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Eureka

AN EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE
Sixth Edition, 1915
By Dr. John Thomas (first edition written 1861)

 

 

Chapter 7

Section 5

The 144,000 Sealed.


 
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John says: "I heard the number of them who had been sealed;" and then informs us that the number amounted to 144,000. As we are expounding a revelation hieroglyphically communicated, we must not suppose that this is the literal number of the sealed. Like all other numbers in the apocalypse, it is symbolical or representative; and subject to the like rule for its interpretation. They do not represent less numbers than themselves, but more. This remark, however, does not include the thousand years, which is the numerical symbol representative of "the Day of Christ," comprised between the binding of the Dragon, and his release for a little season.

The 144,000 represent the whole number of the redeemed. This appears from ch. xiv. 3, where they are styled hoi egorasmenoi, "the redeemed" (or those acquired by the Lamb by a ransom or price paid, his blood) "from the earth." The real, or exact, number of the "redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, and without spot" (1 Pet. i. 18,19), we are told in Apoc. vii. 9, is "a great multitude which no man could number." Abraham was invited to number the stars, if he were able, which, of course, he was not able to do; upon which he was told, "So shall thy seed be" (Gen. xv. 5). Paul tells us, we are Abraham’s seed, if we be Christ’s; otherwise, we are not; and in Rom. iv. 18, informs us, that the promise embraces whole nations of mankind, which, in the day of Christ, when he dwells in the midst of Zion, will "be joined to Yahweh and be his people" (Zech. ii. 11; Apoc. xv. 4). The number of the redeemed, saved, or sealed, it is impossible for any but the Deity to define. He has chosen to be reticent upon this point -- to conceal it by saying nothing about it, further than to let us know that no man can count them. It is clear, then, that 144,000 is only a definite number representative of a much larger multitude, which the Deity himself alone can define to a man; for "known unto him are all his works from the beginning of the world" or aion (Acts xv. 18) and every redeemed man is one of his works, as saith Paul, "we are his workmanship" (Eph. ii. 10). In this counting up the number of the saved, he will, therefore, remember exactly how many he has created after the likeness of his Son Jesus. We must, then, be content to know simply the number by which he has thought proper to represent the unknown, and the mystery that number secretes, from all who have not the wisdom to "see" and understand.

Thus, then, the 144,000 being a miniature representation of an unknown predetermined original, it cannot be interpreted by what is called the literal; a rule which, when applied to the Apocalypse, reduces it to an unintelligible absurdity, which commends itself only to the mind of a "churchman," or of one hopelessly spoiled by "philosophy and vain deceit."

But what is the mystery of the Deity secreted in this number? Why should the number representing the redeemed be 144,000? Why might not 121,000, or any other number, have sufficed? I reply, because 12 and not 11, is the square root of "that great city, the Holy Jerusalem," which is the Bride of Christ (xxi. 2,9,10). The holy root of the Good Olive Tree is 12; which, when multiplied into itself, produces 144, thousands, furlongs, or cubits, as the number or mensuration may be in the premises. If, in the Holy Root, there had been only 11 sons of Israel, "the Urim and the Thummim" would have consisted of no more than eleven precious stones; the foursquare breastplate of judgment would have been defective in one of its rows, a twelfth stone would have been wanting; there would have been only eleven oxen under the laver, and eleven tribes of Israel; only eleven lions on the steps of Solomon’s throne; there would not have been a double 144, "instructed in the songs of Yahweh" (1 Chron. xxv. 7); nor a double 144,000, under twelve captains, or princes (1 Chron. xxvii. 15): there would have been only eleven thrones of the House of David, which would have required only eleven apostles to occupy them in the regeneration (Matt. xix. 28). Had 11 been the square root, and not 12, there would have been only twenty-two elders, and 121,000 sealed, 11,000 from each of 11 tribes; there would have been only eleven gates to the Holy Jerusalem, and at the gates only eleven angels standing; there would have been only eleven foundations to the city on which only eleven names of apostles would have been inscribed. The city would have been only 11,000 furlongs, and the encircling wall but 121 cubits; and lastly, the Wood of Life would produce only eleven fruits. >From this, the reader may see how the difference of a unit in the root of the Holy Square would have affected the divine numerical system from Genesis to the end of the Apocalypse.

Any number multiplied into itself will produce a square. In 144, we have a square number given, from which the square root is extractable according to rule. The extraction is the finding of the number, which, multiplied into itself, will make the given number. Thus, 12 x 12 = 144 -- thousands, furlongs, or cubits, as the case may be. It is the square of twelve, and, as the symbol of a commonwealth, polity, or city, applicable only to a community all of whose citizens are based upon a square root of 12. In the Apocalypse, this root is doubled in ch. iv. 4, there being "twenty-four elders;" and in ch. xxi. 12, there being twelve gates and twelve angels at the gates. The reason of this is, that the Holy Square, styled Jerusalem "holy" and "new," and "above the Mother of us all," both Jews and Gentiles in Christ, consists of two classes; the one, based upon the prophets; and circumcision of flesh, which made them citizens of the polity founded on the twelve sons of Israel -- their faith in promises made and covenanted to the fathers, giving them citizenship in the Holy Square; one 12, therefore, is their symbol: the other class, without regard to flesh, are adopted into the Foursquare Polity, and partake of the square root 12 with those under the law; and are also based upon another 12, the apostles of the Lamb, with whom the believers before Christ came as yet had no acquaintance. Hence, to represent these two classes united in one and the same square, the square root is doubled in the elders, and the gates and their angels; and in Chronicles both the root and its square, where the numbers are 24 and 288, the last being a double 144. The 24 has been transferred to the apocalypse, where the 288 has been halved, 12 being the square root of neither 24 nor 288.

 

 

 


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