The Gates Never Shut!
The Lie of Finality, Because The Gates Never Shut
Traditional theology insists the New Jerusalem is the end of the story, the frozen, flawless “heaven” where the righteous dwell forever and the wicked are gone. This is the eschatological endpoint of Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT) and Annihilationism, a world where the saved are safe and the rest are either being tortured forever or erased.
But Revelation says otherwise.
The New Jerusalem is not the end. It is not the eternal state. It is not a sealed realm of finished salvation. It is the next phase in the story of God’s reconciling love, a cycle, not a conclusion.
The Bible teaches Universal Reconciliation, not eternal exclusion. And the New Jerusalem is one of the strongest witnesses against the doctrines of torment and annihilation ever conceived.
1. The Gates Are Never Shut
Revelation 21:25 says, “Its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there.”
Open gates are not a symbol of finality. They are a symbol of movement, invitation, and access. If this city were the final sealed-off state of the righteous, there would be no reason to keep the gates open. Yet John explicitly tells us they never close.
Why?
Because the nations are still coming in.
Revelation 21:24-26 says, “By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it… They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.”
This is not heaven in the modern sense. This is process. Movement. Participation. Nations in motion. Salvation unfolding. The gates stay open because mercy still has work to do.
2. The Dogs Are Still Outside
Revelation 22:15 says, “Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”
Let that settle in.
In this so-called “eternal city,” there are still sinners, outside.
ECT theology has no answer for this. If the damned are in hell forever, or annihilated into non-existence, who are these outsiders? Why are they still active? Why are they still practicing sin?
Because the New Jerusalem is not the eternal state. It is a continuation of redemptive work. It is a phase of healing and reconciliation, with the city manifesting God’s life in the midst of ongoing brokenness.
It is not exclusion for the sake of punishment. It is separation for the sake of purification.
3. Continuity with the Present
The New Jerusalem is not categorically different from heaven now. It is heaven relocated.
Revelation 21:2 says, “I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.”
This is heaven coming down, not humanity going up. It is not a shift in essence, but in position. God’s throne moves to earth, but the world still contains brokenness.
The idea that heaven equals perfection and finality is not biblical. Even now, heaven contains the spirits of just men made perfect (Hebrews 12:23), but it is still not the final state. The full work of reconciliation is not done. The New Jerusalem continues that work, only now with God’s throne planted in the midst of creation.
4. Eonian, Not Eternal
The Greek word often translated “forever” or “eternal” is aionios, better rendered eonian. It means age-lasting, not never-ending.
The lake of fire is eonian.
The Millennium is eonian.
Even the New Jerusalem is eonian.
Only God is eternal in essence. As it is written in 1 Timothy 1:17, “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.” And 1 Corinthians 13:8 says, “Love never ends.”
Everything else exists within the ages. The New Jerusalem is part of the story of the ages, not the end of time itself.
This distinction is critical. ECT and Annihilationism falsely project modern ideas of eternity onto Greek words that never meant that. They slander God by turning His temporary judgments into permanent condemnations.
For more on this, please read, “New Testament “Eternal” False Translation“
5. The House of the Ages: A Living Analogy
Here’s how to picture it:
Right now, some rooms in the house are lit. Others are dark. That’s this present age.
In the Millennium, more rooms light up, the King is ruling, Satan is bound, truth begins to flood the halls.
In the New Jerusalem, nearly the whole house is glowing, the presence of God fills it more tangibly, the river of life flows, the leaves are for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2). But some shadows remain.
Beyond the ages, the entire house is flooded with light. Not just from lamps in rooms, but from the sun itself shining through every wall. That is what it means for “God to be all in all.”
Not demolition, illumination. Not a new house, a fully filled one.
This is the mystery: God fills all without replacing all. He indwells without erasing. We remain uniquely ourselves, yet fully saturated in Him.
6. Why the Church Clings to the New Jerusalem as “Heaven”
Because it keeps exclusivity intact.
By treating the New Jerusalem as the eternal state, the institutional church gets to say, “We’re in, they’re out.”
They love the walls.
They ignore the open gates.
They avoid the fact that sinners are still outside.
They want a clean ending. A safe bubble. A static heaven with a security system.
But God isn’t finished.
7. The Symbolic Fulfillment: Your Life as Jerusalem
The New Jerusalem is not just a future city, it is a picture of what happens in you.
Your heart is Jerusalem.
The river of life is the Spirit flowing through you.
Mount Zion is the inner seat of God’s power in your soul.
The walls are your boundaries, your convictions.
The land of Israel is your body, your vessel.
And the wells around the city are your friends, your spiritual lifelines.
When the enemy attacks, the first thing he does is plug those wells, isolate you. Starve your heart of outside help.
This is why the story of Israel is also the story of you. The New Jerusalem descends not just to earth, but to your inner world. It is not a static location, it is a living process of being filled with God’s presence.
8. The Real End: God in All, Through All, Over All
The final stage is not a city. It is a saturation.
Not the presence of God in a building, but the presence of God in everything.
1 Corinthians 15:28 says, “When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.”
That is not the same as God replacing all. He fills all. He flows through all. He becomes the light in every room.
Your space remains yours. But now it’s fully illuminated. No more darkness. No more separation. No more enemies.
Conclusion: The Comma, Not the Period
The church has preached the New Jerusalem as the period at the end of the sentence.
But John shows it’s a comma.
The gates never shut because God isn’t finished.
The dogs are still outside because mercy still has work to do.
The nations are still being healed because reconciliation hasn’t ended.
The New Jerusalem is not the final state. It is the next chapter in God’s unending story.
And the true end is no city at all, it is God Himself, filling every heart, every mind, every space, until there is nothing left but light.
