QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS by Uriah Smith

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 30, 1861

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

By Uriah Smith

THE 144,000.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

QUESTION. Are the 144,000, living saints at the coming of the Lord? If so how can they be said to be from each of the twelve tribes? Will all the tribes be living at that time? H. J. BONFIELD.

ANSWER. The 144,000 are those who will be translated at the coming of Christ. The following considerations prove this:

1. They are said to be "redeemed from the earth," and to be "redeemed from among men" [Rev. xiv, 3, 4]; and these expressions cannot have reference to those who pass through death and come up through the resurrection. They must refer to translation from among the living. Those who are redeemed through the resurrection, are said to have a resurrection out from among the dead [Phil. iii, 11], not to be redeemed from among men. This distinction must be apparent to all.

2. The first five verses of Rev. xiv, being a continuation of chap. xiii, it follows that the 144,000 are those whom the prophet had seen but a moment before in deadly conflict with the image of the beast. The image of the beast is yet future, and is the last development of earthly persecuting powers. The 144,000 therefore constitute the last generation of saints.

3. The 144,000 sing a new song before the throne which no man can learn but their own number. In chap. xv, this is called the song of Moses and the Lamb, and is sung by those who get the victory over the beast and his image, his mark and the number of his name. This, again, proves them to be the last generation of the saints.

4. The 144,000 are those who are sealed while the winds are being held. Rev. vii, 1-3. When the winds are permitted to blow, the seven last plagues follow in their train. Compare Rev. xvi, with chap. vii, 1-3. These plagues are yet future. And as the sealing is the last work to be accomplished for God's people prior to their final deliverance [Eze. ix], so the seven last plagues are the final manifestations of God's judgment in this state, against the workers of iniquity. Rev. xv, 1. None but the last generation can participate in these scenes.

The 144,000 being then living saints at the coming of the Lord, how can they be said to be sealed from the twelve tribes of the children of Israel? A reference to Rev. xxi, 12, will explain. John in his description of the holy city, New Jerusalem, says: "And it had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel." Through some one of these twelve gates, every person who is admitted into the holy city must necessarily enter. He must consequently be reckoned as belonging to some one of the twelve tribes. This shows us that the people of God in this dispensation are equally Israel with those of the former. Paul, in Romans, explains the change from the literal to the spiritual seed, showing how the wild olive (the Gentile) has been graffed in to partake of the root and fatness of the tame olive [Rom. xi]; by which it has now become a fact that they are not all Israel who are of Israel; that is, not the literal Israel are the true seed, but such only as are Jews inwardly. Rom. ii, 28, 29.

From this it is evident that all christians are reckoned as Israel, and consequently it is no more than natural that they should be spoken of as the twelve tribes. Accordingly James in his epistle, which was, as all will agree, written for christians, addresses the twelve tribes scattered abroad.

Why just twelve thousand are taken from each tribe, is not probably for any one to tell. It need only be remarked on this point, that here is good inferential evidence that spiritual and not literal Israel is referred to; for the literal tribes of Israel were numerically unequal. Some of them were composed of far greater numbers than others; and if a certain proportion were sealed from each tribe, its number from some would be greater than from others. Only by referring this to the spiritual seed can this objection be consistently avoided.

But perhaps another query may arise on the phraseology of the text in question. It says that a certain number were sealed of all the tribes of the children of Israel: not that all of each tribe were sealed, but twelve thousand of each tribe; whereas, it may be said, your view would have all of each tribe sealed—all that are alive when the Lord comes. That all true christians who are alive when the Lord comes will have been sealed is very evident; and, if the application here made of this subject is correct, there will be just a hundred and forty-four thousand of them, twelve thousand from each tribe. And though this includes all the living Israel at that time, may it not properly be said that they are so many of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel when we take in connection with them all those who have in this dispensation constituted the Israel of God, and who will still be reckoned among its tribes when they are raised from the grave in which they now slumber? Rev. xxi, 12.

But another query immediately arises: After John gets through with the enumeration of the twelve tribes, he says, "After this I looked and behold a great multitude whom no man could number of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. Rev. vii, 9. The inquirer may here say, This great multitude, according to your view, are all Israel; why then does not John call them so, instead of saying immediately after an enumeration of the twelve tribes, and in contradistinction to them, that this number is from every nation, kindred, people and tongue? The answer is at hand. There is a marked significance and a beautiful harmony in this sudden turn of the prophecy. There are two ideas which it seems this prophecy is designed to inculcate, and which should be borne in mind in considering this chapter: One is, that all true christians are called Israel, and are reckoned by tribes: The other is, that though they are called Israel it must not be supposed that they are taken altogether from the literal seed; for they come from every nation, kindred, people and tongue. In reference to the distinction which heaven regards, they are all Israel; in reference to the divisions and distinctions of earth, they are from every nation, kindred, people, and tongue. The timely insertion of such language as this in the prophetic narration is an effectual barrier against any one's imbibing the idea that this chapter is speaking of the literal descendants of Jacob. This is further evident from the fact that the 144,000 enumerated in verses 4-8, are a part of this great multitude, as is shown by verses 12-17, with their parallel scriptures.

QUESTION. What is meant by the bottomless pit in Rev. ix, and xx?

ANSWER. The term bottomless pit signifies abyss, and seems to be applied to different objects. In Rom. x, 7, it is translated deep, and means the grave. In Rev. ix, it represents those portions of the globe from which the doctrines of Mohammed issued forth; which were the wastes and deserts of Arabia. When the scenes recorded in Rev. xix, and the first part of chap. xx, take place, this depopulated earth rolling on its course in desolation and darkness for a thousand years, seems best to answer to the import of the term bottomless pit. See also Isa. xxiv. To this place we believe that Satan will be confined during the period above mentioned, amid the ruins which he himself hath wrought.

QUESTION. Please explain Rev. xvii, 8.

ANSWER. The verse reads thus: "The beast that thou sawest was and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is." Some translations read, "the beast that was, and is not, and shall be;" which must be the idea. This passage recently came under consideration in the Bible Class in this place, and the following conclusions were adopted: The beast signifies Rome as a persecuting power. In its pagan form it was a persecuting power and constituted the beast "that was." During the transition from paganism to christianity it ceased for a while to be a persecuting power; and then the beast "was not." It afterwards became papal, when it again assumed a persecuting character, and then constituted the beast "which is," or which, in John's day, was to be. It is in its last, or papal, form, that it is said to come out of the bottomless pit; and this language may be applied to the beast in this form for two reasons: First, The doctrines on which the papacy is founded, and by which it is sustained and maintains its influence, are without foundation in the word of God—the pit of its doctrines is without bottom. Second, The hordes of barbarians who overran the Roman empire, and whose conversion contributed to the rise and establishment of the papacy, came from the then unknown regions of the north, outside of the limits of the Roman empire. Thus in a double sense may this beast be said to have ascended from the bottomless pit. This is the eighth head, of Rev. xvii, 11, and is the one that goeth into perdition. Rev. xvii, 8, 11; Dan. vii, 11; 2 Thess. ii, 8.