Eternity to Eternity 12 Genesis 1:24 — Joseph Balsan

Well, I want to say it's been a real pleasure to be with you, and I certainly appreciate the excellent attendance and the attention that you have given. And I'm sure that our brother Bill has brought before us, we may be leaky vessels, but it's a great comfort to know that his spirit brings all things to our remembrance.

So, I'm sure that in days to come, why, these things that you have seen and heard will be brought by the Spirit from time to time to your remembrance. We trust that the Lord has blessed his word. Let us turn to Genesis chapter 1.

Creation, Humanity, and the Purpose of the Ages

Genesis chapter 1, I'm not going to read the whole chapter because I do want to read quite a portion in Revelation. Genesis chapter 1 and verse 24,. And God said, Let the earth bring forth a living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind.

And it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind. And God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for me. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every living thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for me.

And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.".

Revelation's Sequence of Judgment and Eternal State

Revelation chapter 19, and I saw heaven opened, and, behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself, and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.

And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth the sharp sword that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the followers that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image.

These both were cast alive into a lake of fire, burning with brimstone, and the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all the followers were filled with their flesh.

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, on a great chain in his hand, and he hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.

And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled, and after that he must be loosed a little season.

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them, and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

But the rest of the dead did not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, and such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go on to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

And they went upon the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea.

And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as the 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.

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. He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new, and he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful.

And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is the thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

May the Lord bless to us the reading of his word. Now, I read quite a portion to you from the 19th, 20th, and 21st chapters of the book of Revelation, and the reason for it is because these three chapters in the portions that I have read to you bring before us a, you might say, a consecutive series of events in their order from the time of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ until the eternal state.

You know, the book of Revelation is rather a difficult book to understand, and one of the reasons for it is because in the book of Revelation we have, from the fourth chapter through the eleventh chapters of Revelation, we have an orderly sequence of events, especially in regard to God's judgments upon Christendom.

And then, in the twelfth chapter and through to about the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters, we have brought before us a number of separate events that take place in the same time that the first eleven chapters of Revelation take up, but they are referring especially to God's judgments and dealings with Israel and the prominent actors who will be very prominent during the tribulation period.

And then, when we come to the nineteenth chapter of Revelation, after the account of the fall of Babylon in the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters of Revelation, when we come to the nineteenth, we are taken to heaven, and we see the marriage supper of the Lamb, and then the coming of the Lord Jesus, and then the various events—the binding of Satan, the setting up of the kingdom, the loosing of Satan, the insurrection against the Lord as we have it brought before us here, and then we have brought before us the great fight judgment.

And, when we come to the twenty-first chapter of Revelation, the first eight verses bring before us a brief account of what eternity is going to be like. We see a new heaven and a new earth. Now, I might say that this chart, in certain senses, is a little wrong because we have water here in the new earth, but as far as we know, why that is not going to be so in the eternal state.

But, nevertheless, it is suggestive of the blessing that will be carried on from the millennium into the eternal state. Now, we have come in Genesis to the sixth and seventh days. We have seen how the first five days, how beautifully they synchronize with the first five ages of human history.

We have seen the first day God tried man with light, and we saw how man failed. The period from Adam to Noah, a period of 1656 years, when man had light from God, the light of creation to tell him there was a God, the light of conscience to remind him and make known to him that he is a sinner and needs a savior, and the light of promise, the promise of the coming savior.

We saw how that first age ended in the judgment of the flood. The flood was brought down upon the entire world in that day, and there were only eight souls saved, and that through the waters. And then we have the second day, the atmosphere brought in, the waters above divided from the waters beneath, picturing for us the second age from Noah to Abraham, a period of about 430 years when man was tried with government, and we saw how man could not govern himself, and that age ended in the Tower of Babel, man in his pride daring to lift himself up in rebellion against God, seeking to raise a monument to his greatness, and God comes down and confounds his speech, and the result is that nations are brought into being.

