Thoughts on the Revelation.
VERSES 1–5. And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him a hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women: for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault before the throne of God. It is a pleasing feature of the prophetic word that the people of God are never brought into positions of trial and difficulty and there left. Taking them down into scenes of danger, the voice of prophecy does not there cease, leaving them to guess their fate, in doubt, perhaps despair, as to the final result; but it takes them through to the end, and shows the issue in every conflict. The first five verses of Rev. xiv, are an instance of this. The xiii th chapter left the people of God, a small and apparently weak and defenseless company, in deadly conflict with the mightiest powers of earth which the dragon is able to muster to his service. A decree is passed, backed up by the supreme power of the land, that they shall all receive the anti-christian mark, under pain of death if they refuse to comply. What can the people of God do in such a conflict, and in such an extremity? What will become of them? Glance forward with the apostle to the very next scene in the programme, and what do we behold? The very same company standing on mount Zion with the Lamb—a victorious company, harping on golden harps, their triumph through the courts of heaven. Thus are we assured that when the time of our conflict with the powers of darkness comes, deliverance is not only certain, but will immediately be given, being the next event in our history, the glorious rest after the weary pilgrimage, the glorious consummation of a life of toil, suffering, and ceaseless conflict here. That the 144,000 here seen on mount Zion, are the saints who were just before brought to view as objects of the wrath of the beast and his image, several considerations show: 1. They are identical with those sealed in Rev. vii, who have already been shown to be the righteous who are alive at the second coming of Christ. 2. They are the overcomers of the sixth, or Philadelphian, state of the church. See Rev. iii, 11, 12. 3. They are “redeemed from among men,” verse 4, an expression which can be applicable only to those who are translated from among the living. Paul labored if by any means he might attain to a resurrection out from among the dead. Phil. iii, 11. This is the hope of those who sleep in Jesus—a resurrection from the dead: a redemption from among men, from among the living, must mean a different thing, and can mean only one thing, and that is translation. Hence the 144,000 are the living saints who will be translated at the second coming of Jesus Christ. Where is the mount Zion where this company is seen standing? The mount Zion above; for the voice of harpers, which no doubt is uttered by these very ones, is heard from heaven; the same Zion from which the Lord utters his voice when he speaks to his people in close connection with the coming of the Son of man. See Joel iii, 16; Heb. xii, 26–28; Rev. xvi, 17. A just consideration of the fact that there is a mount Zion in Heaven, and a Jerusalem above, would be a powerful antidote against the hallucination of the doctrine called “Age to Come.” A few more particulars, only, respecting the 144,000, will claim notice in these brief thoughts. 1. They have the name of the Lamb’s Father in their foreheads. In chap. vii, they are said to have the seal of God in their foreheads. An important key to an understanding of the seal of God is thus furnished us; for we at once perceive that the Father regards his name as his seal. That commandment of the law which contains God’s name is therefore the seal of the law. The Sabbath commandment is the only one which has this; that is, that contains the descriptive title which distinguishes the true God above all false gods. Wherever this was placed, there the Father’s name was said to be. Deut. xxviii, 10, and whoever keeps this commandment has, consequently, the seal of the living God. 2. They sing a new song which no other company is able to learn. In chap. xv, 3, it is called the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb. The song of Moses, as may be seen by reference to Ex. xv, was the song of his experience and deliverance. Such therefore is the song of the 144,000. No others can join in it; for no other company will have an experience like theirs. 3. They were not defiled with women. A woman is the Scripture symbol of a church: a virtuous woman representing a pure church, a corrupt woman an apostate church. It is then a characteristic of this company that at the time of their deliverance they are not defiled with, or have no connection with, the corrupt churches of the land. Yet we are not to understand that they never had any connection with these churches; for it is only at a certain time that people become defiled by them. In chap. xviii, 4, we find a call issued to the people of God while they are in Babylon, to come out, lest they become partakers of her sins. Heeding that call, and leaving her connection, they escape the defilement of her sins. So the 144,000, though some of them may once have had a connection with corrupt churches, break off that connection, when it would have become sin to longer retain it. 4. They follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. We understand that this is spoken of them in their redeemed state. They are the special companions of their glorified Lord in the kingdom. Chap. vii, 17, speaking of the same company, and at the same time, says, “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.” 