 what exactly or who exactly are the 144,000 mentioned in Revelation? Much has been made about who the 144,000 are mentioned in Revelation. And obviously, if you've heard anyone who is a Jehovah's Witness, they will give you a distorted view. We won't address that at this point in time. But even amongst those who are traditional Orthodox Christians Protestants, there's been much debate as to who these people are. Now, depending upon your hermeneutic that is how you read the Bible, the interpretation that you use that you apply to read in the Bible, it's going to determine who or what you think this 144,000 is. Now, I have a literal grammatical historical hermeneutic which means I'm going to read this as literal as possible until it gives me reason not to. That doesn't mean that I don't account for idioms, figures of speech, similes, things like that. I do understand those are in play. As a matter of fact, we see those often in Revelation. But again, Revelation is not a book that just came out of thin air. It's also backing up in many cases what was prophesied in earlier places in the Bible. But here, this 144,000 is never mentioned anywhere else before in the Bible until we get here. So, let's go to that passage. In chapter 7, verse 4, John says, Then I heard a number of those who were sealed 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. This is one of the reasons why we think that this is a literal 144,000 who happened to be Jewish. When you see the Bible offering up numbers, it means those numbers. Think about how it was in the very beginning of the Bible when he says that on this day, on that day, and a number was subscribed to it. Or when he said that in six days he created the earth, well, we believe it to be six little days, not six figurative days. And the Bible speaks of this seven-year tribulation that is going to come up on the earth. And this is what's happening now. These are 144,000 who will be saved in it. And it's a specific 144,000. And we know that it's going to be of Israel. And we take it to be literal, one, because look how it describes who the 144,000 are made up of. It says, from every tribe of the sons of Israel, verse five, from the tribe of Judah, 12,000, from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000, from the tribe of Gad, 12,000, and so on. Now there is the omission of the tribe of Dan, and many have speculated as to why that tribe is missing. Some have suspected that maybe because of their earlier idolatry. We don't really know, again, there's a lot of speculation, but we do know this. These 12 tribes are mentioned and they specifically mentioned 12 Jewish tribes to make up the 144,000. That's just not in keeping with the Bible to be that specific in that regard. And then for us to spiritualize or to say, this is not to be taken literally. And then in comparison with that, in verse nine, he says that, after these things I saw, I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one can count from every nation in all tribes of people and tongues standing before the throne, before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands. So now we've got this compared with or contrasted with the 144,000 who are Jews with a great multitude made up of every other tribe of all the other tribes of all the nations of people that are on the earth. In other words, the Gentiles. In Revelation 14, it offers some more specifics about these 144,000. He says in chapter 14 verse one, then I looked, and behold the Lamb was standing on mountain Zion and with him 144,000 having his name and the name of his father written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. And the voice which I heard was like the sound of harp is playing on their harps. Now, in that we have some actual specific details as well as figures of speech. And we know it's figures of speech when he says I heard a voice and it was like a harpist. Let's look and see. Notice how he says which was like a harpist and the Greek word that's used there is host, which tells us it is kind of comparing the sound like a harp. We don't know that it sounded just like a harp, but it's like a harp to the here. Trying to describe something that is indescribable is difficult. And so what do you do? You use metaphors. You soon use figures of speech, things like that. And so we see that here. But also that's not to discount anything that is to be taken literally, such as when people's names are given or what actual numbers are given as well. And so we have a mixture of that. And so he didn't say that it's like 144,000 or it's like the tribe of Gap or the tribe of Reuben. No, he said that it actually is and he gives a specific number. Verse three says, and they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders and no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been purchased from the earth. These are the ones who had not been defiled with women for they have kept themselves chaste. They are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And no lie was found in their mouth. They are blameless. So we've got some added detail. These are men who have not been with women. These are people who are not lying. They are blameless before the Lord. They were chosen as first fruit for God. Now it's doubtful that for some people no explanation is going to be a sufficient explanation as to who they are unless the explanation lines up with what they believe. I get that there's going to be debate about this until it actually happens and then we can see. But what I want to get across the more important thing is how we view or how we interpret this is not the more important thing. Now it's time to say that revelation is not important. Anything that's in the Bible is important. But that gets me to my point. The greater point is how we read the Bible. I've been clear on this and trying to call for people to go ahead and to name and to explain what their hermeneutic is. Whatever your hermeneutic is it ought to be consistent. How you read Genesis and every book in between up till revelation it should be the same. We have what's called spiritualizing or allegorizing which is to take a passage and to try to read into it to find a deeper more hidden meaning. A meaning that we don't see on the surface. There are times where what you see on the surface might not necessarily be the case. However I think most Christians tend to see that sometimes it's obvious even when we use figures of speech and so forth when we say that even in our own vernacular that maybe it's burning up outside. We don't think that the world is on fire. We think that it's just hot outside or it's freezing. Well it's not necessarily freezing. It's just cold. Now sometimes it could be cold. Now sometimes it could be actually freezing but we use that. We use these figures of speech when we say something is cool. Are we talking about the temperature or we actually like it? And so we understand that oftentimes we get descriptors when we see metaphors and similes and figures of speech and idioms those things but you want to be consistent all the way through and so if you see for example the word Israel. Israel has always in Scripture meant Israel until for some reason people believe that Israel has now referred to the church but we don't see that anywhere in the Bible. And so the main point is how you look at the Bible how you read it would interpret or will determine how you read let's say Revelation 7 or Revelation 14. If the numbers mean what they mean for example Jesus was dead and buried for three days just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights so too was Jesus. We take that number literally or any of the other numbers that are better given unless we have something like a host or in English like when it says that something was like this a day to the Lord is like a thousand years we have this figure we have this language to tell us that it's using figure of speech to try to explain something sometimes you have to do that with the Bible but for the most part God does not think that we are that deep we are that intelligent that we are that smart matter of fact being a smart Christian means that we recognize that we're not as deep as we want to be as we think we are and so he gives it to us as easily in many cases as he possibly can the best way that he can because he's trying to communicate his truth to us and so I would caution you all to try to avoid having differences in the way you read the scriptures from book to book to book and looking for these deep interpretations oftentimes most cases it means literally what it says amen