The New Jerusalem and The New Heaven & Earth

June 3, 2017 · 3:33 am

Who are the Nations?

Who the Nations are is an important question for the times we are living in.

The Nations will be gathered before Christ at his Second Coming, they will be on Earth during the Millennium and they will surround the New Jerusalem in Eternity.

The Greek word for the Nations in the Bible is ‘ethnos’. Ethnos is also translated as ‘pagan’ and ‘gentile’ in the New testament. All these words ‘Nations’ ‘pagans’ and ‘gentiles’ refer to people who are not God’s people.

Matt 28:19 says: ‘Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations’

Luke 24:47 says: ‘Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached to all nations.’

The nations then are the unconverted. They are those that we need to preach to.

Col 1:13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,

When people in the nations are converted, they become part of God’s kingdom

Rev 2:26 says ‘to him who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the Nations.

Those who are victorious are God’s people and they are different to the Nations.

God’s people will not be the nations in the Millennium or Eternity. God’s people will be given authority over them.

In Rev 20:7-9 Satan deceives the nations at the end of the millennium. The Nations number like the sand of the sea and march across the breadth of the Earth to surround the camp of God’s people.

This shows that the Nations will be present during the Millennium and they are separate from God’s people.

Rev 21:4 says that in Eternity, the Nations will walk by the light of the New Jerusalem

God’s people will be with God in the New Jerusalem.

Who then are these nations who are outside the New Jerusalem?

Rev 22:2 says that the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the Nations.

The nations in Eternity still need healing. Just who are they?

The Nations are here now, they will be standing before Christ when he returns and they will be on Earth during the Millennium and in Eternity.

Matthew 24 is all about the signs that will precede the second coming of Christ.

Christ will appear in the clouds and His angels will gather God’s elect from the four ends of the Earth.

Chapter 25 follows on from this and begins with the Parable of the 10 Virgins which tells us how God will deal with the Church. The foolish virgins miss out on the wedding feast because they forgot to take enough oil with them and their lamps went out.

The parable of the Sheep and the Goats is also in this chapter but this parable is concerned with how God will judge the Nations.

It says that when the Son of Man comes in all his glory and all the angels with Him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the Sheep and the Goats. He will put the Sheep on his right and the Goats on his left.

God tells them, whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. In other words, God will judge the Nations according to how they treated God’s people. This is a judgment according to works.

God’s people in contrast are judged according to faith which is by grace.

The Sheep Nations who were kind to God’s people – (these brothers and sisters of mine) are rewarded and do not go to hell where one might expect a non Christian to go

Those who failed to show kindness to God’s people – The Goat Nations, are sent to hell

Thus we see that in the parable of the 10 virgins, not all those who are waiting for the Bridegroom go to heaven

And in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, not all who are in the Nations go to hell

This explains where the nations in Eternity and in the Millennium come from.

The New Jerusalem is composed of believers from old and new testament times. The old testament believers symbolized by the 12 gates and the new testament believers by the 12 foundations.

Rev 3:12 says The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name.

Outside are the Nations who were not thrown into the lake of fire. These nations must therefore be in the Lamb’s book of life. Yet they are not God’s people

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Tagged as converted, Day of the Lord, End Times, eternity, five, foolish virgins, gentiles, judgment, Millennium, Nations, new Jerusalem, pagans, Second coming of Christ, sheep and goat judgment, Sheep and Goats, ten virgins, unconverted, wise virgins

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The Parable of the Net and Eternity

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The Parable of the Net (Matthew 13:47-50)

47 “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Like the parable of the Weeds, the parable of the Net deals with false believers in the Kingdom. The false believers should not be uprooted but left to the Angels at the end of the age. Given time, these false believers may be converted (as yeast works itself through the whole lump).

Never the less, the Net parable offers a higher degree of complexity than the parable of the weeds given that good fish may be inside or outside of the Net.

This could only make sense in the context of Revelation with the New Jerusalem containing true believers who accepted the gospel in New and Old Testament times and the Nations who were not assigned to Hell but not given fixed tenure in the New Jerusalem either.

In eternity, the New Jerusalem will be surrounded by the Nations. The Nations are non-believers whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and hence were not condemned at the Great White Throne. Only believers who accepted the Gospel will be in the New Jerusalem.

The Good Fish who were caught by the Net will be in the New Jerusalem.

The Good Fish who didn’t make it into the Net will be the Nations.

http://www.truthinlove.com/Parables/net.htm

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October 26, 2016 · 11:26 am

October 25, 2016 · 1:26 am

The Parable of the Weeds and the Parable of the Net compared

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The Parable of the Weeds is very similar to the Parable of the Net in that there are two types of people. The Wheat are similar to the Good Fish and the Weeds are similar to the Bad Fish.

In the Parable of the Weeds, the World and God’s Kingdom seem to be one and the same.

God’s angels will remove all the weeds at harvest time and throw them into the fire. Similarly, God’s angels will remove the Bad Fish and throw them into the fire.

The Parable of the Net differs from the Parable of the Weeds in that the Net which represents the Kingdom of Heaven only catches a fraction of the people in the world.

There will be people attracted to the Gospel who are both Good and Bad. Not all Good people accept the Gospel.

Everybody is a sinner but there are those of us who love Good and those who love Evil.

The Net represents the Gospel.

God knows how to deal with the Good fish who reject the Gospel.

The Nations in Eternity outside the New Jerusalem are most likely these people.

Good Fish who accepted the Gospel will be in the New Jerusalem.

http://www.truthinlove.com/Parables/net.htm

http://www.truthinlove.com/Parables/Parable_weeds.htm

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