IS THE 144,000 FROM REVELATION
A HINT THAT NOT MANY WILL BE SAVED?
The Bible has Jesus saying he alone is the truth and the way to God and that all other religion founders were thieves and robbers. Not surprisingly he says that the gate to everlasting condemnation is wide and the door to salvation is narrow and found by a few.
The Book of Revelation, Chapter 7, states that 144,000
men will be saved or sealed as the slaves of God. Seals are final so they are
servants of God forever. The angels sealed and took these servants of God from
the earth. They pick members of the Israelite tribes only. Christians say it
can’t mean Jews only so it is a symbol. But it could for anybody could have
Jewish blood in them for the Bible says the Jews were scattered.
Paul said that we are all Jews – spiritually – if we
keep true to Christ. God could rig it that this exact number could be saved too.
He did stranger things after all and it is Bible doctrine that you cannot be
saved unless God gives you the gift of faith. Applying this interpretation to
Revelation 7 however is stretched. It seems to mean that 12,000 will be taken
from every tribe in Israel. The spiritual Jews are Jews in the sense that they
are descended from Abraham. Paul regarded the children of Israel as Jews in
another sense and did not say that a spiritual Jew is a son of Israel (Galatians
3:29). So a Jew as in son of Israel is a genetic Jew and a spiritual Jew is a
son of Abraham - a Jew in a broad sense.
It could mean then that if we are talking about
Christianity, there are people who belong to Jewish tribes perhaps without
knowing it and God will save 144,000 of them in total.
But if it is Jews then when God chooses so few of his
chosen people for salvation things will not be any more encouraging for the rest
of us. The 144,000 sang a new song that nobody else could learn. This means they
were singing of their salvation and nobody else was allowed to sing this hymn.
After the 144,000 are mentioned the scriptures mention
a great numberless crowd praising God. Some think the 144,000 is symbolic and
refers to the same crowd (page 175, The Book of Revelation for Dummies). This is
wrong for why use such confusing symbolism and how can a numbered crowd
symbolise an innumerable crowd?
So God chooses 144,000 Jews who have to be spotless
virgins.
There is no evidence that the 144,000 is to be taken
figuratively. Even if it is, it still indicates that the number of the finally
saved is tiny.
Some say as the 144,000 includes Israel's tribes but
as Dan and Ephraim is left out the reference is symbolic. So the 144,000 is
figurative for the tribe of Dan has been left out but it is there by implication
for it says all the tribes and it is omitted from explicit mention probably
because Dan was the black sheep tribe (page 432, Encyclopaedia of Bible
Difficulties).
Bible scholars agree that the figure could be literal
(page 433, ibid). The view that the idea that only 144,000 will be accepted by
God is elitist and contradicts the assertions of Galatians 3:28,29; Colossians
3:11 about there being no elitism with God is a common view. But it is wrong.
The Bible says that all who really want to come to God will come.
Revelation also says that they will be virgins or
parthenoi probably in view that they will comprise the Church which will be the
bride of the lamb of God and a virgin for Christ – their not being real virgins
being a different issue though to me it is still a hint that virgins are
preferred for they could have been called chaste not virgins and chastity does
not rule out sex but only illicit sex. Since God forgives sexual sin it is
possible that the virgins are not physically virgins but are virgins in God’s
eyes because he forgave them.
The 144,000 are Jewish Christians because it seems
that it is only Jerusalem where God is praised (Revelation 11:13).
There are twenty-four elders with the 144,000 but the
elders could be angels or the Old Testament prophets who were saved.
Then after the 144,000, Christians say they read about
a great crowd of innumerable saints being safe in Heaven and free from suffering
and worshipping God all the time in his temple in Heaven. This appears to be a
different group from the 144,000.
The crowd is made up of people who suffered intensely
for their faith in Christ. What Revelation tells us about them is that they wore
white robes and carried palm branches and praised God and the Lamb and the
author says that a member of the Heavenly Sanhedrin told him they came through
the persecution and made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. They stand
before the Throne of God in his Temple and they hunger no more and they thirst
no more. And the sun or heat doesn’t smite them for the Lamb will be their
shepherd and will guide them to springs of water that give life and God will
wipe away every tear from their eyes.
They might stand before God and use his Temple but
that doesn’t mean they are saved. The passage doesn’t say they have any more
contact with God than any living person can have. If they are saved then why do
they still need the Lamb to guide them to the waters of salvation? They are
protected by God. They can dirty their robes again for it is only if their robes
keep white that the Lamb can guide them. The reference to the sun and heat not
smiting them is similar to the promise of the psalm that if you do the will of
God the sun and the moon will not harm you. It’s not to be taken too literally.
Nothing in Revelation hints that the number of the saved will be high. On the
contrary it hints that the number will be very low.
The message is that God has given the grace of saving
faith only to Jewish virgins and to some Gentiles who have suffered intensely
for him which indicates that only those who live incredibly holy lives have
received the grace of faith and will go to Heaven. Only unique people will be
saved which implies that this is not many when you think of how many people have
come and gone and are still here on the earth.
There is no reason to suppose that the 144,000 and the
great crowd refer to something that is yet to come. That would leave it possible
to insist that the references to them do not indicate that the number of the
saved will be small for the great tribulation and the disasters and earthquakes
that they will see on earth have been happening bit by bit since Revelation was
written. Before the 144,000 was mentioned we were told that the Lamb opened the
fifth seal in Heaven to the pleadings of a crowd in Heaven who had been martyred
and wanted him to take revenge for them and they were told to wait until more
martyrs would come to join them at the foot of God’s altar in Heaven. So the
great crowd is being made up even now.
