Segment IX
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The Delay Terminated
I believe the Sabbath
millennium described in Revelation 20
will begin on time because God’s
Sabbaths are never early or late.
When Earth reaches a day that is
1,335 days from the end of the six
thousand years of sin, the Great
Tribulation will begin. At this time,
no one knows precisely where the
sixth thousandth year is, but we
cannot be very far from it. Take a
closer look at the chart below:
When the appointed day
arrives, the four angels in
Revelation 7:1-4 will be released to
do their harm. This release is
described in Revelation 10. “Then
the angel I had seen standing on the
sea and on the land raised his right
hand to Heaven. And He swore by Him
who lives for ever and ever, who
created the Heavens and all that is
in them, the earth and all that is in
it, and the sea and all that is in
it, and said, ‘There will be no
more delay!’”
(Revelation 10:5,6) Just before the
delay is terminated, Jesus will seal
144,000 servants. Then, He will
announce the end of the delay in a
thunderous voice. (In fact, this
announcement will be the first of
seven thunders that the 144,000 will
hear and understand. See John
12:28-30.)
Jesus imposed a delay
in Revelation 7:3 and Jesus will
terminate the delay when He declares,
“There will be no more
delay!” Until Jesus grants
permission, the four angels cannot
hurt Earth. After Jesus declares
there will be no more delay, no one
will be able to turn the hands of
God’s clock back or stop the
arrival of His oncoming judgments.
God’s wrath is overdue, but the
1,335 days necessary to conclude the
6,000th year have not
arrived. Please examine the next
chart below and notice the vertical
alignment of three prophecies.
Revelation’s
Matrix Grows
Prophecy #1 Revelation
4:1-6:17: The worthiness of Jesus and
the six seals
1st seal
= Salvation through
faith in Jesus alone
2nd seal
= Translation and
distribution of the Bible
3rd seal
= The judgment bar of
Christ begins
4th seal
= Great Tribulation
begins
5th seal
= Martyrdom of
prophets and saints
6th seal
= Second Coming
Prophecy #2 Revelation
7:1-8:1: The 144,000, the numberless
multitude, and the seventh seal
A
= Four angels
of God given power to harm Earth
Waiting
= Currently we
are waiting for the arrival of the
appointed day to seal the
144,000
B =
The numberless multitude standing
around the throne after the Second
Coming
C =
Seventh seal broken at the end of
the millennium
Prophecy #3 Revelation
8:2-9:21: The six trumpets
X = Global
earthquake
1st
trumpet =
Fiery hailstorms
2nd
trumpet = Asteroid
impact on an ocean
3rd
trumpet =
Asteroid impact on a continent
4th
trumpet =
Ring of Fire erupts – volcano
ejecta causes darkness
5th
trumpet =
Lucifer appears
6th
trumpet =
Lucifer’s four angels kill
one-third of mankind
Specification #3
– The Sealing
We will examine three
specifications of the 144,000 in this
segment. First, the 144,000 will be
presented to the Father and the Lamb
as firstfruits of Earth’s
harvest. (Revelation 14:4) Second,
women will not defile the 144,000.
(Revelation 14:4) Third, the 144,000
will be the first ever to receive the
seal of God. (Revelation 7:3) With
these three specifications in mind,
let us take a look.
No one has yet
received the “seal of God”
described in Revelation 7, because
the 144,000 will be the first
to receive it. Two statements in the
book of Revelation highlight this
point. First, the four angels are
told to hold back the four winds of
the Great Tribulation until the
144,000 are sealed. (Revelation 7:3)
In other words, when the 144,000
people have been sealed, the fourth
seal will be broken and the Great
Tribulation will begin! Second,
Revelation 14:4 says the 144,000 will
be presented to God and the Lamb as
firstfruits of Earth’s harvest.
Because the 144,000 will be the
firstfruits of Earth’s harvest,
and because God’s wrath is not
released until they are sealed, they
have to be the first people ever to
receive the seal of God. The seal of
God and the sealing of the 144,000 is
an “iceberg” topic –
one third of it is above surface and
two-thirds are below the surface.
With this in mind, let us dive under
the surface and examine some
controversial issues.
