I will start out by bringing our attention to God’s eternal purpose for creating us. From 1st Peter 1:20 it becomes clear that God’s plan from the very beginning of creation was to bring forth a people who would become JOINT-HEIRS with CHRIST who will Rule and Reign with CHRIST forever.
This has only been made possible by the Sacrificial death of Christ on the cross for us, and by His Resurrection.
When it comes time for the Lord to distribute the rewards to the Saints, it will be rewards of Authority.
Have you ever thought about what exactly it is that the Saints will be ruling and reigning over? It is clear from Scripture that the unbelievers who survive the Great Tribulation Period will be allowed to enter into the Millennium Kingdom Age of Christ on Earth in which they will continue to bear children and populate the earth.
There are estimates that 80 Billion people to several hundred Billion people could be born during this period of time. The Age that will follow the Millennium Kingdom Age will be the New Earth Age. I do believe that the case can be made from a careful study of the Scriptures that people will continue to be born in the New Earth Age.
Recently, through the use of the South Pole Telescope there has been a discovery of a cluster of Galaxies that has been calculated (up to our present date of 2011) to have an estimated 3,200 Trillion Suns. Also, there has been another discovery recently of an estimated 80 Billion Planets in our Galaxy (The Milky Way).
Through the use of the Hubble Telescope there is now believed to be more than 170 Billion Galaxies in our Universe. (WOW!) There is certain to be many more Galaxies in our Universe because these estimates come only from the observable Universe. In fact, it is estimated that only 4% of our Universe has been observed. We now know that our Universe is continually expanding and that it is now expanding at an accelerated rate of speed.
Update: As of January 2017, through the latest telescope technology, scientists are now able to observe 10% of the Universe which has revealed that there are now an estimated 2 Trillion Galaxies in our Universe. Also, there is now believed to be an estimated 800 Billion to 8 Trillion Planets in our Galaxy (The Milky Way).
God did not create all that HE has created just because HE got bored and had nothing else better to do. All that God does and has done is for a specific purpose. God has a specific purpose for the vastness of outer space and all that it contains.
If new generations of people are going to continue to be born in the New Earth Age that follows the Millennium Kingdom Age, then the earth will soon reach it's limit as to how many people it can support. Maybe this is why God created such a vastness of outer space that is incomprehensible to the human mind.
There is little doubt that each new generation of people that will be born in the Age and Ages to come, will be taught about the INCOMPREHENSIBLE SACRIFICE of CHRIST on the CROSS and it's relationship to them.
For all of eternity nothing will ever SURPASS or EQUAL the Magnitude of what Christ did on the Cross. All of creation revolves around Christ and what He did on the Cross.
If people are still going to be born in the New Earth Age, it certainly maybe gives us a better understanding of why God created such a vastness of outer space that is incomprehensible to the human mind. If new generations of people will continue to be born in the New Earth Age that follows the Millennium Kingdom Age, then the earth will soon reach it’s limit as to how many people it can support.
I believe that when it becomes time for the Saints to Rule and Reign with Christ, that the authority given to the Saints will be far beyond what we could ever have imagined. The Bible makes it clear that there will be different degrees of authority for each Saint. I have put together this document for the purpose of addressing this very issue.
It is my strong belief that the Saints will rule and reign from the Authority of God's Word.
On several occasions JESUS referred to the Scriptures by declaring "IT IS WRITTEN." By declaring those words, JESUS was declaring the AUTHORITY of the Scriptures.
Even Satan understands the AUTHORITY of the Scriptures, because in the 4th Chapter of Matthew he declares to JESUS "IT IS WRITTEN."
We are told in the Book of Psalms that God's Word is ETERNAL.
We are told in 1st Peter that God's Word will REMAIN FOREVER. Also, JESUS declared "My Words shall never pass away."
For all of eternity the Bible will never become outdated. There will never come a time in eternity when the Lord decides to put the Bible away in some majestic bookcase to be remembered as an ancient piece of history.
The average Christian in America does not really appreciate the priceless treasure (The Bible) that they have in their possession. The Lord chose the Scriptures of the Bible as His greatest means to reveal Himself to us.
If we as Christians profess to have a hunger for God, but do not have a hunger for reading the Bible in which the Lord reveals Himself to us through the work of the Holy Spirit, then something is amiss. We need to take a much closer look at where our true desires lie.
In the Book of Hosea the Lord tells the nation of Israel, "I have written to you the Great things of MY Word, but they have been counted as a strange thing to you". Tragically, these same words hold true for many Christians today, especially in America.
All that I have shared so far has been for the purpose of leading up to my main point, which is: The ones of us (Born-Again Believers in Christ) who have been fortunate enough to have free and unhindered access to the Bible, if we place "SUCH LITTLE VALUE" on enriching our lives from feeding upon the Scriptures in the Bible which God has given to us as His main source for revealing Himself to us, then when it comes time to rule and reign with Christ, just how much Authority can we really expect to receive?
We must not forget that the authority that we will rule and reign with will not be for only 1,000 years, or 10,000 years, or 100,000 years, or a million years, or a billion years, or a trillion years, or untrigintillion years (untrigintillion has 123 zeroes after the 1). Even untrigintillion years is just a drop in the bucket compared to Eternity.
We become so concerned with the cares of this world that we seem to give little thought to, and lose sight of what the Lord is trying to prepare us for in His grand scheme of Eternity. Of course feeding upon God's Written Word is only part of the equation. How much we allow God's Written Word to transform our lives through the work of the Holy Spirit is another large part of the equation.
In a recent Gallup Poll, 41% of Americans who call themselves Born-Again Christians said they rarely read or never read the Bible. 12% say they read the Bible monthly. 10% say they read the Bible less than monthly.
Another statistical research showed that less than 10% of professing Christians have ever read the entire Bible. If these studies are even close to being accurate, it is a startling revelation of the TRUE CONDITION of the Church today in America.
REVELATION 22:12 – "BEHOLD, I come quickly; and MY reward is with ME".