OK, I am beginning to understand the level of your understanding…..I am sorry that I confused you…..
Can I ask a simple question…..do you know what God’s kingdom is? If not, then the scriptures I cited will not mean much, as they apparently didn’t. The scriptures I cited have to do with “the good news of God’s Kingdom” and what that means for redeemed humanity….the very reason why it had to be preached in all the world “as a witness to all the nations” before “the end“ came.
There have always been two groups selected by God for everlasting life….some will be resurrected to heaven to rule with Christ as “kings and priests” (Rev 20:6) and others will resume their lives here on earth where God put us humans in the first place. (Rev 21:2-4) He created the earth for us to enjoy…forever.
God never intended to take any humans to heaven originally because he already has a large family of spirit creatures who serve him there. Humans were to serve him on earth.…but a rebellion took place and needed to be resolved first. God’s first purpose was delayed but not abandoned. (Isa 55:11)
Even back in the first century Paul identified two groups…..his first letter to the Corinthians was addressed….
“to the congregation of God that is in Corinth, to you who have been sanctified in union with Christ Jesus, called to be holy ones, together with all those everywhere who are calling on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:
3 May you have undeserved kindness and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor 1:2-3)
So Paul addressed those “called to be holy ones” (saints) and those who were “together with” those ones, and he called Jesus “their Lord and ours”. Not everyone received “the heavenly calling” (Heb 3:1) They are a finite group, a prophesied number, who are pictured with another group (unnumbered) who have not received such a calling….but there is no jealously or animosity over this because it was God himself who did the choosing.
I am assuming that this is something that you have gleaned from somewhere else, since it seems to be way beyond the content of your posts to date. Is it Universalist?
If I may explain…..
Rev 7 pictures the two separate groups…one in heaven with Jesus and the other as survivors of “the great tribulation” which takes place on earth.
“And I saw another angel ascending from the sunrise, having a seal of the living God; and he called with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, 3 saying: “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until after we have sealed the slaves of our God in their foreheads.”
4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000, sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel”
Only the 144,000 are “sealed”…that is set apart for a particular role in God’s kingdom. (Rev 20:6)
Rev 14: 1-5 also mentioned
“the 144,000”….”who have been bought from the earth”.
This is not fleshly Israel but
“the Israel of God” who replaced them. (Gal 6:16) Paul gives them this designation, but he was referring to Christians who were of both Jewish and non-Jewish nationality.
Natural Israel had failed to keep their covenant with God and his relationship with that nation was abandoned, once his purpose in connection with them was completed. (Matt 23:37-39) He chose a new nation that would keep his commandments….”a people for his name“ who would be chosen from among the Gentiles. (Acts 15:14; Rom 2:28-29) This did not exclude Jews, but they had to accept Jesus as Messiah…..for almost 2000 years, the Jewish people have denied that Jesus was the Christ, as Jesus said…..they stoned the prophets and failed to keep God’s laws.
Rev 7 goes on to identify the second group…after seeing the first Group in heaven with Jesus, John says….
“I saw, and look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes; and there were palm branches in their hands. 10 And they keep shouting with a loud voice, saying: “Salvation we owe to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.”. . . . . In response one of the elders said to me: “These who are dressed in the white robes, who are they and where did they come from?” 14 So right away I said to him: “My lord, you are the one who knows.” And he said to me: “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 That is why they are before the throne of God, and they are rendering him sacred service day and night in his temple; and the One seated on the throne will spread his tent over them.”
These are from all nationalities, not just Jews, so it fits the description of the those who will live on the earth.
As these unnumbered ones contrast to the finite number of the first group, it would be pointless to mention this if the number was not literal.
Rev 21:2-4 mentions God’s tent being spread over “mankind”, who are not in heaven but who are those saved through the coming tribulation on earth, that Jesus foretold. (Matt 24:21)
Thank you.
