03.11. The Saved and Glorified to Reign with...
CHAPTER ELEVEN The Saved and Glorified to Reign with Christ On Earth after His Coming
CERTAIN simple truths have become clear in your mind as you prayerfully studied the Scriptures in the preceding chapters.
- Israel is to be regathered to Palestine as God promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and the whole nation.
- A remnant of the race will be brought back alive to Palestine and be converted and will possess the land.
- With them will come the resurrected, saved Jews of past ages.
- Saved Gentiles, too, will come to live with Christ on the earth. The kingdom of Israel will be restored again, and Christ will sit on the throne of His Father David and reign forever at Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be the joy of the whole earth.
Surely, if you believe the Bible, by this time you must be convinced that the reign of Christ will be a literal reign, on a literal earth, over a literal people with physical bodies, and on a literal throne. If the Bible means what it says, and if it can be taken at face value, then these promises are to be taken as true and understandable, and will be literally fulfilled.
Last but not least, in the preceding chapters it must have become clear that this wonderful era of peace and righteousness and joy, of the kingdom of Christ on earth, must follow the second coming of Christ. The King must come before His kingdom shall cover the earth.
Every Saved Soul in the Universe Will Be on This Earth
If Heaven is going to be on this earth, then we must expect that all the saved will be here, and that is true. Several Scriptures make clear that all the saved will be on the earth with Christ when He returns and rules over it in person.
First, all the saints, living and dead, will be changed and resurrected when Christ calls us into the air to meet Him.
"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."
Here Paul is inspired to say plainly that though "we shall not all sleep" (die), yet "we shall ALL be changed." The book of First Corinthians is addressed to "all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their’s and our’s" (1Co 1:2). It is addressed to all the saved of all ages, and to these Paul says, "We shall ALL be changed." Every saved person then dead will be resurrected, and every saved person then living will be changed in a moment to meet Christ in the air. In Heb 12:22-24 we have a picture of that assembled host, raptured, called up to meet Jesus in the air for our honeymoon in Heaven, before He begins His reign on earth. The "church" which is His body, all the redeemed, will be with Jesus at that time.
Read the passage carefully and notice that the assembly is not a partial assembly but a "general assembly." Notice that that called-out assembly is composed of "the firstborn," those "which are written in heaven;" again, "the spirits of just men made perfect." That assembly in Heaven will surely include every person saved up to that time. That happy occasion, so often called "the rapture," is also pictured in 1Th 4:16-17 as follows:
"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." The dead in Christ shall rise first, not a part of them, but all of them. Then we that are alive and remain, not a part of us, but all of us, the saved, will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. No hint is made here of any who have ever been saved being left behind. The Resurrected Saints Must Go Where Christ Goes
Now notice the concluding statement in verse 1Th 4:17, "so shall we EVER be with the Lord." From this time on, the saved are the bride of Christ. Where He goes, they will go. When He returns to reign on the earth, they will return to reign with Him. Not one of these saved people will ever any more have any real separation from Jesus Christ. That is the one reason that that time is spoken of as a marriage. The Bridegroom will meet His bride. Sweethearts will become husband and wife. After that, they are yoked together; and in this case, what God has joined together man cannot put asunder. Christians will be with Jesus wherever He is from that time forth.
We have spoken here about the time when Christians will be called up into the air to meet Christ. There we will meet the Saviour and have the wedding supper. There we will be judged, each one at the judgment seat of Christ. (That will not be a judgment to determine whether we are saved or not, nor even to declare it. It will be a judgment to announce rewards for service, which will greatly vary.) During our time in Heaven with the Saviour, the terrible reign of the Antichrist will begin, cover the whole earth, and come to climatic ruin. And then the Saviour will return to this earth in person to set up His kingdom - and we will come with Him.
"The Lord My God Shall Come, and All the Saints With Thee" In Zec 14:1-21, the Holy Spirit gives us a clear picture of "the day of the Lord." That is the time when the Lord Jesus shall come into His own, when He shall defeat His enemies and establish His kingdom on the earth. That "day of the Lord" is mentioned many times throughout the Bible, and the term refers to the entire period from the setting up of Christ’s kingdom on David’s throne when Christ returns through a thousand years’ reign and until sinners are judged and the kingdom is turned over to the Father, after which Father and Son will reign together on the earth. The "day of the Lord" begins at the literal return of Christ to the earth to begin His reign.
