INTRODUCTION:
The main focus of this study is the study of the 144,000, their relationship to us as Seventh-Day Adventists, and how we may become a part of this great company.
PRAYER THOUGHT: CSW 25:1
There is yet much precious truth to be revealed to the people in this time of peril and darkness, but it is Satan’s determined purpose to prevent the light of truth from shining into the hearts of men. If we would have the light that has been provided for us, we should show our desire for it by diligently searching the word of God. Precious truths that have long been in obscurity are to be revealed in a light that will make manifest their sacred worth; for God will glorify His word, that it may appear in a light in which we have never before beheld it. But those who profess to love the truth must put to the stretch their powers, that they may comprehend the deep things of the word, that God may be glorified and His people may be blessed and enlightened. With humble hearts, subdued by the grace of God, you should come to the task of searching the Scriptures, prepared to accept every ray of divine light, and to walk in the way of holiness.I. Read: Rev.7:1-4
BRIEF OVERVIEW
Four symbolic winds are being held by four angels
An angel comes from the east with the seal of God
The winds cannot be let loose until the 144,000 are sealed
The 144,000 are a very special company
WHAT DO THE WINDS SYMBOLIZE?
Read: 5T 152:2
The time is coming when we cannot sell at any price. The decree will soon go forth prohibiting men to buy or sell of any man save him that hath the mark of the beast. We came near having this realized in California a short time since; but this was only the threatening of the blowing of the four winds. As yet they are held by the four angels. We are not just ready. There is a work yet to be done, and then the angels will be bidden to let go, that the four winds may blow upon the earth. That will be a decisive time for God’s children, a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. Now is our opportunity to work.
EXPLANATION: Here we are told that the symbolic winds represent the “time of trouble such as never was” (Dan. 12:1) — the “mark of the beast” decree or the “Sunday-Blue Laws.”
Thus, the 144,000 have to be sealed before the mark of the beast. Since the “mark of the beast decree is just ahead of us, this indicates that the 144,000 are being sealed today. (See also 7A Bible Commentary, p. 976.2).
NOTE: These winds in Revelation 7 could not symbolize war seeing that we have always had wars (for example, World War I and II) and yet the 144,000 are not yet sealed. The winds represent a special strife or trouble that is coming against the church. It does not indicate a clash of nation against nation. It must be held, lest it hurt the people of God. This shows that the winds are religio-political in nature.
WHERE ARE THE 144,000 TO BE FOUND?
Read: verse 4
EXPLANATION: They are sealed from the tribes of Israel.
However, this could not be ancient Israel, seeing that we are dealing with the time just prior to the mark of the beast — our time.
The 144,000 must therefore be found in modern Israel. 9T 164, 5T 94, PK 713-714.
In order to be purified and to remain pure, Seventh-day Adventists must have the Holy Spirit in their hearts and in their homes. The Lord has given me light that when the Israel of today humble themselves before Him, and cleanse the soul-temple from all defilement, He will hear their prayers in behalf of the sick and will bless in the use of His remedies for disease. When in faith the human agent does all he can to combat disease, using the simple methods of treatment that God has provided, his efforts will be blessed of God. {9T 164.1}
The sin of ancient Israel was in disregarding the expressed will of God and following their own way according to the leadings of unsanctified hearts. Modern Israel are fast following in their footsteps, and the displeasure of the Lord is as surely resting upon them. {5T 93.3}
That which God purposed to do for the world through Israel, the chosen nation, He will finally accomplish through His church on earth today. He has “let out His vineyard unto other husbandmen,” even to His covenant-keeping people, who faithfully “render Him the fruits in their seasons.” Never has the Lord been without true representatives on this earth who have made His interests their own. These witnesses for God are numbered among the spiritual Israel, and to them will be fulfilled all the covenant promises made by Jehovah to His ancient people. {PK 713.1}
Today the church of God is free to carry forward to completion the divine plan for the salvation of a lost race. For many centuries God’s people suffered a restriction of their liberties. The preaching of the gospel in its purity was prohibited, and the severest of penalties were visited upon those who dared disobey the mandates of men. As a consequence, the Lord’s great moral vineyard was almost wholly unoccupied. The people were deprived of the light of God’s word. The darkness of error and superstition threatened to blot out a knowledge of true religion. God’s church on earth was as verily in captivity during this long period of relentless persecution as were the children of Israel held captive in Babylon during the period of the exile. {PK 714.1}
WHO IS MODERN ISRAEL TODAY?
