Short answer:
A very special group of faithful
believers, called the “elect” (chosen
ones), will be gathered up by the angels to Christ in the first resurrection of
the dead prophesied in the Bible. God’s elect, according to the prophet Isaiah,
is Israel. They will
number 144,000 in all – 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes of
Israel who will have
the seal of God placed in their foreheads by angels. “These are they which were not defiled with
women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever
he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God
and to the Lamb” (Revelation 14:4).
“Virgins… not defiled with women” – will they all be unmarried Israelite
men only? However, several verses in the Bible tell us that a “woman” in prophecy personifies a faith, church
or religion. So, “not defiled with women”
actually means untainted by the wrong teachings of erring churches; “virgins” signify pure and spotless
believers, both male and female. The word “firstfruits”
means they will be the harvest of the first resurrection.
Israelites only? The apostle Paul
taught that faithful Gentile believers can become “naturalized” Israelites
spiritually and, thus, also “elect”
and part of the 144,000.
Detailed explanation:
Two resurrections of the dead are prophesied in the Bible.
“This is the first resurrection. Blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second
death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall
reign with him a thousand years…” (Revelation 20:5b).
The
first resurrection will be at the Second Coming of Christ. “And he shall send his angels with a
great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the
four winds, from one end of heaven to the other”
(Matthew 24:31).
The
second resurrection will be at the end of the ensuing 1,000 years of peace on
earth (the so-called Millennium), with Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords.
“But the rest of the dead lived not again
until the thousand years were finished.” (Revelation 20:5a).
The
“elect”. A
very special group of believers, called the “elect” (“chosen ones”), will be in the first resurrection at the
Second Coming of Christ. Who are the “elect”?
The Bible identifies the elect for
us. “For Jacob my servant's sake, and
Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee,
though thou hast not known me” (Isaiah 45:4). Israel is God’s elect.
The servants of God.
“And after these things
I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four
winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea,
nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the
seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to
whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth,
neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in
their foreheads”
(Revelation 7:1-3). The servants of God will have the seal of God placed in
their foreheads by angels.
144,000
Israelites sealed. “And I
heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred
and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel…” The
servants of God are 144,000 in all.
“Of
the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were
sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. Of the
tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were
sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand.
Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were
sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.
Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph
were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve
thousand”
(Revelation 7:4-8).
“1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the
mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his
Father's name written in their foreheads… These are they which were not defiled
with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb
whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits
unto God and to the Lamb” (Revelation 14:1, 4).
Israelite
bachelors only? “Virgins… not
defiled with women”; did the angels put the seal of God on Israelite
bachelors only?
“Woman”
means church or religion. The Bible tells us that a “woman” in prophecy personifies a faith, church, or religion. “I have likened the daughter of
Zion to a comely and delicate woman” (Jeremiah
6:2). “For I am jealous over you with
godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you
as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2). “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out
of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2;
also 17:1,
5, 16).
So, “not defiled with women” actually means untainted by the wrong
teachings of erring churches; “virgins”
signify pure and spotless believers, both male and female. The word “firstfruits” means they will be the
harvest of the first resurrection. Therefore, the 144,000 are the “elect” who will be gathered up by the angels
to Christ in the first resurrection at His Second Coming!
144,000
Israelites only? Doesn’t Romans 11:26a say: “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written”? Apparently,
all the twelve tribes of Israel will be saved, but not all Israelites
individually. But… Israelites only? What about Gentiles?
Gentiles
can also become “elect”. Paul
taught: “…there is neither Greek nor Jew,
circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ
is all, and in all. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering…” (Colossians 3:11-12).
“Peter,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the
Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto
you, and peace, be multiplied” (1 Peter 1:1-2).
“The
elder unto the elect lady and her
children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have
known the truth” (2 John 1). Gentiles can become elect, too!
Gentiles
“grafted” in. “And if
some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert
graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the
olive tree…”
(Romans 11:17). In this parable, a cultivated olive tree stands for Israel.
Some branches (unfaithful Jews) are cut off and wild olive branches (faithful
Gentile believers) are grafted in their place. In this way, therefore, some
Gentiles can become “naturalized” Israelites spiritually and, thus, also “elect” and part of the 144,000.
“That
at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and
without God in the world… Now therefore ye are no more strangers and
foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God…”
(Ephesians 2:12, 19).
The
true Jew. With
Christ, not all people of Israelite or Jewish descent may be called Jews,
spiritually speaking. “For he is not a
Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in
the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of
the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men,
but of God” (Romans 2:28-29). The true Jew is no longer one in the physical
or racial sense, but a member of the “Israel
of God” (Galatians 6:15-16) – “spiritual
Israel”.
The “seal of God”.
