Expert: Elbert Spears - 1/25/2009

Question
QUESTION: Conservative estimates put the number of original Christians during the life the the first apostles at 500,000 to one million.  One can easily see from the numbers recorded in the book of Acts that thousands and thousands of believers are added to the Kingdom of Jehovah, and it mentions "multitudes" being added several times.  These people received the original un-perverted Gospel of Redemption through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  So if only 144,000 are going to be with Christ in Heaven how can you possibly say that anyone beyond those first Christians are included in the 144,000?  Scholars have said that upwards of 70 million Christians were martyred for their faith by four great purges that occured in the 4 centuries following Christ's death and resurection.  Surely of those 70 million believers 144,000 would have qualified for the chosen class.

Sincerely, Doug

ANSWER: Because our first parents rejected God’s law when they disobeyed his command not to eat of the tree, They basically set up their own form of rule or government .at that time this  human government came under the control of Satan. That is why the Bible calls Satan “the god of this system of things.” (2 Corinthians 4:4) The wars, the cruelties, the corruption, and the instability of man’s governments prove that he is certainly not capable of ruling himself  even though he-- Mankind--- keeps trying to  form a government of peace.SO it is without any doubt  that the Creator, who purposes to restore Paradise to this earth, will also provide a perfect government for that Paradise? ("The Main theme of the bible is The kingdom of God") And that That Kingdom is exactly what Jehovah has purposed to establish. The King representing Him in this government is his “Prince of Peace,” Christ Jesus,-- and “to the abundance of the princely rule and to peace there will be no end."---- SAYS—Isaiah 9:6, 7.
The Bible shows that this perfect government will be in heaven. From this vantage point, the King Jesus Christ will effectively rule all the earth in righteousness.This government of which Jesus is the king will , he will have associate rulers , These are chosen from among faithful humans, followers of Jesus who stuck with him through trials and to whom he says: “I make a covenant with you, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom.” (Luke 22:28, 29) It is only a few from humankind who are taken to heaven to rule with Christ Jesus. It is similar to the nations today, where only a few are chosen to rule. After all  ,If everyone was ruling there would be no need for a king to rule ! The Bible shows that Jesus Christ will have just 144,000 associate rulers. So God’s Kingdom, or heavenly government, consists of Christ Jesus and 144,000 people taken from earth to heaven. (Revelation 14:1-4; 5:9, 10) And what about the earth? Psalm 45:16 mentions that the King will appoint “princes in all the earth.” Human “princes,” or governmental overseers, will be appointed from heaven because of their deep devotion to principles of righteousness.—Compare Isaiah 32:1 ---- The heavenly righteous Kingdom--- Jehovahs Kingdom -- Will rule over the Earth -- And when all things have been accomplished . Jesus will completely return the Kingdom to his father , as was Jehovahs original purpose!!

Hope i have explained sufficiently .
Please contact me anytime
Highest regards --- Elbert


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: You didn't answer my question at all.  Where is your Biblical basis for saying that the majority of the 144,000 were chosen after 1874?  I argue that if there are only 144,000 to rule with Christ then they were from the original believers in the first century.


