In a message designed to challenge conventional assumptions and stir biblical curiosity, evangelist Perry Stone may have just upended a long-held belief about the shape of the New Jerusalem.
“I may have changed my mind,” Stone admitted early in his teaching. “What I’m hoping to do is provoke your thinking… this is going to be sort of an interesting study.”
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For decades, most Bible teachers and prophecy scholars have accepted the idea that the New Jerusalem, described in Revelation 21, is shaped like a cube—1,500 miles wide, long and high. “We have always heard that the New Jerusalem is a cube,” Stone acknowledged. “We do know that it has 12 foundations… actual 12 different types of gemstones.”
Yet Stone raises a compelling challenge. “If it’s a cube and you have one story, two story, three, story, four, then you would have floors every so many hundred miles… Well, that brings you to the idea of, okay, we’ve got to get from the people who live on the 12th floor… to the bottom floor. So, do you have steps? … How can the Lamb light the entire city if you have floors separating?”
Instead of floors layered in a box-like form, Stone suggests another ancient structure might offer a better model: a pyramid.
“What if the New Jerusalem is a pyramid?” he asked. “The foundation is 1,500 miles square, but the top of it goes up 1,500 miles, and the Lamb somehow is situated there and the entire inside of that pyramid is lit.”
The concept, Stone notes, is not just spatially plausible, but symbolically potent. “A pyramid is one of the oldest known structures in the world,” he explained. “The pyramids that have been found around the world and the ones found in Egypt were believed to have been assisted in their building by giants… actually were… a concept of the fallen angels.”
According to Stone, the idea of fallen angels constructing pyramids fits within the broader biblical narrative. “You do know that in the time of Noah and before, fallen angels were on the earth.”
He continued, “According to historians, the Great Pyramid of Giza was once covered with white. And when the sun hit it, it would literally glow.” Even more intriguing: “The outer pyramid of Giza, the Great Pyramid, had 144,000 polished stones according to people who specialize in pyramid studies. Remember, there’s 144,000 Jews. See, all this comes into play.”
Stone draws attention to what he sees as spiritual symbolism in the missing capstone of the Great Pyramid in Egypt. “The capstone is missing on the Great Pyramid of Egypt. But the New Jerusalem would have the capstone.”
Despite the speculation, Stone made clear the shape is not the point of contention—it’s the meaning behind it. “Now does it make a difference? No, ’cause I’m going there, Lord willing, and you’re going there. So, we’ll all find out one day.”
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Above all, Stone used the teaching as a call for deeper reflection. “There’s no sense in arguing and debating and splitting hairs over is it square or is it a pyramid? I share this because I like to do this sometimes to provoke your thinking and to make you say, ‘Okay, if it is, let’s look at history. Let’s look at pyramids. Let’s look at this and is this possible?’”
But for Stone, the true takeaway remains unchanged, “You need to know your relationship with Jesus Christ is up-to-date. You need to know that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”
Whether cube or pyramid, the New Jerusalem is less about geometry and more about the glory of God, and Perry Stone wants believers to keep their eyes on the eternal rather than the architectural.
James Lasher is staff writer for Charisma Media.
