Not all Jews believe in the legitimacy of the political state of Israel nor of the city of Jerusalem as its capital. In fact, the group of orthodox Jews called Neturei Karta has hundreds of thousands of members and they oppose the Israeli state. They do not recognize Israel as a Jewish state. They only recognize the land as Palestine and Jerusalem the capital of Palestine.
On X.com the group called Torah Judaism state:
These lands are called Palestine. This is the state of Palestine and its capital is Jerusalem. There is no state called Israel. Israel, which was founded on the Palestinian state, is a fake state. They established a terrorist state on stolen lands. Torah Jews do not call themselves Israelis, they call themselves Palestinian Jews.
Here is a large cohort of religious Jews who do not accept the legitimacy of the state of Israel nor of Jerusalem as a Jewish city. So it can’t be Zion in their view.
And yes, I know they are not believers in Jesus Christ, and would reject Him. However they are believers in the Torah, the books of Moses.
So let’s read Psalm 87 from the Torah!
1 His foundation is in the holy mountains.
2 Jehovah loves the gates of Zion more than all the tents of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah.
4 I will mention Rahab and Babylon to those who know Me; behold, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia; this man was born there.
5 And it shall be said to Zion, This man and that man was born in her; and the Highest Himself shall establish her.
6 In recording the peoples Jehovah shall recount, This man was born there. Selah.
7 And the singers, the players of the pipe: all my springs are in You.Psalm 87 (KJ3)
Verse 1: God’s foundation is in the holy mountains. It is holy and devoid of all filthiness. It is not earthly but heavenly. It is only found in the hearts of the believers.
Recall what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman:
21 Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
John 4:21 (ESV)
Verse 2: The LORD [Jehovah] loves the gates of Zion more than all the tents/ dwellings of Jacob.
Zion is the heavenly city; it is not modern day Jerusalem. This is significant in that the verse states that God prefers the heavenly city more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
The dwellings of Jacob today are the places where Jews (actually any of the tribes of Jacob) dwell, including Jerusalem. God has absolutely no affections for a physical Israel nor any physical kingdom.
The gates of true Zion, the heavenly city of God shall never be closed. There is no darkness in it.
25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. 26 And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. 27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defiles, neither whatever works abomination, or makes a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Revelation 21:25-27
Only the saved believers, of all ethnicities, shall enter the holy city of God. It sure is not Jerusalem of the state of Israel today.
14 Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
Revelation 22:14
Verse 3: Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah.
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.
Revelation 21:2
The city of God is the assembly or congregation of all those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and are symbolically His bride.
Verse 4: I will mention Rahab and Babylon to those who know Me; behold, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia; this person was born there.
Wherever you might find believers only those born again in Christ are in the heavenly city of Zion.
Verse 5: And it shall be said to Zion, This person and that person was born in her; and the Highest Himself shall establish her (that is, the heavenly city of new Jerusalem).
26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Galatians 4:26
‘Jerusalem which is above’ means the heavenly city of God. In Galatians chapter 4 the Apostle Paul likens the physical city, old Jerusalem, to Hagar who is in bondage, and the heavenly city of God to Sarah who is free.
The symbolism is fitting because Sarah gave birth to Isaac the child by promise, and not by the flesh, as in the case of Ishmael.
Yet the Jews claimed to be the descendants of Abraham, according to a fleshly earthly lineage (John 8:39, 53) Paul is saying the opposite. They are really of Hagar and are in bondage to the flesh.
New Jerusalem, the heavenly city, is our mother in the sense we are born of the promise and not of the flesh.
4 According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: 5 Having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
Ephesians1:4-5
Born of the promise means chosen by God according to His good pleasure and not by our earthly lineage.
Verse 6: The LORD records as he registers the peoples, “This one was born there”. Selah. (ESV) Those who are not saved by Christ are dead. To be born in the city is to be quickened or made alive in Christ. It is the new birth.
The saved, who are the heavenly city, are those chosen of God, who have their names written in the Lamb’s book of life (Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5; 20:15; etc).
27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it [the heavenly city], nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Revelation 21:27 (ESV)
This is the register referred to in verse 6 here.
Verse 7: And the singers, the players of the pipe: all my springs are in You.
This means that all those born into the heavenly city say “All my springs are in You”. The springs refer to the Holy Spirit dwelling in the believers.
14 But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
John 4:14
38 He that believes on Me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39 (But this spoke He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
John 7:38-39
Quite clearly the answer to the headline question is NO.
The current city of Jerusalem is not the city of God. It is not Zion of the Torah, nor of the Old Testament. It is in fact bondage and slavery. Jesus Christ likened it spiritually to Sodom and Egypt (Revelation 11:8). Only those in Christ are in Zion, the true city of God, which is new Jerusalem.
Recommended Reading
- Book: Apocalypse Now: On the Revelation of Jesus Christ
- Book: Merchants of Death: Global Oligarchs and Their War On Humanity
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Bible Science Forum 
One response to “Is Jerusalem the City of God?”
It’s important for the humble followers of the Lamb of God to separate ourselves from the world, that is to be in the world (which is inescapable) but not to be of the world. The unbelieving Jews are of the world. Arguably, the vast majority of the unbelieving Jews don’t even follow the Law, the Torah.
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
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