 THE
144,000 OF THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL PART III
Rev.14:4 The firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
Psa.32:1-2 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. Rom.9:4-5
Who are the Israelites. Deut 7:6 For thou art an holy people unto
the Lord thy God. 1 Cor 15:20-23 Christ risen from the dead, and
become the firstfruits of them that slept.
Rom. 2:9-10 Jew first, and also of the Gentile.
Rom.11:1-7 But the election hath obtained it, and the rest were
blinded. Acts 2:38-41 There were added unto them about 3,000 souls.
Acts 4:1-4 Many of them which heard the word believed: the number
was 5,000. Acts 5:14 Were the more added to the Lord, multitudes
both men and women. Acts 21:17-20 Thou seest, brother, how many
thousands of Jews there are which believe.
Rev.7:1-8 The firstfruits unto God which you will
find were from each tribe of Israel. The reference appears to be
to those Jews who were the first converts to Christianity during
the time that Peter preached unto them: "repent, and be baptized,"
And it was preached until the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Rev.14:1,
the 144,000 had already had the father's name written in their foreheads.
Rev.14:2-8 they are symbolic of the people who have come out of
the great tribulation, who have washed their robes and made them
white in the Blood of the Lamb: So John was told in an earlier vision
(7:1-8), when the vistas of the future had been only partially seen
until verse 9-14, was illuminated.
After the 144,000 were sealed came the angel flying
in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach
unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred,
and tongue, and people (Rev.14:6). This came about after the fall
of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., until the return of Christ (Rev.7:15-17:
Rev.14:7-20). “For the great day of His wrath is come: and
who shall be able to stand?” (Rev.6:17) This group is composed
of spiritual virgins. They do not commit spiritual fornication by
following false religious and philosophical teachings. They have
repented of ungodly behavior. They are true to God's perfect way.
Some claim that they are the 144,000 and others
claim that these are Jews who are sealed after the rapture of the
church. However, when we look closely at the Scripture, we find
that the time element involved in sealing of these people, indicated
by the word "fristfruits," rules out these various claims.
In order to gain a proper understanding of this subject, we must
see how the word "firstfruit" is used in other places
in the Bible, and what it means.
In Israel, firstfruits referred generally to the
harvest, and meant the first ripened grain; an earnest of the harvest
to follow. The firstfruits were holy unto the lord. Exodus 23:16
is the first reference in the Bible to firstfruits. Here it is associated
with the feast of harvest, or as it is also called, the feast of
Pentecost. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit came on the day
of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-5), and the males of Israel had gathered
for this feast. How significant then, that at the preaching of Peter,
3,000 Jews were converted on this day. They who had assembled to
bring the firstfruit of their labor unto the Lord, now themselves
became the firstfruits of the New Testament, holy unto the Lord.
The Bible tells us that we are sealed by the Holy
Spirit (Ephesian 1:13-14). This sealing is a spiritual act of God,
not a physical mark that is visible to the world. In the consideration
of sealing, it may be helpful to read Ezekiel 9:4; Acts 10:38 and
2 Timothy 2:19. John in Revelation tell the angels saying: "hurt
not the earth, neither the sea (people) nor the trees (Kings), till
we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads."
Then it goes on to tell who is sealed, first the
144,000 of the tribes of Israel, then a great multitude which no
man could number. There were thousands of Jewish believers in the
beginning of the New Covenant Era, brought to our attention in Acts
21:20:...."Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews
which believe; and they are all zealous of the law." Bible
students believe we are in the end of the age of grace, and the
wrath of God is being withheld until the sealing is finished. To
say that the 144,000 are yet to be sealed is a misuse of the word
"firstfruits." This group, however, is the only ones to
come under God's grace. They are the "firstfruits," as
Rev.14:4 points out; there is a much greater spiritual harvest yet
to come (Rev.7:9-14).
The innumerable multitude (not the 144,000), is
made up of individuals "who come out of the great tribulation."
If they came "out of" the great tribulation, they must
have been in it. It was the old Papal Church whitewashed and called
Christian. This great apostasy was foretold, with the rise and rule
of this "man of sin" (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, Daniel 7:23-27).
This was the great Anti-Christ of the Bible. It was this Papal Church
that became the State Church of Rome in 538 A.D. and lasted for
1260 years, with the man of sin, or Popes, at the head claiming
powers belonging only to God and Jesus, the Son of God. All who
dared to stand for the Bible alone as the authority were branded
as heretic and persecuted even to the death. This Papal persecution
by the Roman Church drove the true Church into the wilderness for
1260 years (Rev.12:6,14: Ezekiel 4:6). Rev.13:5-8 also tells of
this great persecution. The methods used are given in Rev.13:15-17.
“And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward
is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”
Rev. 22:12
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