Who will inhabit the new earth for the thousand-year reign?

Many who make a distinction between Israel and the Body of Christ, but who do not make a clear distinction between the 12 Apostles and the Apostle Paul, often believe that the Body of Christ will return with the Lord Jesus after the tribulation and will reign with Him here on earth during the millennium.

By not rightly dividing Israel’s program form the current age of grace, not recognizing this age began with the calling and commissioning of Paul, leads to mixing the two programs and purposes of God.

The purpose of the Body of Christ according Paul’s epistles is for the heavens. II Corinthians 5:1 says our house and new home is “eternal in the heavens.” I Thessalonians 4:13-18 says when the rapture occurs and we meet the Lord in the air – “so shall be ever be with the Lord.” We are with Him in the heavens. This is why I Corinthians 15:40, 49, 50-53 teaches we must be changed to “bear the image of the heavenly.”

Ephesians 2:5-7 says: “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

In the “ages to come” (plural) meaning the tribulation, the 1000 year reign and the eternal ages that follow we will be seated in heavenly places as a testimony of God’s grace.

It is God’s intent for the Body of Christ to fulfill His purpose in Christ to make Him preeminent in all things (heaven and earth) and to reconcile all things in heaven and earth to himself according to Colossians 1:15-20. The heavens will be reconciled by the Body of Christ. That is why we are raptured out of the earth and into heaven – see Ephesians 1:22, 23.

Revelations 12:7, 8 says: “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.” The reason their place is no more found is because the Body of Christ has filled them. This is in the middle of the tribulation. Those places are not going to be vacated during the 1000-year reign of Christ. We will be there as the glory of Jesus Christ in the heavens while He continues to fulfill His purpose in the earth – filling the earth with his glory.