part 34: The Mystery of the 144,000
Puzzled About Revelation, august 4 2022
“Who are the 144,000? And is the number LITERAL or SYMBOLIC?”
Revelation 7:4-8
“Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel. 5 From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad 12,000, 6 from the tribe of Asher 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000, 7 from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Issachar 12,000, 8 from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.”
A. The POPULAR & CULT Views:
1. Dispensational/Pre-Trib: The “144,000” are interpreted as 144,000 literal Jewish male virgin evangelists (14:4). They are not the Church (“saints”), which they (wrongly) believe will be removed prior to the Great Tribulation in the “rapture”.
2. Jehovah’s Witnesses: They take both a LITERAL & FIGURATIVE interpretation of the 144,000. Pre-1935, they believed only 144,000 JWs would be saved. Post-1935, when their numbers exceeded 144,000, the Watchtower Society changed their view to say that the 144,000 represent a heavenly class of saint that will rule in heaven in new spiritual bodies over the “great multitude” who belong to the earthly class. Only the 144,000 are part of the “new covenant”.[1]
B. The 144,000 represent all the redeemed
I believe that the 144,000 represents all Israel, which represents all of the redeemed, which are the saints, which includes the great multitude from every tribe, people, nation and language, including the nation of Israel, the physical descendants of Abraham, and including the twelve tribes.
12 REASONS why the 144,000 are SYMBOLIC of the SAINTS (“great multitude”) and cannot be LIMITED to ONLY Jewish male virgins OR ONLY 144,000 people:
1. They 144,000 are SERVANTS of the living God.
“Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”
Rev. 1:1: “The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John.”
Rev. 22:3: “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.”
See also Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 6:11; 7:15; 19:2,5,10; 22:6,9; Rom. 1:1; Tit. 1:1; James 1:1; 2 Pet. 1:1
2. The 144,000 are SEALED on their FOREHEADS as a KINGDOM & PRIESTS (7:3)
Rev. 5:10: “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” (also Rev. 1:6, Rev. 14:1)
Rev. 22:4: “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”
Rev. 3:12: “The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem…and I will also write on them my new name.”
3. They are SPARED from God’s judgments (7:3)
Rev. 9:4-6: “They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. 6 During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.”
“Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.” 2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. 3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. 5 No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.”
4. The SOUND of their VOICES and HARPS (14:2) matches the description given of the great multitude
Rev. 15:2-3: “And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God 3 and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb.”
Rev. 19:5-7: “Then a voice came from the throne, saying: “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both great and small!” 6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.”
5. They are VICTORIOUS (implied) over the “mark of the beast” (13:16-14:1,11-12)
Rev. 14:9-10,12: “A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark in their forehead or in their hand, 10 they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury… 12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who keep God’s commands and remain faithful to Jesus.”
6. They are the REDEEMED of the earth and PURCHASED from among men (14:3,4)
Rev. 1:6: “To him who loves us and has freed (redeemed) us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.”
Rev. 5:9: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God men from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
See also Rev. 7:14; 22:14; Gal. 3:13-14; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; 1 Pet. 1:18-19
7. They are PURE and UNDEFILED by women (14:4):
2 Cor. 11:2-3: “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. 3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”
8. The 144,000 will FOLLOW the Lamb wherever He goes, as sheep with their Shepherd (14:4)
Rev. 7:17 says of the multitude: “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’”
See also John 10:27; 12:26
9. They are OFFERED to God and the Lamb as FIRSTFRUITS (14:4) (Leviticus 23:9-14)
1 Cor. 15:20-23: “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.”
Rev. 20:4-5: “I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 …This is the first resurrection.” These are firstfruits!
those who do not take the mark and are martyred are the firstfruits of the resurrection, and Revelation 7 (vs. 9-14) specifically tells us that those who are coming out of the great tribulation as martyr witnesses are the great multitude from EVERY nation, tribe, people and language. Here, in Revelation 14, they are called the 144,000.
James 1:18: “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.”
Rom. 8:22-23: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.”
Those who are firstfruits participate in the resurrection, those who are firstfruits are sealed with the Holy Spirit, and those who are firstfruits are also the redeemed, and specifically, will get a redeemed body. This is true of ALL the saints, not just one elite group.
