Laudator Temporis Acti

Revelation 21.2-4:

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And 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.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

καὶ τὴν πόλιν τὴν ἁγίαν Ἰερουσαλὴμ καινὴν εἶδον καταβαίνουσαν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ, ἡτοιμασμένην ὡς νύμφην κεκοσμημένην τῷ ἀνδρὶ αὐτῆς.

καὶ ἤκουσα φωνῆς μεγάλης ἐκ τοῦ θρόνου λεγούσης, Ἰδοὺ ἡ σκηνὴ τοῦ θεοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ σκηνώσει μετ’ αὐτῶν, καὶ αὐτοὶ λαοὶ αὐτοῦ ἔσονται, καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς μετ’ αὐτῶν ἔσται, αὐτῶν θεός,

καὶ ἐξαλείψει πᾶν δάκρυον ἐκ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν αὐτῶν, καὶ ὁ θάνατος οὐκ ἔσται ἔτι, οὔτε πένθος οὔτε κραυγὴ οὔτε πόνος οὐκ ἔσται ἔτι· ὅτι τὰ πρῶτα ἀπῆλθαν.

A few years ago Licia Kuenning, a Quaker, prophesied that Farmington, Maine, would be the location of the New Jerusalem. The prophecy is titled "About the Coming New Order in Farmington" and it starts as follows:

In the town of Farmington, Maine, a new state of affairs will soon exist which the world has never seen before. This change will occur within the next few years.

Thereafter, there will be no death and no illness (except the remnants of earlier illnesses which will go away in three days or less) within the municipal limits of Farmington. Nor will there be any crime or bad behavior. You will be safe in Farmington; nothing will harm you here. The rest of the world will still be the way it has been for millennia, so if one goes outside the borders of Farmington at that time one will not be protected in this particular way, though one will be no worse off than before.

Farmington will, of course, remain as free as any other American town. Anyone may stay or leave as they choose. Nobody will try to make anyone stay or make anyone leave. Nor will we in Farmington try to keep anyone out. We will all do whatever God leads us to do.

Appended to Kuenning's prophecy is a series of F.A.Q. (frequently asked questions), the last two of which are:

Q. Why has Farmington been chosen?
A. I do not know.

Q. What Scripture foretells the new order?
A. Revelation 21:2-4 (the New Jerusalem). The name "Farmington" is not in the Bible, since no town by that name existed when John wrote. The location of the New Jerusalem was revealed directly to me by Christ.

Before I learned of Kuenning's prophecy, I bought approximately 85 acres of land in Farmington, Maine. I planned to retire there, but in a recent prophetic vision of my own, the god Mammon directly revealed to me that I will never be able to retire anywhere. In my vision, I am working as a greeter in a Wal-Mart department store when I am 80 years old.

Kuenning is not the first to suggest that the New Jerusalem will be located in the New World, or more specifically, in New England. See, for example, a letter from William Twisse to Joseph Mede (1634):

Now, I beseech you, let me know what your opinion is of our English Plantation in the New World. Heretofore, I have wondered in my thoughts at the providence of God concerning that world, not discovered till this old world of ours is almost at an end, and there no footsteps found of the knowledge of the true God, much less of Christ. And then, considering our English Plantations of late, and the opinion of many grave divines concerning the Gospel's fleeing westward, sometimes I had such thoughts — Why may not that be the place of the New Jerusalem?

A 1631 letter from Edward Howes bears the superscription "to his lovinge frind Mr. John Winthrop at his father's house in the Machassetts Bay, these deliver at Boston in New Engeland." In the letter, Howes writes, "I pray God account you and preserve you all as worthy stones in buyldinge his newe Jerusalem."