Proof that Modern Israel today is the SDA Church
Read: Rev. 14:1,4
EXPLANATION: Here the 144,000 are said not to be defiled with women (churches of the world) because they are virgins (professing a pure faith — See COL. 406). In other words, the 144,000 are found in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Further proof: See EW 14, 42-3— the only church teaching the “Midnight Cry” is the S.D.A. church.
They are called virgins because they profess a pure faith. {COL 406}
The living saints, 144,000 in number, knew and understood the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder and an earthquake. When God spoke the time, He poured upon us the Holy Ghost, and our faces began to light up and shine with the glory of God, as Moses’ did when he came down from Mount Sinai. {EW 14.1}
Satan is now using every device in this sealing time to keep the minds of God’s people from the present truth and to cause them to waver. I saw a covering that God was drawing over His people to protect them in the time of trouble; and every soul that was decided on the truth and was pure in heart was to be covered with the covering of the Almighty. {EW 43.2}
The only church teaching the “Midnight Cry” is the SDA church.
FURTHER PROOF FOR WOMEN SYMBOLIZING CHURCHES:
In the Bible the sacred and enduring character of the relation that exists between Christ and His church is represented by the union of marriage. The Lord has joined His people to Himself by a solemn covenant, He promising to be their God, and they pledging themselves to be His and His alone. He declares: “I will betroth thee unto Me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies.” Hosea 2:19. And, again: “I am married unto you.” Jeremiah 3:14. And Paul employs the same figure in the New Testament when he says: “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:2.{GC 381.2}
IS THIS NUMBER (144,000) SYMBOLIC OR COULD IT MEAN MORE?
Read: verse 4
EXPLANATION: John clearly heard the number.
Read: EW 14 Soon we heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of Jesus’ coming. The living saints, 144,000 in number, knew and understood the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder and an earthquake. When God spoke the time, He poured upon us the Holy Ghost, and our faces began to light up and shine with the glory of God, as Moses’ did when he came down from Mount Sinai.
Read EW 15. The 144,000 were all sealed and perfectly united. On their foreheads was written, God, New Jerusalem, and a glorious star containing Jesus’ new name.
EXPLANATION: Ellen White clearly saw the number.
Further Proof: Literal or specific numbers (Rev. 21:12, 14; Dan. 8:14; 7:25) vs. innumerable or unspecified groups (Gen. 15:5; Rev. 20:8)
Read: verses 5-9
EXPLANATION: God delineates specifically 12,000 from each tribe. But in verse 9, John saw an innumerable company. The comparison shows that one is a numbered company (144,000), the other unnumbered. Hence, the number of the 144,000 has to be literal, not symbolic.
In Original Greek rendering is it symbolical?
No, it is reckoned number.
ἀριθμός
arithmos
ar-ith-mos’
From G142; a number (as reckoned up): – number.
HOW ARE THEY SEALED?
Read: TM 445:2
This sealing of the servants of God is the same that was shown to Ezekiel in vision. John also had been a witness of this most startling revelation.
EXPLANATION: Here we see that the sealing of the 144,000 is also to be found somewhere in the book of Ezekiel. The only such chapter where this prophet gives an account of a sealing, is the NINTH. Therefore, John the Revelator and Ezekiel saw the sealing of the 144,000.