Zec 14:1-21 starts off with the statement, "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh," and then tells of all nations being gathered against Jerusalem to destroy it. In the midst of that destruction, verse Zec 14:3 tells us, "Then shall the Lord go forth," and verse Zec 14:4 says that "His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives." Then in verse Zec 14:5 we are told, "And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee." Following that, verse Zec 14:9 tells us that "The Lord shall be king over all the earth." When Jesus returns to reign, to be King over all the earth, then "ALL THE SAINTS" will return with Him. And with the living Jews, regathered to Palestine and converted, will be all the saints in the universe with Christ when He reigns on this earth.
These saints will cover the earth, we understand, and will not all live in Palestine.
Tribulation Saints Will Be Here Too
During the tribulation time, while the church, that called-out assembly, is with the Saviour in Heaven, others will be converted here on this earth.
- Rev 7:1-8 tells us of an hundred and forty-four thousand Israelites who will be converted during that time.
- In Rev 14:1-4 we are given a vision of them again, standing on Mount Zion (at Jerusalem), and we are told that they are the "firstfruits."
Evidently these Jews, converted during the Great Tribulation, are firstfruits in the sense that at the close of the tribulation, when the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, then "all Israel shall be saved" (Rom 11:24-26). So some Jews will be converted in the tribulation period, as firstfruits of the great revival among Jews. In Rev 7:9-14 we find a description of a great number of others who are not Jews, ". . . a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues." Then in verse Rev 7:14 we are told, "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
Here are tribulation saints, converted during the time of tribulation on earth when those of us who are now Christians will be at the wedding supper in Heaven. What will become of these Christians when Christ returns to reign on the earth? The answer is, they will reign with us and with Him. In the same chapter, verse Rev 7:15 says about them, "And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them," and verse Rev 7:17 says that the Lamb "shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." They too will be with Christ where He is when He returns to reign on the earth. In Rev 19:1-21 and Rev 20:1-15, we have again a description of the return of Christ to reign on the earth, of the battle of Armageddon, and of the happy millennium. In Rev 20:4, we are told how even those put to death for Christ during that tribulation time will be resurrected to reign with Him.
"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."
Verses Rev 20:5-6 after that tell us that the unsaved dead will not be raised until a thousand years later, but that all who are in the first resurrection shall reign with Christ.
"But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years."
"We Shall Reign on the Earth" (Rev 5:10)
It is hard for some people to believe that saints will reign with Christ on earth. So lest some should misunderstand and think the reign mentioned here will be in Heaven, it is well to go back to the fifth chapter of Revelation where we are expressly told that these saints will reign literally on the earth. The church age is pictured in Revelation, closing Rev 3:1-21. Rev 4:1-11 begins with the rapture of the saints, and soon afterward the book tells of the Great Tribulation. John was caught up into Heaven to behold a throne set in Heaven (Rev 4:1-2) and around the throne were beautiful living creatures (improperly translated beasts) which remind us of the cherubim and seraphim mentioned in the Old Testament. And around that throne were twenty-four elders. These twenty-four men are not named, but they say that they are simply redeemed men, redeemed by the blood of Christ from various nations on the earth.
Now Rev 5:8-10 tells us that these elders, then seen in Heaven with Christ, will reign on the earth.
"And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth" (Rev 5:8-10). In Rev 5:9-10 these elders said, "Thou . . . hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign ON THE EARTH."
Then Rev 20:6 says, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." The reign of the saints is on the earth with Christ. These elders and all others who will be in the first resurrection, the resurrection of the saved, will reign on earth with Christ.
Again I am reminded that some people think that the heavenly Jerusalem will be hovering up above the world somewhere instead of coming down to the site of the present city Jerusalem. They think that Gentile Christians, including those saved in the present or church age, will live in the heavenly city up above the earth and perhaps in some fashion reign over the earth. With this in mind, they call attention to the marginal reading of Rev 5:10. By the word "on" is a reference letter, and in the margin of the Scofield Reference Bible we are told that the word "on" should be really "over." So we might translate the statement of these twenty-four elders of every kindred and tribe, "We shall reign over the earth" instead of "We shall reign on the earth."