And, I might mention that you notice that nations are continued all through the course of time, even into the kingdom age, but you notice in the eternal state that nations are done away. Revelation 21 tells us the tabernacle of God is with men.

Nationality is the result of sin, and when God's purposes are finally accomplished and fulfilled, why, that trace of sin is done away, and we find that there will be one Lord, one God, and one speech.

And so, we find that nationality and nations will be done away in eternity because the tabernacle of God is not with one nation, but it will be with men, and then the third day we saw the waters were gathered together into one place, the dry land appeared, and the dry land brought forth fruit, picturing for us the third age from Abraham all the way to the time of the Lord Jesus when God dealt with Abraham and his seed, one nation, and that nation was the nation of Israel.

And, we follow the course of the nation of Israel, and we saw that their crowning sin was not only disobedience to God's commands, but it was the rejection of the Lord himself and the crucifixion of the Lord himself.

Regardless of what the Pope and his college decrees as to the guilt of the Jews, they may excuse the Jews and say that the Jews are not guilty of the crucifixion of Christ, but God holds them responsible, and it is because of the rejection of the Messiah that they are scattered today, but that they are also going to suffer the awful period of the tribulation time.

And then we saw the fourth day the heavens were garnished, the sun, the moon, and the stars were put in their place. God's thoughts turned toward heaven, and we see how in this age, since the ascension of Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, God is taking out of the Gentiles a people for his name, the church, and that purpose is not failing.

God fulfills his purpose in spite of the failure of the church, in spite of the failure of believers. God accomplishes his purpose, and he will fulfill his purpose. I remember a number of years ago speaking to a very intelligent woman, and she said to me, well, Christianity has failed.

I said, well, why do you say that it has failed? She said, well, Christianity was supposed to convert the world, and there are more heathen in the world today than there were in the days when Christ was on earth and sent the apostles out to preach.

So, if we have to wait until the entire world is converted before we can expect the kingdom of Christ, she says that will never be because there are more heathen today than there ever were in the days of the apostles.

Well, she misunderstood what the purpose of the Lord is, that the purpose of the Lord is not the conversion of the world, and while the gospel is to be preached to every creature, we saw how in the days of the apostles this was fulfilled.

It was preached to every creature of that time, but the Lord's purpose was not fulfilled. We saw that through the years he has been calling out a people for his name, the church, and when that is completed, it is going to be raptured to be with our Lord Jesus Christ, the world is left behind, and then we have the fifth day, and on the fifth day the waters are turbulent, the waters are bringing forth abundant life, there is heavenly life as well, picturing for us that this age when the nations of the world are going to be brought into turmoil.

The New Birth and the Millennial Kingdom

When that awful period of tribulation, the Christian world or Christendom which has refused the Lord Jesus Christ, and has been left by the coming of the Lord Jesus, and taking his true people to be with himself, false Christendom is left behind, and because of the rejection of the Lord Jesus, and the refusal of the testimony of the Holy Spirit, they are going to receive Satan's lie, they are going to receive the antichrist, and the one that he represents, the beast, and thus they are going to be given over to delusion, they are going to believe the big lie, and the result is that they are going to experience the judgment and the wrath of God.

At the same time, Israel which rejected the Messiah is going to experience the wrath and judgment of God. At the same time, the nations of the world are going to experience that awful time of catastrophe and wrath.

But, out of it all, the Lord is going to preserve and save 144 ,000 of the nation of Israel. He is going to save a vast multitude of Gentiles who have never heard the gospel, have never heard the name of the Lord Jesus, and they are going to receive the messengers who bring the gospel of the kingdom, and we see that they are the ones who are going to go into that sixth age of which we are speaking tonight.

Now, tonight we are thinking of the sixth and the seventh day. Now, of course, the seventh day you notice in the second chapter of Genesis, in the first verse it says,. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Now, this seventh day pictures for us eternity. You notice that each of the first six days has an evening and a morning, but the seventh day it does not say it has an evening and a morning because it pictures for us eternity.

