The Heavenly Resurrection (Part 1)
“Then I saw, and look! the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who have his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads” (Revelation 14:1)
Jesus Christ taught the heavenly resurrection several times, and especially on the evening of the last Passover he celebrated with his Apostles: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Exercise faith in God; exercise faith also in me. In the house of my Father are many dwelling places. Otherwise, I would have told you, for I am going my way to prepare a place for you. Also, if I go my way and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will receive you home to myself, so that where I am you also may be. And where I am going, you know the way” (John 14:1–3).
During this last celebration, he made a covenant for a kingdom (different from the new covenant): “However, you are the ones who have stuck with me in my trials; and I make a covenant with you, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and sit on thrones to judge the 12 tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:28–30).
Jesus Christ told to his faithful apostles that they would reign with him in the heaven, to rule over the earth where the future humanity will be the “Twelve Tribes of Israel” (see Matthew 19:28). This idea that humans who will have the privilege of living in heaven, will rule over the Earth, is written in the book of Revelation: “you made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth” (Revelation 5:10). Nevertheless, the book of Revelation repeatedly shows that the number of those who will live in heaven will be only 144,000, taken the humanity: “Then I saw, and look! the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who have his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads” (Revelation 14:1–5). The context of the book of Revelation confirms that it is a literal and not a symbolic number. For example, this number is found for the first time in Revelation 7: 4–8: “And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000, sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel” (Revelation 7:4–8).
And the context of this important information makes us understand that this is a real and not a symbolic number. Indeed, after Revelation 7: 4–8, the prophecy continues in verses 7: 9–17 describing the great crowd that will survive the great tribulation. This time, regarding this group, the prophecy gives this detail: “After this I saw, and look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes; and there were palm branches in their hands” (Revelation 7:9). A “great crowd which no man was able to number” in this case the number of people is not known. We therefore understand that the information before, regarding the precise number of 144,000 humans who will live in heaven is to be taken literally.
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Other biblical articles:
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE RESURRECTION ON EARTH
THE RIGHTEOUS WILL NOT BE JUDGED
THE UNRIGHTEOUS WILL BE JUDGED
THE WELCOME OF THE RESURRECTED ONES