It is true that the Greek word here could properly be translated "over," but it does not necessarily mean physically "above." In the Greek, as in the English, the word for "over" often refers to authority and not to physical position above. If I should speak of Hitler’s rule over Europe, I would not mean that Hitler was suspended in the air over Europe, but rather that he exercised authority over Europe. Joseph Stalin rules over Russia, but that simply means that he has authority over Russia, not that he is hanging in the air somewhere over Russia. So these twenty-four saints of God up in Heaven praising the Lord Jesus merely say that Christ has made them kings and priests, "and we shall reign on the earth."
I remember that this was made clear in an article in The Sunday School Times by Dr. James Oliver Buswell.
Thus we see that the saints of God will literally be on the earth as Christ will be on the earth. He will reign from the throne of His father, David, at Jerusalem; the twelve apostles will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel; and Christians, on earth with Christ, will help Him reign. According to our Saviour, in the parable of the pounds, to one faithful Christian Christ will say, "Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities." And to another, "Be thou also over five cities" (Luk 19:17-19).
I find no Scriptural authority whatever for the idea that the New Jerusalem will be suspended up in the air and that it will be reserved for a favored group called "the church," while Jews will live on the earth. No, the great Bible teaching is, as I see it, that the New Jerusalem will be the capital city of the world. It will be, naturally, on Mount Zion, in Palestine, where Jerusalem has always been. And this city will be the center of the kingdom of Christ and of God. Saints of Christ will reign on the earth with Him.
You can see, then, that even the saints converted during the tribulation time will reign with Christ on the earth. Every saved soul in the universe will be on the earth with Christ during that time.
Two resurrections are mentioned in the verses we quoted above, in Rev 20:4-6. The first resurrection is a resurrection of saved people only. Part of the first resurrection takes place at the rapture and the rest of the first resurrection takes place when Christ returns to reign and when the tribulation saints receive their resurrection bodies. The second resurrection is a thousand years later and will be composed of the unsaved alone. The twentieth chapter of Revelation will make this plain. The passages you have studied thus show that every Christian who ever died will be resurrected to reign with Christ on the earth, but that every lost sinner who ever died will still be in Hell and his body in the grave during the thousand years of Christ’s reign on earth.
Literal Flesh and Bone Bodies
Strange it is how the Devil tries to make Christians believe that the promises of God are not literally true. Satan has made many people believe that Heaven is afar off, an unreal place of disembodied spirits. And Christians generally have been made to believe that in the resurrection we will not have literal bodies of flesh and bone and blood, bodies that eat and drink. This idea of the unreality of the future and of resurrection bodies is widespread. I am shocked when I hear the question over and over again, "Will we know our loved ones in Heaven?" That question shows how far wrong has been the teaching which most people have received on this question. I answer back that we certainly will know our loved ones. They will have physical bodies as real as the bodies they have now, and as far as we know, of the same size, and made out of the same materials and readily recognizable to the eye.
Whatever mark of sin there is will be removed, but we will have literal, physical bodies, bodies with normal functions, bodies of flesh and bone, bodies that eat and drink.
"Will We Know Each Other in Heaven?"
Yes, we will know our loved ones in Heaven and when we come back to this earth to rule with Christ in a Heaven on this earth, not only will we know people’s outward appearances and recognize our loved ones, but then we will know people’s hearts even as God knows our hearts today. We will know even our most intimate loved ones far better than we have ever known them in this life. On this matter, 1Co 13:12 says: "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."
Yes, we will know each other as Moses and Elijah and Jesus knew each other on the Mount of Transfiguration. We will know each other even as my mother on her death bed looked into Heaven and said, "I can see Jesus and my baby now." Now we see through a glass darkly.
- We see people’s faces but not their hearts.
- We hear people’s words but not the cry of their souls.
- We see what people accomplish; we do not see what they hoped for, but never did.
God does see, and one day we shall see as He sees, and know as He knows, not looking through a glass darkly, but face to face, and we will know each other in Heaven, and on this earth. The bodies of resurrected Christians will be like the resurrected body of Christ, and we are clearly told about what kind of body He had. In Luk 24:36-43 we are told how Jesus appeared to the apostles after His resurrection, and how He showed them what kind of a body He had.