In Revelation 14:1 – “And
I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred
forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.” The
144,000 will have been sealed in their foreheads with the name of God.
What is the seal of God? Does it solely consist of the name of
the Almighty Father and nothing more? The word
“seal” implies the
presence of other elements aside from just a name. As a rule of thumb, a seal
has a pattern containing three main elements: (1) name, (2) title, and (3)
domain or territory (National Sunday Law,
A. Jan Marcussen, p. 46). An actual example is below: the 1215 seal of King
John of England on the Magna Carta (Internet)
– Iohannes (name), Rex (title), Anglie (domain). Modern versions would be: Charles III (name), King (title) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland (domain); or Joe
Biden (name), President (title), United States of America (domain).
Sabbath commandment.
In the entire Bible, this
pattern can be found only in the book of Exodus, chapter 20, verses 8-11, which
embodies the commandment of God to rest on the Sabbath, the seventh and last day
of the week. “Remember the sabbath day,
to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the
seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD (NAME / ”YHWH”) thy God (TITLE): in it thou
shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant,
nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them
is (DOMAIN), and rested the seventh
day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Three
parts of the passage form a seal:
Name:
“the LORD” (substituted for “YHWH”)
Title:
“God”
Domain:
“heaven and earth, the sea, and all that
in them is”
It
becomes clear that the Biblical commandment enjoining God’s people to stop
working and rest on the seventh day of the week (Saturday) is the seal of God!
Memorial to the
Creation. Resting
from work on the seventh-day Sabbath is the memorial or spiritual marker to
YHWH’s work of creation. “And hallow my
sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I
am the LORD your God” (Ezekiel 20:20). For that reason, the commandment
begins with the word “Remember…” By keeping
the seventh-day Sabbath of rest holy, we honor YHWH by regularly remembering that
He is the Creator of heaven and earth.
God’s law abolished?
Some
people argue that God’s commandments have been abolished. In Paul’s writings,
specially in his epistle to the Romans, some passages seem to say that God’s
law is no longer observed: “For Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Romans
10:4). The grace of God, rather than the law, now supposedly holds sway over
believers. “For sin shall not have
dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans
6:14).
Unchanging validity.
Christ Himself,
however, affirmed the continuing validity of God’s law. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not
come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and
earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all
be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17-18). According to the Son of God Himself, God’s
law will remain unchanged and continue to be in force until all prophecies,
including those of the end-times, shall have been fulfilled to the last letter.
Key to eternal life.
Keeping the law
of God, Christ said, is basic to gaining eternal life. “And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing
shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest
thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter
into life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:16-17).
The
commandments are key to being admitted into the kingdom of heaven. Christ told John in the apostle’s visions of the
Revelation: “Blessed are they that do his
commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in
through the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:14).
The law upheld.
Paul himself said God’s law is still in force! “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law” (Romans 3:31). What is even more, the very people whom God considers acceptable to Him are those who obey the law. “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified” (Romans 2:13). Was Paul contradicting himself? Was he guilty of doublespeak – saying one thing and meaning another?
Tough topics
misunderstood.
Peter observed that Paul was sometimes misunderstood: “…our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him
hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these
things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are
unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own
destruction” (2 Peter 3:15a-16). Did you get that? Some of the topics Paul
wrote about were hard to understand!
Sentences suspended.
So,
why did Paul say that we are no longer under the law? Fausset's Bible Dictionary notes that the law “convicted of sin and
was therefore ‘a ministration of
condemnation’ and ‘of death…’ (2
Corinthians 3:7, 9).” In other words, in the Old Testament, if anyone broke a
commandment, punishment, the most severe of which was death, was usually meted out
immediately upon the transgressor without much ado.
However,
in Colossians 2:14, Paul said that Christ has blotted “out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.” With
His teachings of love, Christ suspended the inexorable punishments under the
law, even death, which was very much against and contrary to us.
The
idea becomes quite clear in Romans 8:2 – “For
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death.” Christ has liberated us from the law which called for
immediate and merciless punishments on lawbreakers. We see this vividly illustrated
in a New Testament incident.
The adulteress. In John 8:3-11, the scribes and
Pharisees caught a woman in the act of adultery, but, before stoning her to
death according to the law (Deuteronomy 22:22), they brought her to Christ. “So when they continued asking him, he
lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let
him first cast a stone at her… And they which heard it, being convicted by
their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto
the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus
had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman,
where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man,
Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”
Christ
had mercy on the woman, thus saving her from immediate death. Nevertheless,
adultery is still a sin (“sin no more”,
He said, referring to the commandment in Exodus 20:14). Christ therefore
affirmed, even if indirectly, that God’s law is still in force – but tempered with
love and mercy under the
New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-32).
