144,000

What these symbolize is all the anointed resurrected to heaven and married to their husbandly owner.They have passed the tests on earth faithfully,and are currently singing a song of joy and praise to their Lord and Jehovah their God.(Rev.14:1-3)These hand-picked and anointed are selected by Father Jehovah.(John6:44)The entire Gospel account is full of information about what it means to become a born-again or anointed Christian,and what the purpose and destiny of these is. To limit all the Christians ever selected the past 2000 years to 144,000 would surely be a grave mistake.Having this view,some like the Jehovah's Witness religion has set being a Christian up to be an elite society of whom all have come and gone in death save a very few( of course only of their faith).Truth is many Christians today profess to be anointed with the spirit,and live beautiful lives of Christian servitude and sacrifice.They,too,have a working knowledge of the Gospel,and demonstrate many of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in their personal lives.All one needs to do is visit the large variety of Christian churches in your area,to make this determination for yourselves.Just say you're there as a visitor,as they are really glad you came and will quickly try to get you signed up.Its natural,expect it.Are all who claim to be Christian going to meet with God's approval and achieve this reward?(Matt.7:21-23) The criteria is "those doing the will of my Father in heaven".So,in the final analysis,"broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction...narrow ...and cramped the road leadng off to life,and few are the ones finding it."Jesus said.Still in all,of the2500 million,yes that's right,I said 2.5 BILLION profess Christianity today.What if the Lord examined and Found just 20% of these who were giving it their all,and factoring in the forgiveness factor,that is,the Blood of Christ for sin,we arrive at;102,500,000..100 million going to heaven?That's just of those presently alive,not all the candidates that have lived their lives for Christ over the past 2000 years.So in reckoning just the present -day figures,144,000 is still just 1% of the number we we estimated.Yes ,I'd say the 144k is definitely a symbolic number,wouldn't you? So much has been made that this"Great Crowd",seen standing before the throne is a lesser heavenly class.But Jesus and the angel in Revelation state"these are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation."So they are persons who,though not anointed followers of Christ,have acquired faith in him and are granted life into the "Millenium" kingdom.Wonderful!Kind of like the Israelites who went through the Red Sea with Moses.They had put the blood on their doorposts,avoiding the death of the firstborn.When they left Egypt,many Egyptians put faith in Jehovah and accompanied them out from Egypt.The Great Crowd possibly has no anointed in it,as Jesus said when he returns he takes the anointed up to heaven.So the final question,Why doesRev.7:9 say this crowd "stands 'before the throne'"if they're not in heaven?Well for starters,the vision all takes place from the heavenly perspective,John viewing things from his heavenly viewpoint that are going on in heaven and on earth.2ndly,those being judged are said to be standing in front of Jehovah and /or Jesus.(Matt.25:31,32and Luke 21:36) Notice lastly the scripture that reveals the general earthly resurrection occurring during the "Millenium","And I saw the dead,the small and the great,standing before the throne,and scrolls were opened",so here again,if you're in the act of being judged,you're"standing before the throne"(2Kings 5:16) The teaching promulgated by recent Russellite religions(such as Jehovah's Witnesses and Bible Student's) has thrown a curve at the whole concept of Christian Salvation.Be leary when reading the highly symbolic Revelation,a literal interpretation of its terms is not advised.(Rev.1:1)