Why Does God Keep Calling His People to ‘Come Out’? What Is the New Heaven and New Earth?
From Cain’s city, Babel and the Exodus to leaving Babylon the Great and returning to Eden
From Ur, Sodom, Egypt and Babylon to Babylon the Great, God repeatedly calls people out of human orders that replace him; the destination is not endless flight but renewed creation beside the tree of life.
From Cain’s city, Babel and the Exodus to leaving Babylon the Great and returning to Eden
- 01Scripture repeatedly calls people out of orders that replace God.
- 02Xiaoyang distinguishes sinful human kosmos from God’s natural creation.
- 03Institutions and technology are tools, not saviors.
- 04Wilderness and solitude can restore attention without rejecting fellowship.
- 05Universe 25 offers only a limited analogy about provision and life order.
- 06Xiaoyang reads new creation as Edenic restoration and New Jerusalem as Eden joined to the Most Holy Place.
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Key terms
Tanakh, kosmos, Babylon, church, New Jerusalem and new creation are defined while Xiaoyang’s models remain distinct from explicit text.
The repeated call to come out
Scripture repeatedly leads people out of orders that may replace God; this is not a blanket condemnation of cities.
Cain builds a city
Cain’s city follows exile from Eden. Xiaoyang sees humanly manufactured security, though the text does not condemn every city.
Babel concentrates power
Babel joins city, name and resistance to dispersion, becoming an early image of concentrated human order.
Abraham leaves
Abraham leaves a major civilization to live as a pilgrim dependent on a God not confined by institutions.
Lot leaves Sodom
Lot must leave a judged city, and his wife shows that the heart may remain after the feet depart.
The Exodus
A system that once protected Jacob’s family later enslaves Israel. God does not merely improve slavery but brings the people out.
Babylon to Babylon the Great
Historical Babylon and Revelation’s Babylon form a recurring imperial pattern of wealth, power, religion and trade.
Kosmos as human order
Xiaoyang uses kosmos for interlocking human systems under sin, not for God’s mountains, rivers and forests; the Greek term has broader uses.
When tools become masters
Technology, government, finance and church structures are tools until people believe they cannot live or know God without them.
Wilderness servants
Moses, David and Elijah meet God amid wilderness and quiet; this suggests a pattern without making nature automatically holy.
Beyond official centres
Ezekiel, John the Baptist and Jesus show that divine presence is not monopolized by a religious centre.
Paul and John
Galatians does not tell what Paul did in Arabia; claims that he rebuilt his theology there remain inference. John received Revelation on Patmos.
Community without institutional dependence
Believers need teaching and fellowship, but no institution should become an infallible mediator replacing direct fidelity to Christ.
Solitude and nature
True solitude may require leaving screens and opinions so attention, prayer and honest thought can recover.
Urban costs and nature benefits
Urban life has benefits and costs; nature contact correlates with movement, daylight, lower stress and restored attention, not guaranteed spirituality.
Universe 25
Calhoun’s mouse study reached severe social breakdown despite provision. It cannot prove that human cities inevitably collapse.
The experiment’s real question
The limited analogy asks whether food and safety alone can create purpose, responsibility and mature life. Eden included work and stewardship.
Preparing to leave
Preparation now means reducing single-system dependence, gaining practical skills and using technology without being trained into helplessness.
When leaving becomes physical
Only if worship, identity and trade become coercively bound may inward departure need to become geographic flight.
The destination is new creation
God’s endpoint is not endless wilderness but a new heaven and earth where God dwells with humanity and the tree of life returns.
Not a technological utopia
Revelation centres throne, river, tree and divine light, not an upgraded Babylon. It does not list every technology that may or may not exist.
Was Eden more intelligent?
Xiaoyang imagines Eden as life-order more advanced than machines through nature and supernatural unity; Genesis gives no engineering comparison.
Technology as a crutch
Technology often compensates for distance, sickness and cognitive limits. Useful compensation need not be creation’s eternal summit.
Eden did not fail
Creation was very good; Xiaoyang locates failure in immature stewards rather than a defective Eden.
Mature people return to Eden
He calls new creation mature humans returning to Eden rather than Eden 2.0. This is a theological summary, not Revelation’s wording.
Eden and Most Holy Place
The cubic city echoes the Most Holy Place while river and tree echo Eden, supporting Xiaoyang’s ‘Eden plus vast sanctuary’ synthesis.
Heaven and earth reunited
God’s dwelling, throne, river and tree on earth suggest heaven and earth reunited. Xiaoyang’s exact chronology of separation is speculative.
No technological ruins?
If Eden’s advance was not mechanical, no machine ruins would be expected; this claim remains neither provable nor disprovable archaeology.
Skyscrapers and dependence
High-rise efficiency can create dependence on electricity, lifts, water, logistics and networks. Height itself is not sin.
144,000 residents?
Revelation never says only 144,000 inhabit the city. Xiaoyang’s claim belongs to his overcomer and four-layer new-creation model.
Outside yet saved?
Xiaoyang sees some saved yet immature people outside the city. This is not mainstream consensus and must retain Revelation’s warning weight.
Two civilizational directions
Babylon images concentration and control; Eden images life, space, work, nature and God. They are theological ideal types, not simple geography.
Technology cannot restore Eden
Technology can extend and connect life but cannot by itself abolish death, loneliness or purposelessness, nor transform Babylon into Eden.
Practising freedom now
Walking, daylight, nature, quiet, direct Scripture, prayer, real relationships and practical ability cultivate inward freedom without panic.
Back to the tree of life
Babylon falls, river and tree return, and God dwells with humanity. Xiaoyang’s final image is mature stewards restored beside the tree of life.
Frequently asked questions
Does Scripture oppose cities and technology?
No. The warning concerns tools becoming masters and replacing God.
Does Universe 25 prove cities must collapse?
No. It was a closed mouse experiment and supports only limited analogy.
Should people leave cities now?
The article recommends reducing dependence, not panic flight.
Does Revelation say only 144,000 inhabit New Jerusalem?
No. That is Xiaoyang’s speculative four-layer model.