This has been a difficult question for those who believe in a post-tribulation rapture, but it also is a major problem for those who embrace the teachings of Hodges and Dillow.

   Here is the problem facing Hodges and Dillow and Wilkin:

 1.   “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” (1 Cor. 15:50). Hodges and Dillow understand this to mean that those who inherit the kingdom will be in resurrection bodies, not in mortal bodies. Keep in mind that in their way of thinking, the ones who inherit the kingdom are the victorious, overcoming believers in contrast to other saved people whose faith has failed, who are immoral, or who do not measure up in some other way.

 2.   “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). Since the sheep inherit the kingdom and since mortal flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom, Dillow concludes that “the resurrection and transformation of the sheep occur prior to their ‘receiving the kingdom’ and must be simultaneous with the judgment of the sheep and the goats.” [The Reign of the Servant Kings, pages 78-79] In other words, they believe the sheep must enter the kingdom in resurrected, glorified bodies.  This is contrary to the common dispensational position which teaches that the "sheep" represent saved Gentiles during the tribulation who will enter the kingdom in natural, unglorified bodies.

 3.   Hodges and Dillow recognize, and rightly so, that there will be people in the millennium kingdom in mortal bodies. Dillow cites Isaiah 65:20 and Ezekiel 36:11 as indicating that there will be physical procreation and physical death in the kingdom and he cites Rev. 20:7-10 as referring to a multitude of unregenerate men at the end of the millennium in mortal bodies who will rebel against Christ. [The Reign of the Servant Kings, page 78]

 4.   If in Matthew 25 the sheep are the saved people (the overcomers) and the goats are the unsaved people prior to the beginning of the kingdom, and if the saved people “inherit” the kingdom by ruling with Christ in resurrected bodies, then where are the saved people who will enter the kingdom in mortal bodies? Dillow has no dogmatic answer to this problem: “Since the Scriptures are silent on this problem, one must be careful how he explains the difficulty.” [The Reign of the Servant Kings, page 78] The solution that Dillow suggests is patterned after the fact that those who perished in the wilderness because of their unbelief had children who were allowed to enter the land of promise. Based on this Dillow says, “In a similar way, perhaps the believing children of the sheep who have escaped the judgments of the great tribulation will constitute a kind of ’second exodus’ and will be the mortal believers who enter into the coming kingdom.” [The Reign of the Servant Kings, page 79]

 5.   Bob Wilkin, the Executive Director of the Grace Evangelical Society, wrote the following: “I do believe that the sheep at the Judgment of the Sheep will enter the millennium with resurrected bodies (in light of 1 Cor. 15 that flesh and blood cannot inherit [=rule] the kingdom and Jesus’ statement in Matt. 25 that the sheep will inherit it). If that is so, the people who have natural bodies and who have children during the millennium are the children under the age of accountability who survive the tribulation.” [From a personal letter to this writer from Bob Wilkin dated 4/4/95.] So apparently Wilkin believes that the people who enter the kingdom in natural bodies are the young children and babies who will survive the tribulation being under the age of accountability at that time, and their parents could be either saved (sheep) or unsaved (goats).  Dillow teaches a somewhat different view, namely, that they are the believing children of the sheep. Both apparently agree that no adults will enter the kingdom in natural bodies.

   In conclusion, those who hold the position that only a special class of believers inherits the kingdom are forced to face the prophetic problem of how people in mortal bodies enter the kingdom.

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