Another Look At the 144,000
Dispensationalism, Christian Zionism, Separation Theology or the Rapture Theory teaches, without explicit authority in scripture, that the Capital C Church, somehow different from the ekklesia, is removed from the Earth, and Old Covenant Israel is restored in a new dispensation of law. But - any theological system that confuses, obscures, or falsely addresses the issue of spiritual identity is spiritually dangerous and requires refutation.
Dispensationalism gets several prophecies wrong. For example, it teaches that a one man anti-Christ will appear near the end of the age, but I John 2: 18 says there are many anti-Christs and that there is a spirit of anti-Christ (I John 4: 3).
Likewise dispensationalism claims the 144,000 are all Jews.
"From the time of Christ’s rejection by Israel until the time when God deals specifically with Israel again in the seventieth week it is not possible to refer to a remnant of the nation Israel." Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology, 1965, by J. Dwight Pentecost
Apparently, in dispensationalism when God "raptures" the dispensationalism Capital C Church, and deals specifically again with Old Covenant Israel, the Church Age is over.
The 144,000 is however a remnant.
Since Revelation 7: 1-8 says the 144,000 are out of Israel, though the text lists the tribes of Old Covenant Israel,since the 144,000 appear during the New Covenant and before the return of Christ, we might want to figure out what that Israel is in the New Covenant.
The New Testament says there is more than one Israel – “they are not all Israel which are of Israel” Romans 9:6.
Paul tells us the definition of a Jew is no longer a flesh and blood person physically descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but a man or a woman who has been Spiritually regenerated through the new birth in Christ.
“For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly…But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly…in the spirit, and not in the letter” (Romans 2:28, 29).
The New Covenant in Jesus Christ brings to light and makes outstanding in knowledge many things in the Spirit, which were prophetically anticipated in the Old Covenant by that which was physical or of the flesh.
So, although the 144,000 probably includes physical women, yet this Spiritual group is characterized metaphorically as male virgins in Revelation 14: 4
“And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more” (Amos 7:8).
Although there certainly could be a few of the chosen people bloodline who are part of the 144,000, that group would not be made up entirely of the chosen bloodline people.
Is the 144,000 the same group as the remnant mentioned in Revelation 12: 17, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ? They could be the same. We are not told.
Dispensationalism, Christian Zionism, Separation Theology or the Rapture Theory teaches, without explicit authority in scripture, that the Capital C Church, somehow different from the ekklesia, is removed from the Earth, and Old Covenant Israel is restored in a new dispensation of law. But - any theological system that confuses, obscures, or falsely addresses the issue of spiritual identity is spiritually dangerous and requires refutation.
Dispensationalism gets several prophecies wrong. For example, it teaches that a one man anti-Christ will appear near the end of the age, but I John 2: 18 says there are many anti-Christs and that there is a spirit of anti-Christ (I John 4: 3).
Likewise dispensationalism claims the 144,000 are all Jews.
"From the time of Christ’s rejection by Israel until the time when God deals specifically with Israel again in the seventieth week it is not possible to refer to a remnant of the nation Israel." Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology, 1965, by J. Dwight Pentecost
Apparently, in dispensationalism when God "raptures" the dispensationalism Capital C Church, and deals specifically again with Old Covenant Israel, the Church Age is over.
The 144,000 is however a remnant.
Since Revelation 7: 1-8 says the 144,000 are out of Israel, though the text lists the tribes of Old Covenant Israel,since the 144,000 appear during the New Covenant and before the return of Christ, we might want to figure out what that Israel is in the New Covenant.
The New Testament says there is more than one Israel – “they are not all Israel which are of Israel” Romans 9:6.
Paul tells us the definition of a Jew is no longer a flesh and blood person physically descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but a man or a woman who has been Spiritually regenerated through the new birth in Christ.
“For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly…But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly…in the spirit, and not in the letter” (Romans 2:28, 29).
The New Covenant in Jesus Christ brings to light and makes outstanding in knowledge many things in the Spirit, which were prophetically anticipated in the Old Covenant by that which was physical or of the flesh.
So, although the 144,000 probably includes physical women, yet this Spiritual group is characterized metaphorically as male virgins in Revelation 14: 4
“And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more” (Amos 7:8).
Although there certainly could be a few of the chosen people bloodline who are part of the 144,000, that group would not be made up entirely of the chosen bloodline people.
Is the 144,000 the same group as the remnant mentioned in Revelation 12: 17, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ? They could be the same. We are not told.
