Some nice ladies who are members of the Jehovah's Witnesses came by my house today and dropped off a copy of The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom. (I always thought of it as just The Watchtower but according to this, the January 2008 issue, we are supposed to be mindful of the fact that its full title is, indeed, The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom so I'll call it that to be perfectly fair.)
This particular issue is focused on the Kingdom of God. One particular article titled What Is God's Kingdom provides some tidbits of information about the Kingdom of God like:
God's Kingdom has 144,000 corulers with the Christ. Jesus said that others, including his apostles, would rule in heaven with him. He called this group the "little flock." (Luke 12:32) Later, the apostle John was told that this little flock would total 144,000 in number. They would have a thrilling work assignment in heaven, ruling as kings and serving as priests along with Christ - Revelation 5:9, 10; 14:1, 3.
This is one of those well-known beliefs of the Witnesses, although I admit that I thought they considered the 144,000 to be the whole number of the saved and the way that this is written seems to indicate that they actually believe that the 144,000 are simply special leaders among the saved. Of course, maybe they are just spinning it that way so that I feel better about it, too, since according to the book Revelation - Its Grand Climax at Hand! which was published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society:
Interestingly, the first president of the Watch Tower Society, Charles T. Russell, recognized the 144,000 to be a literal number of individuals making up a spiritual Israel. In The New Creation, Volume VI of his Studies in the Scriptures, published in 1904, he wrote: "We have every reason to believe that the definite, fixed number of the elect [chosen anointed ones] is that several times stated in Revelation (7:4; 14:1); namely, 144,000 'redeemed from amongst men.'" [Emphasis Original]
Of course, from a scriptural perspective tying Revelation 5:9 to the 144,000 would mean that the 144,000 would have to consist of the entire body of the saved:
And they sing a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, because you were slaughtered and with your blood you bought persons for God out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and you made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth." (Revelation 5:9)
The body of the saved are the body of those who have been bought with the blood of Christ. It is clear that outside of Christ there is no salvation from sin and the church consists of those bought with the blood of the lamb:
Furthermore, if you are calling upon the Father who judges impartially according to each one's work, conduct yourselves with fear during the time of your alien residence. For you know that it was not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, that you were delivered from your fruitless form of conduct received by tradition from your forefathers. But it was with precious blood, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, even Christ's. (1 Peter 5:17-19)
Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock, among with the holy spirit has appointed you overseers, to shepherd the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own. (Acts 20:28)
The problems with all of this are the same ones that we find whenever we use the book of Revelation to interpret other parts of the Bible and most especially when we decide that some portion of the book of Revelation is literal and then try to use that as a foundation for other interpretation. The identification of a literal 144,000 with the saved is a key belief for the Jehovah's Witnesses. Even if we assume that the stance is being softened on that being the total number of the saved (and instead represents some sort of "ruling class among the saved) the approach of taking the number literally causes all sorts of problems with passages having to do with the 144,000:
And I saw, and, look, the Lamb standing upon the Mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound out of heaven as the sound of many waters and as the sound of loud thunder; and the sound that I heard was as of singers who accompany themselves on the harp playing on their harps. And they are singing as if a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the older persons; and no one was able to master that song but the hundred and forty-four thousand, who have been bought from the earth. These are the ones that did not defile themselves with women; in fact, they are virgins. These are the ones that keep following the Lamb no matter where he goes. These were bought from among mankind as first fruits to God and to the Lamb, and no falsehood was found in their mouths; they are without blemish. (Revelation 14:1-5)
And I heard the number of those who were sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel: Out of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand sealed; out of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand; out of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand; out of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand; out of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand; out of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand; out of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand; out of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand; out of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand; out of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand; out of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand; out of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand sealed. (Revelation 7:4-8)
So if we take the 144,000 literally then the following must also be true about the people that make up this number:
- They are male (Revelation 14:4)
- They are virgins (Revelation 14:4)
- They are physical descendents of Israel (Revelation 7:4-8)
Regarding the fact that they are male virgins the book Revelation - Its Great Climax at Hand! says:
The fact that the 144,000 "are virgins" does not mean that members of this class are necessarily unmarried in the flesh. The apostle Paul wrote to Christians who had a heavenly calling that, whereas there are advantages to Christian singleness, marriage is preferable under certain circumstances. (1 Corinthians 7:1, 2, 36, 37) What characterizes this class is a spiritual virginity. They have avoided spiritual adultery with worldly politics and with false religion. [Emphasis Original]
And concerning the fact that they would have to be physical descendents of Israel the same book says:
Could this not be a reference to literal, fleshly Israel? No, for Revelation 7:4-8 diverges from the usual tribal listing. (Numbers 1:17, 47) Obviously, the listing here is not for the purpose of identifying fleshly Jews by their tribes but to show a similar organizational structure for spiritual Israel. This is balanced. There are to be exactly 144,000 members of this new nation - 12,000 from each of 12 tribes.
