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Revelation 21:10

"And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God."

Problem:

Seventh Day Adventists cite this passage in support of their doctrine that the rapture will take the saints to heaven for 1,000 years, after which the bride, represented as a city, will descend to the earth.¹

Solution:

1. The saints will not be in heaven for the 1,000 years period, therefore the passage cannot teach the literal descent of the saints to the earth. See Rev. 5:10 - "and we shall reign on the earth." This reigning is during the 1,000 years as is indicated in Rev. 20:6 - "they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years."
   
2. The Revelation which depicts the saints as a city descending from God out of heaven employs the language of theophany in which a manifestation of God is said to be God descending or coming down. See for example: Gen. 11:5; 18:21; Exod. 3:7,8. The saints are chosen in Christ "before the foundation of the world." (Eph. 1:4). Their origin is from heaven in the sense that they are new creations (Jas. 1:18; Eph. 2:15) born from above (Jn. 3:3,7 mg.) by the Spirit word. (Jn. 6:63). Similarly the manna which the children of Israel ate in the wilderness was bread sent down from heaven. (Jn. 6:31). "From heaven" emphasizes its divine origin without asserting that it was manufactured in heaven and floated down to the earth. Similarly, the bride descending out of heaven symbolically portrays her heavenly origin.

1. See Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine, (Washington: Review and Herald Publishing Ass., 1967), pp. 504-5. Return