What can we do to avoid the wrath that is yet to come upon this world? When will it happen? The answer to the second question will become apparent shortly, but first we will address the first: what can we do to avoid it?
We saw that Paul gives the answer to this last question in his address to the Thessalonians: it is Jesus who “delivers us” from the “wrath to come.” We can avoid “the wrath to come” only through Jesus. But how exactly does Jesus deliver us from the “wrath to come”?
The first thing we need to ask as we answer this question is this: what is the reason for “the wrath of God” in the first place? Why does God let go of us? What did Paul write in Romans chapter one?
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things (Romans 1:18-23, emphasis added).
God lets go—“the wrath of God is revealed from heaven”—because we exchange Him, the “living and true God,” for Satan. We have exchanged His glory—His character—for the character of Satan, which is in us already since Adam’s transgression of eating from Satan’s Tree. As a result of thinking that God looks like us or the gods that teach us Satan’s ways, we become solidified in their ways, which many seem to believe is godliness and righteousness, but which are really ungodliness and unrighteousness. It is that simple.
If we choose to worship the devil rather than God, then God, who has been protecting us from the Devil all along, is forced to hand us over to him. God has to play fair; He has to honor our choices, and He has to honor Satan’s government, because that is how God operates. He has respected Satan’s rule over this earth all along, and He will continue to do so unless we finally see the truth and choose Him again as our ruler.
Many today are still worshipping a god that looks more like the devil than the “living and true God.” Yet most are doing this unknowingly. But the knowledge of God will increase to the point that all will know, so that all may make an informed decision. The prophet Hosea spoke how important it is to know the true God:
Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land:
“There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint [THE RESTRAINT IS GOD’S HOLDING THE DESTROYER BACK, IT IS GOD’S PROTECTION AGAINST SATAN’S DESTRUCTIVENESS], with bloodshed upon bloodshed. Therefore the land will mourn; and everyone who dwells there will waste away With the beasts of the field And the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea will be taken away.
“Now let no man contend, or rebuke another; for your people are like those who contend with the priest. Therefore you shall stumble in the day; the prophet also shall stumble with you in the night; and I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children (Hosea 4:1-6, emphasis added).
So what is God’s last solution to the problem of not knowing Him as we approach the end of this age? How is the knowledge of God going to be given in the last days?
In the past, God spoke through the fathers and the prophets, but in these last days He sent His own Son to deliver the message that needed to be heard. His solution today is to send yet another messenger—another message—to reveal His character yet once more. His solution is to give us one more chance to choose which God we want to serve, and therefore, which jurisdiction we want to belong to. How then does God reveal His character one more time?
God has already fully revealed His character through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the “express image” of the Father. If we see Jesus, we see the Father. Jesus did nothing that His Father wouldn’t do. And Jesus did everything that His Father would do. Everything Jesus did and said was in harmony and in line with the “living and true God,” because Jesus is the “living and true God.” In His last prayer, Jesus revealed the reason and the work He came to do down here on earth:
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do (John 17:3-4, emphasis added).
Jesus came to give us a knowledge of the only true God. This was the work God gave Him to do.
I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world (John 17:6, emphasis added).
The Greek word for “manifest,” phaneroo, means to “render apparent (literally or figuratively): appear, manifestly declare, (make) manifest (forth), shew (self).” Jesus came to “render apparent,” “declare,” “show” who the Father is. Later in the same chapter Jesus says:
For I have given to them the words which You have given Me (John 17:8)
I have given them Your word (John 17:14)
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth (John 17:17).
O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name [CHARACTER], and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:25-26).
The Psalmist used similar language when talking about Jesus:
I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You (Psalm 22:22).
And in the Book of Hebrews, Paul quotes the same Psalm:
“I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.”
And again:
“I will put My trust in Him.”
And again:
“Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.”
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Hebrews 2:12-15, emphasis added).
Jesus came to nullify Satan’s power over death, which is imposed on us through his lies about God. Through Jesus’ death, through the message of the cross, the message of God’s unconditional agape love for us, Jesus releases us “who through fear of death” are subject all our “lifetime to bondage” to Satan and his death jurisdiction.
