Revelation 21:11
11 Having [echo] the glory [doxa] of God: [theos] and [kai] her [autos] light [phoster] was like [homoios] unto a stone [lithos] most precious, [timios] even like [hos] a jasper [iaspis] stone, [lithos] clear as crystal; [krustallizo] KJV-Interlinear
11 having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. NASB
In the new universe, Gods glory will be unlimited and unconfined.
The word for light, ‘phoster,’ means to radiate from its own source. This is typically used when referring to heavenly bodies like stars. They generate their own light. Unlike the moon which merely reflects light from another source.
As John saw the city descending, it looked to him like a giant diamond, a perfect and crystal clear diamond, reflecting and refracting the light in all of its colors, of the glory of God.
And it will be big. We will see later that the city will be cube shaped, and if overlayed onto the map of the United States, this single city would cover all of the territory from Colorado to the Atlantic coast, and from Canada to Mexico. Or it would cover most of Europe, or most of Australia.
Not only that, but it will extend skyward for nearly 1500 miles, or 2400 kilometers. Our present usable atmosphere goes up only about ten miles, or 16 kilometers. Our planets tallest mountain, Mt. Everest, is only just over five miles or eight kilometers high.
Today, in order to see something that huge, one would have to be riding on a spaceship several thousands of miles out in space. Most satellites orbit the planet at just a few hundred miles altitude.
Note that John is standing on a mountain, which is high enough, and presumably at a far enough distance, to allow him to see the entire city. In order to see an object in its entirety, one generally has to be three to five times the size of the object, in distance from that object.
So if you stood on top of a six thousand mile high mountain in the Middle East, on a virtually flat map, then you would be able to see the entire cube city hovering over the United States, or Australia.
The city was not created before John’s eyes, but it already exists in heaven, even now. John is seeing Gods city, descending out of heaven, downward to the new earth.
19 ‘No longer will you have the sun for light by day, Nor for brightness will the moon give you light; But you will have the LORD for an everlasting light, And your God for your glory. NASB
The new universe’s capital city, Jerusalem, is pictured as a huge, flawless diamond, reflecting and refracting the brilliant, blazing glory of God throughout the new heaven and the new earth.
As it should be obvious, the structure of the new universe will be completely different from our present universe. We do not have mountains that high, nor cities of that configuration.
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