Hello C,
You stated: How do you choose when you want something real and when is it symbolic ?
My response: I guess it’s a gift ;) All kidding aside, my conclusions are based on deductions and allowing the Bible to interpret itself. For example:
1. The Beast and the false prophet. I feel that they will be real individuals because in the end they are thrown into the lake of fire which is meant for all who are not written in the book of life. Revelation 20:10
2. The two witnesses. IMHO these two are real individuals because the are killed and their bodies lay in the streets of Jerusalem and then they take part in the resurrections. Revelation 14.
You stated: Revelation is in the New Testament, so we know it says that the New Jerusalem is actually the Bride of Christ (not a real building)
My response: I do see the New Jerusalem, the Bride, as a real building. This is one of those cases where the Bible has to interpret itself. Notice that John clarifies that the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God.
Rev 21:2And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
The tabernacle of God is a real building. Paul clarifies that the tabernacle in the wilderness was a scale model of the tabernacle in heaven.
Hebrews 8:5
They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."
So, when Christ returns, He doesn’t come for the bride, but rather, He comes with the bride.
You stated: and the mountain of God..Mount Zion..we are told in Hebrews is not a mountain we can touch (because it is in fact a symbol for the Kingdom of God) . But then you jump back to making the mountain real again.
My response: I believe that Paul was talking about two different mountains. Notice that the mountain that can’t be touch is a description of Mount Siani including a description by Moses.
Hebrews 12: 19And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:
20(For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:
21And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake
Then Paul shifts over to Mount Zion….
Hebrews 12: 22But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
… which will be the center from which Christ will rule the earth during the millennium. Notice, the “city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,†“the bride†(a real building encompassing a real mountain) which will come down to earth as described in Revelation 21.
In Yehoshua,
Guy Smith