If Jesus is the answer, if He is the one who will save us from “the wrath to come,” then how do we get to know Him now, today? God sent Jesus to declare to us His character of love two thousand years ago, but what is He doing for us right now? How is He going to save us from wrath right now?
God is giving us Jesus Christ all over again. How so? We get to know Jesus through a special work He is doing for the human race right now, as we speak. Jesus is at this very moment doing a very unique work. At this very time in the history of the world, Jesus is acting as High Priest by giving the world the “everlasting gospel.”
The “everlasting gospel” is God’s last message of mercy to the world about His true, merciful character of agape love. In this message there is mercy, love, forgiveness and hope. The “everlasting gospel” is God’s last attempt to save us from exchanging His character for Satan’s character—a terrible mistake which would place us in Satan’s jurisdiction, and thus leave us unprotected from the violence built into his kingdom. Here is the last message that can save us from the upcoming “wrath of God:”
Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people—saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water” (Revelation 14:6-7).
What is the “everlasting gospel”? We know that the word “gospel”—euaggelion—means “good news.” What then is the everlasting, or eternal good news? The “everlasting good news” is the good news about someone who is everlasting or eternal. Who is eternal? Only God is eternal. Therefore, the “everlasting gospel” is the eternal good news about the eternal God.
To us this is “news,” because we have been lied to about God. We had thought that God was Good and Evil, that He had a mixed, schizoid character of love and anger, which is bad news. But Jesus came to give us the message that God is only “light” and that there is absolutely “no darkness” in Him—and this is indeed extremely good news.
So we are going to share with you what Jesus is doing right now in order to propagate the eternal good news about His Father. We read about it in Revelation chapter fourteen:
Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth. These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God (Revelation 14:1-6).
Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)” (who takes away our wrong conception of God) is standing on Mount Zion, which is a symbol of His government of agape love. He has with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand human beings. We know the first question many will ask: “is this a literal or symbolic number?” But we are not going to take a stand on this one way or another. Rather, we invite readers to come to their own conclusions.
What we can indeed say about this group of people is this: they believe in the God whom Jesus revealed because they have “His Father’s name written on their foreheads.” They don’t believe in the character of that other father, whom Jesus talked about to those who were seeking to kill Him:
You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it (John 8: 44, emphasis added).
The hundred and forty-four thousand do not have the murderous principle of Good and Evil in their hearts. We may think, “Well, I’m safe because I have never killed anyone.” But we cannot afford to forget how Jesus took this principle to the extreme when He said that even being angry at someone can catapult us into Satan’s domain—it can cause us to be “in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5:22).
The hundred and forty-four thousand have accepted Jesus’ witness, His testimony about the true character of the “living and true God.” They believe in a God who looks completely and entirely like Jesus—if you see the One, you see the Other.
Earlier in Revelation chapter seven, John told us more about this group called the one hundred and forty-four thousand. Here is what he says about them:
After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed (Revelation 7:1-4).
Here we learn that the one hundred and forty-four thousand come into view just before the trumpets and the final “wrath of God”—the “wrath to come” of which Paul spoke in first Thessalonians. This is the time they appear on the scene because they come into play just before God lets go of “the four winds”:
Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads (Revelation 7:3).
The Greek word for “seal” here is the word sphragizō, which means “to stamp (with a signet or private mark) for security or preservation (literally or figuratively); by implication to keep secret, to attest: (set a, set to) seal up, stop” (Strong’s Concordance).
What is God doing by sealing, or stamping the hundred and forty-four thousand? Isn’t He putting His seal on them, branding them, to mark them as His own? Isn’t this the same seal that He told the Israelites to put on their door posts, so that when the Destroyer came through, he could not touch them? Wasn’t the seal back then the blood of the Lamb? And wasn’t that blood symbolic of Jesus’ revelation of God’s immense love for the human race, which took Him to the cross? By putting His seal—the seal of “the living God”—on the hundred and forty-four thousand and those who hear and accept their message, God is claiming them as part of His own jurisdiction of life. There, Satan, the king of the jurisdiction of death, cannot harm or come near them.
