Home Topics Index Download
Transcript 260D
The Identity of the 144,000 [Rev 7:4 & 14:1]
CALLER: Could you tell me who the 144,000 are that John is writing about in Revelation?
HC: The question: that is raised concerns itself with the 144,000. The 144,000 are spoken of in two places in the New Testament: one in Revelation 7 and the second in Revelation 14.
Now in Revelation 14 they are shown to us to be those who have been redeemed from earth. They are those, we read in Revelation 14, who are chaste. This is verse 4: "They have not defiled themselves with women." In other words, they're the perfect bride of Christ. Their sins have been covered by the blood of Christ, and they stand before God as if they had never sinned. And they have been redeemed from mankind: "and no lie was found in their mouth." In other words, when we are unsaved we are slaves of Satan, who is the father of lies. And once we are saved, our sins are covered and we're like those who have never never lied. And this is talking about all born again believers.
Now the number 144,000 is used because God frequently uses numbers symbolically. The number twelve is symbolical of the fullness of God's program. And here He's talking about the number of believers, the fullness of believers.
Sometimes He uses it as twelve plus twelve. And so we have the twenty-four elders in Revelation. Sometimes He uses it as twelve times twelve. And so we have the 144,000 Sometimes He uses it as twelve times twelve times twelve. And so we have the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, which is in size 12,000 stadia by 12,000 stadia by 12,000 stadia. And in the Holy City Jerusalem, which is the fullness of all believers, we have twelve foundations, we have twelve gates, and we have walls that are 144 cubits thick. The whole picture, you see, is symbolical.
And so with the 144,000. It is the fullness of all believers. Now in Revelation 7 they are spoken of as twelve tribes of Israel, because in the Bible God repeatedly speaks of the true believers as being the true seed of Abraham, whereas the blood descendants of Abraham are not necessarily Israel. The true Israel of God are those who are the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Read Galatians 3 particularly, and you will see this.
Well, thank you for that question.