Chapter 3

The Chosen

(1) Who are the 144,000?

Revelation chapter 7 takes place between the opening of the 6th seal and the opening of the 7th seal, and the GT will soon begin here in Revelation. The events of Rev. 7 take place just before the start of the GT:

1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.

2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: 3 “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.” 4 Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.

The four winds represent natural disasters that will come upon the world during the GT, but before the GT can start God is going to number his elect:

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. (Rev. 7:1-8)

The first thing any student of Revelation should understand is that these 12 tribes are not Jews who will preach the Gospel during the GT or flee into the wilderness, which is the usual interpretation. Paul makes it clear that believing Gentiles have been given citizenship in Israel and are considered Abraham’s offspring– so they must be included in Israel as well, spiritually speaking. But the Church is never directly identified as Israel in the Old Testament or the New Testament, with good reason; there would be great confusion about who the passage was talking about; the physical descendants or the spiritual descendant. Here in Revelation, God is speaking symbolically, so it refers to the spiritual descendants.

In Revelation 2, Jesus said, “I know the slander of those who say they are Jews but are not, but are a synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 2:9). This tells us that Christ rejected those who worshiped at the synagogue and called themselves Jews. To be a true Jew, you must be on the tree of promise. Paul said the Jews who refused to believe in Christ were cut off the tree of promise and the believing Gentiles were grafted on; the Jews “were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith” (Romans 11:20). All the branches on the tree of promise are God’s chosen people, not just the Jewish branches, and they all stand by faith. Being born Jews did not make them heirs to the promise; it has always been by faith, or rightness of heart.

The Gentiles that Paul addressed were Christians who were grafted onto the tree of promise, thus making them part of the elect. (Nevertheless, God is still fulfilling his promises to the physical descendants of Israel, but that is another story.)

There is a passage that makes a clear distinction between all groups and calls the collective church of Jews and Gentiles the chosen people:

Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved … (Colossians 3:11-12)

Paul also said:

This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 3:6)

Paul does not say that the Gentiles have become literal Israelites, but merely that Gentiles now share in all the promises made to the believing Israelites; they are “together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” Together, the Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians form one body of God’s elect.

Both the Old and New Testaments say that just being a physical offspring of Abraham does not make you acceptable to God. John the Baptist said God could cut off the Jews and raise up descendants out of the rocks. The true offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are those of the promise– who are the spiritual offspring because they believe and follow God. The physical descendants in the OT and NT who did not believe, were killed or scattered. Therefore, spiritual Israel has always been only those who believe and live by the words and promises of God.

This is also seen in Rev.12 which describes a woman who gives birth to Christ; and represents believing Israel; later it says, “Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring– those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (v.17). So the Dragon makes war against Christians, both Jews and Gentiles. If the woman was physical Israel, then the Dragon would only persecute Christian Jews, but that is not the case.

Since Jewish and Gentile believers are together called the Chosen people, unbelieving Israelites cannot be above them in choosiness. All true Christians are God’s elect. Unbelieving Jews can be grafted back onto the tree if they believe in Christ, but until then they are not the “elect” of God; though they are physically Israelites.

The number, 144,000, is a symbolic number which we learn by reading Revelation chapter 21 where the Bride of Christ is depicted as New Jerusalem.

(2) The Bride of Christ

The Bride of Christ is not a real woman who will marry Jesus, but is symbolism referring to all Christians who will be in the Rapture. In Revelation chapter 21 John sees the Bride of Christ in symbolic form, as a city coming down from heaven. The city has 12 foundations with the names of the 12 apostles on them:

9 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.14 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 b in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits c thick, d by human measurement, which the angel was using.

18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 21The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass. (Rev. 21:9-21)

There are several reasons why this cannot be a literal city. A pearl large enough to make a city gate out of it would have to be at least 10 feet tall, which means the oyster would have to be about 200 feet across! Also, the city is so tall that it would stick up through the stratosphere where there is no oxygen and the temperature is below freezing.

The city has twelve gates with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel on them. The symbolism tells us that to dwell in the city you must first be a Christian (the foundations), but you also become an Israelite because you must pass through the gates to enter the city.

