4 And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
5 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
6 12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
7 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
8 12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.
A Great Multitude from Every Nation
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
These verses contain two visions, and together they show the final outcome of the 'seal ing' by God of His people - they are taken to glory when the day of wrath for unbelievers comes. But how are we to interpret them? The millennial view is that the 144,000 refer to Jews converted to Christ as a remnant out of Israel, and the great multitude in the latter part of the chapter to the Gentiles gathered in (both groups being saved during the Tribulation and after the Church itself is said to have been taken from the earth). This view is impossible for us to hold, as will be clear if our foregoing interpretation followed in previous chapters is held as correct. Indeed, the whole concept of a tribulation after the rapture of the Church is seen here to be a dangerously misleading idea. It presupposes and implies the possibility that there will be a work of salvation taking place after the Church of Christ has been caught up to be with Him forever, and after the day of grace has ended. But this is a contradiction in terms. Indeed, it is impossible, since it preaches a doctrine of 'a second chance' (not so far removed from the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory!) and cuts the nerve of the gospel summons and appeal, which insists that now, not afterwards, is the day of salvation. It is also, however, unthinkable, because it misunderstands the whole dynamic conception of the Second Com ing of Christ. How could anything like this happen after He comes. His coming is the end of the age; it is the last trumpet that ushers it in, and there can be nothing beyond that save judgment, and the new heavens and earth. When He comes to reign, heaven and earth shall flee away! When He descends from heaven with a shout, the blaze of His glory will consume all things and make the elements burn with fervent heat. There will be no world left either for people to endure tribulation, or for sinners, Jew or Gentile, to be saved in. All the sealing of God's elect, be they Jew or Gentile, must therefore take place before the sound of the last trumpet, before Christ comes the second time. Whatever interpretation we place on these verses, this cannot be a valid one. In tomorrow's Note we suggest one which is both feasible and congenial to the facts.