Who Are The 144,000?

Who Are The 144,000?

In Revelations, 144,000 people are described. As it is in Revelations, it is thus a rather controversial topic. There are three primary ideas for who these people are. 

The Elect(Jehovah's Witness Belief):

In Jehovah's Witness doctrine, they believe it is 144,000 elect whom will reign with Christ in Heaven. These people are seen as the best of the faith. As they say on their official website, "The Bible indicates that 144,000 people will be resurrected to heavenly life. (Revelation 7:4) In the vision recorded at Revelation 14:​1-3, the apostle John saw “the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000.” In this vision, “the Lamb” represents the resurrected Jesus. (John 1:​29; 1 Peter 1:​19) “Mount Zion” represents the exalted position of Jesus and the 144,000 who rule with him in the heavens," (Who Goes to Heaven? Jehovah's Witness).

However, this doctrine has many issues. Firstly, it completely rejects the context, eisegesis at its worst.  Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel. 5 From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad 12,000,  from the tribe of Asher 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000, from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Issachar 12,000, from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000," (Revelations 7:4-8 KJV). This then leads to the two, more in context, possibilities. 

Sealed(Majority Belief):

This belief reads the passage and takes it literally, believing that as Revelations 7 states, the 144,000 are merely Jews who will be or were saved in the tribulation. Preterists believe the rapture has already occurred, while most others believed it is to come. Either way, these people have a fairly silimar belief.

Works Cited:

Image by Blake Campbell

“Who Goes to Heaven? | Bible Questions .” JW, Jehovah’s Witnesses, https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/go-to-heaven/.