880. Jerusalem in the Word means the church because the Temple and altar were there in the land of Canaan and nowhere else, and sacrifices were made there. Thus it was the focus of Divine worship. The three annual feasts were accordingly also celebrated there, and every male throughout the land was commanded to attend them. For that reason Jerusalem symbolizes the church with respect to worship, and so also the church with respect to doctrine, inasmuch as worship is prescribed by doctrine and is conducted in accordance with it.

Jerusalem means the church, too, because the Lord was there and taught in its temple, and later glorified His humanity there.

That Jerusalem means the church with respect to its doctrine and consequent worship is apparent from many passages in the Word. As for example, from these verses in Isaiah:

For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as a radiance, and her salvation as a burning lamp. Then gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You shall also be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will proclaim. And you shall be a crown of glory in the hand of Jehovah, and a royal jewel ¹ in the hand of your God... ...Jehovah will delight in you, and your land shall be married.

Behold, your salvation is coming; behold, His reward is with Him... And they shall call them a holy people, the redeemed of Jehovah; and you shall be called a city sought out, not forsaken. (Isaiah 62:1-4, 11-12)

[2] The subject in that chapter is the Lord's advent and a new church to be established by Him. This new church is the church meant by Jerusalem, which shall be called by a new name that the mouth of Jehovah will proclaim; which will be a crown of glory in the hand of Jehovah and a royal jewel ¹ in the hand of God; in which Jehovah will delight; and which shall be called a city sought out and not forsaken. This does not mean the Jerusalem inhabited by Jews when the Lord came into the world, for that Jerusalem was of a totally opposite character. It was rather to be called Sodom, as it also is called in Revelation 11:8, Isaiah 3:9, Jeremiah 23:14, and Ezekiel 16:46, 48.

[3] Elsewhere in Isaiah:

...behold, I am creating a new heaven and a new earth; the former shall not be remembered... Be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating. ...behold, I am creating Jerusalem to be an exultation, and her people a joy, that I may exult over Jerusalem and rejoice over My people... Then the wolf and the lamb shall feed together... They shall not do evil... in all My holy mountain... (Isaiah 65:17-19, 25)

In this chapter, too, the subject is the Lord's advent and a church to be established by Him, one that was not established among the people in Jerusalem but among people elsewhere. Consequently that church is the one meant here by Jerusalem, which will be an exultation to the Lord and whose people will be a joy to Him, where the wolf and lamb will feed together, and the people will not do evil.

As in the book of Revelation, we are told here also that the Lord will create a new heaven and a new earth, and that He will create Jerusalem, which have similar symbolic meanings.

[4] Elsewhere in Isaiah:

Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come to you. Shake yourself from the dust, arise; sit down, O Jerusalem! ...Therefore My people shall know My name... in that day; for it is I who speaks: behold, it is I. ...Jehovah has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. (Isaiah 52:1-2, 6, 9)

The subject in this chapter is also the Lord's advent and the church to be established by Him. Therefore the Jerusalem into which the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come, and which the Lord will redeem, means the church, and Jerusalem, the holy city, means the church with respect to doctrine from the Lord and concerning the Lord.

[5] In Zephaniah:

Shout, O daughter of Zion! Be glad... with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! ...The King of Israel... is in your midst; fear evil no longer! ...He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will rest in your love, He will exult over you with exultation... ...I will give you a name and praise among all the peoples of the earth... (Zephaniah 3:14-17, 20)

Here likewise the subject is the Lord and a church established by Him, over which the King of Israel, namely the Lord, will rejoice with gladness and exult with exultation, and in whose love He will rest, who will give them a name and praise among all the peoples of the earth.

[6] In Isaiah:

Thus said Jehovah, your Redeemer and your Former..., who says to Jerusalem, "You shall be inhabited," and to the cities of Judah, "You shall be rebuilt."... (Isaiah 44:24, 26)

And in Daniel:

Know and perceive: from the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks... (Daniel 9:25)

It is apparent that Jerusalem here also means the church, since it was the church that the Lord restored and rebuilt, and not Jerusalem, the Jewish capital.

[7] Jerusalem means a church established by the Lord also in the following passages. In Zechariah:

Thus said Jehovah, "I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of Jehovah Zebaoth a holy mountain." (Zechariah 8:3, cf. 8:20-23)

In Joel:

Then you shall know that I am Jehovah your God, dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy... And it will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk..., and Jerusalem (shall abide) from generation to generation. (Joel 3:17-21)

In Isaiah:

In that day the offshoot of Jehovah shall be beautiful and glorious... And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy - everyone recorded among the living in Jerusalem. (Isaiah 4:2-3)

In Micah:

...in the latter days the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established on top of the mountains... For out of Zion doctrine shall go forth, and the Word of Jehovah from Jerusalem... ...to you... the former kingdom shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. (Micah 4:1-2, 8)

In Jeremiah:

At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah, and all the nations shall be gathered..., because of the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem. No more shall they go after the justification of their evil hearts. (Jeremiah 3:17)

In Isaiah:

Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts; let your eyes see Jerusalem, a tranquil habitation, a tabernacle that will not vanish; its stakes will never be removed, nor any of its cords be broken. (Isaiah 33:20)

And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 24:23; 37:32; 66:10-14; Zechariah 12:3, 6, 8-10; 14:8, 11-12, 21; Malachi 3:2, 4; Psalms 122:1-7; 137:4-6.