Therefore, the 12-tribes here in Revelation symbolically represent all those who will be in the Bride of Christ. The Bride of Christ is not the Church, the Bride will be chosen out of the Church. That is, the 144,000 are all those who are spiritually ready to be in the Rapture, to be the Bride of Christ. Contrary to popular belief, just being a Christian does not qualify you to be in the Rapture; it refers only to those who actually live according to the teachings of Christ. Christians who spew hatred at those who disagree with them will not be included; Christians who kill abortion doctors will not be included; Christians who lie and spread rumors about others will not be included. Sinful Christians may go to heaven when they die but they will not be in the Rapture.

(3) Symbolic Number

Each tribe most certainly contains a different population; so how could there be exactly 12,000 from each tribe? A large tribe will have a larger number of righteous than a small tribe. Therefore, the number of those who will be chosen is not going to be exactly 144,000, so this number must be symbolic. As seen above, the Bride is seen symbolically as New Jerusalem that has walls that are 144 cubits thick and 12,000 stadia in length; every 1,000 stadia of wall equals 144,000 (1,000 x 144) x 4 sides, puts the number in the millions. (See the graphic on the next page.)

Here is a look at one of the four city walls from the top.  Notice that the wall thickness is 144 stadia, and 12,000 stadia in length. So each 1,000 stadia is 144,000.  But the same 144 x 1000 can be done with the height of the wall because it is just as tall as it is long, 12,000 stadia.  These are not literal numbers, but symbolic numbers.

So you cannot figure up how many people will be in the Rapture, it is merely telling us that the number will be many millions. So the actual number of those who will be numbered among the 144,000 will likely be several hundred million, perhaps even a billion. There are more than 2 billion people who claim to be Christians today, but we know that most are not spiritually ready for the Rapture. By the time the Great Tribulation begins many will have repented and gotten right with God because of the signs in heavens which we learned about in chapter one, plus the millions more who will convert.

Several early-Church leaders, like Irenaeus and Barnabas, and several Jewish Rabbis, have taught the theory that since God made everything in six days and rested on the seventh, that the seventh millennium will be the Sabbath rest for Earth (see quote from Barnabas in chapter one). Peter said, “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Peter 3:8).

Since Saturday is the seventh day of the week, representing the seventh thousand years, and Christ’s resurrection did not take place until after the Sabbath, on Sunday, the main resurrection of all the righteous dead will not take place until after the Millennium, but not immediately after.

Some Bible students speculate that Jesus made some statements that indicate that he would return after two thousand years, not exactly 2,000 but a short time after that:

At that time some of the Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.” 32 He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’” (Luke 13:31-32)

On the third day would mean after two thousand years from Christ, during the third thousand years; he did not say at the end of the second day, or the very start of the third. It could mean twenty-five or even one-hundred years into the third millennium, but probably means shortly after the start of the third millennium.

In the Bible, any part of a day is counted as a whole day, which is why Jesus said he would be in dead for three days before his resurrection. Even though it was not 72 whole hours, he died on Friday and rose on Sunday, so that is three days using the Biblical way of figuring days.

Also, remember that Jesus was not crucified until he was 33 years old in 27-32 A.D. Therefore it’s likely 2,000 years should be counted from that time. However, if we use the 360-day Biblical year, then 2,000 years from 32 A.D. is 2003, because an actual year is 5.25 days longer than a Biblical year.

(4) Firstfruits

In Revelation 14, the 144,000 are called “firstfruits”:

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 kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. (14:3-4)

In the Old Testament, the Firstfruits was an offering to God from the increase of all the land. The harvest could not begin until the offering was given. A small portion of the ripe grain was selected and presented to the priest as an offering. The Firstfruits was not the total harvest, but it represented the harvest yet to come, and was to be the choicest portions. All the professing Christians who have ever lived are the total harvest.

The 144,000 are the Firstfruits of all those who believe; they are the very best. The reference to the 144,000 being virgins is a figurative way to show that these are among the most righteous. They are not greedy for money like many Christians who seek after wealth. Only the genuinely righteous will be in the 144,000. Only this group will be in the Rapture because only this group follows the Lamb wherever he goes. It is only this group who fully live according to the teaching of Jesus.

