Revelation 21:24

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Revelation 21:24 states:

And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.[1]

Followers of the message believe there are multiple tiers of Christians and that this will be reflected in heaven. They support this with quotes from William Branham such as:

And then, I can prove that there is degrees in Heaven, that they’ll not all be on the same equal, but you’ll have equal Eternal Life. But the Bible said that the kings of the earth bring their honor and glory (Revelation 22)—bring their honor and glory into the city. That proves that there will be kings in the new earth, kings and rulers. Jesus told His disciples…They said, “What will we have after we have left father, and mother, and all to follow You?” 45 He said, “Verily, I say unto you, you’ll set upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel in that day.” See, it’s another, it’s a earthly system that’s coming up that’ll—that’ll be far supreme to anything. In that they’ll be no sin, but yet they’ll have rulers and so forth in the cities, when everything will be carried on in the way of Eternal Life.[2]

But is this what the Bible actually teaches?

What the Bible says

Revelation 21:24 in the NASB, a word for word translation, reads as follows:

The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.[3]

Why the significant difference from the KJV? What happened to the words "of them which are saved" which followed the word "nations"??

As outlined in our article on the King James Version of the Bible, the KJV is based on seven very late manuscripts (none earlier than the eleventh century). The words ""of them which are saved" which appear in the KJV, do not appear in any early Greek manuscripts in either the Byzantine or Alexandrian manuscript families.

We can, therefore, conclude that the phrase "the nations of them which are saved" was not in the original autograph manuscript of Revelation and should simply be replaced with the phrase "the nations."

What the Bible teaches

Footnotes

  1. The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), Re 21:24
  2. william Branham, 59-1223 - Questions And Answers, para. 44
  3. New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Re 21:24.


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