WHO ARE THE 144,000 OF REVELATION

Who are the 144,000 of Revelation? It is interesting to note that they are mentioned twice in the book of Revelation, seven chapters apart. The two references are in Chapters 7 and 14, they are as follows.

Revelation 7:4 "And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel."

Revelation 14:1 "And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.

Revelation 14:3-4 "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 firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb."

One thing we learn from the passage in chapter 14 is that these are the "Firstfruits" unto God and to the Lamb.

What does that mean?

Does the New Testament define in further detail who the "Firstfruits" are, or is Revelation 14 the only passage.

Romans 8:23 "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."

Here Paul is saying that they in the first century had the firstfruits of the Spirit. This is something that they possessed in the first century not something they were going to have to wait thousands of years for.

Romans 16:5 "Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my well beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ."

Here again, Paul using the term "Firstfruits" is describing Epaenetus, a first century Roman believer in Jesus Christ. One of the FIRST in
Rome to come to faith in Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 16:15 "I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,)"

Now in the church of Corinth, Paul calls Stephanas, a person who lived in the first century as the "Firstfruits of Achaia".

It is interesting that Epaenetus was a Gentile and Stephanas was a Jew. So we have representative firstfruits from both Jew and gentile.

James 1:18 "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."

James also uses the term Firstfruits to describe..."We who were begat of his own will, by the word of truth". Is he talking about "WE" in the 21st century? No, he is writing to a group of Jews in the first century who had been dispersed by first century persecution. James was chronologically the first epistle of the New Testament to be penned. It is instructive that so early in the church history, James says that there were those who were considered by inspiration of the Holy Spirit to be the "Firstfruits.

So let's apply this expanded definition of Firstfruits to the passages in Revelation. Using this definition, we would be hard pressed to produce textual evidence that the 144,000 could be a group of people that John is describing that exist 2000+ years after his writing.

On the contrary, based on the use of the word "Firstfruits" by the apostles Paul and James, John is describing a group of believers, (probably mostly Jewish) that existed in the first century.

In dispensational futurism, the teaching is that these 144,000 Jews do not come to exist until during the end of the tribulation period and they go through the last of the tribulation and then are ushered into the kingdom where they populate the Millennial kingdom.

How is that a legitimate use of the word Firstfruits when in actuality that teaching is identifying them as the LAST fruits. In that way of thinking, they are the last fruits to come unto God and to the Lamb. It really does not make sense. The only thing that makes sense is that these 144,000 are the first believers to come to faith in Jesus Christ in the first century.