Some would estimate however, that the number of saints could actually be as high as one billion or even more, but that number seems highly unlikely. For that would mean that each saint would reign over 3 people during our Lord’s thousand year reign, as there will only be about 3 billion people alive on the earth at that time. And it will also mean that each saint will reign over 25 people in the age to come, as there will only be about 25 billion people on the earth at that time. Those that believe the number of saints will be significantly higher than 1 billion, argue that there must be at least 1 billion saints on the earth today alone. That many saints means that roughly 15% of the world’s population are born again. However, the nations of the earth today where the Christian population is negligible, account for almost 70% of the worlds population, i.e. Muslim nations, India, Russia and China for example. And so for 1 billion saints to be living in the rest of the earth today, they would have to account for roughly 50% of their nation’s populations. But even the USA, which boasts a born again population of approximately 29%, falls short of the 50% mark. And think of the impact on the morality of a nation that has 50% of its population born again. Those nations would be examples to the rest of the world of high standards of morality, but nowhere in the earth today do we see such standards displayed, in fact we see the opposite taking place all over the earth. And so, all the evidence indicates to us that a number of 1 billion people in the earth today that are born again cannot be valid. And we must also not forget that we are nearing the end of the age, and the event of the falling away must still take place, which will have the effect of reducing the number in the church significantly. Nevertheless, purely for illustrative purposes, we will work with the number of three hundred million saints, in this series.
Revelation 3:12 “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.”
In the above passage of scripture, the Lord Jesus tells the saints that they will become pillars in the temple of God and that they will go out no more. We have already seen in an earlier passage, that God Himself and the Lord Jesus are the temple of the New Jerusalem. And so what our Lord is in fact saying is that His saints will dwell for all eternity in the New Jerusalem. In other words, the New Jerusalem is the final home of every saint of God. And in fact, among mankind, it is only the church of the Lord Jesus that will be privileged to live within the city walls of the New Jerusalem.
Michael E.B. Maher
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