BY DR. RICHARD BOOKER—
Without a doubt, the most famous city in the world is not Washington, New York, London, Paris, Moscow, Rome, or some other capital city of the nations. The most famous city in the world does not have a deep water port. It is not a “city by the Bay” with a Golden Gate Bridge. It does not have a Statute of Liberty beckoning the tired and poor. There is no Eiffel Tower, Big Bend or famous Coliseum. Yet, there have been more books written, more poems penned, more songs sang and more wars fought over this city than any other city in the world. It has been estimated that more than 50,000 books have been written about this city. While this city is called “the City of Peace,” it has not known much peace. In its 3000 year history, this city has been destroyed 16 times and rebuilt 17 times.
This small city sits on a barren hilltop and basically has no natural resources that would attract people to it or make it a great city. Yet, millions of people around the world call it home. The most famous city in the world, of course, is Jerusalem.
So what makes Jerusalem so special? Why do people want to go there? Why have the nations fought over it? Why do Jews, Christians and Muslims want to control it? Why, after centuries of being a forgotten, desolate place, has Jerusalem, once again, become the center of the world’s attention?
Jerusalem – God’s Hometown
Jerusalem is the most famous city in the world because it is God’s hometown. God has chosen Jerusalem as His residence on the earth. In 2 Chronicles 6:6, the Lord says, “Yet, I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name may be there.”
Where but to God’s hometown would people from around the world send letters addressed to “God, the Western Wall, Jerusalem.”
Jerusalem has approximately 70 names in the Bible. It is called the City of David, the City of God, the City of Truth, Joyful City, Faithful City, Ariel (meaning Lion of God), and many other names. The most common name is Zion.
Psalms 135:21 reads, “Blessed be the LORD out of Zion, who dwells in Jerusalem.”
Psalm 132:13-14 reads, “For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place: this is My resting place forever, for I have desired it.”
Psalm 50:2, “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth.”
Psalm 87:2-3, “The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God.”
Psalm 1-2:21 says that we are, “To declare the name of the LORD in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem.”
Psalm 122:6 says we are to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”
Jeremiah 3:17 says that Jerusalem shall be called “the Throne of the LORD.”
Zechariah 1:17 says, “The LORD will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem.”
Zechariah 1:14, the Lord says, “I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal.”
Zechariah 8:3, the Lord says, “I will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, the Mountain of the LORD of hosts, the Holy Mountain.”
In Matthew 5:34 Jesus calls Jerusalem the “city of the great King.”
The book of Revelation talks about a heavenly Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to the earth (Revelation 21). It is the final home for the people of God.
Jerusalem is mentioned about 811 times in the Bible. There are 657 references in the Hebrew Bible and 154 references in the New Testament. Furthermore, Zion is mentioned 152 times in the Hebrew Bible and 7 times in the New Testament. Together Jerusalem and Zion are mentioned 963 times in the Bible. Jerusalem is not mentioned a single time in the Koran.
Because of centuries of teaching on Replacement Theology, Christians of past times have only thought of Jerusalem as a spiritual place in heaven, not a real place on the earth. The stories in the Bible were allegorized so that Christians didn’t believe the events and places were real. This separated the heavenly-minded Christian world from the real world of the real Jerusalem in a real land called Israel.
When Golda Meir was Prime Minister, she traveled around the world speaking on behalf of Israel. She tells the following story about her trip to Liberia. She explains:
“We traveled for miles in Liberia. I talked to hundreds of people and answered thousands of questions about Israel, many of them about Israel as the land of the Bible. A very nice young woman from the Liberian Foreign Office accompanied us, and I remember that on the last day of my visit she said very bashfully to me, ‘I have an old mother to whom I explained that I would be busy all week with a visitor from Jerusalem. My mother just stared at me. Don’t you know, she said, that there is no such place as Jerusalem? Jerusalem is in heaven. Do you think, Mrs. Meir, that you could possibly see her for a minute and tell her about Jerusalem’?
“Of course, I went to meet her mother that day and took with me a little bottle of water from the Jordan River. The old woman just walked around and around me, though she never actually touched me. ‘You come from Jerusalem,’ she kept on saying. ‘You mean, there’s a real city, with streets and houses where real people live?’
“ ‘Yes, I live there,’ I answered, but I don’t think she believed me for a moment. It was a question that I was asked all over Africa, and I used to tell the Africans that the only thing that was heavenly about Jerusalem was that it still existed!” (Golda Meir, My Life, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, NY, 1975, pp. 322-323)
Yes, there is a real literal Jerusalem. And it is a miracle of heaven that it still exists. Since Jerusalem is the most famous city in the world, since it is God’s hometown and since it is the final destination for God’s people, it is most important that we have an understanding of “Jerusalem in Prophecy.”
Dr. Richard Booker is a bestselling author and speaker and the Founder of Sounds of the Trumpet and the Institute for Hebraic-Christian Studies. He is a contributing editor for the Jerusalem Connection. To learn more of his work, see his web site at: www.rbooker.com.
Hello, my name is Frank Palacios and I am a songwriter. I wrote a song dedicated to Jerusalem, “Yerushalem”, and I want to publish it and share it with Israel, but I need connections. Can someone help?