Revelation 20:4-6 “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. (5) But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. (6) Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”
The second resurrection will take place at the end of the age, when God creates the new heaven and the new earth. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit tells us that the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand-year reign of Christ had ended. The rest of the dead that He refers to in this passage of scripture, are all those who have died as children and gone to heaven.
Revelation 21:9-10 “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven-bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." (10) And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.”
The church will reign with Christ for a thousand years. And it is the church that is destined to dwell in the New Jerusalem in God’s new heaven and earth. For the church is the bride of Christ. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit plainly shows us that the church is destined to dwell in the New Jerusalem, for she is the Lamb’s wife.
Revelation 21:24-27 “And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. (25) Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). (26) And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. (27) But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.”
So, if all children that die go to be with the Lord in heaven because they are His children, what status do they enjoy in heaven? Children that die do not remain children, for they continue to grow and develop in heaven as they would have on the earth. The scripture quoted above reveals to us that there will be nations that will be saved, that will be dwelling in God’s new earth. Those nations will be allowed access to the New Jerusalem, but they will not dwell there. Those nations will be made up of all the children who have died since the time of Adam, for their names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. The population of mankind that has been born into the earth since the time of Adam is well over one hundred billion people. Of that number, roughly twenty billion have been children who have died and have since gone to be in heaven. It is that population of twenty billion that will make up the nations of those who are saved in God’s new earth.
Michael E.B. Maher
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