So,
what Paul was trying to say was, Christ set aside the severe punishments under
the law that were against and contrary to us – giving lawbreakers the chance to
repent and return to God – but otherwise God’s law, i.e., its basic precepts and principles, still stands!
Early Christians kept
the Sabbath. The early
Christians kept God’s law, specially the Sabbath commandment, faithfully – not
working or even cooking on the seventh day of the week (Saturday). “Do not light a fire in any of your
dwellings on the Sabbath day" (Exodus 35:3, NIV).
Acts of mercy and necessity.
On
a few occasions, Christ and His disciples appeared to have violated the seventh
day Sabbath. We read in Matthew 12:1-4, “At
that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples
were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. But when the
Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is
not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. But he said unto them, Have ye not read
what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; How he
entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful
for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the
priests?”
“And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made
for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark
2:27). To paraphrase, God gave the Sabbath to man for his benefit and comfort,
not for him to observe regardless of any hardships. So, should there be any
conflict between the Sabbath and a man’s pressing need that cannot be put off,
it is the latter that may be given priority.
Christ
also healed people on several instances on the Sabbath. “And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they
asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? That they might
accuse him. And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that
shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not
lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep?
Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days” (Matthew 12:10-12; cf. Luke 13:14-16, 14:2-4; John
5:10-11).
Apparently,
the law of the Sabbath is rather flexible. Nelson’s
Illustrated Bible Dictionary concludes:
“Therefore, all work except acts of mercy, necessity, and worship were
forbidden on the Sabbath (Isaiah 58:13; Matthew 12:1-13).”
Sabbath day changed.
In
321 A.D., to unify the two dominant groups of people in the Roman Empire –
pagan sun-worshippers and Christians – Emperor Constantine decreed as the Roman
day of rest Sun-day (day of the sun-god), which Christians also venerated as
the day of the Resurrection. The bishops of the Church, who wanted to distance
themselves from the Sabbath-keeping Jews, whom they often called
“Christ-killers,” welcomed the imperial decree. Pope Sylvester, the bishop of
Rome (314-335), subsequently declared Sunday as “the Lord’s Day.” In 364, the
Council of Laodicea conferred upon Sunday, the first day of the week, the
holiness of the seventh-day Sabbath.
Perpetuated by
Reformists. Later
on, in the 16th century, when Martin Luther, followed by John Calvin
and others, led and spread the Reformation, the many Protestant churches that
grew out of the movement continued to observe Sunday as the day of rest, as
well as the other unbiblical holidays (Christmas, Easter, All Saints Day, etc.)
instituted by the Roman Catholic Church that they had broken away from.
Blessings or afflictions.
People
will be rewarded or punished accordingly, depending on whether or not they obey
God’s commandments. Those
who willfully ignore or neglect the Sabbath do not want to acknowledge YHWH as
the Creator. That is a most grievous insult to the Creator.
Prayers of
transgressors ignored.
God ignores the prayers of those who disregard His law: “Now we know that God does not hear sinners…” (John 9:31a, NKJV).
God finds the prayers of transgressors disgusting. “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer
shall be abomination” (Proverb 28:9).
The lives of disobedient people
who knowingly break the commandments of God are characterized by pitiful
misfortunes. “But since you rejected me
when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you
ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at
your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you – when calamity
overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind,
when distress and trouble overwhelm you. Then they will call to me but I will
not answer; they will look for me but will not find me. Since they hated
knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD” (Proverbs 1:24-29, NIV).
No to worldly
desires. Prayers
for personal pleasures are usually not granted. “Ye ask, and receive not,
because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and
adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God”
(James 4:3-4).
Prayers of the faithful answered.
God
greatly blesses those who keep His commandments, specially Sabbath-keeping. “If thou turn away thy foot from the
sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a
delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing
thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then
shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the
high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father:
for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 58:13-14).
God
answers the prayers of faithful believers. “And
whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do
those things that are pleasing in his sight” (1 John 3:22).
Poverty
will be unknown among the keepers of God’s law: “…there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God
is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if only
you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I
am giving you today” (Deuteronomy 15:4-5, NIV).
Elihu,
one of Job’s friends, vividly portrayed the lives of people who obey God’s
commandments: “If they obey and serve
him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures”
(Job 36:11).
They
are first and foremost the elect – the 144,000 with the seal of God in their
foreheads. You can be one of them!
1215 seal in Latin of
King John of England
Excerpted from the book Angels
& Men, and the booklets New
Jerusalem, The Angels and You, and The
Day of the LORD by M.M. Tauson. Printed copies available at Amazon.com –
For free pdf copies of our e-booklets, click the Booklets and/or Google Drive
tabs on the menu bar.
Bible quotations are from the King James Version (KJV) unless
otherwise indicated.
