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The One Hundred and Forty-four Thousand

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 14, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 24.

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The One Hundred and Forty-four Thousand

By John Norton Loughborough

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH
Having received the following question, to which I prepared a reply, the thought occurred that the same might be of interest to the readers of the REVIEW, so I forward it for publication.
“For some time, in fact for several years, I have been unable to see how the one hundred and forty-four thousand could be made up partly of those who have died during the third angel’s message. Such a position seems to be contrary to the teachings of the spirit of prophecy. Of this favored number, Sister White has written that they are taken ‘from among the living.’ How could this be, if they are taken partly from ‘among the dead?’ Again, she says that they ‘have endured the anguish of Jacob’s trouble,’ passed ‘through the final outpouring of God’s judgments.’ How could all sing a song of such an experience if a part, perhaps hundreds, had never had the experience? How could one hundred and forty-four thousand dear souls sing that they had ‘passed through the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation,’ and had endured anguish, hunger, sun heat, and the sight of the seven last plagues, if they were sleeping, or at least a part of them? Would not a part of this company be unable to tell and sing a part of that song?
“It may be said that Sister White, in one of her writings, makes herself one of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, but Ezekiel does also. Speaking of the seven last judgments, he represents himself as present at their pouring out, and says, ‘and I was left.’
“I am a firm believer in the spirit of prophecy. I believe what it says. By this I mean, that when it comes across my path, I believe that God, through his prophet, has shown me my error. I have no new light. My message is the old,old doctrines taught in the early days of this truth. But I have not understood the above subject, and so have had nothing to say about it. I write you, knowing the way you look at it, but not knowing the reasons you have for so doing. Perhaps you will help me out. There is no controversy in this field about the subject.”
Before making a direct answer to your questions, it may be of interest to note the facts as to how the Seventh-day Adventists were led to the sealing message of Revelation seven, and how they held the doctrine when they received it. Elder Joseph Bates began teaching the truth of the seventh-day Sabbath, as connected with the third angel’s message of Revelation fourteen, in 1845. But the believers did not discover the light on the sealing message until 1848. They were led to it on this wise:—
Feb. 22, 1848, France became disorganized, deposed her king, and burned up his throne, and in the twilight of that evening he fled from Paris with his family in a hack, he himself being the hack driver, disguised in the garb of a “hackney coachman.” Following closely on the riot in Paris, the turmoil spread to other countries, until thirty-six kingdoms, principalities, and petty states were involved in the melee. Just at this time the spirit rappings began in the Fox and Fish families, in Hydesville, Wayne Co., N. Y. (This was about seventeen miles from my birthplace, and only a few miles from where Joseph Smith claimed that he found his gold plates of the Book of Mormon.) The First-day Adventists of New England said, “This strife among the nations of Europe is the rally of the nations to the battle of the great day of God. The Lord is going to come now. These rapping spirits are the spirits of devils going out to gather the nations to that battle.”
At this time the Seventh-day Adventists received the light on the sealing message. Their reply to the first-day people was, “No. This is not the rally to the last great battle. Before that event takes place, one hundred and forty-four thousand are to be sealed with the seal of the living God. There is a message to go forth bearing the seal, and we have discovered that message in the seventh chapter of Revelation, and are going forth to give that message.”
Elder Bates, in a tract, makes mention of a meeting of a few of those who had accepted the sealing message. The meeting was held Nov. 18, 1848. Of this meeting he says, “A small company of brethren and sisters were assembled in meeting in Dorchester, near Boston, Mass. We made the publication of the message [the sealing message] a subject of prayer. The way to publish appeared not sufficiently clear. We resolved unitedly to refer it all to God. After some time spent in earnest prayer for light and instruction, God gave Sister White the following, in vision:—
Speaking of the Sabbath truth, she said, “That truth arises, and is on the increase, stronger, and stronger. It’s the seal! It’s coming up! It arises, and is coming from the rising of the sun. Like the sun, first cold, grows warmer, and sends its rays.
