I think many on your board have been reasoning (or not reasoning) that since the first century the number 144,000 has already been filled. I wish you could clarify why that would be the case, and if you would agree with me that many have been called but Jehovah is still the one picking the cream of the crop, reserving the right to choose whom he wants to fill those positions in heaven. I think many are getting misled by false remnant members, thinking they are in line for a heavenly inheritance, which just may be the earth with everyone else.
The teaching that only 144,000 go to heaven is one of the Watchtower Society’s most controversial doctrines. I for one, though, believe that it is well supported by scripture. For the most part people reject the teaching because they are ignorant of Jehovah’s purpose to restore mankind and the earth to Edenic perfection. People have been falsely taught by Babylon’s clergy that heaven and hell are mankind’s destiny.
But as Jehovah’s Witnesses know, it was never God’s purpose to perpetually harvest the imaginary departed souls of the dead to populate the heavens – much less does God delight in roasting hapless sinners in hellfire. God has always intended for humans to live forever in peace and happiness on earth and that purpose will be accomplished by two means – one, by resurrecting the dead back to life on earth; and secondly, by preserving a great crowd through the world-ending great tribulation, to establish what the prophecies call the new earth.
However, it has also pleased Jehovah to create what is called the new heavens. The new heaven is a group composed of Christ and those who are chosen to share with him in his kingdom. The reason God purposed to create a new heavens, as well as a new earthly society, is because the rebellion against God originated in the heavens, with Satan the Devil and the angels who became demons.
Satan accused God of selfishly holding back knowledge from his creation because they couldn’t be trusted. The Devil also slandered God; impugning his character by implying that God has to bribe his creatures to be loyal to him and that if tested with hardship no one would ever be willing to suffer for God. And conversely, Satan also suggested that all intelligent creation is incapable of offering God complete loyalty and unselfish devotion. So, in order to conclusively prove Satan to be a liar God proposed to create a new creation composed of a limited number of indestructible spirits who are chosen from among condemned sinners and basically given the keys to the universe. But first they must prove their loyalty unto death Jehovah before grants them their reward. By doing so God demonstrates that he will not withhold anything from those whom he loves and who love him.
Because Jehovah’s magnanimity is displayed to such a superlative degree in his proposed new creation, it is a complete humiliation for the Devil. But, because he is a liar and the father of all lies, as Jesus called him, Satan is intent on belittling, discrediting and opposing anything having to do with the new creation.
One method he has used to belittle Jehovah’s incredible gift is by making it seem ordinary to most people. This he has done through the commonly accepted lies of Christendom that have deluded masses of people into believing that everyone goes to heaven, or at least all “Christians” supposedly do, as if it were their God-given birthright. But the Scriptures indicate otherwise. Only a representative number are chosen to be part of the new creation. The very designation of “chosen ones” indicates that it is an exclusive group of a limited number. Jesus also indicated as much when he addressed his fellow kingdom heirs as a “little flock.”
Some of Jehovah’s Witnesses who may have been overreached by Ray Franz’s teachings have gulped down the lie that the little flock was just the apostles and Christ’s immediate disciples whom he happened to be directly speaking to in the first century. But upon examining the context of Jesus’ remarks in the 12th chapter of Luke, it becomes apparent that the little flock extends all the way down to those who would be living when Christ commences his parousia. That is apparent because immediately after assuring the little flock that his Father had approved of giving them the kingdom, Jesus went on to say: “Let your loins be girded and your lamps be burning, and you yourselves be like men waiting for their master when he returns from the marriage, so that at his arriving and knocking they may at once open to him. Happy are those slaves whom the master on arriving finds watching! Truly I say to you, He will gird himself and make them recline at the table and will come alongside and minister to them. And if he arrives in the second watch, even if in the third, and finds them thus, happy are they! But know this, that if the householder had known at what hour the thief would come, he would have kept watching and not have let his house be broken into. You also, keep ready, because at an hour that you do not think likely the Son of man is coming.”