Eternity is without beginning and without end. You and I are in time, and we are in eternity because time is in eternity. There are the past ages of eternity, and there are the future ages of eternity, but eternity, well, it's without beginning and it's without end.

And just think, every one of us who are in the meeting this evening, every one of us are going to be in eternity. I mentioned something last night that I think I didn't make very clear, and that was about souls, about beasts having souls, and about man having a soul.

Well, if beasts have souls, does that mean that they're going to live forever? Well, there is this difference. A soul is a self-conscious element of life in the creature. A beast has a soul which distinguishes it from a tree.

A tree has life, but it is an insensible life. You might say a tree doesn't know that it's alive, but the soul in the beast gives it the self-consciousness. It has a measure of self-knowledge, but the difference between man's soul and the beast's soul is this, that in the Garden of Eden, you remember that when the Lord formed man from the dust of the earth, he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

That imparted to man an eternal character. Man thereby will exist as long as God exists. Now, I said exists because there is a difference between eternal life and eternal existence. Every unsaved soul is going to exist forever in the lake of fire, in the lake of fire which burneth with fire and in brimstone forever and ever, and the reason they are going to exist forever is because in the Garden of Eden, God, by breathing into man, imparted something to man, to his soul, that makes that soul an eternal soul.

Now, we never read in the Bible of the immortal soul. Immortality or incorruptibility always refers to the body, but while we don't have that word immortal in connection with the soul, the soul lives on forever and ever.

It will never cease to exist. You know, sometimes the seven-day Adventists come to you and they say, well, show me in the Bible where you ever have that expression, immortal soul, and you can't find immortal soul in the Bible.

You'll find immortal body because immortality always refers to the body, but does that mean the soul can cease to exist? Turn for a moment to Matthew chapter 10, and this is a very interesting verse to show you that the soul will live on forever and forever.

Matthew chapter 10, that's what it says here in verse 28, And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Now, man can kill the body, but he cannot kill the soul. So, he says, fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Now, notice that word. He does not say kill soul and body in hell. He says destroy it. You know, there was a man one time, it's a rather old story, he was trying to prove that when at death the soul ceased to exist, and so he was trying to illustrate it with a gun.

He took the gun apart, you know, like you can do. You can take the trigger and the handle. You can take the front part off. You'll break it up into pieces, and he did. He just took it apart. He says, see, where's the gun?

Man says, well, there's no gun there. Well, he says, well, I did away with the gun. He said, didn't I? Yes, you did. But he says, you didn't do away with the parts. The parts are still there. And so it is also with man.

Man can kill the body, but he cannot kill the soul. But he says, fear him which can destroy. Now, to destroy does not mean to annihilate. It means to mar. It means to ruin. I could take a hatchet, and I could break this pulpit into pieces.

I could destroy it, but I couldn't annihilate it. I might take a match and stick a match to it, and burn it to ashes. But I can't annihilate it. It changes its form. And so, the soul and the body never cease to exist, but will be in the place of eternal punishment.

And so, we find that man's soul is different from the souls of creatures. The souls of creatures are temporary to give them a life that enable them to live and to move. Sometimes you read some of the most ridiculous poems in newspapers about dog lovers.

And of course, I love dogs. We've got a dog. But you know, some of the things that people write about their dogs, when their dogs die, they expect to meet them in heaven, and all that kind of thing. Well, there's no dogs in heaven.

When a dog dies, it's the end. His soul dies too. But when man dies, his soul leaves the body, and it lives on forever. And so, God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life. And so, we have brought before us here the sixth day.

And notice we have brought before us in the 24th verse,. And God said, Let the earth bring forth a living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind. And it was so.

And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind. And God saw that it was good. And so, we see that on the sixth day, after the earth has brought forth fruit, and after the waters have brought forth, we find that on the sixth day, God puts creatures upon the face of the earth.

