In the New Testament there are three basic, distinct groups of people in the Lord’s eyes: the Jews, the nations, and the church of God (1 Cor. 10:32). While people are saved out of the nations to become believers in Christ as part of the church (Rev. 5:9, 7:9), the nations themselves are not God’s people.

In this age, in fact, the nations are in rebellion against God, and indeed, a major part of God’s work today is to deal with the nations to finally bring them into submission to Him. We read in Psalm 2,

Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the LORD and
against His Anointed, saying,
“Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us.”
— Psalm 2:1-3

Contrast this with the saints’ praise of God just before the end of the Great Tribulation:

Great and marvelous are Your works,
Lord God the Almighty!
Righteous and true are Your ways,
O King of the nations!
Who will not fear, O Lord,
And glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy;
For all the nations shall come
And worship before You,
For Your righteous judgments
Have been manifested!
— Revelation 15:3-4

So today the nations rage against God, but in the future, after God’s dealings with the nations are complete, they shall all worship before Him.

God’s dealing with the nations is of two aspects. On the positive side, the nations can receive the eternal gospel. Unlike the gospel of grace, the eternal gospel is not about Christ, but about fearing God (Rev. 14:6-7). It does not bring people into contact with Christ and so, while those who are saved through this gospel receive the forgiveness of sins, they are not brought into relation with God by receiving the divine life. (See “The Eternal Gospel (4): Its Result.”) That is why they become the nations who have the blessing of living on the earth in the kingdom and in eternity, but who do not have the highest blessing of dwelling with God and His people in the New Jerusalem.

On the negative side, God deals with the rebellious nations through His judgments. These include the “sheep and goats” judgment at the Lord’s return (Matthew 25:31-46), and continue even during the 1,000 year reign of Christ upon the earth (Rev. 2:26-27). They will culminate at the end of the 1,000 years, when the nations’ final rebellion against God, instigated by Satan, will be judged with fire coming down directly from heaven to destroy them (Rev. 20:7-10).

Through all of these judgments, and others besides, the rebellious elements among the nations will be fully purged away, so that the remaining nations will be brought into the new heaven and new earth to dwell as the people on the earth who will live under the reign of God’s children for eternity (Rev. 22:5).

However, this is different from what many Christians have been taught, which is that in eternity there will only be the saved, who are with the Lord, and the damned, who are in the Lake of Fire. So, in the next Note in this series we will consider the Biblical evidence that shows us just who are the nations in the new heaven and new earth.

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in this Series

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—  8 March 2025 —