Chapters 21 and 22 of Revelation, the last book of the Holy Bible, describe in some detail the “New Jerusalem,” the Holy City, that is to come down from heaven with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ to this our planet earth after it and its atmosphere (heaven) will have been purified by “intense heat” (fire) at the end of the ages (2 Peter 3:10-13).
I believe we can have a fresh view (or preview) of this apocalyptic vision, if we see it through the eyes of two of my relatives on my father’s side, who were deeply impressed by seeing for the first time a “big city” like Manila, the Philippines’ capital city.
My father’s family comes from an indigenous tribe in central Mindanao called the “Bukidnons,” in the province of Bukidnon. “Bukidnon” is the Cebuano Visayan for “mountain folk” – “bukid” meaning mountain, and “-non” a particle to designate origin or affiliation. Unlike in the majority language Tagalog, “bukid” means “field,” such as a rice field. The Tagalog for mountain is “bundok” – from which Americans have coined the word “boon-docks” for the backwoods.
I well remember what my dad’s youngest brother, my Tío Dencio [short for Gaudencio], related to me about his impressions upon seeing Manila for the first time. Manila’s atmosphere impressed him as one with an endless “pista” (from the Spanish “fiesta,” for feast). Why?
He must have felt the vast difference between Manila and his native Malaybalay, Bukidnon’s capital city, which is dubbed as a mere “pit stop” for trucks that ply the long Cagayan de Oro-Davao and Cagayan de Oro-Cotabato routes. Malaybalay only comes alive when the city celebrates the annual feast of its patron saint (San Isidro), and when it hosts the annual tourist-drawing celebration called the “Kaamulan,” “binokid” (as the language is called) word for “gathering.” This festival is believed to have been established by my great grandfather Datu Mampaalong, the founder of Malaybalay, about a century ago. His purpose was to have all seven tribes of Bukidnon come together each year (sometime in February-March) in order to exhibit their cultural gifts – their native dances and colorful costumes – thereby to bind the tribes closer to one another, while enhancing their talents.
To my Tío Dencio Manila looked like an endless “pista” because of the multitude of people that went to and fro in its premises, as when Malaybalay holds its “Kaamulan.”
Revelation 21:20 says this of the “New Jerusalem”: “the nations of the saved…the kings of the earth [shall] bring their glory and honor into it.” Is the Kaamulan perhaps a foretaste of this?
My Tio Dencio was also impressed by Manila’s many bright lights at night. “Mura’g langit” [Cebuano for “Like heaven”], he said. Yes, much like Revelation 21:22, 25 says of “New Jerusalem”:
The city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of the Lord illuminated it. The Lamb [Jesus Christ] is its light…(there shall be no night there) [emphasis added, throughout].
Incidentally, the pop song “Manila” describes it as “a city that never sleeps.”
Philippians 3:20-21 shows that, when Christ returns to resurrect His saints and rule the earth, He will transform our mortal bodies to be like His glorious body – immortal, everlasting. As such, we will be like God, who “shall neither slumber nor sleep (Psalms 121:4).
In contrast to my Tio Dencio’s impression of Manila, my dad’s only sister, my Tía Isabel, had a negative impression of Manila. She said that she was in constant fear of the crazy traffic there. She had a phobia about crossing Manila’s streets, for fear that she might be run over by some reckless driver!
Not so, in the New Jerusalem; it will be 100+% safe there! Revelation 22:18 says this about New Jerusalem:
But outside [not included or not to be found there] are dogs [sodomites or sex perverts], and sorcerers, and sexually immoral, and murderers, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
Isaiah 11:9 had earlier prophesied of God’s “holy mountain,” referring to His everlasting kingdom:
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.
All wicked people will have been destroyed in a “lake of fire” for their “second death” (Revelation 21:8).
And God promises, as King David saw it (Psalms 16:11):
“You will show me the path to [everlasting] life;
in Your presence is fullness of life;
at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Likewise, Psalms 36:7-9:
How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
therefore the children of men out their trust under the shadow of Your wings,
they are abundantly satisfied with the abundance of Your house,
and you give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.
For with You is the fountain of life;
in Your light we see light.
In contrast, Hebrews 11:24 -27 shows what God’s servant Moses forsook, in order to obtain God’s everlasting joy and pleasures:
By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoah’s daughter [and thus an heir to Egypt’s throne],choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God than the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward[from God].
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he
endured as seeing Him who is invisible.
May God speed the coming of our “forever home”– the New Jerusalem! And may we, like Moses and all the holy men and women of God, by true faith, reject the passing pleasures of this sinful world and embrace God’s righteousness in Christ!
Pedro R. Meléndez, Jr.
17072026/25072026