Ah, yes, and here is what we always see with such an approach to Revelation. At some point there has to be a symbolic interpretation. If you find the greatest literalist there is with regard to the book of Revelation you can always find the breakdown into symbolic interpretation at some point. It will undoubtedly show up, for example, in the interpretation of the trumpets in Revelation 8 and 9 and most especially when the star Wormwood falls to the earth. Regarding this passage, for example, Revelation - Its Great Climax at Hand! says this:
We have already met the symbolism of a star in Jesus' messages to the seven congregations, in which the seven stars symbolize the elders in the congregations. (Revelation 1:20) Anointed "stars," along with all others of the anointed, inhabit heavenly places in a spiritual sense from the time that they are sealed with the holy spirit as a token of their heavenly inheritance. (Ephesians 2:6, 7) However, the apostle Paul warned that from among such starlike ones would come apostates, sectarians, who would mislead the flock. (Acts 20:29, 30) ... When the clergy of Christendom apostatized from true Christianity, they fell from the lofty "heavenly" position described by Paul at Ephesians 2:6, 7. Instead of offering fresh waters of truth, they served up "wormwood," bitter lies such as hellfire, purgatory, the Trinity, and predestination; also, they led the nations into war, failing to build them up as moral servants of God.
You've simply got to resort to symbolism at some point when you interpret Revelation. The problem is that the book makes it so easy, once you start mixing literal and symbolic interpretation, to twist it into almost any point you want to. Once you have done this with Revelation, you can then use the "obvious" (notice the use of that word in previous quotes from the literature above) interpretation you have created from Revelation to interpret away truly clear passages from the rest of the Bible. I always get frustrated when people (usually those who don't believe in God and want good reasons not to read the Bible) say, "You can make the Bible say whatever you want to." This really isn't true. The Bible is quite clear on a great many points. However, it is possible to twist the Bible into saying what it does not by using methods such as interpreting the rest of the Bible through the lens of Revelation.
The obvious difficulties in interpreting the book of Revelation if you are going to cling to a literal interpretation of parts of the vision can be seen with how the Jehovah's Witnesses interpret Revelation 7:4. Here is just that verse and I have tagged the parts that the Jehovah's Witnesses read as literal and symbolic:
And I heard the number of those who were sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand [literal], sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel [symbolic]
Thus in the space of part of a single sentence in a single verse we are told to interpret part of it literally and part of it symbolically. How are we to know which parts we need to take literally and which parts symbolically when the two types of reading are mixed within the same sentence like this? The answer to that question gives us the second reason why it is so convenient to interpret the Bible from the foundation of the book of Revelation - Doing so creates a dependency on someone else's interpretation. The Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe in a separated clergy and laity (and rightly so) but they have created a system that achieves the same effect by creating an interpretive dependency on The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom. Revelation is the premier book for this effect as it is so difficult to understand and therefore if you can claim that you understand it so well you should be heeded as a source of authority by those less able. Combining this with the first effect of interpreting the Bible through the lens of the book of Revelation (that being the ability to easily twist easier to understand passages by more difficult ones) you can both make the Bible say whatever you want it to and also create a system of authority such that everyone who is a member of your church must listen and do whatever you say as though you were the voice of God himself. Of course, turning the Bible into a tool for establishing human authority like this is nothing new and the Jehovah's Witnesses did not invent this procedure but it is something that we have to be on guard against all the same.