5. They are “first-fruits” unto God and the Lamb. This term appears to be applied to different ones to denote especial conditions. Christ is the first-fruits as the antitype of the wave-sheaf. The first receivers of the gospel are called by James i, 18, a kind of first-fruits. So the 144,000 ripening up for the heavenly garner here on earth, during the troublous scenes of the last days, being translated to heaven without seeing death, and occupying a pre-eminent position, are in this sense, we understand, called first-fruits unto God and the Lamb. Verses 6–12. And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation: and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Another scene, and another chain of prophetic events is introduced in these verses. We here have what is known as the three angels’ messages of Rev. xiv. The first angel is called another angel, because John had already seen one flying in a similar manner. Chap. xiv, 6. He proclaims the gospel, not a new one, but the everlasting gospel, called in Matt. xxiv, 14, “the gospel of the kingdom.” But while it is the same gospel, there are particular features which constitute197the burden of the message, chief among which as shown by verse 7, is the nearness of the kingdom. This message cannot therefore symbolize the preaching of the gospel by the apostles, nor by the reformers, nor by any class of people except those who live when the end is just at hand. The advent proclamation, especially from 1840 to 1844, completely answers to the prophecy, and is the only great religious movement which can be pointed to as its fulfillment. The judgment announced is shown by arguments which the designed brevity of these articles will not here admit, to be the investigative judgment, which the reader will perceive must necessarily take place before the coming of Christ; for when Christ comes it is already decided who of the dead shall be raised, and who of the living are worthy to be changed. That investigative work we believe commenced in the Sanctuary above, when this message ceased as a leading proclamation, at the close of the prophetic periods in 1844. The second angel announces the fall of Babylon. What is Babylon? The figure is taken from the ancient city of Babylon; and that took its name from the confusion of tongues which there took place; hence we understand that by this symbol is meant the great mass of confused and corrupt Christianity, “Where creeds are various as her costly towers.”
Her fall was a moral fall, caused by rejecting the vivifying truths of the first message, or great advent proclamation. The third angel follows them with a message of most fearful import. From the language in which it is expressed, we understand at once that it is designed to warn men against the worship of the beast and his image, and prepare them for that time when the decree shall be issued enforcing such worship, as noticed in the previous chapter. This is the issue then into which the world is to be brought: refuse the mark of the beast and thus become exposed to the wrath of antichristian, earthly powers, or receive the mark and brave the unmixed wrath of God. This wrath is embraced, according to chap. xv, 1, in the seven last plagues. The torment of fire and brimstone, when is that? Some apply it at the end of the one thousand years, but we think not necessarily. Chap. xix, 20 shows that there is at the second coming of Christ, what may be compared to a lake of fire and brimstone, into which the beast and false prophet are cast alive. This can refer to none other than the destruction visited upon them at the commencement, not at the end, of the thousand years. Again, there is a remarkable passage in Isaiah to which we are obliged to refer in explanation of the phraseology of the threatening of the third angel, and which unquestionably describes scenes to take place here at the second advent, and the desolate state of the earth during the thousand years following. That the language in the Revelation was borrowed from this prophecy can hardly fail to be seen. After describing the Lord’s anger upon the nations, the great slaughter of their armies, the departing of the heavens as a scroll, &c., it says: “For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever.” Isa. xxxiv, 8–10. And since there is to be a lake of fire at the end of the thousand years, we can only conclude that the destruction of the living wicked at the commencement, and the final doom of all the ungodly at the end, of this period, are very similar. The period of the third message is a time of patience with the people of God. Paul and James both give us instruction on this point. Heb. x, 36; James v, 7, 8. Meanwhile this waiting company are keeping the commandments of God, the ten commandments, and the faith of Jesus, all the teachings of Christ and his apostles as contained in the New Testament. For a full exposition of this interesting and important subject, see “The Three Messages of Rev. xiv,” published at this Office.