Read: Ezekiel 9
EXPLANATION:
Six men or angels came from Heaven (higher gate towards the north). See Isa. 14:13; Ps. 48:1-2.
Note: Angels are sometimes called men. (See Dan. 9:21; DA 99)
And to John the angel declared, “I am a fellow servant with thee and with thy brethren the prophets.” Rev. 22:9, R. V. Wonderful thought–that the angel who stands next in honor to the Son of God is the one chosen to open the purposes of God to sinful men. {DA 99}
One was a marking angel.
God told the marking angel to seal or mark only those who sigh and cry for the evils in Jerusalem–the church. God then commanded the other five angels to follow the marking angel and slay.
He also instructed them to begin the destruction with the church (sanctuary 1 Pet. 4:17) and with the ancient men (leaders).
God is not to have mercy because of the general attitude of the leaders and members.
They are acting as if “the Lord will not do good or evil”– not concerned.
Note: There is no such thing as a spiritual slaughter. (See 5T 211, 505; 1MR 260)
The class who do not feel grieved over their own spiritual declension, nor mourn over the sins of others, will be left without the seal of God. The Lord commissions His messengers, the men with slaughtering weapons in their hands: “Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.” {5T 211.1}
Here we see that the church–the Lord’s sanctuary–was the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of God. The ancient men, those to whom God had given great light and who had stood as guardians of the spiritual interests of the people, had betrayed their trust. They had taken the position that we need not look for miracles and the marked manifestation of God’s power as in former days. Times have changed. These words strengthen their unbelief, and they say: The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil. He is too merciful to visit His people in judgment. Thus “Peace and safety” is the cry from men who will never again lift up their voice like a trumpet to show God’s people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. These dumb dogs that would not bark are the ones who feel the just vengeance of an offended God. Men, maidens, and little children all perish together. {5T 211.2}
Study the 9th chapter of Ezekiel. These words will be literally fulfilled; yet the time is passing, and the people are asleep. They refuse to humble their souls and to be converted. Not a great while longer will the Lord bear with the people who have such great and important truths revealed to them, but who refuse to bring these truths into their individual experience. The time is short. God is calling; will you hear? Will you receive His message? Will you be converted before it is too late? Soon, very soon, every case will be decided for eternity. Letter 106, 1909, pp. 2, 3, 5, 7. (To “The churches in Oakland and Berkeley,” September 26, 1909.){1MR 260.2}
The true people of God, who have the spirit of the work of the Lord and the salvation of souls at heart, will ever view sin in its real, sinful character. They will always be on the side of faithful and plain dealing with sins which easily beset the people of God. Especially in the closing work for the church, in the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand who are to stand without fault before the throne of God, will they feel most deeply the wrongs of God’s professed people. This is forcibly set forth by the prophet’s illustration of the last work under the figure of the men each having a slaughter weapon in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side. “And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.”{3T 266.2}
Who are standing in the counsel of God at this time? Is it those who virtually excuse wrongs among the professed people of God and who murmur in their hearts, if not openly, against those who would reprove sin? Is it those who take their stand against them and sympathize with those who commit wrong? No, indeed! Unless they repent, and leave the work of Satan in oppressing those who have the burden of the work and in holding up the hands of sinners in Zion, they will never receive the mark of God’s sealing approval. They will fall in the general destruction of the wicked, represented by the work of the five men bearing slaughter weapons. Mark this point with care: Those who receive the pure mark of truth, wrought in them by the power of the Holy Ghost, represented by a mark by the man in linen, are those “that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done” in the church. Their love for purity and the honor and glory of God is such, and they have so clear a view of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, that they are represented as being in agony, even sighing and crying. Read the ninth chapter of Ezekiel. {3T 267.1}
EXPLANATION:
That the true people of God are those who recognize sin in the church, stay aloof from it, but speak out against the sins.
Closing work for the church is the sealing of the 144,000.