“The angels are holding the four winds. It is God that restrains the powers. The angels have not let go, for the saints are not all sealed.
“The time of trouble has commenced. It is begun. The reason why the four winds have not let go, is because the saints are not all sealed.
“When Michael stands up this trouble will be all over the earth. Why, they [the winds] are just ready to blow. There is a check put on because the saints are not sealed.”
You notice that the Testimony said, in 1848, “the saints are not all sealed.” The position of our people then was that the sealing work at that time was going on, and that some of the one hundred and forty-four thousand were then being sealed.
You will note how this idea was confirmed by other Testimonies that followed soon after. In “Early Writings,” page 35, is a vision given March 24, 1849, which reads: “Satan is now using every device in this sealing time to keep the minds of God’s people from the present truth, and cause them to waver. I saw a covering that God was drawing over his people to protect them in the time of trouble; and every soul that was decided on the truth, and pure in heart, was to be covered with the covering of the Almighty.” On page 36 of the same volume we read: “I saw that Satan was at work in these ways to distract, deceive, and draw away God’s people just now in this sealing time.
“Satan was trying his every art to hold them where they were, until the sealing was passed, until the covering was drawn over God’s people, and they left without a shelter from the burning wrath of God in the seven last plagues. God has begun to draw this covering over his people, and it will soon be drawn over all who are to have a shelter in the day of slaughter.”
From this you can see some of the reasons why those accepting the original faith on the subject of the one hundred and forty-four thousand believed that some were then being sealed, and that they were to be of those resurrected in the time of trouble, and be of the one hundred and forty-four thousand.
On page 29 of the same book we read, “The four angels had power from God to hold the four winds, and that they were about to let them go, but while their hands were loosening, and the four winds were about to blow, the merciful eye of Jesus gazed on the remnant that were not sealed, and he raised his hands to the Father, and pleaded with him that he had spilled his blood for them. Then another angel was commissioned to fly swiftly to the four angels, and bid them to hold, until the servants of God were sealed with the seal of the living God in their foreheads.”
Again we read: “I saw that the four angels would hold the four winds until Jesus’ work was done in the sanctuary, and then will come the seven last plagues. These plagues enraged the wicked against the righteous; they thought we had brought the judgments of God upon them, and that if they could rid the earth of us, the plagues would then be stayed. A decree went forth to slay the saints, which caused them to cry day and night for deliverance. This was the time of Jacob’s trouble. Then all the saints cried out with anguish of spirit, and were delivered by the voice of God. The one hundred and forty-four thousand triumphed. Their faces were lighted up with the glory of God.”
Who were included in this company that are to hear the voice of God? We read in “Early Writings,” page 145, “Dark heavy clouds came up, and clashed against each other. But there was one clear place of settled glory, whence came the voice of God like many waters, shaking the heavens and the earth. There was a mighty earthquake. The graves were opened, and those who had died in the faith under the third angel’s message, keeping the Sabbath, came forth from their dusty beds, glorified, to hear the covenant of peace that God was to make with those who had kept his law.”
The faith of the Sabbath-keepers from that time until some of the modern “lights” came in, was that those who died in the faith were among the sealed ones, and would constitute a part of the one hundred and forty-four thousand.
Just when this partial resurrection takes place may be seen by comparing Dan. 11:45; 12:1, 2, and Rev. 16:12. It is when Michael “stands up,” in the time of trouble; but at that time Turkey comes to his end, with none to help; or, as expressed in Revelation 16, when that power is “dried up.” But when that power is “dried up,” five of the seven plagues have been poured out. The wicked have become enraged by those plagues, and seek to put the saints to death, which brings the living and the resurrected ones into the time of Jacob’s trouble. Jacob’s trouble in olden time was when Esau was coming with four hundred armed men to take his life. The resurrected ones share in this cry for deliverance, and they hear the voice of God that pronounces the everlasting covenant upon those who have honored him by keeping his Sabbath.
(To be concluded)