Borders


The picture of the new city of Jerusalem as being everywhere accessible to every race of people, with 12 gates that are never shut, needs some clarification. The borders are not wide open. Only one restriction applies. 


Who mans the gates and why?


Revelation 21:12-14

YLT 12 having also a wall great and high, having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve messengers, and names written thereon, which are those of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel, 13 at the east three gates, at the north three gates, at the south three gates, at the west three gates; 14 and the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Does this really mean that the apostle Peter is forever stationed at a pearly gate and that I as a Gentile must approach him, a Jewish apostle, with the right answers after I die. Is that how I plan to cross the border into the heavenly city some day? Maybe it just means that the 12 apostles laid the foundation of the new city of Jerusalem with their life on earth. And the 12 tribes in the diaspora opened their new city gates to the same world, in that same first century generation. The gospel was and is the only way through the gates. It is a fact that the 12 Jewish apostles and the twelve Hebrew tribes were the first to promote the gospel.

A Pearl is wealth from the seas which represents all nations. 


Revelation 21:21

LITV 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; respectively each one of the gates was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, as transparent glass.

The ways of the city are as pure gold and transparent as glass.


Proverbs 2:2-5

CLV 2 Attending with your ear to wisdom, And you stretch out your heart to comprehension, 3 Indeed if you call out for understanding, And you lift up your voice for comprehension, 4 If you seek it as for silver And search for it as for buried treasures, 5 Then you shall understand the fear of Yahweh, And you shall find the knowledge of God."

Job 23:10
KJV 10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

The city is the bride is the church.


Revelation 21:2

LITV 2 And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, having been prepared as a bride, having been adorned for her Husband.

Galatians 4:26

LITV 26 but the Jerusalem from above is free, who is the mother of us all;

Are these bad characters kept outside the gates in heaven or on earth? 


Revelation 22:15

LITV 15 But outside are the dogs and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and everyone loving a lie, and making it.

We encourage visitors, transients and foreigners to come to our church, but they are not really in until they are born again and become new citizens. They are really just visiting at the gates of the city.  

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

ALT 9 You(p) know that unrighteous [ones] will not inherit [the] kingdom of God, do you(p) not? Stop being led astray [fig., being deceived]; neither sexual sinners nor idolaters nor adulterers nor passive partners in male-male sex nor active partners in male-male sex 10 nor covetous [ones] nor thieves nor drunkards nor slanderers [or, abusive persons] nor swindlers will inherit [the] kingdom of God. 11 And these some of you(p) were! But you(p) yourselves were washed [or, purified], but you(p) were sanctified, but you(p) were justified [or, declared righteous] in the name of the Lord Jesus and in [or, by] the Spirit of our God!

Paul was still building the foundation of the city, which is the first century churches (people not buildings). They were betrothed and being prepared to stand by their Messiah. The old city did not stand. The new city still stands.


Philippians 3:20

THE CITIZENSHIP OF THE HEAVENS 
ECB 20 For our citizenship exists in the heavens; from whence also we await the Saviour Adonay Yah Shua Messiah:

2 Corinthians 11:2

ALT 2 For I am jealous [or, zealous] for you(p) with [the] jealousy [or, zeal] of God, for I betrothed you(p) [or, promised you(p) as a bride] to one husband, to present [you(p) as] a pure virgin to Christ.

2 Corinthians 11:2

JMNT 2 for I continue with hot zeal (eager vehement passion) concerning you in (or: with; by) God's fervent zeal (an eager vehement passion which is God), because I myself joined you folks in marriage to one husband, to make a pure virgin (= unmarried girl) to stand alongside in the Christ.

Jeremiah 2:1-2

YISRA EL ABANDONS YAH VEH 
ECB 1 And so be the word of Yah Veh to me, saying, 2 Go and call out in the ears of Yeru Shalem, saying, Thus says Yah Veh, I remember you; the mercy of your youth, the love of your betrothals - your going after me in the wilderness in a land not seeded.

Revelation 19:7

LITV 7 Let us rejoice and let us exult, and we will give glory to Him, because the marriage of the Lamb came, and His wife prepared herself.

