Is the New Jerusalem an actual city that will come down or a community that has already been under construction since Christ’s ascension?

Interpretation 1:
The New Jerusalem is a community.

Summary: 

The New Jerusalem is the church community that has already been under construction on earth since Christ’s ascension.

Arguments in favour of this view:

1. In the book of Revelation, the New Jerusalem is the antithesis of Babylon, the city of human ability (Revelation 17:1 – 18:24). Whereas the city of Jerusalem is the bride, the city of Babylon is the harlot.

2. Both cities are presented to John with the same words by one of the seven angels with the sacrificial bowls filled with the last seven plagues (Revelation 17:1 and Revelation 21:9). And both times John gets carried away in the Spirit to see what God wants to show him (Revelation 17:3 and Revelation 21:10).

3. In the vision of Revelation 17:1 – 18:24, Babylon is no longer an actual city, as it was in Genesis 11:1–32 and at the time of Israel’s exile. But here we see an allusion and characterization of a human community found everywhere on earth, in which there is no place for God. The call, Come out of her, my people (Revelation 18:4) is applicable worldwide at this time. Shouldn’t the New Jerusalem then also be understood as the characterization of a human community, but with God in its midst: the church?

4. John saw the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven as a bride. And that is also what the angel names her when he shows John the New Jerusalem: the Bride, the wife of the Lamb (Revelation 21:2, Revelation 21:9). Throughout the Old Testament, the LORD did not use such imagery for the city of Jerusalem but for the community of his people with whom he made a covenant (see, e.g., Jeremiah 2:1–2; Ezekiel 16:8–14; Hosea 2:18–19). And the apostle Paul extends this imagery to Christ and his church in the New Testament (Ephesians 5:22–32). 

5. If we understand both cities as characterizations in visionary language, doesn’t that also mean that they already coexist now? People are called to move from Babylon (Revelation 18:4) and they are invited into Jerusalem to drink of the water that gives life (Revelation 22:17). How can the one already be true now and the other only be seen as a future possibility? Do we already have to leave Babylon, while we are unable as yet to enter the New Jerusalem?

6. It is written to the Christian Hebrews in their dispersion that they have come (still on earth) to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels and people in heaven and on earth (Hebrews 12:22–24). There is not one word indicating the future tense.

7. In this New Jerusalem, healing is to be found through the stream of the water of life that proceeds from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1–5). After Christ’s return, healing will no longer be necessary, and then it will also be too late for anyone who still wants to drink. The Spirit and the bride are calling out now to those who are thirsty to come and drink (Revelation 22:17).        

8. In the vision of Revelation 21, John saw the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven. The verb in the present tense (descending) instead of the completed tense (descended) indicates that this coming down was in the process of happening. God then also says, Behold, I am making all things new (Revelation 21:5) rather than I have made all things new. John already gets to see the end result in this vision. But it is something God is still working on now.

9. The present and the future are always shown in one perspective in Revelation. Of Babylon it is already shouted, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality (Revelation 14:8). Yet this final downfall of Babylon is still in the future. But the vision already shows where the ungodly life is heading. The same is true of the New Jerusalem. It is already under construction here and now, but the vision also already shows how the bride will soon shine in all her glory.

Counterarguments:

The arguments in favour of Interpretation 2.

Interpretation 2:
The New Jerusalem is a city.

Summary: 

The New Jerusalem is an actual city that will not come down to earth until Christ’s return.

Arguments in favour of this view:

1. The appearance of a New Jerusalem coincides with the coming of a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 20:11; Revelation 21:1). What was before has passed away (Revelation 21:4). In other words, the fall of Babylon precedes the final judgment; the flourishing of Jerusalem follows the judgment. So there is no simultaneous coexistence of Babylon and the New Jerusalem.   

2. The fall of Babylon is prophetically foretold, as a past tense (see, e.g., Revelation 18:2, Fallen is Babylon, the great!), while a future tense is often used in the description of the New Jerusalem (see, e.g., Revelation 22:5: And night will be no more).

3. The New Jerusalem will be a restoration of the paradise situation (Revelation 22:1–3). The curse that followed the Fall will be overcome (Revelation 22:3). Again, this is still a future prospect, and therefore, it is an argument for not seeing the New Jerusalem as something that is already present (in principle).

