John The Revelator Saw 144,000 Jews Converted To Christ After The Rapture
SUDDENLY, THE GREAT TRIBULATION STOPPED, ALL JUDGMENTS CEASED, THE INSANE WEATHER PATTERNS BECAME PERFECTLY CALM, AND THE CHOSEN NATION OF THE LORD CAME INTO VIEW. Before the Anti-Christ could release his vicious anger against Israel, an elected number must be redeemed and sealed. This beautiful company were not converted to Jesus Christ before the Rapture but were deeply pious and anxious for the messiah to come. When Jesus raptures His bride, no place on earth will be as stirred and shaken as Jerusalem.
This pause in the proceeding of judgments is remarkable. The world is under great wrath from the Father and the Lamb. They are also under an assault from Satan and his horde at the same time. It’s like everything comes to a standstill as the angels of God manifest their incredible powers. Even Satan’s activities must be stayed. All the elements of nature will suddenly be calmed and the earth’s population will be filled with a sense of a divine encounter. His angels, probably Cherubims in this case, are awesome creatures. When they manifest powers as great as suggested in this text, a foreboding of their great emotions will touch all creation. “Holding the four winds of the earth,” will create a hush or calm that strikes incredible fear.
These angels were already on a mission to disrupt the processes of nature. Their activities were in motion so that the sudden calm was like the eye of a hurricane with a storm raging on both sides. It is apparent that this action to seal the servants of God from the nation of Israel suggests that the effort by the Antichrist to massacre the Jewish race is well underway and the Lord is acting to preserve the remnant. This also suggests that the abomination of desolation may has been erected in the temple and Israel has learned of their mistake when they made a covenant with the Antichrist. One third of Israel will eventually be preserved and saved. This action by the Lamb guarantees their future in His plans. The sealed saints will be His witnesses among the remnant.
This great action by the Lamb to set aside a fixed number of His kin for witnesses to Himself is quite amazing. They have already been thoroughly converted after the Rapture. They are called “servants of our God” and were probably faithful orthodox Jews that were busy preparing for the Messiah before they learned of the Rapture and realized they had missed this grand event. No one can be saved apart from the Lamb’s blood and this seal confirms his or her faith in Christ. Please note that this seal is called “the seal of the Living God” to distinguish it from the seal of the Antichrist.
Here is the vision that John the Revelator saw. “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. (Revelation 7:1-3)
It is not likely that any geographical place on this earth has as many saints buried in the soil as the Holy City. The early church saw hundreds of thousands converted and filled with the Holy Ghost. The book of Acts was the greatest revival in human history. They believed that they would be raptured in their life-time but when saints began to die, Apostle Paul had to settle the question. Before Titus destroyed the city and either sold the Jews as slaves or drove them to other nations, a multitude of believers had died in the Lord. Jerusalem will be a city of open graves after the rapture.
This golden city was similarly shaken when Jesus Christ was resurrected, and that was only a shadow of what is to come. I love this great passage. “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.” (Matthew 27: 52-53) This kind of activity after the Rapture is not what you usually hear. Maybe I am taking this too far but I think not. The one criteria for teaching all truth is the Bible and this pattern was set when Jesus Christ was Resurrected.
That is the single pattern of saints being resurrected in all of scripture. It is foolish for us to ignore this as what our Lord is about to do again. Imagine the effect of Apostle Peter, Apostle James, and Apostle Paul appearing and preaching the resurrection on the streets of Jerusalem. Consider hundreds of glorified saints in shining bodies praying at the Wailing Wall or triumphantly singing in the public square of their beloved city. Never in history have so many blessed saints of our Lord been seen in triumphant glory and loudly declaring, “The Lord has come and the end of all things is at hand.”
Once the Rapture is complete and the resurrected saints have disappeared, tens of thousands of Israel’s population with turn to Jesus Christ. I believe a great number of the devoted Jews that were looking for the Messiah will be quick to repent of their unbelief. Out of this great multitude, God will choose His elected 144,000, 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes.
The tasks of these faithful believers from among the Jews and their protection while they are His witnesses would suggest several things. They will become powerful witnesses to Jesus Christ’s messiahship to the entire Jewish world. They will certainly prepare all of Israel to be converted in one single day when the Son of Man arrives in Jerusalem after He wins the Battle of Armageddon. His one hundred and forty-four thousand will be caught up to the Lamb before the seven years of tribulation is over and will likely be guests at the wedding event and supper already underway in Heavenly Jerusalem. They also may help prepare Israel for the coming kingdom of Israel during the Millennium. This large number of protected Jews will certainly have a wonderful part in Israel’s future, both before they are caught up, and when they return with Christ to reign on earth a thousand years.The One Thousand Year Reign is only the beginning.
Joseph R. Chambers