Since Jesus was directly addressing those whom he called a little flock when he said the above it is evident that some from the little flock of kingdom heirs will be on earth when the Son of man arrives. It is therefore evident that all the anointed kingdom heirs make up what Jesus called the little flock. Those who insist otherwise are perpetuating a lie.
As recorded at John 17:2, which was his last public prayer before his sacrificial death, Jesus referred to the “whole number” of believers, whom his Father had given him. Revelation reveals the “whole number” amounts to 144,000. How do we know that number applies to the little flock? For one thing, the 7th chapter of Revelation says that the 144,000 are sealed, 12,000 out of the 12 tribes of Israel. Of course, it is not in reference to the literal 12 tribes of Israel, which no longer even existed when Revelation was written. The letter of James is addressed to the 'twelve tribes scattered about,' which is in reference to the congregations of Christians that had sprung from the 12 founding apostles. So, the entire kingdom organization is symbolized as spiritual Israel having 12 tribes.
On the matter of the sealing: only anointed Christians are said to be sealed with God’s spirit. As 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 says: “But he who guarantees that you and we belong to Christ and he who has anointed us is God. He has also put his seal upon us and has given us the token of what is to come, that is, the spirit, in our hearts.”
Furthermore, Revelation 14:1-3 reveals other vital clues as to the identity of the 144,000. Those verses read: “And I saw, and, look! the Lamb standing upon the Mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound out of heaven as the sound of many waters and as the sound of loud thunder; and the sound that I heard was as of singers who accompany themselves on the harp playing on their harps. And they are singing as if a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one was able to master that song but the hundred and forty-four thousand, who have been bought from the earth.”
The fact that the 144,000 have the name of Jehovah and Jesus written upon their foreheads indicates that they have been especially chosen, bought from the earth, as verse three says. The great crowd are not said to have been bought from the earth, nor are they depicted as having the name of God and Christ written on their foreheads. The 144,000 are Jehovah’s very special possession, unlike any other creation.
Mount Zion, where the 144,000 are standing with Christ, is a symbol for the very kingdom of God in heaven. That’s because literal Mount Zion in Jerusalem was the place of Jehovah’s typical throne and temple. Jesus standing upon Mount Zion with 144,000 can only be depicting Christ and his little flock in the kingdom; the very ones whom Jesus assured would be given the kingdom.
It is significant too that it says that the 144,000 are singing to Jehovah a new song and “no one was able to master that song but the hundred and forty-four thousand, who have been bought from the earth.” The exclusivity of the 144,000 grouping is underscored by the fact that no one can master the new song except the 144,000. A new song is a fitting symbol to distinguish the special worship rendered to Jehovah by those who are taken into a new covenant, to be a new creation in the new heavens and a new Jerusalem.
A variety of objections have been put forth to contradict the Bible’s teaching that the 144,000 are the only ones “who have been bought from the earth.” One commonly circulated objection is that there were many more than 144,000 Christians in the first century. But, really, that is mere conjecture. The truth is there is no record in the Bible.
It is interesting, however, that in the 11th chapter of Romans Paul alluded to the days of the prophet Elijah when Jehovah preserved 7,000 who had not bent their knee in worship of Baal. Paul then applied that number to what he called the “remnant” of God’s choosing then living. That is not to say that Paul was implying that there were literally only 7,000 Christians in the first century, but in order for his comparison to have any meaning back then there must have been a comparable number. (The real significance of the 7,000 is sealed up in the sacred secret of Revelation)
On down in that same chapter of Romans, Paul went on to say that “all of Israel will be saved” only when the “full number of people from the nations has come in.” This expression not only indicates that “Israel” is composed of non-Jewish persons, hence a spiritual Israel, but that there is a pre-ordained specific number that is to be gathered.
In Paul’s day the full number who would be taken from the nations to become part of “Israel” was still a mystery, but with the writing of Revelation at the close of the apostolic era the full number was revealed to amount to 144,000.