4. In the detailed description of the New Jerusalem, the inhabitants are missing. If people are mentioned, it is only in the future tense (Revelation 21:24–26; Revelation 22:3–5). The city of the future still seems empty; by the looks of it, the inhabitants have yet to come. However, together with the Spirit, the bride—the New Jerusalem—is already recruiting city dwellers (Revelation 22:17). So the New Jerusalem is not to be equated with the church even as it exists right now.

5. In Hebrews 12:22–24, the author does see the church on earth coming near to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, but for that very reason the people have not yet entered the city. The skyline of the city is already in sight, but the race on earth has not yet been completed (Hebrews 12:1). There remains spatial distance between heaven and earth. Therefore, according to the author of Hebrews, we seek the city that is to come (Hebrews 13:14).

6. When the believers are invited in Revelation to enter through the gates into the new city (Revelation 22:14), this call does not include doing so right now today. But it does make it clear that we will make every effort so that we will be there. Compare it to the exhortation in Hebrews 12:1. We are urged to actively orient ourselves to the New Jerusalem now. The description from the book of Revelation also contains clear indications for this: invitingly, the city gates are open day and night in all points of the compass (Revelation 21:13; Revelation 21:25), although not everyone enters (Revelation 21:27; Revelation 22:15).

Counterarguments:

The arguments in favour of Interpretation 1.

Interpretation 3:
The New Jerusalem and the bride should be distinguished from each other.

Summary: 

The New Jerusalem and the bride in Revelation 21:2–3 and Revelation 21:9–10 are not indications of the same matter—although they should not be separated—they are to be distinguished from each other. The bride is God’s church of all ages and from all nations; the New Jerusalem is the place where she will soon celebrate the wedding with her Lord and she may live with him forever.

Arguments in favour of this view:

1. Babylon, the harlot, and Jerusalem, the bride, form unmistakable opposites in the final visions of Revelation. They indicate the community of people without and with God. In Revelation, a city name is linked to both, the harlot and the bride, as the place typical of both communities: Babylon, the city where the spirit of man is reigning throughout the ages: man who esteems himself as a god; and Jerusalem, the city where the only God dwells with men and where his Holy Spirit rules.   

   When the vision of Revelation 21:1 – 22:21 speaks of the bride, it does not think primarily of a city, but of the people who have continued to seek God with his love throughout the ages (Jeremiah 2:1–2; Ezekiel 16:8–14; Hosea 2:18–19; Ephesians 5:22–32). It is the church for which Christ sacrificed his life, as we sing in the well-known hymn:

   The church’s one foundation
    is Jesus Christ her Lord;
    she is his new creation
    by water and the word.
    From heaven he came and sought her
    to be his holy bride;
    with his own blood he bought her
    and for her life he died.

2. Under the old covenant, the central point for the bride was the city of Jerusalem, containing God’s temple. After Jerusalem's rejection of God’s heavenly Son as the promised Bridegroom, God also rejected this city (Galatians 4:25; Revelation 11:8). Under the new covenant, the centre for the bride is in heaven, in the Jerusalem above (Galatians 4:26). The names of the believers are already registered there in the records (Luke 10:20b).

3. When the vision of Revelation 19:6–9 speaks of the bride who has prepared herself for the marriage—because it was granted to her by God’s Spirit—it is not about a future city, but about the people: the saints. 

4. When John, in the vision of Revelation 21:1–8, sees the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, this image given of the bride can be intended only as a comparison to an ordinary bride; or it can represent a joining of the city with its future inhabitants. The latter, in view of the sequel (Revelation 22:9), is more likely.

5. In Revelation 21:9–27, that conjunction is abandoned and the terms bride and city should not be read as denoting the same entity. We need to discern between these two images. Although they should not be separated, they are to be distinguished from each other: in designating the bride (= the completion of Christ’s church gathering work), the angel first shows her her new dwelling place: the New Jerusalem that came down from heaven. It is an actual city. The place where God now comes to dwell with man (Revelation 21:3). It is also the place where the paradise situation reappears. And at some point in this presentation by the angel, the inhabitants of the city, who collectively are called the bride, also come into view (Revelation 21:24–27 and Revelation 22:3–5).