Volume 1, Issue 51
9 Sep 2016
The 7,000 slain in Revelation 11:13, appear to be a reversal of the 7,000 of Elijah’s day—the remnant who had “not bowed” their knee “unto Baal” (1 Kings 19:18). The question is: If only 7,000 are slain, why are those who remain and “give glory to the God of heaven” called “the remnant”?
The Apostle Paul speaks of “a remnant” of Jewish believers in the church of his day, among whom he counts himself and to whom he likens the remnant in Elijah’s day who had “not bowed the knee to Baal.” (Romans 11:1-5). The few Jewish believers who receive Christ as their Messiah are part of “the root” and a few remaining “natural branches” of the “olive tree” (Romans 11:11-24). Although there will never be more than a relative few among the Jewish people who will believe in Christ, the fact that there will always be a remnant of Jewish believers proves that “God has not cast away his people” and that Israel has not “stumbled beyond recovery.”
Furthermore, Paul goes on to reveal a “mystery” in Romans 11:25-32; namely, that “all Israel shall be saved” once the “fulness” of the “Gentiles [has] come in.” What does Paul mean by “all Israel”? I believe he is referring to the Jewish remnant, one third of the Jewish people who are “sealed” in Revelation 7:1-8.
This figurative “hundred and forty four thousand” are not sealed to preach the Gospel and spawn end time worldwide revival, as is popularly believed today. Instead, they are sealed for their protection, so that they might survive the anti-Semitism of an end-time, Christ-hating world.
The lone biblical evidence proffered to substantiate today’s popular supposition of 144,000 end time, Spirit-sealed Jewish evangelists is a misinterpretation of the innumerable “multitude” in Revelation 7:9. This innumerable “multitude,” which obviously represents the church, since it is comprised of believers—those “before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and [with] palms in their hands”—from “all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues,” is commonly misinterpreted today as the end time converts of a 144,000 Jewish “Billy Grahams.”
Apart from this common, contemporary misinterpretation of the innumerable “multitude” of Revelation 7:9, there is no scriptural evidence of any end-time, worldwide revival. In fact, the Scripture flies firmly in the face of such a fanciful notion. For example, consider the following:
In Revelation 13:3-4, John says that “all the world” will worship and wonder “after the beast” at the end of time.
We’ve already seen in Revelation 11:10, how “they who dwell upon the earth shall rejoice” and “make merry, and send gifts one to another” when “the beast” kills God’s two witnesses. Far from sounding like end time revival, this sounds more like the devil’s Christmas.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12, the Apostle Paul teaches that God will send a “strong delusion” into the end-time world so that all who neither loved nor believed the truth will “believe a lie” and be “be damned.”
In Luke 18:8, Jesus asked the question: “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” If our Lord questioned whether or not any faith would be found on the earth at His coming, how can we refute our Lord by claiming that His Second Coming will occur in the midst of a worldwide revival?
One final point should be considered. Those who believe in an end time, worldwide revival also believe that it will take place after the church has been raptured, the Holy Spirit has been taken out of the world, and Satan has been given free reign on the earth. As far as I’m concerned, nothing could be more absurd than such a contention.
That the “hundred and forty four thousand” of Revelation 7:1-8 are sealed for their protection is made abundantly clear by the context of the passage and by the fact that they are sealed by angels. Remember, Hebrews 1:14 teaches us that angels are “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.”; that is, to protect and preserve God’s elect until the day of their salvation.
When Christ returns and the church is caught up to meet Him in the air, it will be the surviving Jewish remnant alone that will “give glory to the God of heaven.” It is on this day, the day of Christ’s return, when “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25-27).
According to the ancient Prophet Zechariah, on the day of Christ’s return, the Jewish people “shall look upon [Him] whom they have pierced” and ask “What are these wounds in thine hands? Then [Christ] shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”
Upon the realization that Christ was their Messiah, the Jewish people “will mourn for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” It will be a “mourning in Jerusalem” unlike any heard since “the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon,” when Judah’s righteous King Josiah was slain by Egypt’s Pharaoh Neco.
In that day and at that time, God shall “pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication,” as well as open “to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem [a fountain] for [cleansing from] sin and [all] uncleanness.” Consequently, as Paul teaches in Romans 11:27, God will “take away [Israel’s] sins” in that day. Also, on that day “all Israel [the surviving Jewish remnant] shall be saved” (Romans 11:26).
It should be noted that apart from this “remnant” in Revelation 11:13, no others in the Book of Revelation respond to its catastrophic judgments by giving “glory to the God of heaven.” Instead, they refuse to repent of their sin and “blaspheme the God of heaven” (Revelation 9:20-21; 16:8-11; 19:11-21).
In light of this fact, we close this long series of articles on the two witnesses with the prophetic and poignant words of Psalm 2.
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
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Don Walton
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