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on, let’s get down to this thing; we’ve got turmoil all over the earth.
We’ve had, Mark, how many people have died by this time?
Hitchcock: Well, it’s a fourth of the earth just in the fourth seal judgment.
Ankerberg: Okay.
And so we’ve got people dying left and right; we’ve got famine; we’ve got rulers that
are doing bad things to people, alright?
And yet in the midst of this God is merciful, because He picks out 144,000 people to go
out and testify about Him.
There’s a whole lot that He says about this.
Explain who the 144,000 people are, and the power that God gives them.
Dr. Ron Rhodes: Well, it’s so interesting, because this is the darkest period in human
history, and yet God shines His light.
Even though God’s wrath is falling out on humankind, He also shows His mercy and His
grace.
Why?
He doesn’t want anybody to perish.
But as long as you choose to rebel against God, you know, you’re on the receiving end
of God’s wrath.
And that’s what’s going on here.
There’s two primary views as to who the 144,000 are.
One is that it represents the Church.
The problem is, these people are called 144,000 Jews, with 12,000 from each tribe.
And in the Bible the Church is the Church, and Israel is Israel.
Ankerberg: Yes, and it lists all the tribes there.
Rhodes: It comes down to that.
You’ve got specific tribes and specific numbers.
And never anywhere else in the Bible do you see specific numbers and specific tribes,
I mean, anything else but the tribes of Israel.
So I believe that these are literal tribes of Israel.
And even in the book of Acts we still see that Israel and the Church is distinct, you
know, with Israel being mentioned some 20 times and the Church 19 times.
And the apostle Paul himself continues to distinguish between the two in his writings.
And here’s the thing, the backdrop or the back story, is that God had called the Jewish
nation, Israel, to be a light unto the Gentiles.
Ankerberg: To all the world, all nations of the world.
Rhodes: To all the world.
He wanted them to take the good news everywhere, planetary, global.
But the fact is, they failed in this.
They didn’t even recognize Jesus as the divine Messiah.
And to sum it up, I believe that these 144,000 will fulfill the mandate given originally
to all of Israel.
They will be basically 144,000 evangelists that go all over the world sharing the gospel
of the kingdom.
And I believe that there’s going to be countless converts as a result of that.
Just a little bit later we’ll talk about the great multitude.
But, you see, this great multitude, I believe, comes to faith as a result not only of the
144,000, but probably also the two mighty prophetic witnesses.