Revelation 19:7

JMNT 7 "We should (or: may) continually rejoice (be glad; be full of joy), and we should continually celebrate (exult), and we should [other MSS: we will continue to] give the glory to Him, because the wedding (marriage festival) of the little Lamb came (or: comes) and His Wife made (or: makes) herself ready (prepares herself)."

You must become a born again citizen and begin to have the law of Yeshua written on your newborn heart as you enter through the gates into the city of Yahwey. He does not leave wide open borders to heaven. That would be hell.

1 Peter 2:1-3

AS NEWBORN INFANTS 
ECB 1 So putting away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisies and envies and all slanders, 2 as newborn infants yearn for the undeceitful milk of logic to grow therein: 3 if ever you taste that Yah Veh is kind: Psalm 34:8

1 Peter 2:1-3

JMNT 1 Therefore, being folks putting off (setting away; ridding) from yourselves all poor quality (worthlessness; bad character; malice; what is not as it ought to be; wickedness) and all deceitful bait (fraud; guile) and “answers” from perverse scholarship (or: underlying decisions affecting interpretations and judgments made from opinions; or: overly critical behaviors; deficiencies in ability to sift and decide; judgments from inferior positions; legalistic pulling-apart of things for critical analysis; under-assessments) and envies and all down-talks (speeches or talks which put people, issues or situations down; backbiting), 2 as recently born infants, intensely yearn (crave; long) for the non-baiting (undeceitful; guileless; honest; unadulterated) milk belonging to the Word which is pertaining to thought, reason and communication, and which contains the qualities and characteristics contained in the message – to the end that, within it, you folks can (or: would; may) grow and increase into health and wholeness (deliverance; rescued safety; salvation; restoration), 3 since (or: if) you folks, "by sipping, tasted (= experienced) that the Lord [= Yahweh or Christ] [isgood, kind and useful (or: obliging and profitable)!" [Ps. 34:9]

Lamentations for the destruction of the first Jerusalem.


Lamentations 4:1-2

YLT 1 How is the gold become dim, Changed the best—the pure gold? Poured out are stones of the sanctuary At the head of all out-places. 2 The precious sons of Zion, Who are comparable with fine gold, How have they been reckoned earthen bottles, Work of the hands of a potter.

Jacob Wrote to the 12 tribes in the last days of the (temporarily and marginally restored) old covenant. They are suffering unjustly as they labor for Yahwey's new covenant city.


Jacob 1:1-2, 5:1-7  To the 12 tribes in the diaspora

Interlinear translation 1 Jacob, a servant of God and of the Master Jesus annointed, To the Twelve Tribes who are in the dispersion. 2 Count it all joy, my bretheren, whenever you encounter various trials. 1 Come now the rich ones, lament and wail over your miseries coming upon you! 2 Your riches have rotted, and your clothes have become food for moths. 3 Your gold and silver have been poisoned, and their venom will be for a testimony against you and will consume your flesh as fire. You hoard in the last days! 4 You should be aware that the pay of the laborers, the ones having cut down grain in your fields, their pay having been kept back by you cries out, and the imploring of the ones having reaped has entered into the ears of the master of sabaoth. 5 You live in luxury on the land and squander; you fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6 You condemned and you murdered the righteous one and he does not resist you. 7 Be ye patient then bretheren til the presence of the master. Be aware that the husbandman is waiting for the precious fruit of the land, waiting patiently on him until he receives the first and late rain.

Philippians 3:19-21

ALT 19 whose end [is] destruction, whose god [is] the belly [fig., their appetite] and [whose] glory [is] in their shame, who set their minds on the [things] of the earth. 20 For our citizenship exists in [the] heavens, from where also we eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform the body of our humble state for it to become similar in form to the body of His glory, according to the supernatural working [or, energy] [by which] He also is able to subject all [things] to Himself.