[8] Jerusalem in these places means a church which the Lord would establish, and not Jerusalem in the land of Canaan inhabited by Jews. This can be seen from passages in the Word which say that Jerusalem was completely ruined and would be destroyed, as in Jeremiah 5:1; 6:6-7; 7:17-18; Luke 19:41-44; 21:20-22; 23:28-30; and in many other places.

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4535. The preliminary sections of previous chapters - Chapter 26 onwards - explained what the Lord foretold about His Coming or THE CLOSE OF THE AGE. Frequently in those sections it has been shown that His Coming or the Close of the Age means the last period of the Church, which in the Word is called the Last Judgement. Those who do not look beyond the literal sense cannot know of the Last Judgement as anything else than the destruction of the world, the particular source for such an idea being the Book of Revelation. There it is said that [John] saw 'a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away; and there was no more sea', and in addition that he saw 'the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven', Revelation 21:1-2. Prophetical utterances in Isaiah, where similar predictions occur, are also a source of the same idea,

Behold, I am creating new heavens and a new earth; therefore the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. ¹ Be glad and rejoice for ever in the things I am creating; behold, I will create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. Isaiah 65:17-18; 66:22.

[2] Those who do not look beyond the literal sense cannot conceive of anything else than this - that the whole sky together with this planet will be annihilated, and then the dead - for the first time - will rise again and dwell in the new heaven and on the new earth. But these places in the Word should not be understood in that way, as may be recognized from other places in the Word where the heavens and the earth are referred to. Those who have any belief in an internal sense can see plainly that 'a new heaven' and 'a new earth' are used to mean a new Church which takes over when the previous one passes away, 1733, 1850, 3355 (end), and that 'heaven' is the internal aspect of that new Church and 'earth' the external aspect of it.

[3] This last period of the previous Church and the first of the new one are also called the Close of the Age, about which the Lord has spoken in Matthew 24. They are called also His Coming, for at that time the Lord departs from the previous Church and comes to the new. The description of that period as the Close of the Age may also be seen from other places in the Word, as in Isaiah,

On that day a remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the God of power. For though your people Israel will be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of it will return. The close has been determined, overflowing with righteousness, for the Lord Jehovih Zebaoth is bringing the whole earth to its close and to its determined end. Isaiah 10:20-23.

In the same prophet,

Now do not be derisive, lest your punishments increase, for a close and a cutting off I have heard from the Lord Jehovih Zebaoth over the whole earth. Isaiah 28:22.

In Jeremiah,

Thus said Jehovah, The whole earth will be a waste, yet I will not bring it to a close. Jeremiah 4:27.

In Zephaniah,

I will bring men into distress, and they will go as the blind, because they have sinned against Jehovah; and their blood will be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. For Jehovah will bring to a close, indeed to a hasty one, all the inhabitants of the earth. Zephaniah 1:17-18.

From each detail stated here it is evident that 'a close' means the last period of the Church and 'the earth' the Church itself.

[4] The reason why 'the earth (or land)' means the Church is that the land of Canaan was the land where the Church had existed since most ancient times, and later on where among the descendants of Jacob a representative of the Church existed. When this land is said to have been 'brought to a close' it is not the nation dwelling there that is meant but the holiness of worship which existed with the nation where the Church was. For the Word is spiritual; but the actual land is not spiritual, nor is the nation dwelling in it, only that which constitutes the Church there. For evidence that the land of Canaan was the land where the Church had existed from most ancient times, see 567, 3686, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517; and this explains why 'the land' or 'the earth' in the Word means the Church, 566, 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 3355, 4447. From all this one may see what is meant in Isaiah by 'bringing the whole earth to a close', and in Zephaniah by 'bringing all the inhabitants of the earth to a hasty one'. It is well known that the Jewish nation which inhabited that land was not 'brought to a close' but that the holiness of worship among them was.

[5] This meaning of 'the close' is even clearer in Daniel,

Seventy weeks have been decreed concerning your people and your holy city to bring transgression to a close and to seal up sins and to atone for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. In the middle of the week he will cause sacrifice and offering to cease. At length upon the bird of desolations will come desolation; until a close and a cutting off will it drop upon the devastation. Daniel 9:24, 27.

[6] From this one may now see that the close of the age - about which the disciples were asking when they said to the Lord 'What will be the sign of Your coming and of the close of the age?' Matthew 24:3 - does not mean anything else than the final period of the Church. The same is also meant by the Lord's words, which are the very last in the same gospel,

Jesus said to the disciples, Teaching them to observe ² all things whatever I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you at all times ³ even to the close of the age. Matthew 28:20.

The reason why the Lord said that He would be with the disciples even to the close of the age is that the Lord's twelve disciples are similar in meaning to the twelve tribes of Israel. That is to say, they mean all things of love and faith, and therefore all things of the Church, see 3354, 3488, 3858, as do the twelve tribes, 3858, 3926, 3939, 4060. The fact that the Church reaches its close when no charity exists there any longer, nor consequently any faith, has been shown several times already; and that within the Church at the present day, called the Christian Church, scarcely any trace of charity or consequently of faith survives there; and that the close of the age is accordingly now at hand, will in the Lord's Divine mercy be shown further on.

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