Bible Discussion Thread

God's plan for the nations (conclusion)

As for the eternal new heaven and earth it seems verses indicate there still will be nations although some seem to merge with promises from the Millennium. However; Revelation 21:24 says: And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. So it is clear that there will be nations still in some geographic sense; although no more sea and the heavenly Jerusalem will clearly be the dominant vista wherever you roam on this new planet.

Jesus stated from the O.T. that the Temple was supposed to be a place of prayer for all nations ( Mark 11:17). This surely will be fulfilled in the future!

There are nations that are said not to know God. Isaiah 55:5 shows that they will wake up at the end of the Tribulation as well as return captives (see Isaiah 49:22-25). They also shall bow down as kings and queens to worship God ( Isaiah 49:23) and take care of children. These are wonderful promises to show even from the wicked Tribulation some even in royalty will be saved! We see an interesting prophecy in Ezekiel 39:2 that a sixth part of the Gog army will remain; I would deem it likely many of these people will repent; although a remnant it will probably be a fairly substantial number of those remaining at the end of the Tribulation (also we don't see those in that invasion who appear to have the mark or fight God). This and other verses show various campaigns which lead up to Armageddon; and perhaps linger on until Christ and His returning saints establish control to rule and reign.

It seems pretty apparent that with all nations against Israel ( Zech. 12:3) in the end so that mainly they will be reprobate with the dead being as dung on the earth ( Jeremiah 25:33). This is a sobering thought; thankfully in Israel 1/3 make it through the fire but 2/3 die ( Zech. 13:9). Some say this is harsh but compared to the stats from the whole world it isn't

That is true somewhat although some nations are mentioned that are roughly geographically the same. Others were; as pointed out at that time anyway places where certain descendants went to which could explain Tarshish (some say Spain others America for the sons mentioned); there are some references to the land of tin being England and differing opinions as to Togarmesh; Meschesh and Tubal being Turkey or rough translations of cities in Russia (perhaps both). Other places are extrapolations such as the Kings of the East. Babylon could certainly be America although it seems it could be literally in the old territory with plans for the future if the Lord tarries in coming years seem to be headed for development of a city made for drones somewhere in Abu Dhabi I believe.

Obviously there are certain peoples in tribes particularly in the Western Hemisphere that have gone extinct. Some have said that that issue with the Jamaicans for instance isn't such a mystery because they simply intermarried to the point that they are inextricably meshed with later peoples that took over. The languages certainly mixed things up so we have light skinned people in S. Italy and North Italy has dark skinned; we have languages like the Czeck and Slovak near each other that are completely different and of course even many more native American languages and cultures than we see in the "civilized world".

Nonethelss in glory those who have died would surely make up some from every tribe; tongue and nation who are missing today as the Lord will bear fruit and His Word not be void. Therefore even those who haven't heard the Word through creation it would appear will have faith; at least from the time before Christ came to earth.

The word "nations" literally means people groups. So this probably has nothing to do with nations as we understand them. It means these people groups will be there....