Ephesians 2

ALT 1 And you(p) being dead in transgressions and sins, 2 in which at one time you(p) walked about [fig., conducted yourselves] according to the age [fig., the practices] of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit of the one now supernaturally working in the sons [and daughters] of disobedience; 3 among whom also we at one time lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts [fig., senses], and we were by nature children of wrath, as also the others. 4 But God, being rich [fig., abundant] in mercy, because of His great love [with] which He loved us, 5 even while we were dead in transgressions, made us to live together with Christ (by grace you(p) have been saved), 6 and He raised [us] up together and seated [us] together in the heavenlies [or, heavenly [realms]] in Christ Jesus, 7 so that He should show in the ages, the ones coming, the surpassing riches [fig., abundance] of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus! 8 For by grace you(p) have been saved, through faith, and this [is] not from you(p); [it is] the gift of God, 9 not by works, so that no one shall boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk about [fig., conduct ourselves] in them. 11 For this reason, be remembering that you(p) at one time [were]the Gentiles in [the] flesh, the ones called Uncircumcision by the ones called Circumcision, performed by human hands in the flesh— 12 that you(p) were at that time apart from [or, without] Christ, having been separated from [or, a foreigner to] the citizenship [fig., community] of Israel and strangers to [fig., excluded from] the covenants of the promise, having no hope [or, confident expectation] and without God in the world. 13 But now, in Christ Jesus, you(p), the ones at one time being far away, became near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He is our peace, the One having made them both one and having broken down the dividing wall of the fence [fig., the separation], 15 having done away with [or, having annulled] the hostility in His flesh, the law of the commandments in ordinances, so that from the two He should create in Himself into one new person [or, humanity], making peace, 16 and reconcile them both in one body to God by means of the cross, having put to death the hostility by it [or, in Himself]. 17 And having come, He Himself proclaimed the Gospel [of] peace to you(p), to the [ones] far away and to the [ones] near. 18 Because by means of Him we both have the access [or, privilege to enter] by one Spirit to the Father. 19 So, consequently, you(p) are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the holy ones and [members] of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being [the] cornerstone, 21 in whom [the] entire building having been joined together is growing into a holy temple in [the] Lord, 22 in whom also you(p) are being built together into a habitation for God in the Spirit.

These Hebrews arrived at their heavenly Jerusalem.


Hebrews 12:20-24 (To the Hebrews)

ALT 20 For they could not bear the [thing] being commanded, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it will be stoned or shot down with an arrow." [Exod 19:12,13] 21 And so terrifying was the [thing] being made visible [fig., the sight] [that] Moses said, "I am terrified, and trembling." [Deut 9:19] 22  But you(p) have come to Mount Zion and to [the] city of [the] living God, to heavenly Jerusalem and to countless thousands of angels, 23 to [the] festive gathering and assembly [or, church] of first-born [ones] having been enrolled in heaven and to God, [the] Judge of all [people], and to [the] spirits of righteous [ones] having been made perfect, 24 and to [the] Mediator of a new covenant— Jesus— and to [the] blood of sprinkling, speaking a better [thing] than the [blood] of Abel.

Jesus was the second born son of Yahwey who was killed by his envious bretheren in the flesh. His blood speaks of a better covenant. He is now the firstborn in that new covenant. When you cross over into eternal life and enter his city, his law applies. When you enter the gate into his city you agree to his covenant and you become a newly covenanted creation. He forms the image of humanity in his citizens. All people benefit from this perfectly human city of Yahwey, even non-citizens. Except the thieves and murderers; they might not like the true image of humanity that is being proliferated by Yeshua.

The Old Promised Land Borders


In the past, when Yahwey ruled the kingdom through the 12 tribes in the flesh, they were given the land of Canaan to fight for. The Canaanites were cursed by Noah because Canaan's father Ham uncovered Noah's nakedness. The rebellious Canaanites were up for judgement when Yahwey gave their land to the 12 tribes. 

With Leviticus 20:11 in mind, it is proposed that Ham had sex with Noah's wife. That caused Noah to curse Ham's unborn child. This biblical understanding of "uncovering nakedness" even accounts for the fact that Shem and Japheth walked into the room backward and covered Noah with a garment. This does make sense if "uncovering the father's nakedness" figuratively means "having sex with Noah's wife." As Noah was lying naked, they went backwards to figuratively undo what their brother had done and cover Noah's real time shame. Anyway, do you think Noah was drinking alone without his wife by his side? 

Leviticus 20:11 

YLT 11 `And a man who lieth with his father's wife—the nakedness of his father he hath uncovered—both of them are certainly put to death; their blood is on them.

