Jan,
You wrote: at Christ's return: all those who do not accept Jesus as their
Saviour ... will be destroyed, going to Hell, and not accepted on the new
earth. Scripture is pretty clear on that, I think.
I disagree. I do not believe that the Bible teaches that God will, at
Christ's return destroy everyone on earth except true Christians. I believe
that when Christ returns He will judge only the Christian world. Two-thirds
of the earth's population has never even heard the good news of Jesus Christ,
including billions of people in lands like China and India. many believe that
God will soon kill all of these people. I think they are wrong. This does not
sound like the God of love, justice and mercy I worship.
One thing that leads me to believe this is an incorrect understanding of
scripture is that that the Bible tells us that "Judgment begins with the
house of God." (1 Peter 4:17) Jesus also said those who will rule as kings
with Him will "judge the 12 tribes of Israel." (Luke 22:30) To me this
indicates that when Christ returns and draws all true Christians to Himself
(Matt. 24:31), they will then determine who among those who have heard the
good news of Jesus Christ and not taken it to heart are deserving of death.
"The 12 tribes of Israel," spoken of in Luke 22:30, I believe refers to all
those who have heard the good news preached by those whom Galatians 6:16
calls "the Israel of God." Remember, the literal "12 tribes of Israel" had
all heard the Law of Moses, but few had taken it to heart.
Remember too that it was only the Jewish world which had rejected Jesus as
their Messiah that was punished by God at the hands of Roman armies in the
latter part of the first century, not the entire Roman empire. Also to be
considered is a fact known by most serious students of the Bible, history and
science. The flood of Noah's day was a local event, not a global one. God
brought that judgment only upon a land that had heard the message of "Noah, a
preacher of righteousness," and failed to respond to it. (2 Pet. 2:5) God did
not take the lives of those in other parts of then widely populated earth who
had not heard Noah's preaching.
Interestingly, Revelation chapters 8 and 9 talk quite a bit about "a third of
the world" being judged. And by population, the part of the world claiming
Christianity as its religion is almost exactly one-third. (See The World
Almanac 1998, page 654)
If your understanding is correct, that "at Christ's return all those who do
not accept Jesus as their Saviour ... will be destroyed, going to Hell, and
not accepted on the new earth," who, I ask, will be left on "the new earth"
for Christians to then rule over as "kings" and to serve as "priests"? If my
understanding is correct, that Christ is returning to judge only the
Christian world, Christians will then have plenty of people to rule over as
kings with Christ for 1,000 years. And they will also then have plenty of
people to help come to know the true God as they serve as His "priests." For
that is, after all, what priests do.
Mike
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