And then you notice it says in the 26th verse,. And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So, God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. Now, notice here. Here we have where man comes from. And where does man come from? You know, some people have tried to confuse the first and second chapters of Genesis.

They say, well, in the first chapter of Genesis, it says that God created man, and that God made man in his own image. In the second chapter, we have that the Lord formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

While in the first chapter, we have the account of man's creation in the order in which it took place. But in the second chapter of Genesis, he is going back, and he is filling in the details as to how the Lord brought man into being.

That he formed man from the dust of the earth, and that when man lay out in that form, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. God brought the animals which he had made, and he brought them before the man to see what he would call them.

And when he did, there was not a helpmate found for him. And so the Lord put the man to sleep, and from his side he took a rest, and from that rest he builded a woman, and he brought her to the man. And they, the man and the woman, were put in authority over that creation.

And then, of course, pictures for us this sixth age, which begins with the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, and is that glorious age of the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we turn to Revelation chapter 19, and notice the events that are brought before us in this 19th chapter of Revelation.

Christ's Return, Satan's Defeat, and the Millennium

We must remember that here at the end of the tribulation period, the forces of the nations are gathered together against Jerusalem. You'll find the account of that in Joel chapter 2. You'll find the account of that in Zechariah chapter 14.

And we find it also here in Revelation chapter 19. The Lord is followed by the armies of heaven. And here we have the Lord Jesus Christ coming from heaven, followed by the armies of heaven. And then notice what it tells us.

It tells us in the 19th verse, And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. Here we find that the nations of the earth and the nations of the western world, they're going to turn their weapons against the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we find that the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image, these both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Here we find that these two men, the leaders of the insurrection, the Jewish leader of the Antichrist, the Gentile leader of the beast, and they are cast alive into the lake of fire one thousand years before anybody else.

And then we find the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. Then we find in the 20th chapter, I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottom of spit, and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.

Now, there can be no kingdom of our Lord Jesus until Satan is bound. Now, we want to remember, as we look at this chart, we haven't followed Satan too much, but you notice we have him in different spheres.

We have him with the power of death, we have him exercising his authority upon the earth, and we have him in the heavenly places, and the heavenly places is where the seat of his government has been. Perhaps that is why, of every day except the second day, it is said God saw that it was good.

He does not say that of the second day when the atmosphere is brought in, and the waters above are separated from the waters beneath, because the air, or the atmosphere, was the sphere of Satan's authority, and is the place from whence he controls and executes.

But, you notice here, we find in the middle of the tribulation period, there's going to be war in heaven. Satan and his angels fight against Michael and his angels. We read that in Revelation chapter 12, and Satan is cast out into the earth, and he has three and a half years, and he comes down knowing that his time is short, and at the coming of our Lord Jesus, Satan is taken, and he is cast into the bottomless pit.

Now, people have asked me, do you think that that bottomless pit is really bottomless? Well, I believe it's bottomless. I believe it's bottomless. I believe that when the Bible says bottomless pit, I believe it's bottomless.

Yes, but they say, how can it be bottomless? We know that the earth is only 8 ,000 miles through. It's 25 ,000 miles in circumference. How, then, can it be bottomless? It's only 8 ,000 miles long. Well, that's the earth.

But, it doesn't say that the bottomless pit is in the earth. It doesn't say that the lake of fire is in the earth. It doesn't say that hell is in the earth. You know, some people seem to have an idea that hell is in the middle of the earth, that the lake of fire, because of the fire that's in the center of the earth, that therefore, the lake of fire, or hell, are in the center of the earth.

But, I don't think that they are. And, the reason I don't is because I find that after the earth has passed away in Revelation 20, and the great white throne is set up, where we speak of death and hell being cast into the lake of fire.

