WHERE WILL THE GREAT CROWD LIVE?

4. What Scriptural truth does Christendom not understand, and how did the Bible Students differ in this regard?

⁴ Christendom generally does not teach the Scriptural truth that one day obedient humans will live forever on earth. (2 Cor. 4:3, 4) Today, most religions in Christendom teach that all good people go to heaven when they die. It was different, however, with the small group of Bible Students who were publishing the Watch Tower in the late 1800’s. They understood that God would restore Paradise on earth and that millions of obedient humans would live here on earth​—not in heaven.

7. Who, according to the Bible Students, would live on earth during the Millennium, and what did the Bible Students believe about the faithful men of old?

⁷ Who, then, would live on earth? The Bible Students believed that after the 144,000 and the great crowd were gathered to heaven, millions of others would be granted life on earth to experience the blessings of Christ’s Millennial Reign. The Bible Students did not expect those millions to serve Jehovah before the start of Christ’s Reign. Rather, it was thought that this group would be educated in Jehovah’s ways during the Millennium. Thereafter, those who conformed to Jehovah’s standards would be blessed with everlasting life on earth, whereas those who rebelled would be destroyed. The Bible Students also thought that perhaps some who would serve as earthly “princes” during that time​—including the resurrected “ancient worthies” (faithful men who died before Christ)—​would somehow be rewarded with heavenly life at the end of the Millennium.​—Ps. 45:16.