Genesis 9:24-25

YLT 24 And Noah awaketh from his wine, and knoweth that which his young son hath done to him, 25 and saith: `Cursed is Canaan, Servant of servants he is to his brethren.'

Canaan fathered the ...ite nations.


1 Chronicles 1:13-16

LITV 13 And Canaan fathered Zidon his first-born, and Heth, 14 the Jebusite also, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite, 15 and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, 16 and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite.

Joshua 24:13

YLT 13 `And I give to you a land for which thou hast not laboured, and cities which ye have not built, and ye dwell in them; of vineyards and olive-yards which ye have not planted ye are eating.

Yahwey said make no peace agreements or intermarry with the ...ite nations.


Deuteronomy 7:1-4

CLV 1 When Yahweh your Elohim brings you into the land where you are about to enter in order to tenant it, and He eases many nations out before your face, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, seven nations more numerous and substantial than you, 2 when Yahweh your Elohim gives them up before you, and you smite them, then you shall doom, yea doom them. You shall neither contract a covenant with them nor be gracious to them, 3 nor shall you intermarry with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, and you shall not take his daughter for your son. 4 For it might take away your son from following after Me, and they might serve other elohim, and the anger of Yahweh would grow hot against you, and He would exterminate you quickly.

They made peace agreements and they intermarried with the ...ite nations.


Joshua 9:22-27

CLV 22 And Joshua calls for them, and speaks unto them, saying, `Why have you deceived us, saying, We are very far from you, and you in our midst dwelling? 23 and now, cursed are you, and none of you is cut off [from being] a servant, even hewers of wood and drawers of water, for the house of my Elohim.. 24 And they answer Joshua and say, `Because it was certainly declared to your servants, that Yahweh your Elohim commanded Moses His servant to give to you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you; and we fear greatly for ourselves because of you, and we do this thing;" 25 and now, lo, we [are] in your hand, as [it is] good, and as [it is] right in your eyes to do to us--do.. 26 And he does to them so, and delivers them from the hand of the sons of Israel, and they have not slain them;" 27 and Joshua makes them on that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the company, and for the altar of Yahweh, unto this day, at the place which He does choose.

Yahwey prompted the kingdom ruler to allow a remnant of the tribe of Judah to return to Jerusalem to rebuild a small section in the typical promised land for the messiah to grow up and fulfill all the types that pointed to him. 


2 Chronicles 36:21-23

CLV 21 to fulfil the word of Yahweh in the mouth of Jeremiah, till the land has enjoyed its sabbaths; all the days of the desolation it kept sabbath--to the fulness of seventy years. 22 And in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, at the completion of the word of Yahweh in the mouth of Jeremiah, has Yahweh waked up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, and he causes an intimation to pass over into all his kingdom, and also in writing, saying, 23 `Thus said Cyrus king of Persia, All kingdoms of the earth has Yahweh, Elohim of the heavens, given to me, and He has laid a charge on me to build to Him a house in Jerusalem, that [is] in Judah; who is among you of all His people? Yahweh his Elohim [is] with him, and he does go up.

Yeshua the messiah then promised the destruction of the old city at the conclusion of the old covenant age of types.


Matthew 24:2-4,34

Rotherham 2 But, he, answering, said unto them—Are ye not beholding all these things? Verily, I say unto you—in no wise, shall there be left here, stone upon stone, which shall not be thrown down. 3 And, as he was sitting upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him, privately, saying—Tell us, when these things shall be,—and what the sign of thy presence, and the conclusion of the age4 And, answering, Jesus said unto them—Be taking heed, lest anyone, deceive, you; 34 Verily, I say unto you—In nowise, shall this generation, pass away, until all these things, shall happen:

The gates of hades were shut and they locked Yahwey's people into their first old covenant death. The gates of heaven are open to all who enter the new covenant into the never ending city life. Choosing covenant death is not a new covenant option. Jesus obediently chose covenant death as eschaton Adam. He opened the gates of hades and set his people free from the first death. He was then resurrected into the new covenant where he will never die again.

 

. Point and click on the small verse numbers for other translations .