Revelation says that anybody who misrepresents the
book will be lost implying that the saved will be those who understand it
perfectly by the power of God (22). Thus, the book means it when it says
salvation is just for a few. Verses that speak of the almost total depravity of
the world serve to underline that (eg, 16:10, 11).
The Church says we do not know how high the rate of
everlasting damnations is. We have to assume that it is very high to be on the
safe side. It is better to die of fear than to suffer in Hell forever or risk
Hell. This means that it is wise to murder anybody who draws others into sin.
Humanists should be murdered for trying to draw Christians into the so-called
sin of apostasy or disbelief. It is a sin to let the people who are a stumbling
block to God’s people live. The doctrine of the Christian Church is responsible
for the burning to death at the stake and torturing of heretics which both the
Catholic and Protestants considered noble activities not too long ago. Those who
won’t kill are hypocrites and those who do are nutters. Thus, the argument that
it is worse not to believe in Hell is completely exploded. If most believers in
Hell won’t become full fanatics that is only because their faith is too weak so
they are no argument for the safety of the doctrine.
Jesus said that his yoke was easy and his burden light
and the First Epistle of John tells us that the commandments are not difficult.
From this it would suggest that most people should be saved. How can it be
reconciled with the statements of primitive Christianity that only few can be
saved? By holding that correct and orthodox faith is necessary for salvation.
Few people are orthodox. Protestants hold that everybody is trapped in sin until
they turn to Christ in faith. “In the gospel the righteousness of God is
revealed, a righteousness that comes by faith from beginning to end, just as it
is written, “The just one will live by faith” (Romans 1:17). Luther reasoned
that since the righteousness of God condemns the sinner, how does this have a
righteousness that doesn’t condemn? The answer for him was that faith was entire
self-abandonment to God, you abandon yourself because you can do nothing to save
yourself and the work is all his. He saves you and you believe as a result. You
are clothed with righteousness in his sight like a robe but in yourself you are
still unrighteous. Few understand salvation by faith alone without good works
and the Roman Catholic Church rejects it as heresy so few will have any hope of
being saved.
The Roman Catholic Church has officially and
infallibly decreed against the Reformers at the Council of Trent that nobody can
know beyond any peradventure of a doubt that they will enter Heaven when they
die (Canon 30, Session 6, Justification) which tells us that mortal sin must be
extremely common and every person commits it a lot and may only think that he is
right with God now and be proved wrong at the judgment after his death.
Christianity has sometimes suppressed or ignored the
doctrine of salvation for a handful for it is bad for business and her schemes
to court popularity. But the fact remains the tradition of the Church and the
scriptures teach that it is the correct view.
APOLOGETICS AND CATHOLIC DOCTRINE, Most Rev M Sheehan
DD, M H Gill & Son, Dublin, 1954
APOLOGETICS FOR THE PULPIT, Aloysius Roche, Burns
Oates & Washbourne LTD, London, 1950
ENCHIRIDION SYMBOLORUM ET DEFINITIONUM, Heinrich
Joseph Denzinger, Edited by A Schonmetzer, Barcelona, 1963
‘GOD, THAT’S NOT FAIR!’ Dick Dowsett, [OMF Books,
Overseas Missionary Fellowship, Belmont, The Vine, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 3TZ]
Kent, 1982
HANDBOOK OF CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS, Peter Kreeft &
Ronald Tacelli, Monarch, East Sussex, 1994
HAVE WE TO FEAR A DEVIL? Fred Pearce, The
Christadelphian Office, Birmingham
HEAVEN AND HELL Dudley Fifield, Christadelphian
Publishing Office, Birmingham
HELL – WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT IT, John R Rice,
Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, 1945
JEHOVAH OF THE WATCH-TOWER, Walter Martin and Norman
Klann, Bethany House, Minnesota, 1974
LIFE IN CHRIST, PART 3, Fergal McGrath SJ, MH Gill and
Son Ltd, Dublin, 1960
RADIO REPLIES VOL 1, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio
Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota, 1938
REASON AND BELIEF, Bland Blanschard, George Allen &
and Unwin Ltd, London, 1974
REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND! Watchtower Bible
and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1988
THE BIBLE TELLS US SO, R B Kuiper, The Banner of Truth
Trust, Edinburgh, 1978
THE BOOK OF REVELATION FOR DUMMIES, Larry R Helyer,
PhD, Richard Wagner, Wiley Publishing Inc., Indiana, 2008
THE DEVIL, THE GREAT DECEIVER Peter Watkins, The
Christadelphian Birmingham, 1992
THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF BIBLE DIFFICULTIES, Gleason W
Archer, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1982
THE FOUR MAJOR CULTS, AA Hoekema, Paternoster Press,
Carlisle, 1992
THE KINDNESS OF GOD, EJ Cuskelly MSC, Mercier Press,
Cork, 1965
THE LIFE OF ALL LIVING, Fulton J Sheen, Image Books,
New York, 1979
THE REAL DEVIL, Alan Hayward, Christadelphian Bible
Mission, Birmingham
THE REALITY OF HELL, St Alphonsus Liguori, Augustine
Publishing Company, Devon, 1988
THE SERMONS OF ST ALPHONSUS LIGOURI, St Alphonsus
Ligouri, TAN, Illinois, 1982
THE TRUTH ABOUT HELL, Dawn Bible Students, East
Rutherford, NJ
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT HELL? Radio Bible Class,
Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1986
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO HEAVEN?, Dave Hunt, Harvest
House, Eugene, Oregon, 1988
WHY DOES GOD? Domenico Grasso SJ, St Paul
Publications, Bucks, 1970