Some believe that Jerusalem is the entryway to heaven, and many have been buried there so that they could be close by when their bodies are collected. Thatevent will happen when Jesus comes again. All those who were disciples of Christ, will rise from their graves and join Jesus in the sky. The theological technocrats who need a name for everything, call that event the rapture, which is simply the time when believers, whether living or dead, are transported to heaven.
Ironically, Jerusalem is the mass center of the world, as well as the religious center and where the earth was first populated, totally disregarding the heresy of the anthropologists. It makes sense that this is the city where the entry of heaven is nearby.
From a physical standpoint, people think of heaven as up, but because of the spheroid of the earth, then heaven would be everywhere. Although God is everywhere, he has a city in which he resides. Revelation 3:12 refers to New Jerusalem as "the city of God".
Just as Jerusalem is the capitol city of Israel, formerly Judea, the New Jerusalem is the capitol of the Kingdom of God. It may very well be that the entryway to heaven is through the city of Jerusalem.
Jubilees 8:19 "And he knew that the Garden of Eden is the holy of holies, and the dwelling of the Lord, and Mount Sinai the centre of the desert, and Mount Zion -the centre of the navel of the earth: these three were created as holy places facing each other."Jubilees is an ancient Hebrew text considered canonical by the Eastern Orthodox Church. So you can see that this old Jewish history calls Zion (Jerusalem) the "naval" or center of the earth. Since the naval for everyone was the pathway to life in the womb, it makes sense that Jerusalem would be the pathway of life from this world!
In addition to that, Jerusalem is on the Mediterranean Sea. The very word Mediterranean means "center of the earth"!
Thus far I have established that Jerusalem means "place of peace", is the center of the earth using about any demographic and is the center of spirituality. Therefore, my premise, as many before me, is that Jerusalem may be the gateway to heaven!
Rabbi Ari Enkin places Jacob's ladder on the Temple Mount. His source is the same as ours: Genesis 28:10-19 (https://unitedwithisrael.org/jacobs-ladder/). The Temple Mount was where Herod's Temple stood. Jews believe it is the most holy place on earth and was the spiritual center of JHVH.
Jacob's Ladder on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
It makes sense since Jesus ascended to heaven in Jerusalem, that everyone else may as well! Furthermore Jubliees called the Garden of Eden the Holy of Holies, and like them, I believe that Jerusalem was that Garden, as does Rabbi Enkin and many other Jewish scholars. (LOCATION OF EDEN), the link to "Herrin Daily Thoughts:Eden - Pangea".
Ironically, "the foundation of peace" (Jerusalem) was in the beginning before Adam sinned, but ever since it has been the hotbed of death. Because three of the greatest religions claim the Temple Mount: Christianity, Judaism and Islam; it has been the foundation of contention. More death through all the centuries has been at this one location than anywhere else (Read the book Jerusalem by Montifore). For Jerusalem to regain its position as the foundation of peace, peace must come! What is more peaceful than hope? The hope of everyone is eternal life, found only through Jesus Christ, and he is now the Temple, as Herod's was torn down in 70 A.D.
John 2:19 "Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.".What better way to enter the Temple (Jesus) than through the Temple he replaced (Herod's)! Now consider that someday the earth will be destroyed and Jerusalem will be replaced by New Jerusalem, the City of God which is in the third heaven right now!
Revelation 21:1 "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God."
Not only was Jerusalem the stairway to heaven or Jacob's Ladder, Early Christians celebrated the ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven from what was later named the Temple Mount. Likewise, the "Ghost of Jesus" who we call The Holy Ghost descended in Jerusalem. All these historical events indicate to me that indeed the Jews are correct: Jerusalem is the umbilical cord (the naval of the earth) which leads to heaven and is where those raptured will be transported from earth to heaven, and then back when they become citizens of New Jerusalem!
By having one place in which to go "up" from the first heaven, through the second to the third, makes sense because most believe that heaven is not everywhere, but a particular place with some type of spiritual dimensions as enumerated in scripture. To get to heaven, a real spiritual realm in one place, there must be a vector from earth to there. Going "up" is meaningless, because "up" leads to everywhere. There must be one location, and that location must be Jerusalem.
Over the centuries many who have died have chosen their place of burial to be in one of the cemeteries near the Temple Mount so that when the time comes for their own bodily ascension, they will enter first the "stairway to heaven"!
Where then is heaven? It is straight up from Jerusalem in a spiritual realm. It is the Kingdom of God and is directly above God's earthly dominion, Israel. Since the Tree of Life which stood in Eden now stands in heaven by the river of God (Revelation 2:7), I believe that Eden ascended to heaven and is one and the same! Eden's very foundation was peace. Jerusalem is that foundation of peace.
It may be that Adam ascended from Eden to paradise in heaven right there in the city which became Jerusalem. It may be that as Adam did, we all will! That ladder from the "naval" of the world to heaven just may be the umbilical cord which leads from death to life!
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