Jerusalem Isn’t a Holy City Now (The Holy Land Delusion)

There is no good reason to call Jerusalem a holy city now. Is this serious? How can anyone who says they believe in Jesus Christ and the authority of the Bible say such a thing? The answer from the Bible itself is simple. Acknowledging that the Jewish nation rejected Jesus, and that Jesus in turn rejected the Jewish nation, necessitates acknowledging Jerusalem isn’t a holy city now.

What should actually seem incredible is that multitudes who profess to believe in Jesus Christ and the authority of the Bible would actually regard Jerusalem as a holy city. The Bible does indeed teach that Christ will return and reign from Jerusalem on the throne of David which He will restore- yet it is not like He has returned already. Logically, it should be considered a strange and wicked thing to regard Jerusalem now as if He has.

Luke 19:41-44: “And when he (Jesus) was come near, he beheld the city (Jerusalem), and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.”

The preceding guarantee Jesus made was fulfilled when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple 40 years later. The city was fit for destruction, the Lord gave it over to destruction, and what has been rebuilt since is not of Him. The Western Wall which remains is only a reminder that the Temple there is gone and Jesus’ special presence which had been there is gone with it.

Jesus said in Matthew 23:37-39: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

Jerusalem is nothing as a holy site without His presence. It was only fitting that the Temple be destroyed since Jerusalem had rejected the very incarnation of the God who dwelt in its Temple. All the crusades and battles for control of Jerusalem since have meant nothing towards any holy cause (though the idea that they were holy battles is in itself an unholy delusion). Zealous Muslims possessing Jerusalem never validated Islam, the Crusaders possessing Jerusalem never validated Catholicism, and the Jews taking Jerusalem again in 1967 doesn’t mean that God’s wrath isn’t on them nor mean that the modern Jewish nation is a holy nation. And all the Christians who have gone to Jerusalem, or sought to go there, thinking that doing so would make their Christian profession valid or that they were in any way going to be spiritually transformed by going there were deluded.

All the fuzzy sensations people get when they visit Jerusalem are the workings of psychology and maybe the demonic realm (no different than with the feelings people get at the chaotic, emotion-driven Pentecostal/Charismatic-type meetings which are also not rooted in Biblical principles). No one knows for certain exactly where in Jerusalem Jesus was crucified or where His tomb was. All anyone can do is speculate. Even if anyone knew these sites for sure, it is not like seeing them would be equal to, or an adequate substitute for, actually knowing Him through hearing and keeping His Word.

The Zionist preachers on Christian radio, television, and in the pulpits will interject and say “Jerusalem is a holy city because the Bible says in Psalm 122:6 to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” Yes it does- and you can be sure that anyone who says this, as if it pertains to Jerusalem now, is either Biblically illiterate or a blatant liar (or maybe both). Psalm 122:9 says concerning Jerusalem: “Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good.” Jesus forsook the earthly Temple at Jerusalem and it is gone. Don’t think then that it is a holy city lest you oppose Christ.

Consider that when Jerusalem was about to be judged for its wickedness through the Babylonians, Jeremiah was even expressly warned then not to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 6:8: “Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.”

Jeremiah 7:9-16: “Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord. But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh (my note- the Lord’s tabernacle was in Shiloh and His worship was centered there before it was in Jerusalem), where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spoke unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim (the northern tribes of Israel which had already been carried out of the land). Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.”

The heavenly Jerusalem (Jerusalem which is above) is the Lord’s vineyard which corresponds to the faithful Jews in the Bible. Though it is exceedingly easier said than done, when people meet together under the real Jesus’ authority, that is the holy place His special presence is among like it had been in the Temple in the earthly Jerusalem before He forsook it. When people welcome His saving reign and are edified in Him in that context, that is the building up of the heavenly Jerusalem. That is what will endure and carry over from this age to the next age which will be marked by the return of Christ to assume His rightful authority over mankind. After He returns, He will reign from Jerusalem- which will He cleanse and restore at that time.

While the naive (or worse than naive) call the current city of Jerusalem holy, the Bible basically calls it the opposite. In Revelation 11:8, Jerusalem in its rejection of Jesus is called “the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.”