10. NO LIE is found in their mouth; they are BLAMELESS (14:5)
Rev. 21:27: “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
Eph. 5:25-27: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
11. Their NUMBER is symbolic of the Bride of Christ, the NEW JERUSALEM
Revelation 21 contains the number 144,000, along with multiples of that number.
In Revelation 21, John is given a description of the bride of Christ, who is also called the New Jerusalem. The bride is called the “City of God” which is a very OT, prophetic way of describing God’s people. The bride, the city of God, will be inhabited by God.
Rev. 21:9-13
“One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. ”
Remember that the tabernacle in the wilderness had the twelve tribes of Israel arranged by threes: 3 on the east, 3 on the north, 3 on the south and 3 on the west. The city that John saw is patterned after the tabernacle, which was comprised of the tribes of Israel, the people of God. The Bride, the City of God, is being described in the same way as the people of God in the Old Testament.
Entrance must be through one of the gates:
There are 12 gates with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel (21:12)
This is significant: How do you get into the city? By going through one of its gates. It is implied, that in order to get into the city, you must go through the tribe that you belong to. How does that work for gentile believers?
Ezekiel 47:21-23: “You are to distribute this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. 22 You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the foreigners residing among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 23 In whatever tribe a foreigner resides, there you are to give them their inheritance,” declares the Sovereign Lord.
The days are coming when God will count gentiles as part of Israel, and each gentile believer is going to be assigned to one of the tribes of Israel. Meaning that, when God looks at those who are gentiles by birth, He sees us as belonging to one of the 12 tribes of Israel. Our future inheritance in the Messianic Kingdom is allotted to us based on our identity in one of the 12 tribes of Israel, and that’s the only way you get into the city, by belonging to one of the 12 tribes.
Revelation 21:14-17
“The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick.”
Once again, there are 12 gates with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel (old covenant).
And here we see 12 foundations with the names of the 12 Apostles (21:14) (new covenant).
TOGETHER, they made up the CITY OF GOD (12 x 12 = 144)
One thousand may be symbolic of completion, or the fullness of time, thus 1000 x 144 = 144,000.
The city = 12,000 stadia x 12,000 stadia x 12,000 stadia (Rev. 21:15-16)
The wall = 144 cubits (Rev. 21:17)
12. The ENTRANCE into the Messianic Kingdom and the New Jerusalem of the 144,000
Rev. 22:14-15: “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”
This is true of both the 144,000 and also of the saints.
Conclusion: 144,000
The FULLNESS of the Gentiles, and ALL ISRAEL:
The number 144,000 is SYMBOLIC and represents ALL the REDEEMED—the great multitude who are called SAINTS and will enter the Messianic Kingdom (those from both the old and the new covenant)!
Q: If so, why are they referred to as “from all the tribes of Israel” (Rev. 7:4) when there are clearly Gentiles “from every nation, tribe, people and language” (7:9)?
The answer to that question is found in the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel) and what the Apostle Paul called “the mystery of Israel” (Rom. 11). Paul said that when the FULLNESS of the Gentiles has come in, in this way all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26). What did he mean by that, and where did he get that understanding from?
Next Week: The Mystery of Israel, Pt. 1
What do the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe about the 144,000 and a heavenly/earthly hope?[2]
The Bible teaches that at death the souls of believers will go to be with the Lord, and, after the resurrection, they will spend eternity in the New Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven onto the new earth. The Bible makes it clear that deceased believers are with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6–8; Philippians 1:23) in a spiritual realm called heaven. The ultimate destiny awaiting believers is the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21—22). Our physical bodies will be resurrected and glorified, made perfectly fit for eternity on the new earth.
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that only 144,000 persons since the time of Jesus can ever go to heaven, there to be co-rulers with Christ Jesus over the inhabitants of a paradise earth. They also believe that the soul dies when the body dies and must wait until the resurrection before Jehovah “remembers” the personality of the deceased and matches it to a new, physical body. Those who are part of the 144,000 will be given spiritual bodies, but everyone else will be given a fleshly body.
