men are on their way to everlasting life in God’s new order of things under Christ. A “great crowd” of them will survive the coming battle of Armageddon. As they thus enter into the reign of Jesus Christ for a thousand years over the earth, they will not need a resurrection. (Rev. 7:9-17) By the faithful course they pursue then under that Messianic kingdom they will avoid being executed in the “lake of fire,” the “second death,” and will never die as human creatures. They will never go to Haʹdes or Sheol and need to be resurrected.

16. So, at the beginning of Christ’s millennial reign, who will there not be on earth, and why not?

¹⁶ However, it will not be so with the “goat” class of our twentieth-century generation. At the destruction of Babylon the Great and in the battle of Armageddon they will be executed with an everlasting punishment and will never be resurrected from the dead, for they will go into the “second death.” Consequently, at the beginning of Christ’s millennial reign, there will be no “goat” class on hand to interfere with that righteous rule.

17. (a) Who will then not be able to interfere in the invisible realm, and why not? (b) For what will the “sheep” class on earth prepare?

¹⁷ Neither will there be any invisible Devil and his invisible demon angels to interfere with the operation of Christ’s kingdom. Why not? Because right after the battle of Armageddon they will be bound into helplessness and be pitched into the abyss and sealed off from all contact with others in the living universe. (Rev. 20:1-3) So without wicked interference the “sheep” who survive Armageddon will prepare for the coming resurrection of the earthly dead from the sea and from Haʹdes or Sheol.

Earthly Opportunity Opened Up by Resurrection

1. When will the resurrection of the earthly dead take place, and why will this have to be prepared for?

THE resurrection of the earthly dead from the sea and from Haʹdes or Sheol will begin after the “war of the great day of God the Almighty and the binding and confining of Satan the Devil and his demons in the abyss for a thousand years. At that time the “former heaven and the former earth” will have fled away and will have been replaced altogether by a “new heaven and a new earth.” (Rev. 20:1-3, 11-15; 21:1) Certainly the return of such dead ones will need to be prepared for, inasmuch as it will mean a steady increase in the population of the earth, as in the case of feeding the resurrected daughter of Jairus.—Luke 8:55.