"And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them" (Luk 24:36-43). The resurrected Jesus was not just a spirit. Jesus had a spiritual body in the sense that it was not carnal, with the taint of sin. But it was a literal, physical body. In verse Luk 24:39, Jesus said, "A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." The resurrected Jesus showed them that His was a body with flesh and bones. Jesus encouraged them to handle Him and see for themselves, and when they could scarcely believe Him for joy, He further proved the literalness of His physical, resurrection body by calling for food. Before them He ate a piece of broiled fish and part of an honeycomb.
I have heard preachers say that the resurrection body of Jesus is the kind of body that can go into a room when the door is shut. But I remind you, Jesus could always do that, even in the body He had from birth. That was not in the nature of the body, that was in the power of Christ. This was a physical body of flesh and bones, a body that ate and drank. The Gospel of John tells us that Thomas was not with the disciples when Jesus first appeared on the day of His resurrection (John 20:24-29). He did not believe the words of the other disciples about the resurrected Saviour and said, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." But after eight days the Saviour came again and Thomas saw the print of the nails with his own eyes, and put his finger on those scars, and believed! So the resurrection body of Jesus was simply the old body glorified and made new. He had the same features, though glorified. He had the same wounds in His hands and in His side. It was a literal, physical body which Jesus had after His resurrection. The Same Jesus With the Same Body Will Come Again When Jesus comes again to the earth to reign, He will have that same glorified, resurrection body with which He went away. In the first chapter of Acts we are told about the ascension of the Saviour.
Read Acts 1:9-11 with me and see that Jesus is coming back with the same body in which He went away.
"And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." This Scripture is to be taken literally. Jesus went away into Heaven and the angels said, "This same Jesus" will return again. It is remarkable how many details of Christ’s ascension will be duplicated at His Second Coming. For instance,
- Acts 1:12 tells us that the ascension was from the Mount of Olives or Olivet. Zec 14:4 tells us that at His coming, "His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives."
- As He went away, Acts 1:9 tells us, "A cloud received him out of their sight." His return to reign will be with clouds also, for Rev 1:7 tells us, "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him."
- Mat 24:30 tells us that "They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven."
- His ascension was visible, and His return to reign will be visible.
- His ascension was that of a physical body, His return will be that of a physical body.
- He stood on the Mount of Olives before He went away, and His feet shall return to that place when He comes in glory.
- A cloud received Him. out of their sight, and behold He cometh with clouds!
It is the same Jesus, the Jesus with a resurrected body, the Jesus who ate and drank before them who shall come again to the earth.
It was this that Jesus had in mind when He gave the Last Supper and said to His disciples in Mat 26:29, "But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom." Our Bodies Like His Body
Now comes the happy thought that the bodies of the saved will be like the body of Jesus, that is, a literal body of flesh and bones and blood when we live with Him on this earth after His coming. At the first resurrection, Christians will receive glorified bodies. When Jesus comes into the air to receive His saints, the trumpet shall sound and "we shall all be changed."
Then the mortal bodies will put on immortality, then corruption will put on incorruption. Then our bodies will be like Jesus’ body.
Php 3:20-21 tells of this blessed hope of a Christian.
"For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." Our vile bodies will be changed, and "fashioned like unto his glorious body" when Jesus raises and changes His saints and calls us to meet Him in the air. So whatever kind of body Jesus had after His resurrection, the kind He has now, that will be the kind of body we will have as we reign with Christ and enjoy the blessings of God in a Heaven on earth. That is what Jesus meant in the verse quoted above, Mat 26:29, where He said, "But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom."
Jesus said, "I will drink it new WITH YOU."
Jesus will drink grape juice in His kingdom on earth and will eat and drink as He did when He appeared to His disciples after His resurrection. And praise God for the thought, we will have bodies like His and will drink grape juice with Him in the happy kingdom which the Father will give to Him on this earth!
Some one will quote 1Co 15:50, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God," as evidence that we will not have literal bodies of flesh and blood in the kingdom age. But I remind you that Jesus Himself has already said that He had flesh and bones and was not just a spirit, and we will find how the same Jesus is coming back again and how Christians will have bodies like unto His glorious body. To be sure, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom. If that is all it took, then every descendant of Abraham would be in the kingdom. But the promise is by faith, and not just by flesh and blood. It is not just a kingdom inherited by natural bodies according to a fleshly birth. The inheritance of this kingdom is based on a new birth and not on the first birth. That is what the Holy Spirit evidently meant in 1Co 15:50.