Judgment of the Living
In an earlier segment,
we examined the 2,300 days of Daniel
8:14 and the cleansing of
Heaven’s temple. In another
segment, we examined the relationship
between the third seal and 1844. We
have already touched on the essential
doctrines of “soul sleep”
and God’s use of “parallel
temples.” A synthesis of these
matters indicates that the judgment
bar of Christ began in the Spring of
1844. At that time, Jesus began
reviewing the records of the dead
that had been “sealed” by
death. Because man’s power of
choice is terminated at death, death
permanently “seals” the
life’s record of those who die.
This is why Hebrews 4:7 says, “…Today,
if you hear his voice, do not harden
your hearts.”
Unlike the sealed
records of the dead, the judgment of
the living presents an interesting
challenge. How can Jesus pass eternal
judgment on a person who still has
the power of choice and the freedom
to change his mind? At the risk of
being repetitive, here is a short
response to this question. One day I
was discussing this subject with some
friends when one of then said,
“Since God already knows our
hearts, why does He not judge us on
the basis of what He knows about us?
If He judged us this way, there would
be no need for testing the people of
Earth with torment and persecution
during the Great Tribulation.” I
responded, “Suppose Jesus were
to do as you have suggested. Suppose
at the judgment you discover that you
are standing among the wicked,
outside the holy city. When you
realize that you are about to perish
by fire, you cry out to the Lord
saying, ‘Lord, I did not do
anything to deserve burning in
hell!’ The Lord responds,
‘My child, I know you did not
deserve this, but I knew that you
would have if given the
chance.’” Then I asked,
“Do you want to be judged on the
basis of your choices or do you want
to be judged on the basis of
God’s foreknowledge?”
After a few smiles, the story
surrounding the book sealed with
seven seals suddenly made a lot of
sense.
Four Purposes for
Seals
In Bible times, seals
were used for four purposes. (If
possible, look up the following
references.) Seals have been used to
certify the authenticity of a
document or transaction. (Esther 8:8,
Jeremiah 32:10) Seals were used to
prevent tampering or change. (Daniel
6:17; Matthew 27:65,66) Seals were
used to show approval and ownership.
(John 6:27; 2 Corinthians 1:22) Last,
seals were used as locks to secure
property or secrets. (Daniel 12:4;
Revelation 5:1) When the Bible speaks
of sealing the 144,000, all four uses
will apply! Notice how the sequence
unfolds:
The first
people to stand before the judgment
bar of Jesus while alive will be the
144,000. They will be selected from
the twelve tribes of Israel and they
will be tested, judged, mysteriously
transformed, and securely
“sealed” with sinless
natures just before the four winds
are released. The “seal of
God” on their foreheads of the
144,000 means, (a) they have been
tested and judged, (b) their carnal
natures have been removed, (c) they
are free of any attraction to sin,
and (d) they are bond servants of the
Father and the Lamb. We will examine
this four-step process in a moment.
For now, we need to understand why
the 144,000 are called
“firstfruits.”
Firstfruits of the
Harvest
The word
“firstfruits” would speak
volumes if you lived in Bible times.
Basically, firstfruits were used as a
tithe, a gift of 10% or more based on
net increase. Presenting firstfruits
to the Lord was to be both a gift of
appreciation and an adventure in
anticipation. God required the
offering of firstfruits to challenge
the creeping selfishness of
man’s carnal heart. By requiring
man to “give up” the first
and best part of any increase,
firstfruits were designed to
frustrate man’s relentless
preoccupation with acquiring wealth
– just as God’s seventh day
Sabbath was designed to frustrate
man’s insatiable need for more
time to do all that he wants to do.
Even more, this gift was designed to
develop faith in God through
anticipation. Notice how this was
supposed to work: If a farmer was
about to harvest a what crop, he was
to search through his field and
select the finest stalks that matured
first and present them to the priest
at the temple. The gift of
firstfruits was supposed to be given
with gratitude for God’s
sustaining providence and the gift
was supposed to represent a tithe of
what the farmer hoped his new
crop would produce. In other words,
God designed the giving of
firstfruits to be a remarkable
experience, not a regular tax.
Firstfruits included the first
increase from wool, animals, crops
and money – any type of
increase.
The word
“firstfruits” offers
several object lessons. The quantity
of firstfruits indicated the amount
of increase “hoped for.”