This work of the sealing of the 144,000 is forcibly set forth by the prophet (Ezekiel) when in vision. He saw five men (angels) with slaughter weapons and the sixth with a writer’s inkhorn.
Only those who sigh and cry for the wrongs in the church receive the seal.
The servant of the Lord under Inspiration tells us to read Ezekiel Chapter Nine.
An Objection: It is often stated that the slaughter of Ezekiel nine transpires during the plagues or at the second coming of Christ, based upon this statement found in 3T 267.1 “They will fall in the general destruction of the wicked. . .” This, however, could not be so, because:
The plagues are described very differently from the destruction in Ezekiel nine.
a. In the plagues the angels use vials, and pour out the wrath of God upon Babylon (the world).
b. In Ezekiel’s description, the angels use weapons to slay those in Jerusalem (the church).
When we quote the sentence in full it would read as follows: “They will fall in the general destruction of the wicked represented by the work of the five men bearing slaughter weapons.” This tells us that this “general destruction” is that which destroys the wicked in the church (Jerusalem) not the world.–They are cut down by the five men (angels) not the vials of the seven angels in Revelation 16.
Read: 5T 211
EXPLANATION:
Those who do not mourn over their own sins (sigh) or warn others (cry) will not receive the seal.
The church is the first to feel God’s wrath (literally).
The ancient men are the leaders.
The leaders have been unfaithful–betrayed their trust. They do not warn the members of the coming doom.
They do not believe God will bring judgment on His people. They think that God is too merciful.
Because they have failed as faithful leaders, they will never preach again.
They are likened to dumb dogs (ministers are symbolized in scripture by dogs) because they are supposed to warn the members of danger. See Isa. 56:10
We can conclude that the 144,000 are to be sealed and spared because they sighed and cried. This destruction or slaughter is literal and takes place within the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
NOTE: Four is used in Revelation 7 to show that the mark of the beast and the hurting by the angels are worldwide (four points of the compass) but it begins in the church.
WHERE DOES THE COMPANY IN VERSE NINE COME FROM?
Read: Rev 14:4
EXPLANATION:
The 144,000 are called the “First-fruits” — evidently they are the first ones to be spiritually harvested — saved from among the living. Note, that one cannot have a first without a second, one necessitates the other. (For an example, see Rev 20:5 — “The first resurrection” or Rev.20:14 — “The second death”). So, the Great Multitude in verse 9 must be the second fruits brought in by the 144,000, the first fruits.
EXPLANATION:
Verse 15 shows us that the Lord comes to bring judgment upon many.
This could not be the second coming of Christ, as verse 16 says that He “pleads”.
There is no pleading at the second coming. (See 2T 691)
Those who love the world, and whose minds are carnal and at enmity with God, will flatter themselves that a period of probation will be granted after Christ appears in the clouds of heaven. The carnal heart, which is so averse to submission and obedience, will be deceived with this pleasing view. Many will remain in carnal security and continue in rebellion against God, flattering themselves that there is then to be a period for repentance of sin and an opportunity for them to accept the truth which now is unpopular and crossing to their natural inclination and desires. When they have nothing to venture, nothing to lose, by yielding obedience to Christ and the truth, they think they will take their chance for salvation. {2T 691.3}
Verse 19 clearly shows that some escape the judgment and are sent as missionaries to preach the gospel worldwide. (This again shows that this coming was not the Second Advent, as no one will escape to preach the gospel).
Therefore, the judgment of verse 15 must be the same as the slaughter of Ezekiel 9, and those who escape must be the 144,000 who in turn go out to finish the gospel and gather in the Great Multitude of Rev. 7:9.
SUMMARY:
Thus we see that Rev. clearly forecasts that the church must be purified before the Mark of the Beast Decree, and that the Gospel will be completed during the time of the Sunday Laws. Now is the time to prepare for the Sunday Laws. Now is the time to sigh (reform our own lives) and cry (sound the message of reform for other).