WHY THE NEW JERUSALEM CANNOT BE A LITERAL PLACE?

Revelation 21:16

“The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with the rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal.”

1. Its Size Is Physically Impossible for a City

12,000 stadia = about 1,400–1,500 miles (depending on measurement).

That’s nearly the distance from Lagos to Cairo or New York to Dallas — a single “city” covering half a continent!

The text says its height is equal to its length and width, meaning a city 1,400 miles high. That’s over 600,000 stories tall!

No city on earth — even in the future — could physically exist with such dimensions.

2. It Matches the Shape of the Holy of Holies

The description of a perfect cube is significant:

1 Kings 6:20 describes the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s temple:

“The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high.”

This was the place of God’s intimate presence, where only the high priest entered once a year.

The New Jerusalem being a perfect cube symbolizes that God’s presence now fills the whole “city” (His people) — no longer confined to a small room in a temple.

This is consistent with Revelation 21:22:

“I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.”

3. The Measurements Are Symbolic, Not Geographic

Numbers in Revelation are highly symbolic:

12 = fullness of God’s people (12 tribes, 12 apostles).

1,000 = completeness, vastness.

12,000 = symbolic of the fullness and perfection of God’s redeemed people.

Just like the 144,000 (12 × 12 × 1,000) is not a literal census but symbolic of God’s complete covenant people, so is the size of this city.

If we insist this city is literal, we must also believe its walls are made of jasper, its streets of literal gold, and that gates are made of single pearls; all clearly symbolic imagery pointing to value, purity, and beauty.

4. Its “Height” Is a Clue to Its Spiritual Nature

No literal city’s height is ever measured like its length and width but John’s vision includes height.

This shows we are not dealing with geography, but theology:

God’s presence is now vertically and horizontally everywhere among His people.

It represents the all-encompassing dwelling of God with man (Rev. 21:3).

5. Practical Problem of Literalism

If literal, this city would have to land somewhere on earth.

1,500 miles wide would cover multiple countries and oceans but Scripture gives no geographical location.

Instead, its description focuses on qualities (purity, holiness, light, no curse, no night) rather than navigation or placement on a map.

The sheer size and cube shape of the New Jerusalem are intentionally exaggerated to communicate a divine truth:

God’s people under the New Covenant have become the dwelling place of God.

His presence now fills them completely, length, breadth, and height.

It is a picture of perfection and completion, not a blueprint for future construction.