When Paul wrote, “Now faith
is being sure of what we hope for and
certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews
11:1), Paul may have used the
anticipation that went with gathering
firstfruits to frame his remarks. A
few verses later, he wrote, “And
without faith it is impossible to
please God, because anyone who comes
to him must believe that he exists
and that he rewards those who
earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews
11:6) Faith really defines the
practice of giving firstfruits to
God. The difference between paying a
tax and giving firstfruits is
gratitude. Tax is a necessary
obligation. The giving of firstfruits
was supposed to be accompanied with
an attitude of gratitude, and
embedded in the experience was a
financial anticipation.
(Unfortunately, Israel did not
understand God’s purpose for
firstfruits and over the years it
became regarded as a tax.)
The 144,000 are called
firstfruits in Revelation 14:4 for
two reasons. First, the
144,000 will be the firstfruits of
the coming harvest to be sealed.
Later on, the individuals who hear
their testimony during thee Great
Tribulation and pass the test of
faith will also be sealed as the
144,000 were sealed. Second,
the 144,000 are called firstfruits
because they are a sample of what
follows. If barley were presented as
a firstfruit offering, the harvest
that followed would, of course, be
barley. The 144,000 and the
numberless multitude that come after
them will be identical in
composition. These matters will prove
to be extremely important when we
examine the Jewish heritage of the
144,000 and the great multitude in
Specification #8. On last comment
– when the firstfruits were
presented to the High Priest, they
became his property. The parallel is
that when the 144,000 are presented
to God and Jesus our High Priest,
they will belong to the Father and
the Son. As a result, they will be
highly exalted and they will follow
the Lamb wherever He goes throughout
eternity.
Jewish Virgins?
“There are
those who did not defile themselves
with women, for they kept themselves
pure…” (Revelation
14:4) Many people read these words
and conclude the 144,000 will be
sexually pure. Of course, they will
be sexually pure, but so will
everyone else who enters into the
holy city! “But the cowardly,
the unbelieving, the vile, the
murderers, the sexually
immoral, those who
practice magic arts, the idolaters
and all liars – their place will
be in the fiery lake of burning
sulfur. This is the second
death.” (Revelation 21:8,
italics mine)
Some people read the
phrase “[they] did not defile
themselves with women, for they kept
themselves pure” and
conclude the 144,000 will be male
virgins. Are women inherently
defiling? Of course not! The Bible
says the sexual experience between a
man and woman within the confines of
marriage is neither defiling nor
immoral. (Genesis 1:28; 1 Corinthians
7:5; Hebrews 13:4) Other people say
the 144,000 will be Jewish males that
have not been sexually immoral with
women. Look again! This text does not
imply the 144,000 will be males!
Woman can defile themselves with
women! (Compare Leviticus 18:22 with
Romans 1:26.) Certain groups of
Christians interpret this verse to
mean the 144,000 will be members of their
particular church – which they
believe, is the only church on Earth
possessing the truth about God. This
conclusion is based on a faulty
understanding of the harlot’s
identity in Revelation 17:5. The
Bible says, “This title was
written on her [the
harlot’s] forehead: Mystery
Babylon the Great the Mother
of Prostitutes and of the
Abominations of the Earth.” (Insertion
and italics mine) Several Protestant
churches believe (or used to believe)
the Roman Catholic Church is the
great harlot of Revelation. As such,
this makes the Catholic Church
“the mother of
prostitutes,” that is, the
mother of apostate Protestantism. Of
course, the irony of this view is
that advocates are convinced their
church is not a daughter of “the
harlot.” Therefore, they
conclude the 144,000 must originate
from within their church, which they
believe is the only remaining true
church on Earth! As you can see, this
view is completely consistent with
the egocentric nature of man’s
religion. Every religious system
claims to know God best. The
arrogance and ignorance of religion
is difficult to measure.
Beneath the surface,
there is a much deeper meaning to the
phrase, “[they] did not
defile themselves with women, for
they kept themselves pure.” This
phrase is not about sexual
immorality; but rather, it is a
phrase describing the devotion of the
144,000 to serve the Lord. Rule Three
of apocalyptic prophecy says that we
should examine parallel language in
the Bible to determine the intended
meaning of this phrase. In so doing,
we find this specification to be a
superlative statement about the
devotion of the 144,000 to the Lord. With
this thought in mind, please consider
a few words about God’s original
purpose and mission for the twelve
tribes of Israel.
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