What are the 144,000? --A Very Enlightening and Clarifying Message (PLEASE READ!) My understanding of the sealing and the 144,000 has been greatly clarified. Im not dogmatic about this, but I believe it to be correct... It is really not that difficult... All Seventh-day Adventist who come to live according to all the light they have on the Third Angels Message WILL be among the 144,000--a special group of people who will all be living just prior to Christs return in the final plague. It will be said of them, Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus (Revelation 14:12). Those who die in the faith will be in a special resurrection. It is said of them, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them (v. 13). Now this may be shocking, but what Im about to explain will make a lot more sense... Our pioneers believed that both SDA groups would be among the 144,000; however, they did not understand it completely, nor do I claim to. My understanding is that the sealing is a process that is a settling, or resting, into the truth, as our prophet has said. ALL Christians go through this process; however, only Seventh-day Adventists (the true Protestants after 1848) have the sealing message, which is the Third Angels Message. Let me explain... The seal of the Law is the Sabbath. It seals the entire Law in us. Why? Because Sabbath means rest, and the 7th Day is the sign of that rest. Therefore, if we rest in God from our own works, we will be enabled to keep the other Commandments. ALL Christians have this form of sealing that comes from the Holy Spirit. However, only Seventh-day Adventists realize that the 7th Day is the outward seal--the sign of Gods true remnant in the last days, who will eventually all be tested of their faithfulness by the Sunday Laws. All SDAs? Yes, ALL... Sunday Laws will still be in effect during the 7th plague when those who have died in the Third Angels Message will be resurrected. We will all stand as one if we remain faithful. We will together make up the 144,000. This is what our pioneers believe. Those who initially make up that number are the final generation that we have entered in the last several years. They will have the full experience. Why? Two reasons... 1. They will have heard, lived, and proclaimed the LOUD CRY, of the Third Angels Message, as in Revelation 18. This is not the basic message, but the full and complete message, and what makes it full and complete is the Sabbath being proclaimed more fully. The Sabbath will be seen as a rest to the last-day people of God. And the final generation will do what all previous generations of the past have failed to do--enter into Gods rest COMPLETELY--forsaking ALL sins, yea, resting from ALL sins by the blood of Jesus plead in the Most Holy Place. 2. This will enable them to pass the Sunday Law test under the severest conflicts--when they are first enacted, all the way through the plagues and the death decree. The SDAs who died in the faith will not have this full experience; thus, they will have not received the complete seal of the living God before their death. But after their resurrection, they will merge with the other 144,000 and be imputed with their experience, because they had expected it, yea, anticipated it, and their faith will be mature enough to stand without a Mediator until Christ comes--however many days in the future that may be. And after the resurrection, they may quickly hear the full Loud Cry Message and receive the fullness of the seal, but if not, they will soon learn in heaven. Then the voice of God will be heard from heaven, announcing the day and the hour of Christs Second Coming and confirm the completed everlasting covenant, that the 144,000 have entered into for all Israel, as the spiritual seed for all Israel; for Christ will fully be in them, the hope of glory. They will all stand as one for the truth in the very last days on this earth, testifying to the power and love of God. The everlasting covenant that is confirmed with them is the everlasting rest from sin, that Christ enabled the 144,000 to enter into by the faith of Jesus. Now, this poses a couple of questions: (1) What exactly is the seal of God? (2) Is 144,000 a literal or symbolic number? Firstly, the seal of God is the Sabbath, which seals the rest of the Law, or name, of God--which is His perfect love and the absence of sin. But many of the great multitude of Revelation 7 (the redeemed of all ages, according to EGW) never heard of the Sabbath Day, let alone the Third Angels Message. Therefore, they also go through a sealing process by the Holy Spirit Who seals them. They may not be fit to stand without a Mediator in their mortality, but they will ALL be fit for heaven. Their characters do not change at their resurrection, only their mortal bodies containing a carnal nature. They are sealed to enter into the rest of heaven, because they entered into it in this live, according to their limited or advanced knowledge of Gods Word; some will be of other religions, but lived according to Gods principle of love by the same Holy Spirit that strives with all mankind, and seals the saved. Therefore, the great multitude receive the seal in spirit, but not in truth (what they are unwillingly ignorant of). The loyal Seventh-Day Adventists receive the seal of the living God in spirit and in truth, but only those who will never die receive it in its perfection before the plagues--again, (1) because of the Loud Cry and Latter Rain experience it brings, and (2) because of the tests and trouble they must endure. Therefore, there are three groups of people, each receiving a greater measure of the seal of God earlier on. (1) All true Christians; (2) All Seventh-day Adventists; and (3) The last-generation Seventh-day Adventists who receive all light and endure all trials, and thus are worthy, by Gods grace, to never see death. So, is the 144,000 a literal or symbolic number? I have come to believe that it is a symbolic number, but Im not dogmatic about it. It makes the most sense to me, because as our pioneers have biblically believed, all loyal Seventh-day Adventists since 1848, when the sealing message first went out, will be of that special number. That was 166 years ago, and both the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy explains that multitudes of Gentiles will come to join our ranks when the Loud Cry goes out, and many already have come in without the full Cry. Some, such as Doug Batchelor and the Branch Davidians, who I both respectfully disagree with, believe that the 144,000 are those who preach the Loud Cry to the Gentiles, who will not become among that number. They believe this mainly due to the 12 tribes, like the 12 disciples. But this idea has not Bible or Spirit of Prophecy support. It is purely conjecture. The whole purpose of the seal of the living God is to COVER the final remnant of Israel for the seven last plagues, so that they will pass the final test (Sunday Laws) and endure all the persecution and trouble; thus, Israel finally ENTERING INTO THE COVENANTAL REST OF CANAAN--144,000 proving that God is love, and that Canaan will be the universal government. The purpose of the seal is not to teach, but to secure eternity (Christ has done it, but He is waiting for witnesses to accept it). All who are preached to at the end of time will join the number. And it will be multitudes. Therefore, I believe that 144,000 is a symbolic number, like other symbolic numbers in Revelation. We know they will still be a very small minority compared to billions, but God desires ALL to be saved. Hes not bound and limited to saving only 144,000 Seventh-day Adventists. Besides, 144,000 is not a perfect square, though Mrs. White says that they WILL form a perfect square on the sea of glass. As long as we do not try to make the great multitude and the 144,000 the same--a terribly deceptive error that some make--we can be biblical. 144,000 designate all those who faithfully live and proclaim the Third Angels Message. Revelation 14, Verses 1 to 13, is for ALL of us. If faithful, we will all live, at least for some days, in the seven last plagues (at least the 7th) that that Message prepares us for. We, as the first-fruits, if faithful, will all live at the same time and stand united just prior to the glorious appearing of Jesus and watch Him come. Then the great multitude will be resurrected, and they will unite with us as well in heaven. All will be glory! Maranatha
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 12:39:26 +0000
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