The Lucky 144,000
But what about the rest of us?
The Lucky 144,000
But what about the rest of us?
Growing up as an Evangelical, and this likely holds true to any Christian denomination or even other religions, you’re usually told that the other ones have it wrong.
But among the groups that had it the “most wrong” were usually said to be the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons according to my family, they’d usually not even consider these groups to be Christians, but rather “cults”.
One detail about the Jehovah’s Witnesses that they liked to bring up is how they only believed that a certain number of people, a very specific number in fact, were getting into Heaven. When I asked about how they came up with this number my family would just sort of shrug it off and act like they had derived it from some sort of arcane alchemy out of the pages of the Bible.
In reality, the verses that Jehovah’s Witnesses use for this claim are plain as day.
4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:-Revelation 7:4-NASB
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It’s not a stretch to read this and interpret it as saying that only these 144,000 are the ones who would actually be saved by Christ.
After all…
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”-Matthew 7:13–14-NASB
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”-Matthew 7:21–23-NASB
So with that in mind, most Christians will then wonder who these 144,000 would be. I mean we’re talking about all of the humans who ever existed, at least since Jesus was born. That’s a lot of humans to contend with for a spot in Heaven, and does this mean that the rest of us end up in Hell?
It wasn’t until my late twenties to early thirties that I finally worked directly with someone who was a Jehovah’s Witness and during a lunch break actually began discussing with him about what they believe. At that point, he explained that they believe 144,000 will end up in Heaven ruling alongside Christ, but that all other believers will end up living for eternity on the new Earth, a perfect place, and that these humans will have perfect immortal bodies and be caretakers of the Earth. Which, honestly I find this to be a great sentiment, considering most Christians are ready to abandon the world and let it burn.
So what do they base this foreign idea on? I remember hearing about the “New Heaven and New Earth” mentioned in the Bible, but as an Evangelical, I don’t remember anything explicitly being explained about what the purpose of this world was going to be.
As it turns out they bring receipts for this belief as well.
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So what do non Jehovah’s Witnesses think about these verses? How do they interpret the specific 144,000 number?
The only explanation I can even find is that they see this number as being symbolic of the “completeness” of God, and the number being the 12 tribes of Israel multiplied by 12,000 for some reason…
To break this down a bit more their rationale is that the number 1,000 is used in the Bible to just denote a large quantity, such as in these verses.
“For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills.”-
“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.”-2 Peter 3:8-NASB
So if we don’t take these statements in the Bible literally…then maybe we have an explanation for the 1,000 part, but what about the 12?
Well, some scholars believe this represents “completeness” due to there being twelve tribes of Israel, and twelve disciples with Jesus…
I’m not a Jehovah’s Witness, but I can see their take on this one because the explanation from the other camp seems more of a stretch.
In the end, this entire thing was a learning experience for me not to just believe what family or friends around you in your echo chamber tell you, look into things for yourself and once you have the knowledge then make a decision or judgment based on that.
“Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing; nor upon tradition; nor upon rumor; nor upon what is in a scripture; nor upon surmise; nor upon an axiom; nor upon specious reasoning; nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over; nor upon another’s seeming ability; nor upon the consideration, ‘The monk is our teacher.’ Kalamas, when you yourselves know: ‘These things are good; these things are not blamable; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness,’ enter on and abide in them.”-Kalama Sutta