Answer

Based on scripture ---- The gathering of the 144,000 was spread over a lot of years --.beginning at Pentecost 33 C.E. when the first Jewish Christians were anointed with holy spirit and continuing down to modern times --it seems evident--- acording to scripture that the heavenly calling in general was completed by about the year 1935 C.E. So I cant see how we could associate any specific time period when the majority of the 144000 were called .
If you are thinking the nation of Israel should be the main consideration here you need to realize that they were in fact offered the oppertunity. as shown in the following paragraphs :
Here is the order in which the invitations are sent ----- First he gave this wonderful oppertunity to the Israelites, the natural seed of Abraham,-- Which can be expected -- and this is what the Bible shows he did. He said to them at Mount Sinai: “You will become to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” This referred to the future kingdom of heaven, in which Christ Jesus would be a “priest upon his throne” and in which the 144,000 members of his body, his “bride,” would reign as priests and kings with him. The descendants of the Jewish nation were therefore invited ones and now received the call through the Son of God, who invited them to the wedding feast. The first call thus went out in the year 29 (A.D.). His disciples co-operated in this work according to Jesus’ instructions: “Go continually to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” For three years and a half, till Nisan 14 of 33 (A.D.), the call was to go exclusively to the nation of Israel.—Matt. 10:6, 7.
How was the invitation received? The parable says: “They were unwilling to come.” The rich young ruler who “went away grieved, for he was holding many possessions,” well represents the general negative attitude of the nation; and the religious leaders manifested themselves as bitter enemies of the Son of God and sought to kill him. Therefore we can understand Jesus’ scathing denunciation which was recorded in Matthew, chapter 23, and which he concluded with the words: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent forth to her,—how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks together under her wings! But you people did not want it. Look! your house is abandoned to you.” Two days later the first call ceased when Jesus finished his earthly ministry and life.—Matt. 22:3; 19:21, 22; John 6:50, 66; Luke 17:20, 21; Matt. 23:37, 38.------ Some days after Jesus’ resurrection he manifested himself to above five hundred disciples in a mountain in Galilee; and even some of these doubted it was he. And in the days just before Pentecost 120 met in an upper room in Jerusalem. Aside from this very small number the Jewish nation had refused to accept the first call.—1 Cor. 15:6; Matt. 28:16, 17; Acts 1:13-1 ----Second call “Again he sent forth other slaves, saying: ‘Tell those invited, “Look! I have prepared my dinner, my bulls and fattened animals are slaughtered, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’” This second call went out again to “those invited,” to the Jewish nation, now especially to the common people of that nation. Jehovah’s favor to the Israelites was to last another three and a half years. So they still had the opportunity of furnishing the full number of 144,000.—Matt. 22:4.--This second invitation began to be addressed to the Israelites at Pentecost A.D. 33, when Peter spoke to the multitude in Jerusalem, to the Israelites and their proselytes assembled there from Palestine and from some fifteen other countries, saying: “‘For the promise is to you and to your children and to all those afar off, just as many as Jehovah our God may call to him.’ Therefore those who embraced his word heartily were baptized, and on that day about three thousand souls were added.”—Acts 2:39, 41.
As to those who did not respond to the invitation as conveyed by the original Christian congregation, the parable says: “Unconcerned they went off, one to that field of his, another to his commercial business; but the rest, laying hold of his slaves, treated them insolently and killed them.” Paul says of these: “The rest had their sensibilities blunted.” The overwhelming majority of the nation did not show any more willingness to accept the second call than the first; but they remained indifferent and attended to their worldly business. Others, filled with hatred against the Messiah and his followers, persecuted these, arresting, beating and even killing them. So they turned down the offer to become that “kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.”—Matt. 22:5, 6; Rom. 11:5, 7; Acts 7:1-60; 8:1; 9:1, 2; Ex. 19:6.
What would the King, Jehovah, now do about it? “The king grew enraged, and sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” In 70 (A.D.) the armies of Rome under Titus came and destroyed the “city,” the Jewish nation, 1,100,000 Israelites losing their lives and the rest being “led captive into all the nations.”—Matt. 22:7; Luke 21:24.
Jehovah now sent out a third call by instructing his slaves to leave the borders of the “city,” to go out onto the roads of the nations and to invite all kinds of people to the wedding feast. The first one so commissioned was Peter when, A.D. 36, he was sent to the home of Cornelius, an Italian officer, in Caesarea. There he used the second one of the “keys of the kingdom” in preaching the gospel to that Gentile and to his household. Peter’s witness was followed immediately by the outpouring of holy spirit upon those “people of the nations,” and the apostle perceived “that God is not partial, but in every nation the man that fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.” Now “God for the first time turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his name” and thus the mystery as to membership in the bride of Christ
The question now arose as to who would keep his place in Jehovah’s organization from and after 1918, for there began now a severe testing and sifting as to the truth and the service of Jehovah and as to enduring trials and persecutions down to the end. The parable shows what was necessary in order to hold one’s place. “When the king came in to inspect the guests he caught sight there of a man not clothed with a wedding garment. So he said to him: ‘Fellow, how did you get in here not having on a wedding garment?’ He was rendered speechless. Then the king said to his servants: ‘Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the darkness outside. There is where his weeping and the gnashing of his teeth will be.’”—Matt. 22:11-13.
The criterion applied by the King was, not whether one was “good” or “bad” at the time the slaves found him on the roads, but whether one was wearing the “wedding garment.” What is this garment? We find the answer in the following words: “The marriage of the Lamb has arrived and his wife has prepared herself. Yes, it has been granted to her to be arrayed in bright, clean, fine linen, for the fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the holy ones.” The “righteous acts of the holy ones” being the Christian ministry entrusted to all the spirit-begotten children of God, the wedding garment represents the Kingdom service on earth, and to put it on therefore means a course of obedience toward the King and his Son. On the contrary, a failure to wear the wedding garment means a refusal to publish the Kingdom and to bear the reproaches that are heaped upon the King’s slaves.—Rev. 19:7, 8.
The “man not clothed with the wedding garment” actually represents a class of people who were made manifest after Jehovah accompanied by Christ Jesus came to the temple for judgment A.D. 1918. The present time, since that year, is when the marriage of Jehovah’s Son is being consummated by resurrecting all the spirit-begotten saints who died faithful before 1918 or have since died and uniting them in never-ending wedlock with the heavenly Bridegroom. But looking at the dedicated ones yet on earth who were espoused to him and who were in the room for the wedding ceremonies because God’s kingdom had come, Jehovah the King found a class not wearing the wedding garment, a class that refused to don such garment by refusing to share in public service. Beginning in 1919, Jehovah had opened up to all of the dedicated ones the door into Kingdom service, offering them privileges greater than at any time before. The class that spurned such privileges was none other than the “evil slave,” whose appearance at the end of the world Jesus foretold. Of course, such insubordination to the King Jehovah and the Bridegroom Jesus Christ disqualified them as members of the “bride”; and so the King ordered his attendants, the angels, to throw them out into the darkness of Satan’s world. There destruction awaits both them and the whole of unfaithful Christendom when the great King, in the approaching battle of Armageddon, will send his heavenly armies under Christ Jesus to destroy the whole “city,” the modern counterpart of Jerusalem.—Matt. 24:48-51.
When Jesus, as a conclusion to his parable, warningly says: “For there are many invited, but few chosen,” this shows that many more have been called than 144,000, the number finally united with Christ Jesus in heaven. If any of the remnant now in attendance at the room for the wedding ceremonies fall out for failure to keep on the wedding garment, others will be brought in by the King to take their places. Seeing that we are now in the closing years of this present system of things, that process may be about completed.

Regards , Elbert