What you bring up is only relevant to the saved and that those things are already true before Jesus confronts the beast and it's armies. What does any of that have to do with after Zechariah 14:12 is fulfilled, which then leads to what Zechariah 14:16-19 is describing, mortals remaining post the 2nd coming? I realize I bring Zechariah 14 up a lot, but it's not like that chapter is not in the Bible. Why would it not be relevant then? How can one testament be depicting survivors post the 2nd coming, then another testament totally contradicting that?
The point is that the whole of creation has been subjected to the bondage of corruption because of the death of Adam, and creation is waiting to be delivered from corruption at the time of the redemption of the bodies of the sons of God at the time of the return of Christ (which hasn't happened yet):
Romans 8
19 For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.
21 that the creation itself also shall be delivered from
the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
23 And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruit of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, awaiting adoption,
the redemption of our body.
"Foolish one! What you sow
is not made alive unless it dies" 1 Corinthians 15:36
2 Peter 3
7 But the present heavens and the earth being kept in store by the same word, are being kept for fire until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
9 The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some count slowness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any of us should perish, but that all of us should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night,
in which the heavens will pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. And the earth and the works in it will be burned up.
11 Then, all these things being about to be dissolved, what sort ought you to be in holy behavior and godliness,
12 looking for and rushing the coming of the Day of God, on account of which the heavens, being on fire, will melt away, and the elements will melt, burning with heat?
13 But according to His promise,
we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
The biblical type is the flood. Universal destruction. The Ark is a type of Christ. Whoever was not in the ark, perished:
John 3
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
should not perish but have everlasting life.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but
so that the world might be saved through Him.
18 He who believes on Him is not condemned, but
he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.
Hebrews 11:7
"By faith Noah, having been warned by God of things not yet seen, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house,
by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith."
Zechariah 14 is an Apocalyptic vision of the NHNE. I never realized that until
@sovereigngrace showed me that in one of his posts long ago with his comparison between the promises contained in Zechariah 14 and the description of the NHNE. I was still full-on Premil then, so at the time I realized I needed to think more about Zechariah 14, and so I placed my understanding of Zechariah 14 "on hold".
I was only Premil
while I was convinced that there would be a literal one-thousand years in-between the return of Christ and the NHNE. I believed the burning up Peter spoke about would only take place at the close of the millennium. But that was all before I saw of my own that the multitude who came out of the great tribulation are seen in the NHNE straight afterward, and for a number of other reasons besides, I realized that the notion that there would be a thousand years in-between the return of Christ and the NHNE
was just not true.
The fact of the matter is
Jesus is our ark, and the flood is the biblical type of what will take place when he returns, and whoever is not in the ark will perish.
As far as infants and children under the age of accountability (or whatever you want to call it) is concerned, we don't know if God maybe will include them in these:
1 Thessalonians 4
15 For we say this to you by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not go before those who are asleep.
16 For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first.
17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall ever be with the Lord.
What I've written above does not mean I now fully understand all things, because I still believe that the 42 months of the Revelation is a literal 42 months, to come at the close of the Age, when the beast ascends from the abyss, and I still believe that the thousand years cannot commence before that time according to the wording of Revelation 20:4-6.
Nor do I believe Satan goes into the LOF before a thousand years have passed since the casting of the beast and FP into the LOF. Nor do I believe that Satan has been bound since Calvary. I believe he was utterly defeated at Calvary, but not bound in the sense that Revelation 20 speaks of his binding, and there are too many New Testament verses warning the church of his activity in the world.
But I also believe that regardless of Revelation 2:26-27 and any other verses like it, we cannot
assume that the "reigning" of those who are reigning with Christ in Revelation 20:4-6, means
"reigning over others", any more than it means they are
"reigning over others" in Revelation 22:5, because Revelation 20:4-6 does
not say "they shall reign over the nations with Christ for a thousand years". It says only, "they shall reign with Christ a thousand years". We are to reign over sin. That's one of the things Christ died and rose again to accomplish for us.
I believe we must never divorce what we read from the fact that the blood of Christ became necessary for us to receive grace and have a relationship with God and have eternal life from the moment Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Our reigning over others is way down the list in God's list of priorities.
I now believe Zechariah 14 is an apocalyptic vision of the NHNE, and I've believed the same about Ezekiel chapters 40 through 48 for many years, even while I was Premil.
As for the nations seen in Zechariah 14 and in Revelation 21 bringing their glory and honor into New Jerusalem, I don't have an answer for all things,
but I do believe that 2 Peter 2:5-13 is confirming what Paul said here:
Romans 8
19 For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.
21 that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
23 And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruit of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, awaiting adoption, the redemption of our body.
"Foolish one! What you sow is not made alive unless it dies" 1 Corinthians 15:36.
I'm not like my brother DavidPT. I don't have to have answers for everything, lol. Long ago I used to have to have answers for everything. But now I have total peace with knowing I don't fully understand everything. I ask God to give me the understanding and when He does, I praise Him and thank Him for it, but if He doesn't, I praise Him and thank Him for it, because I know that He will only give to any human what we are able to receive, and maybe He is trying to tell us, but we're blocking the understand through our own misinterpretations and false assumptions, or simply because of a lack of knowledge.