The 144,000 are first mentioned in Revelation 7:4: “Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.” Whereas the Witnesses take the number 144,000 to be literal, they say the description of their being male Jewish virgins (Revelation 14:4) is symbolic. Revelation 7:5–8 presents the 144,000 as being from the twelve tribes of Israel—12,000 from each tribe. The reference to the tribes of Israel is also taken as symbolic, not literal. They believe that the “anointed remnant” of the 144,000 has replaced Israel and that they are “spiritual Jews.” Further, Revelation speaks of a great crowd in heaven that no man could number (Revelation 7:9), but Jehovah’s Witnesses say only the 144,000 can be in heaven. The great crowd, they say, are on the earth.
In the 1930s the organization claimed that the number of the 144,000 had been sealed, and new Witnesses would have an eternity on earth, rather than in heaven. In 1935 the number of Witnesses who believed they were part of the 144,000 numbered 52,465. The number who believed they were heaven bound decreased dramatically over the following decades. In 2005 there were only 8,524. By 2020 the number had increased to 21,182. Now the Watchtower Society says the number of the 144,000 will be sealed just before the Great Tribulation starts.
According to one publication of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, “After the apostle John was told in vision about this group of 144,000 individuals, he was shown another group. John describes this second group as ‘a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues.’ This great crowd refers to those who will survive the coming ‘great tribulation,’ which will destroy the present wicked world. . . . The context of Revelation 7:4 and related statements found elsewhere in the Bible bear out that the number 144,000 is to be taken literally. It refers to those who will rule in heaven with Christ over a paradise earth, which will be filled with a large and undetermined number of happy people who worship Jehovah God” (“Questions from Readers,” Watchtower, September 1, 2004).
The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ belief that they will be the only survivors of the Great Tribulation, coupled with the fact that in 2020 they numbered 8,695,808 persons in active service, clashes with Scripture’s description of a multitude “that no man can number.” The Witnesses have been numbered.
Jehovah’s Witnesses still insist that 144,000 is the limit to the number of people who will reign with Christ in heaven and spend eternity with God. However, they say it is possible for those who have been “anointed” to fall into unrepentant sin. The numbers continue to increase because, they say, Jehovah replaces those who fall by the wayside. The January 2016 Watchtower also explains the increase by saying that some Witnesses “have mental or emotional problems” and are simply mistaken in thinking they will rule with Christ in heaven.
Of critical importance is the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ belief that the 144,000 have been anointed by Jehovah’s spirit and they alone are in the New Covenant. Only the 144,000 have a “heavenly hope.” Other Jehovah’s Witnesses have an “earthly hope”—they expect to live forever on a paradise earth, but they are not part of the New Covenant.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses say that the New Covenant “makes it possible for 144,000 faithful Christians to go to heaven. There they will serve as kings and priests for the blessings of all mankind. . . . Only those in the new covenant—that is, those who have the hope of going to heaven—should partake of the bread and wine. God convicts such ones that they have been selected to be heavenly kings” (What Does the Bible Really Teach?, Appendix, p. 207–208).
So, the majority of Jehovah’s Witnesses are excluded from the New Covenant, yet they have been told that they can still benefit from the covenant, being granted the opportunity to live forever in an earthly paradise; of course, the blessing is contingent upon their remaining faithful to the anointed till the end. They have no assurance of salvation because they could still fail the final test. But neither are the “anointed remnant” assured of heaven; they have supposedly been sealed, but they might stumble and fall and so forfeit their heavenly inheritance.
All this goes contrary to what Jesus Himself says about those who believe in Him: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:28–29). After the resurrection of Christ, Gentiles were also brought into the blessing of the New Covenant (Acts 10; Ephesians 2:13–14). Under the New Covenant, believers receive salvation as a free gift (Ephesians 2:8–9). Our responsibility is to exercise faith in Christ, the One who fulfilled the law and brought an end to the law’s sacrifices through His own sacrificial death. Through the life-giving Holy Spirit who lives in all believers (Romans 8:9–11), we share in the inheritance of Christ and enjoy a permanent, unbroken relationship with God (Hebrews 9:15).
Nowhere does the Bible limit the number of persons who can go to heaven to 144,000. Neither does the Bible say that only 144,000 persons can be part of the New Covenant. These are man-made teachings and have no biblical basis.
[1][1]https://www.gotquestions.org/Jehovahs-Witnesses-144000.html
[2]https://www.gotquestions.org/Jehovahs-Witnesses-144000.html