144,000 SEALED

144,000 SEALED

Revelation 7:2-8, "And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand."

At this point between the opening of the sixth and seventh seals the 144,000 are sealed upon their foreheads. This seal will separate them from the rest of mankind giving them special protection through the first six trumpet warnings. We understand from Ephesians 1:13-14 that the seal spoken of here is the Holy Spirit for it is recorded:

Ephesians 1:13-14, "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."

There will be a total of 144,000 witnesses sealed. These men will remain on the earth as a witness of Jesus Christ up to the midpoint of the great tribulation. They will be Jewish believers and there will be 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel.

We can surmise from the following description given in Rev. 14 that these 144,000 witnesses will all be men. Foremost they will not have defiled themselves with women. This definitely suggests men. Rev. 14:4 also states, ", for they will be virgins". The conjunction for' is used so to clarify that they are virgins who have not defiled themselves with women and thus they are male virgins. The 144,000 witnesses will also be redeemed from among men. This is not conclusive in of itself since the word men' can also mean 'mankind' or the human race. But when taken with the first two parts of the description it is fairly certain that John is speaking of men as a gender. They will follow the Lamb and so they must by definition be Christian. Lastly they will be redeemed from the earth when their job is complete. This means that they too will be taken to heaven supernaturally when their job is complete. This will happen between the blowing of the sixth and seventh trumpet warnings.

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