Dear AlienSanctuary,
Your posts always delight me and cause me to sit up and think. Your way of interpreting the Desire of Ages never ceases to amaze me!! Thank you for continuing to post your thoughts here.

I have something to comment on from your last post. Your comment about us being virtually "slaves" in Heaven or the New Earth I think that I know where you are coming from, however, it really grates on my sensibilities and what I have learned from Bible reading. You are right, we in all reality, will not be "working" for a living as it were, however, Jesus clearly states that we are His Friends, and not just servants. That completely negates the slave scenario in my mind. And, because we are His friends, He shares the mysteries of the Kingdom of God with us. He goes on to say that a Master doesn't share His business with a slave.

I am looking forward to having my "bad memories" erased and being able to learn all that God wants me to learn. I had not thought that we will be as little children, but I think that you have a point. Perhaps that is part of what the 1,000 years are about.

My understanding is that humanity will be resored which I interpret will include height. Won't it be fun to find out what all He has in store for us??

MG

Everyone in God's Land was happy doing their jobs until Satan snuck around, telling them they weren't really free, but actually slaves of a tyrant God. The little seeds of a bad idea eventually sprung up into full-blown rebellion, then war, in God's Land. The rebels left, taking much equipment with them to establish their own rival Kingdom.

Some versions of the NT do refer to believers as slaves, some as servants. Of course, we have such a negative connotation of the word, because human slave-masters tended to be tyrants and cruel, treating their slaves like dirt.

Maybe a better way to look at it would be for the Redeemed to think of themselves as part of a team, replacements for those who left.

One of the possible meanings of the Greek word for "born" is regenerate, according to Strong's Dictionary. That reminds me of re-incarnation, which most Christians must believe in, in a way, because of what happened to Jesus.

His old earth-body died, then his memory/spirit entered into a new body. Maybe the new body was made from material from the old body, maybe not. A few others have been re-incarnated in the Bible, but they all seem to have returned to their old bodies.

I wonder if Jesus had to be de-contaminated upon returning from Earth to Mt. Zion in space. Maybe the brilliant light coming from God was enough to kill any hitchhiking bacteria.

Someday, everyone who has ever lived will be re-incarnated, either at the 1st or 2nd resurrections. The lucky 1st resurrection people will get new, disease and mutation-free bodies. The unlucky 2nd resurrection people will get their old germ-infested, diseased, mutated bodies, but only for a short time before being destroyed.

As another possible angle on being born again, spiritual regeneration in the dictionary means to change radically for the better. So Jesus told Nicodemus, "You can't see the Kingdom of God unless you change radically for the better from above." Humans probably can't change for the better unless the changing force from above assists them.

When Jesus was resurrected, although he didn't have the same body, he seemed to be the normal height for human beings of the time. Therefore, if we can extrapolate a little, the height of the redeemed will be similar. Of course, most of the celestial beings will tower over the redeemed, giving them the sense of being children, height-wise, and knowledge-wise.

It was after the resurrection that Jesus did call his disciples children. Compared to ages of thousands of years, a mere 30 or 40 or 100 year old person is just a baby.