Bible Question: "Jesus said there would be no marriages in heaven. But during the 1,000-year reign, where are the people coming from on earth, since there are no marriages?"

Bible Answer: As Jesus said, there will be no marriages in heaven. But during the 1,000-year reign of Jesus as King of Kings here on this earth, there will be two types of people in His Kingdom. Those who have died or been raptured prior to Jesus' return in glory to begin the millennial reign will be in His Kingdom with glorified, resurrected bodies, apparently living in the New Jerusalem.

Others who have survived the tribulation period, the last seven years before Jesus returns, will be in His Kingdom as normal human beings in normal bodies, and we must presume they will be free to marry during the 1,000 years.

Jesus says in Matthew 22:30, "For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven." Almost identical words with the same promise are quoted by Jesus in Mark 12:25 and Luke 20:35.

Clearly it is those who are resurrected that Jesus said will be like the angels, and will no longer marry or be given in marriage.

At the end of the tribulation period, the 1,000-year reign of Christ on earth begins in John's vision in Revelation 20:1-3.

"Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

"He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while."

So the two types of people who will be on earth during this 1,000-year reign are called the resurrected and "the nations."

And if there remained any possible doubt about the Adam nature that we all share in this human flesh, and its depths of depravity, look at what happens at the end of the 1,000 years.

After living with no sin, no death, no temptations for 1,000 years, when Satan is loosed again, he finds many followers. These humans have lived under the perfect rule of Christ all those years, and some still choose to rebel when given a choice.

"Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations who are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.

"They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them," Rev. 20:7-9 says.

New Jerusalem is "the beloved city" where the resurrected saints are living, but Satan's last assault fails and he is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone to burn forever, Rev. 20:10 says.

Submit Bible questions by email to writeme@johnwmyers.com

(John Myers has been a Christian lay speaker, Sunday School adult teacher and newspaper Bible study columnist for more than 20 years.)