THE SUN OF HEAVEN

THE SUN OF HEAVEN


THE SUN OF HEAVEN based on Rev. 21:15-27
BY GLENN PEASE

Isaac Asimov, the most prolific writer of this age, author of over 500 books, has a delightful essay on gold in his book, The Sun Shines Bright. He gives us scientific confirmation of why God would make the New Jerusalem a city of gold. The ancient world considered gold the most noble of metals. Even though gold is heavier than lead, gold has always been a metaphor for lightness.

People talked of walking with leaden feet, and being leaden-hearted. When you could not stay awake, your eyelids were like lead. But gold, which is nearly twice as heavy, is used to describe the opposite. You dance trippingly on golden feet, and golden slippers are not leaden weights, but are like feathers. To be golden-hearted is not to be heavy-hearted, but happy and buoyant.

Beauty is the key factor that is seen in gold, and, therefore, gold is the metal of aesthetics. God certainly knew that man would discover other metals in the future that would have nobler characteristics than gold, yet he still revealed the New Jerusalem to be a city of pure gold. Why not platinum? It is used in science because laboratory equipment made of platinum is untouched by air or water, or by chemicals that contact it. It can stand temperatures that would melt gold. It can be heated white hot and not be damaged. It is as rare as gold, and superior in so many ways. So then, why not a holy city of platinum? Was God being old fashioned, and behind the times, to reveal the eternal city as one of pure gold? Listen to the conclusion of the most read scientific author of our day.

Neither Platinum nor any other metal ever discovered
has the warm yellowness of gold, and none is anywhere
near as beautiful. Platinum can have all the nobility and
density and high-meltingness and rareness you can give it,
and can even be more expensive than gold, but it...

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