So, hell exists after the earth is done away. The bottomless pit, I believe, is a bottomless pit. It is outside of earth, but it is in the universe of God. Where it is, I don't know. But, you know, friends, the universe of God is a tremendous place.

They tell us that there are stars, the light of which is traveling 186 ,000 miles a second. And, my friends, this light, some of the stars, is as far as a billion light years away. So, if light traveling at the rate of 186 ,000 miles a second takes a billion years to get to the earth, I don't think it would be very difficult for the Lord to have a place like the bottomless pit where the devil would continue falling for a thousand years.

That's not very long, a thousand years in comparison to a billion light years. You and I are dealing with God, and we are dealing with things of God, and he tells us Satan is cast into the bottomless pit.

He is chained and bound for a thousand years, and it says a seal is set upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled. You know, a number of years ago, I was talking to some people up in northern Michigan about the kingdom of Christ, and they said, well, the kingdom of Christ is right now.

I said, well, but the Bible tells me that the kingdom of Christ can't come until Satan is bound. Well, they said Satan was bound when Luther nailed the 95 Theses on the church door at Wittenberg. Since 1590, the devil has been bound.

Well, friends, it would be a hard thing to believe that the devil is bound as you and I look at the world today. We know that he's not bound, but he is going to be bound for this thousand years. You'll find a word here, millennium, which should have two ends instead of one, but nevertheless, that word millennium means a thousand years, and this is how we know that the kingdom is going to be about a thousand years, because we know that Satan is bound for a thousand years.

When I say about a thousand years, we know it's not going to be less than a thousand years. He is going to reign for a thousand years. His church is going to be reigning with him, and then Satan is going to be let loose for a little season.

We don't know how long that season is going to be, but that will be during the time of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and so we find that that kingdom, we find that Satan is bound, and then we find in the fourth verse, I saw thrones.

There are those who reign with the Lord Jesus Christ. This time of his kingdom is going to be a time when he is going to reign, just as the first man and the first woman were put over that creation. There is a man and a woman who are put over that creation, and that, of course, is Christ and his bride, who in that celestial city will reign over the earth.

That is the heavenly phase of the reign. You and I read that in Revelation 21 verse 9 to the end of chapter 22, where we have some of the glories. We don't have time to go into that. The glories of that heavenly reign, what it will be to administer the kingdom of our Lord Jesus from that heavenly city.

But there are those also who are going to reign on the earth, and the earthly phase of the kingdom, some people say, my, it would be wonderful to be in that earthly phase. We find so many beautiful descriptions of it.

We turn to the prophet Isaiah, and it tells us the wolf and the lamb shall lie down together. We find a little child shall play on the hole of an ass, and it will not be hurt. We find that the desert shall blossom as a rose.

We find that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to reign. Jerusalem will be the earthly center. We find that nations shall learn war no more. Nations shall dwell together in harmony. There will be one Lord, and all shall know him.

The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the seas. My friends, we could go through the prophet Isaiah. We could go through the prophet Micah. We could go through the prophet of Zachariah.

We could go through many of these prophets, and they speak of that wonderful earthly kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Men will live in that period through the entire kingdom. People who go into that kingdom will live through that entire kingdom.

How do we know that? Because at the end of that kingdom, there is no resurrection of the just. Every sane person of Israel or the Gentiles who go into that kingdom will go into that kingdom and will live through the entire reign of that kingdom.

Methuselah lived 969 years prior to the flood. He lived the longest period of time that a man has ever lived in the history of the world. But here are people who are going to live through the entire kingdom reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.

They will be people in natural bodies. There will be bringing forth of children into that kingdom. The earth will be populated until at the end of the kingdom, when Satan is loosed after the thousand years, and he goes into the four corners of the earth.

Rebellion After the Millennium and the Great White Throne

We find, as you notice, in the seventh verse, and when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

Pride man under every age, here under life, here under government, here under promise and law, here under grace, here we have a perfect claim, a perfect environment. People say, well, all man needs is a perfect environment.