You are the New Jerusalem. There is no dress rehearsal.

I haven’t been writing much lately because I was needing a break from not only social media but anything that has to do with a web tangling my brain. I was thinking about these two verses and came across Tony Fluerty’s blog on the New Jerusalem. I would say it was perfect timing. If this isn’t a parallel scripture then I don’t know what is. If interested, I cam post his blog on this topic in the comments.

“In Revelation 21 we see a vision, a picture of this heavenly Jerusalem coming down from the heavens at the end of this age.

2And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

So the new Jerusalem is both a bride and a city, the city of Yahweh, the bride of Christ.
She came down from above and now dwells on the earth with the Lord forever.

Paul paints a very similar picture here in 1 Thessalonians 4, when the dead in Christ returns from the heavens with Yeshua to the earth.

15For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18Therefore comfort one another with these words.”