The Bride, the Lamb's Wife.—“As a grand lesson of the Divine sovereignty, and as a sublime contradiction to all evolution theories, God elected to call to this place of honor (as ‘the Bride, the Lamb's Wife and Joint-heir’—Rom. 8:17), not angels and cherubs, but some from among the sinners redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb. The continued permission of evil is for the purpose of developing these ‘members of the Body of Christ’ and to furnish them the opportunity of sacrificing their little and redeemed all, in the service of Him who bought them with His precious blood; and thus of developing in their hearts His spiritual likeness, that when, at the end of the Age, they are presented by their Lord and Redeemer before the Father, God may see in them ‘the image of His Son.’ ”—Col. 1:22; Rom. 8:29; E. 412, 395; Rev. 19:7; 21:2.
21:10. And he carried me away in the Spirit.—“God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.”—1 Cor. 2:10; Rev. 1:10; 17:3.
To a great and high mountain.—How similar is the language, recording the experience of the first and greatest Member of the Church, at the beginning of His ministry. Concerning the Lord's third temptation we read: “In this temptation the Lord is taken, not physically, but in the spirit of His mind, up into a high mountain—a very exalted kingdom. Physically He was all this time in the desert near Jerusalem; and as a matter of fact there is neither in that desert nor anywhere in the world a mountain from which all the kingdoms of the world could be viewed except with the mind's eye.”—Z. '06-43.
St. John's Vision of the Descending Kingdom
And shewed me [that great] THE HOLY City, [The holy] Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God.—The city came down from Heaven to earth. If we went up to Heaven, it would not be found there. If Rev. 21 is to be literally interpreted, then the whole surface of Palestine is far from sufficient to hold a city of this size. Besides, its height, length and breadth were to be equal.—Rev. 21:2.
21:11. Having the glory [of] FROM God.—The Church has a foretaste of this glory on this side of the veil.—1 Pet. 4:14.
[And] her light.—“The Lamb is the Light thereof.”—Rev. 21:23; 22:5.
Was like unto a stone most precious.—“The brightness of His [the Father's] glory, and the express image of His person.”—Heb. 1:3.
Even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.—A beautiful green-tinted diamond.—Rev. 4:3.