Untitled article by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 30, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 29.

3816—The 144,000

By Editor

Please explain through the "Signs of the Times" Rev. 7:4 and 14:3, 4. Does the 4th verse of chapter 14 mean that they are only women who are to be saved?

The question of the 144,000 is an open question, and perhaps always will be. There is absolutely no authority, so far as we know, that states that there will be just the 144,000 saved and no more. That company may be a representative company. In all the numberings of Israel in the past, the people numbered were representative. This was true of the tribes, of the Levites, the 5,000 whom Jesus fed, of the 4,000. There were counted the men, besides women and children. This may be a representative company of that kind. We do not know. We are willing to leave the number with God. The expression "for they are virgins" means nothing more than that they are not guilty of spiritual fornication. That is, they are those who have given themselves wholly to God. They are not mixed up with the world. Spiritual fornication, in the light of the Scripture, means union with the world and professed union with God. See James 4:4. But this last company have come out from every union of that kind. They stand with God and His Word alone. The first expression in the verse indicates that the term "virgin" simply means that which is pure and clean. Do not worry over the number that is there given. Let our real study be on the characters which are described, those who have so thoroly embraced God's plan, so thoroly given themselves to Christ, so fully accepted of His grace, that they may have placed upon them God's authoritative stamp of character by His Holy Spirit, sealed with the seal of the living God, created anew in Christ Jesus.