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom, that is true; but glorified flesh and blood certainly will be in the kingdom, inherited by saved souls.
Some good people teach that resurrected bodies will have flesh and bones but no blood. The Bible never says so. But when the apostles eat and drink at Christ’s table in His kingdom, as He has said they shall (Luk 22:30), and when He drinks with them grape juice in this kingdom (Mat 26:29), then certainly the human body will have liquid in it, and the digestive processes will be carried on.
If one objects that the blood of Jesus was poured out on the cross, why, of course that is true. But He also poured out His soul unto death (Isa 53:12). But God would not leave His soul in the place of the dead nor leave His dead body to see corruption, and the same miracle that brought again Jesus Christ from the dead and raised that body into a glorified body could restore the blood as well as the flesh and spirit.
I beg you, my Christian people, take the Bible at face value and believe that we will have literal bodies of flesh and bones and blood, bodies that eat and drink, bodies that we will recognize, and yet sinless and strong and glorious, in the kingdom of Christ on earth.
"The Lame Man Shall Leap As an Hart, and the Tongue of the Dumb Shall Sing" In Isa 35:1-10, we have a glorious description of the earth and mankind during the kingdom age. "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose" then, we are told.
Evidently the curse of sin on this earth will be removed and there will be no more droughts, pestilences, thorns, and thistles as the consequence of man’s sin. At least those evils will be under control, though we are told in Zec 14:17-18 that temporary droughts may be permitted during that time as a disciplinary measure. But the land of Palestine will have the curse removed and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. In that chapter we are also told that the curse will be removed from the resurrection bodies of the saved.
Isa 35:5-6 says: "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing."
These verses teach that we will have bodies with literal eyes that see, literal ears that hear, that we will really leap and sing. These are the functions of a physical body. But even better than that is the teaching that we will have perfect bodies. Blindness, deafness, lameness, and dumbness will all be corrected in our resurrection bodies. Whatever of frailty and weakness we surfer now, there will come a good time when it will be removed, thank God!
These verses indicate that all the saved will have resurrected bodies. In the rapture, when the first part of the first resurrection takes place, we are plainly told that "the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed," so all those who are saved up until that time, the living as well as the dead, will be given resurrection bodies. Then Rev 20:4 tells us that the tribulation saints, put to death because of their faith in Christ, will be resurrected. Certainly we would expect those saved during the tribulation period who remain alive when Jesus returns to the earth to reign to be changed likewise at that time. And Isa 35:5-6 indicates that that will be true. All the saved will have glorified bodies with no blind or dumb or deaf or lame. The perfect health which God will give His people during that period will be blessed.
Isa 33:24 says: "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." With sins forgiven, then the disease that follows sin will be conquered and people will no more say, "I am sick," but will rejoice in the perfect use of eyes, ears, limbs and voice to the glory of God.
Food During the Kingdom Age
Jesus made clear that the saved will eat and drink with Him in the coming kingdom (Luk 22:30, Mat 26:29). Where will the food come from? Will the earth bring forth crops as it does now? Evidently it will, only without the limitations of drought, insect pests, thorns and thistles, which came upon the earth as a curse because of man’s sin. Plants will grow, much more as they did in the Garden of Eden than as they do now. In Eze 47:1-23, a wonderful river of water is pictured flowing out from the sanctuary of the temple in Jerusalem. We are told that trees bearing "new fruit according to his months" shall grow on either side of this river that shall make glad the city of God. The same passage tells how half the river will flow out to the Mediterranean Sea and half of it will flow into the Dead Sea and the salt water will be healed so that there will be fish in the Dead Sea as there is fish now in the Mediterranean Sea.
Read Eze 47:7-12 and see about some of the food of the kingdom age.
"Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh. And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many. But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt. And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine."
It seems clear that the people in the land of Palestine at least will eat fish from the Dead Sea and have them salted with salt from the marishes thereof. Certainly the fruit of the trees will be food also. Doubtless, every wonderful food the earth had in the Garden of Eden will be here again. This is a kingdom of literal people with literal bodies, bodies that eat and drink. We may be sure that all the saved, resurrected and glorified, will have the same kind of bodies.