The 144,000 (2)

Victor M. Eskew

 

            The Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that there will be 144,000 people who will enter into Heaven.  The remainder of the redeemed, they assert, will live on a renovated earth.  The 144,000 are a special class of individuals, we are told.  They are the ones who will assist Jesus in ruling over the saved on earth.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ teaching about the 144,000 is not a true teaching.  In this article, we will look at how the Jehovah’s Witnesses have missed the mark in their interpretation of Revelation.           

            The book of Revelation mentions the 144,000 in two chapters, Revelation 7:1-8 and Revelation 14:1-5.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses take this number literally.  They believe that exactly 144,000 people will occupy heaven.  They fail to understand that the book of Revelation is a highly figurative book.  John acknowledges this in the opening verse of the book.  He writes:  “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John” (Rev. 1:1).  John reveals that the book has been signified.  The root of signified is “sign.”  Signs are figurative in nature.  The definition of the word signified given by W.E. Vine is “to express by signs” (e-sword.com). 

            In both passages that mention the 144,000, we know that we are reading figurative language.  Revelation 7:3 states that these individuals have a seal in their foreheads.  Is this a literal seal?  It also says that the 144,000 consists solely of “of all the tribes of the children of Israel.”  Verses 5-8 tell us that there are 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel.  Is this literal?  Do the 144,000 consist only of people connected to the twelve tribes of Israel?  Are the 144,00 only Jew?  When we turn to Revelation 14, we have similar questions.  First, all of them are males.  “These are they which were not defiled with women…” (v. 4).  Does the 144,000 consist only of men?  Are we to believe that there will be no women in heaven?  Second, the text also says that “they are virgins.”  Is this literal?  Most commentators do not believe that these expressions are literal.  Those from the twelve tribes simply represent those who are people of God.  Their being “virgin men” means that they are pure, holy, and undefiled individuals.  If everything else in these two passages is figurative, why are we to believe that the 144,000 is literal?  In order to make the number literal, there has to be a well-founded reason to do so. 

            Revelation 7 consists of a series of visions which John saw.  “And after these things I saw…” (v. 1).  “And I saw…” (v. 2).  “After this I beheld…” (v. 9).  Visions are not literal.  Visions are figurative.  The 144,000 is a figurative number.  The 144,000 represents all of the saved.  The vision that John sees beginning in Revelation 7:9-10 helps us to understand this.  John sees the same group of people only in a different way.  “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”   The 144,000 and the great multitude which no man could number are comparable.  The number 144,000 is a perfect number derived from the perfect number 12.  It is not literal, but it represents all of the saved.  The tribes of Israel were used to represent the saved because in times past the twelve tribes were the people of God.  Now the true Israel of God is the church that is composed of the saved (See Acts 2:47; Rom. 2:28-29; 9:6-8; James 1:1).  The multitude was “clothed with white robes.”   This indicates their purity.  It corresponds to the purity of the 144,000, that is, all of them represented as virgins who were not defiled by women.  Notice that this large multitude of people “of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” were gathered before “the throne and before the Lamb.”  The throne and the Lamb are in heaven.  All the redeemed will ultimately be in heaven.  

A key rule of Bible study states that all passages of the Bible are to be interpreted literally unless there is a reason they should not be.  Regarding Revelation 7 and 14, there is a reason not to interpret the texts literally.  Simply, Revelation is a highly figurative book.  John says that it was “signified.”  Dear reader, the word “Revelation” is translated from the Greek word “apokalupsis.”  It is the word from which we derive the word “apocalypse.”  Apocalyptic literature has always been highly figurative.  It was figurative when used by the prophets.  It was figurative when used by John as well.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses have made the figurative literal.  This is a “No, No,” in Bible interpretation.