Parallels Between The New Jerusalem And The Old Jerusalem

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There are some amazing parallels between the New Jerusalem and the Old Jerusalem.

Adam had two trees in the Garden of Eden. On tree gave life and the other tree brought death. Adam's choice to die so that man could live became a type of Christ when he would go into the Garden of Gethsemane and chose death so that man could live.

On the Mount of Temptations, Satan tempted Christ with the 91st Psalm which promised Christ that he could be delivered and have a long life (see Psalms 91:11-16). The other Psalm that we focus on as Christ was hanging on the cross is Psalms 22, Christ quoted from it while he was suffering. This Psalm 22 reads opposite of Psalms 91 as the heavens appear to be as brass to his plea thus bringing death instead of deliverance.

Both locations are considered a center place. Jackson County, Missouri, is the Center Place of Zion. The Old Jerusalem was considered the center of the world and the navel of the earth (see Ezekiel 5:5).

Both locations are the center of two of the pillars of eternity. Elder Bruce R. McConkie referred to the three pillars of eternity as: 1. the Creation, 2. the Fall, and 3. the Atonement. Jackson County Missouri being the location of the Garden of Eden is also, the location of the Fall. The Old Jerusalem and its Garden of Gethsemane is the location of the Atonement.

Both locations had an Adam. See 1 Corinthians 15:45-47 where Paul refers to Christ as the second or last Adam.

Both locations had a serpent/Messiah. In the Hebrew alphabet each letter is also a number. Therefore, each Hebrew word has a numerical value. If two Hebrews words add up to the same value they have a relationship where they may be interchanged and they have an equivalency. Two Hebrew words add up to 358, Serpent and Messiah. In the Garden of Eden, Satan, the serpent, delivered man from life to death. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ (the serpent on the pole being a type) delivered man from death back to life again. We can see a similar event in the Exodus Pattern when Moses' rod/serpent swallowed up the rods/serpents of the court magicians, thus becoming the victorious serpent/Messiah. This may be where Isaiah got the term that Christ will swallow up death in victory (Isaiah 25:8).

Both peoples who are to build up each center place had an extermination order given against them at the time they were moving to accomplish their missions. The Saints had the infamous extermination order given by Governor Lilburn Boggs and the Jews had the extermination order of Adolf Hitler.

As already mentioned in previous posts, both locations are to have a temple before Christ comes. Those who are to build the temple do not control the proposed property upon which the temples will stand.