十一大道的那家奔驰店里最让吸引我的不是各款新车，而是一辆老车的复制品。每次路过都会驻足看看。它显然带有当时流行马车的样子。人的思维总是有局限的，因此只能是渐进的。当时的人不可能想象后来车的样子与形状。
这点即使是据信是受天启的圣经也不例外。被认为最有前瞻性的“启示录”是这样描述未来圣城的：
15 The angel who talked to me held in his hand a gold measuring stick to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.
16 When he measured it, he found it was a square, as wide as it was long. In fact, its length and width and height were each 1,400 miles.
17 Then he measured the walls and found them to be 216 feet thick (according to the human standard used by the angel).
18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city was pure gold, as clear as glass.
19 The wall of the city was built on foundation stones inlaid with twelve precious stones the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald,
20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.
21 The twelve gates were made of pearls—each gate from a single pearl! And the main street was pure gold, as clear as glass. (Revelation, 21:15-21 NLT)
不难看出，从天使的工具（a measuring stick）、珍贵金属及矿石材料（jasper, "pure gold, as clear as glass", precious stones, sapphire, agate, emerald, onyx, carnelian, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrsoprase, jacinth and amethyst）到城市的设计（城是有城墙及城门的）都局限在当时人们的认识水平而没有超越。对这段描述一个很自然的疑问就是城墙是为保护城而设的，现在几乎所有城市都已没有了城墙。而在未来将由神直接保护的圣城，又如何需要城墙来保护呢？
