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UNDERSTANDING THE KINGDOM OF GOD
THE BOOK OF REVELATION - PART 12  
By John S. Torell

February 17, 2002

CHAPTER SEVEN
This is a chapter that has been terribly misused the last 150 years. The people who have been teaching that the rapture shall take place before the tribulation period begins, have been teaching that when the church is gone to be with Jesus, the 144,000 Israelites shall be preaching on the earth. The truth is this, there are no verses in the Bible that teach this. Let us now examine this chapter very carefully.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have been using this chapter as a reference that only 144,000 witnesses are going to come into heaven. But since their membership reached that number around 1935, they can no longer promise anyone to go to heaven. All they can sell now are tickets for the 1000 years kingdom.

Verse 1: We are told here that there are four angels who are in charge of air movement  on the earth. It is important that you understand that the air on the earth is not stagnant, but is always in a moving condition, just like the oceans. Thus the air that at one point in time is over California will the next day or so be over the east coast. Give it time and it will move to Europe, then to Asia and then back again over the Pacific Ocean.

When the United States began sending up satellites in the mid 1960's, to monitor the movement of the air, it did not take long for the meteorologists to find out that there seemed to be "four corners" in the earth, from which all winds originate. By hanging satellites over these four points, man can now monitor what is going to happened next, as far as the weather is concerned. This is also supported in the Book of Daniel, Chapter 7, Verse 2.  It is also found in Zechariah 6:1-5.

Verses 2-3: These are comforting words to the believers in Christ. Before the judgment of God is going to fall upon the inhabitants of the earth, God’s people shall be marked with the Mark of God, for protection. We find references to this in Ezekiel 9:1-11, where God is telling the prophet Ezekiel some 500 years before Christ what is going to happened to the people in Jerusalem. By reading Revelation 9:4 it is clear that the Mark of God will be placed on all men, women, and children, who belong to Jesus Christ.

BONUS SCRIPTURE:  Revelation 13:4-9; II Thessalonians 2:1-12.

Compare this future event with the judgment that God did on the Egyptians when He was preparing to bring Israel out of Egypt: The flies - Exodus 8:20-24; 9:1-7; 9:22-26; 10:21-23; The blood on the door posts - Exodus 11:1-7; 12:7-13; Verse 29.

Verses 4-8:  First of all, these sealed men are not all Jews, rather there is an equal number from each tribe. In order to understand these verses, we must let the Bible interpret itself. We have only one reference to these verses, and we find that in Revelation 14:1-5. There is no biblical reference that these 144,000 men are going to be preachers, replacing the Gentile church of Jesus Christ during the tribulation period! The reference that this is a remnant of Israel is also found in Zephaniah 3:13.

Reading Chapter 14 of the Book of Revelation, there is no time reference as to when these people are or will be living on the earth. Let us now look upon what the Bible says about the salvation of the twelve tribes of Israel:

It is very clear that only a remnant of the 12 tribes shall be saved and taken to heaven. We read this first in Isaiah 10:20-23. The apostle Paul quotes this in Romans 9:27-33.  The prophet Zechariah stated, "only a remnant shall be saved" - Chapter 13:6-9.

God, in the very end time, is going to remove the scales from the eyes of the people of Israel and give them the option to receive Jesus as their Messiah, but again, this will be a very short time and only available for those people living on earth at that time - Zechariah 12:8-14.  This is the scripture that the Apostle Paul refers to in Romans 11:25-29.

Here is what we must come to learn and understand: There is ONLY ONE GOSPEL! There is not one Gospel for the Jews and another one for the Gentiles. THERE IS ONLY ONE NAME BY WHICH MEN CAN BE SAVED, AND THAT IS JESUS CHRIST!  John 14:1-6; Acts 4:10-13.

Understand this, ALL ISRAELITES (now known as Jews) WHO HAVE LIVED ON THIS EARTH AND DIED WITHOUT RECEIVING JESUS AS THEIR MESSIAH, ARE IN HELL, WAITING FOR THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT, AFTER WHICH THEY WILL BE CAST INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE! JUDAISM DOES NOT SAVE ANYONE! 
Revelation 20:10-15

Verse 9-17: We are here given an indication as to the large number of people who shall be saved during the great tribulation period. We also see here that they are from all nations on the earth and they have one thing in common, they received Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour and were born again. It does not say here, that they were all martyred for their faith, only that they came out of the great tribulation period.

It should be a great encouragement for us, that once we leave this earth, the joy, the happiness, the peace cannot be described. Romans 8:14-18

ARE YOU WASHED IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB?