wife - the church
Revelation 21:9–10

"'Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife.' And he... showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God..."

This confirms the city is not a literal location. It's symbolic of the covenant people in perfect union with Christ.

The city is God's dwelling place among His redeemed people (v.3).

The bride (the church) now lives in covenant union with God, and her "city" is Heaven - not an earthly zone near it.

3. The New Jerusalem is heavenly in nature
Hebrews 12:22 (again!)

"But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem..."

Believers already had access to this heavenly realm in the 1st century.

It's described as present ("you have come"), not future.

If this city was already accessible spiritually before 70 AD, how much more now after the old system was removed?

4. No temple, no night, and no death - this is spiritual reality, not earthly
Revelation 21:22–25

"But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple... The gates shall not be shut at all by day; there shall be no night there."

These are not earthly features - they symbolize perfect, eternal spiritual fellowship.

No night = no separation, no darkness, no waiting. It's a realm beyond this world.

This is not describing a reconstructed city on a new earth - it's Heaven itself, opened to God's people after judgment.

5. The Tree of Life and the River of Life are there - Eden restored, spiritually
Revelation 22:1–2

"And he showed me a pure river of water of life... In the middle of its street... was the tree of life... the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

These are echoes of Eden - but not physically recreated. They're spiritually fulfilled in the presence of God.

It's the place of eternal life, which only exists in God's presence.

The New Jerusalem is not on or near earth - it's Eden restored in the heavenly realm, accessed through Christ.

Conclusion:
The New Jerusalem is:

Heavenly, not earthly

Spiritual, not geographical

Present, not future

Accessed by believers at death, not during a future millennium

The fulfillment of all God's promises, not a realm next to earth

When believers die, they go into the presence of God in the Heavenly Jerusalem, which is the same realm Jesus entered and the same realm revealed to John - not some halfway point or "realm near earth."

Additional insight

In Isaiah 65, Revelation 21 and 22, the Jerusalem that is on earth is described in a similar euphoric state to that of the Jerusalem that is in heaven mentioned in Hebrews 12:22 and Galatians 4:26. Hebrews 12:22 reads, "But you have come to Mount ZION, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly," Galatians 4:26 also mentions a Jerusalem that is in heaven: "But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother." In Isaiah 65:16-25 I believe hyperbole and metaphor are used to describe the peaceful bliss of post-exilic and post-war Jerusalem so as to depict the Jerusalem that is on earth as a dark shadow of the post-resurrection euphoria and glory of the Jerusalem that is in heaven.

Part 1 of 3 https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19CXomFyEd/

Part 2 of 3 https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BJm64GnrZ/

Part 3 of 3 https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Dutgq23Ro/