Therefore, this passage in Revelation 7 means that just before the start of the GT, those whose spiritual condition is right with God, will be counted and sealed, “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. 7:3). The counting represents being chosen to be in the Bride of Christ; the sealing represents divine protection from God’s judgments during the Great Tribulation. As we will see in a future chapter, the Rapture will not take place until the 7th trumpet is ready to sound, which is the last trumpet.

The Greek for “servant” in Rev. 7:3 is doulos, and means “bond-servant,” or “bondman.” This indicates that the 144,000 (whatever the total number might be) are people who are dedicated to serving God. This means their primary concern in this life is doing the will of God. Many Christians are caught up in the things of the world, they have let their relationship with Christ grow stale, or they do not live according to the will of God detailed in the Bible, including many preachers. Sadly, a large number of church-going Christians lie, cheat, slander, are hot tempered, or greedy or suffer from many other sins; so just being a Christian is not enough to make the Rapture. Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland have bombed and murdered each other, so there is more to being a Christian than believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and attending church services.

It is also probable that those who go in the Rapture are spiritually mature and capable of ruling and reigning with Christ; if this is the case, it means that all children will remain on Earth. The Rapture is not the end of the world and it is not the final resurrection, it is an early reward for Christians who have passed the test and are the choicest portions, which is why they are called the Firstfruits. Since most Christians will not be in the Rapture, children probably will not go in the Rapture. How many of them would want to go anyway? They want to have an opportunity to live like other people have, and they will have that opportunity by living to enter the next age. The reason that only those who are ready at the start of the GT will be in the Rapture is because even murderers might repent during the tribulation, and many Christians will grow up to be spiritual leaders during the GT, who were just spiritual babes at the start of the GT.

After the description of the 144,000 in Rev. 7, there is a great multitude of people that no man can number. They are clearly Christians, but they are not called servants. The 144,000 are the only ones that “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Rev. 14:4). Jesus spoke about the future state of the righteous when he said:

“those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels.” (Luke 20:35-36)

This also indicates that the Rapture will contain a limited number, “those who are considered worthy.” The sealing of those who will be in the Rapture will take place at the start of the GT, which means that the Church will be judged at this time. It is possible that every believer throughout the world will instantly know whether they have been judged worthy or unworthy. If so, from that point onward you will not have a doubt about whether or not you will be in the Rapture.

After the judgment and sealing of the 144,000, many of them will probably be out preaching and compelling people to get saved because they know that there are only a few years left, and since they are going to become immortal, it does not matter if they are killed.

When the disasters come upon the world during the Great Tribulation, God will speak to each of the 144,000 and tell them where to go and what to do in order to be safe from the natural disasters, and for their families also.

(5) The Last Great Awakening

After the 144,000 are sealed, the angel shows John another group of people:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

11 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!” 13 Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes–who are they, and where did they come from?” 14 I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

15 Therefore, “they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. 16 Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Rev. 7:9-17)

Since this group is an uncountable number, they are not the same group as the 144,000. Notice that they have “washed their robes and made them white.” This indicates that they are converts, and the wording of the passage suggests that they become Christians after the 144,000 are sealed. This group also includes many people who now claim to be Christians but are not living the life, but after the start of the GT they will get serious with God and repent.

When things are going well and people are prosperous, most of them feel no need for God, but when times get hard they want to pray and get right with God. This is why there will be a great revival during the Great Tribulation. By the end of the GT there will be very few people who are lukewarm; they will either be for Christ or against Christ.

Getting people to repent is also the reason why God will send the Great Tribulation. God wants people to repent before he sends the Day of Judgment.

(6) Conclusion

If you want to be counted among the 144,000 you should seek after things that are heavenly and living a moral life; feed the poor, clothe the naked, and cultivate a personal relationship with God by reading the Bible and praying.

We were told the 144,000 are sealed before the four “winds” can blow and harm Earth. The four winds are never actually mentioned again, but they are probably the first four trumpets in Rev. 8, which are natural disasters. And since the 144,000 are numbered before those events begin, it is safe to assume that they are here on Earth during those events. And since they are the Firstfruits, then there is no pre-tribulation Rapture.

Those who came out of the GT suffered hunger, thirst, and heat, so we can safely conclude that the GT will include famine, and drought.

(The remainder of this chapter is not available online.)