TWO WOMEN — TWO CITIES
"In our previous studies on this subject we have seen that in John’s visions in the book of Revelation two women and two cities are clearly presented. One of the women is a pure virgin, clothed with the resplendent glory of Christ (Rev. 12:1-6). The other woman is a harlot, gaudily attired with scarlet and purple, and decked with gold, precious stones, and pearls. One of the cities is the holy city, New Jerusalem. The other is called Mystery Babylon the Great. In the symbolism of prophecy a “woman” signifies a church and a “city” signifies a religious or spiritual government. Thus, the virgin woman represents the true church, the bride of Christ, and the harlot woman represents the false church, the fallen, corrupt, apostate church systems of man. The “holy city, New Jerusalem” is the symbol used to represent the established rule and government of God composed of the perfected and holy bride of Christ and the overcoming sons of God. The city is the woman, the bride of Christ, whereas the throne in the midst of the city signifies the manchild, the sons of God who rule the nations with a rod of iron (Rev. 12:1-5). But as with Adam and Eve in the beginning, it is a joint dominion. “Mystery Babylon” can be nothing else but a church which is also a religious government over men’s lives, a great ecclesiastical kingdom, backed by the power and influence of the world — the carnal church systems of man exalted to power and dominion in the earth. This is why God will judge, throw down, and utterly destroy the Great Babylon; and this is why God is building up His holy city. the pure bride of Christ and the holy sons of God, New Jerusalem, to shine with His scintillating light of life to lighten all peoples and all nations, filling the whole earth with His glory!"
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"New Jerusalem is the capital city of God’s kingdom, and will reign over that kingdom forever. Babylon is the capital city of the great kingdom of religious Babylon, which kingdom shall pass away. The mount Zion, which is in Jerusalem, where the “many brethren” of Jesus reign, is the chief eminence, the highest pinnacle attainable spiritually in Jerusalem: Babylon is founded upon seven mountains of shame. The true church is a woman crowned with twelve stars of divine and heavenly government: the false church is also a woman, with her own name and shame written upon her forehead. The head or husband of the true woman, God’s church, is the Christ: the head or husband of the false church is her paramours, the kings of the earth. The true woman brings forth children unto God — the manifest sons of God; the false woman brings forth her harlot brood. The city of God, New Jerusalem, is to be the habitation of God forevermore; the city of Babylon shall become heaps, the habitation of bitterns and owls, “…and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 14:23; 34:11-17)."
"And in this heavenly Jerusalem there shall be no more curse and no more death, for it is here that God is delivering us and removing from us the curse of sin and death. All who wait for another city shall die and not live, but all who dwell in this city may eat of the tree and drink of its quickening water. And he that overcomes, saith Christ, “I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name” (Rev. 3:12). We understand by now, do we not, that the Jerusalem which is above and is free and is the mother of us all is God’s high and holy realm of the spirit, wherein we may walk in perfection, intimacy of fellowship, and vital union with God. The New Jerusalem is the kingdom of God, the church of the Firstborn, and the bride of the Lamb, a people born from above and in union with Christ. She is a city that is not located away out there somewhere in the blue, but in the heavens or exalted places of the Spirit of the Lord. To walk in her light is to walk in the state or kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."