Behold the New Jerusalem descends from God

Even the last hymn in our hymnal, 1348, is a wrong hymn based upon our present realization. This hymn is comprised of Revelation 21:3-4 which says, "And I heard a loud voice out of the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them. And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain—they shall be no more; for the former things have passed away." The only problem with this hymn is that this word was not spoken to the believers but to the peoples on the new earth outside the holy city. When we sang this hymn were we singing it to the people outside the city? I do not believe this hymn was written with this understanding. This really troubles me that this hymn was written and placed in our hymnal. Our Recovery Version of Revelation titles verse 3 and 4 of chapter 21 as "Peoples on the New Earth." Verses 5 through 7 are titled "Sons of God in Eternity." Verses 3 and 4 were spoken to the unbelievers who are the descendants of the sheep in Matthew 25:31-46. Verses 5 through 7 refer to the sons of God, all the saints, the divinely saved ones through the generations. Hymn 1348 says nothing about the inheritance. It says nothing about the tree of life, the river of water of life, or the light of life. This hymn says that "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" (21:4). When we believers are there in the New Jerusalem there is no possibility of tears. In our vocabulary there will not be such a word. But the dictionary outside the city still will have this word. That means they will still have tears. If they did not have tears they would not need someone to wipe them away. I do not think that anyone of us who sang this hymn in the past discerned that this was a wrong hymn. This is because we never got into the real blessing of the eternal life in the New Jerusalem. For God to wipe away tears with no sorrow or crying or pain are the blessings outside the city without eternal life. These are the blessings rendered to the unbelieving, God-created and restored people. These are the nations, not the sons of God. We are the sons of God. Because we are still the old creation, we still have tears. But when we get into the New Jerusalem we will no longer be the old creation and there will be no tears. The restored nations, however, are still in the old creation. They still will have tears. The blessings to them will be that God will wipe away their tears. You may think this is an intimate blessing and that if God would wipe away your tears this would be marvelous. This indicates that you have never gotten into the blessing of the eternal life. The blessing of the eternal life is not to wipe away your tears but to fill you with another kind of water. If you are filled within with the living water, tears would never come out.

I would like to take hymn 1348 as an example again. Actually, this hymn was written by someone who is not among us. Then it was brought in and used by us for a few years. It was finally edited and put into the final edition of our supplement. We all have sung this hymn for some years, but no one realized that it was a foreign thing to us. We were singing a hymn for the unbelievers. Although we did not realize it, our singing of this hymn carries with it the concept that we have never been regenerated, that we will never be in the city, but always outside the city, that we have no right to eat of the tree of life but could only enjoy the leaves of the tree, and that we will still have tears. Even though this is fully revealed in Revelation 21 and has clear subtitles in the Recovery Version, no one had this kind of realization. We were in the training on the book of Revelation and had a review of that training, but everyone forgot. This is just one illustration. I could probably pick up fifty other points from the notes of the Recovery Version to check with you on other items of the truth, and probably not one of you would be able to answer me. The diamonds and the treasures are all here, yet we go to other sources to get something "precious," to get something different, strange, and new to catch people and to stir up people's interest. This is not the New Testament ministry. This is to teach differently, which is mentioned in 1 Timothy 1:3. Paul tells us in this verse that he left Timothy in Ephesus in order that he might charge certain ones not to teach differently. Paul also instructed him in verse 4 to charge these ones to take care of God's economy. Today we must be on the alert, not for others but for ourselves. Speaking for myself, I would not be unconsciously utilized and usurped by God's enemy to minister something such as "copper" which looks like gold but actually is not gold. God does not want copper. Copper must be judged. God wants gold to express Himself. Eventually, in the New Jerusalem there will be no copper; there will only be gold. We all must see such a thing.