Earthly Jerusalem
Typological treatment in the corpus
The earthly city of Jerusalem functions for Jones as a type of the Hagar-Sinai system: the covenant of bondage that rests on carnal claim and legalistic Scripture-reading rather than spiritual birth. Jones uses this type as a hermeneutical key for all prophecies that name Jerusalem.
Biblical anchoring
| Reference | Context |
|---|---|
| Gal. 4:25 | Hagar = Mount Sinai = earthly Jerusalem = bondage |
| Gal. 4:30 | ”Cast out the bondwoman and her son” — judgment on the Hagar system |
| Isa. 29:1-9 | Ariel-prophecy: judgment on the earthly city |
| John 4:21 | Worship will no longer be tied to the earthly city |
| Hag. 2:6-9 | Eschatological shaking of heaven and earth |
Typological exposition per author
Stephen E. Jones
Jones introduces the Two-Jerusalem model in Christian Zionism: How Deceived Can You Get? as a hermeneutical foundation for interpreting biblical prophecy. Every prophecy about Jerusalem must, according to Jones, first be assigned to the earthly or heavenly city before correct interpretation is possible — any confusion between the two leads inevitably to misreading the prophecy.
The earthly city is Jones’ elaboration of Gal. 4:25-30: Hagar corresponds to Mount Sinai and to the earthly Jerusalem which “is in bondage with her children.” This Hagar-Sinai system characterizes all who make a carnal, genealogical claim on God’s covenant — whether historical Israel or modern Zionism.
Jones makes this sharp via John 4:21: Jesus’ words to the Samaritan woman (“an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem”) declare the definitive uncoupling of worship from geographical Jerusalem. The earthly city has fulfilled its typological function; the claim on it as a permanent religious center is a reversion to the Hagar system.
The Ariel prophecy of Isa. 29 reinforces this picture. Jones interprets it as an announcement that the earthly city becomes uninhabitable — no one receives the land as permanent possession on the basis of carnal claim. Jones cites Isa. 34:8 as eschatological anchor: “God’s judgment upon Edom is reserved for the end of the age.”1
The eschatological shaking of Hag. 2:6-9 (“I will shake the heavens and the earth”) provides for the dismantling of the earthly power structure. For Jones this is not the destruction of the city as such, but the breaking of the ideological claim on that city as God’s exclusive possession for one ethnic group.
Jones’ typological conclusion: Christian Zionism repeats the error of the Hagar system. It substitutes the spiritual reality (Heavenly Jerusalem, covenant of grace) with the earthly copy (Earthly Jerusalem, covenant of bondage) and grants that copy eschatological promise that never belonged to it.
Related types
- Connected: Heavenly Jerusalem, Esau
Footnotes
Footnotes
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Jones, Christian Zionism: How Deceived Can You Get?, ch. 1. ↩