144,000

Three things of interest.  One came to the surface in our discussion on Tuesday,  6/29/21

1.)    144,000
In our gathering last night we spent sometime on the 144,000.   But there are only 2 scriptures concerning them.

Revelation 7:4, “And [then] I heard how many were sealed (marked) out of every tribe of the sons of Israel: there were 144,000.  5 Twelve thousand were sealed (marked) out of the tribe of Judah, 12,000 of the tribe of Reuben, 12,000 of the tribe of Gad, … and so on…  9 After this I looked and a vast host appeared which no one could count, [gathered out] of every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. These stood before the throne and before the Lamb; they were attired in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.  10 In loud voice they cried, saying, [Our] salvation is due to our God, Who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb [to Them we owe our deliverance]!  11 And all the angels were standing round the throne and round the elders [ [a] of the heavenly Sanhedrin ] and the four living creatures, and they fell prostrate before the throne and worshiped God.  12 Amen! (So be it!) they cried. Blessing and glory and majesty and splendor and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and might [be ascribed] to our God to the ages and ages (forever and ever, throughout the eternities of the eternities)! Amen! (So be it!)

Revelation 14:1-3, ‘Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with Him 144,000 [men] who had His name and His Father’s name inscribed on their foreheads.  2 And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of great waters and like the rumbling of mighty thunder; the voice I heard [seemed like the music] of harpists [a] accompanying themselves on their harps.  And they sang a new song before the throne [of God] and before the four living creatures and before the elders [of the heavenly Sanhedrin ]. No one could learn [to sing] that song except the 144,000 who had been ransomed (purchased, redeemed) from the earth.  4 These are they who have not defiled themselves by relations with women, for they are [[c] pure as] virgins. These are they who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These are they who have been ransomed (purchased, redeemed) from among men as the first-fruits for God and the Lamb.  5 No lie was found to be upon their lips, for they are blameless (spotless, untainted, without blemish) before the throne of God.  This view of the 144,000 appears to be in heaven and not on earth.

So with this very limited amount of information obviously it is a supernatural awareness that in spite of Titus in 70 AD destroying Israel and converting it into Palestine and all of the Jewish persecutions that there remains a pure family of Abraham for the promises that God gave to Abraham.  And that they are Jewish Holy men who have made Jesus LORD.  And that they are musicians who fill the heavens with a new song in worship of Christ Jesus as LORD.  After 2,000 years of denial, Jesus as LORD could be the new song.   I suspect that their purity is due to the redemption of GOD through Christ Jesus as LORD as all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God.  Isa. 53 and need the redemption that is in Christ Jesus as LORD.

2. )   The Two Witnesses, Please note in witnessing an event at least 2 witnesses are needed.
    Deut. 17:6,  19:15,  Matt 18:16,  26:60,   2 Cor 13:1,  1 Tim. 5:19,  Heb. 10:28
    
Rev. 11:2-12, “ But leave out of your measuring the court outside the sanctuary of God; omit that, for it is given over to the Gentiles (the nations), and they will trample the holy city underfoot for 42 months (three and one-half years).  3 And I will grant the power of prophecy to My two witnesses for 1,260 (42 months; three and one-half years), dressed in sackcloth.  4 These [witnesses] are the two olive trees and the two lampstands which stand before the Lord of the earth.  5 And if anyone attempts to injure them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their enemies; if anyone should attempt to harm them, thus he is doomed to be slain.   6 These [two witnesses] have power to shut up the sky, so that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying (their [a] prediction of events relating to Christ’s kingdom and its speedy triumph); and they also have power to turn the waters into blood and to smite and scourge the earth with all manner of plagues as often as they choose.  7 But when they have finished their testimony and their evidence is all in, the beast (monster) that comes up out of the Abyss (bottomless pit) will wage war on them, and conquer them and kill them.  8 And their dead bodies [will lie exposed] in the open street ([b] a public square) of the great city which is in a spiritual sense called [by the mystical and allegorical names of] Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.  9 For three and a half days men from the races and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and will not allow them to be put in a tomb.  10 And those who dwell on the earth will gloat and exult over them and rejoice exceedingly, taking their ease and sending presents [in congratulation] to one another, because these two prophets had been such a vexation and trouble and torment to all the dwellers on the earth.  11 But after three and a half days, by God’s gift the breath of life again entered into them, and they rose up on their feet, and great dread and terror fell on those who watched them.  12 Then [the two witnesses] heard a strong voice from heaven calling to them, Come up here! And before the very eyes of their enemies they ascended into heaven in a cloud.

There are 3 possibilities for who are these witnesses,   Enoch, Elijah and John (due to no knowledge of John’s death and what Jesus said about him to Peter, John 21:22-23)   So as we read the account of the 2 witnesses it appears that they are to record the events of evil so as to stand in the 2nd Judgment and give an accurate account of what was done by lucifer for his judgment.  Notice in verse 7 “and their evidence is all in” they are killed.  Seems this may be the second half of the Great Tribulation.  As their ministry seems to begin as lucifer takes over the 3rd Temple claiming to be god.  And as  “It is appointed unto man, once to die but after this the judgment.” Heb.9:27.  It may well be Enoch and Elijah as the prophets of God as they never died?

3.)  The Great Whore of Rev. 17-18,   
For me, this is obviously the gathering together of the counterfeit world church as it comes together in the end time (now) and the fiery Judgment of the whore.   Note that she sits on 7 hills, Rev.17:9.   Two world cities sit on 7 hills, Jerusalem and Rome.  So read carefully, I like the Amplified as giving the better picture and also please note Rev. 18:4 that warns the Christian to leave that counterfeit church prior to her Judgment.  Just as Jesus also warmed the Christians to leave Jerusalem in 70 AD,  in Matt.24:15-19