Thus, God sends a messenger “from the east” to inform the four angels that are holding back the “winds” of destruction—four angels from each corner of the earth, representing a worldwide destruction that is about to be unleashed upon the earth—to wait until he has “sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.” The “forehead” points to their thinking, to their understanding of God’s character. It represents that metanoia we talked about, that paradigm shift about God’s character, that being born again which Jesus spoke about to Nicodemus.
The winds represent destruction, because once they are let go, they will “harm the earth, the sea, or the trees.” Who are the angels that are holding back the winds of destruction? They are messengers who, all around the world, are giving the eternal gospel, the everlasting good news, which is a message about the “living and true God.” Their message is what holds back the satanic forces of evil from completely destroying the earth.
The one hundred and forty-four thousand are “sealed” with the “seal of the living God.” They are sealed with the knowledge that God is a God of life, not of death. They are “servants” of God, which means that they are willing to give their own lives for the cause of clearing up God’s reputation, just as Jesus, the “righteous Servant” of God, gave His life and bore our iniquities for the same cause:
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities (Isaiah 53:11).
Something else we know about the hundred and forty-four thousand is that they are “redeemed from the earth.” What does it mean that they are “redeemed from the earth?” The word “redeemed” in Greek is agorazō, which means “to buy,” “to purchase.”
The human race was taken captive by Satan the moment Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Back then, Satan taught us his Good and Evil system of law—the moral law of reward and punishment. He also taught us to believe that God operates by this same reward and punishment moral law. But Jesus revealed to us a God of agape love, who operates by another principle, the principle of unconditional agape love. Thus, through His teachings, His life and His death, Jesus removed Satan’s lies from our minds. He gave us the truth about the God who does not condemn through the reward and punishment moral law, but who freely justifies us and forgives all our sins. This is what the Bible is telling us in the following verses:
He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14, emphasis added).
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31, emphasis added).
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (Ephesians 1:7, emphasis added).
Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12, emphasis added).
The redemption we have in Jesus is the “forgiveness of sins.” But Jesus does not save us in Satan’s jurisdiction. His revelation of God removes us out of Satan’s jurisdiction altogether. The word “conveyed” is the Greek word methistēmi methistano, which means:
to transfer, that is, carry away, depose or (figuratively) exchange, seduce: put out, remove, translate, turn away (Strong’s Concordance).
If we believe in Jesus’ revelation of God and His kingdom, then we are transferred from Satan’s jurisdiction to God’s jurisdiction. Some translations use the word “translated” instead of “conveyed.” We are removed from the kingdom of condemnation and carried to the kingdom of grace, where we are freely given “forgiveness of sins.” We are now living by the laws of another kingdom altogether, laws which are based on grace, the new covenant:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:23-24, emphasis added).
And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:15, emphasis added).
Jesus gave Himself as a ransom to Satan, the one who had taken us captive, so that we could be redeemed from Satan’s kingdom of darkness:
For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of one stronger than he (Jeremiah 31:11, emphasis added).
Satan is the “one stronger than” Jacob, stronger than the human race. But Jesus ransomed us from his system of lies of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which brought death into our world. Notice the passion in God’s voice as He speaks about how He will save us:
I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction! Pity is hidden from My eyes” (Hosea 13:14, emphasis added).
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45, emphasis added).
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time (1 Timothy 2:5-6, emphasis added).
Did you notice how in Mark chapter ten, Jesus said that He gave “His life a ransom for many” but when writing to Timothy, Paul said that He “gave Himself a ransom for all”? This means that Jesus’ grace, justification, mercy, love, and forgiveness is for the entire human race. We have all been ransomed by Jesus, and we all need to know this!
The word “ransom” implies that we were taken captive by someone, and Jesus paid a price to get us back. This is what the word lútron—ransom—means:
to loose. Ransom or price paid for redeeming captives, loosing them from their bonds and setting them at liberty. In Mat 20:28 and Mar 10:45, it applies spiritually to the ransom paid by Christ for the delivering of men from the bondage of sin and death (The Complete Word Study Dictionary).
So when we are told that the one hundred and forty-four thousands are ransomed from the earth, this means that Jesus’ work of redemption has been fully fulfilled in their lives. It means they have fully accepted His justification, His unconditional forgiveness, His unmerited grace, His love, His revelation of God’s pure character of agape love—in other words, they have accepted God’s law of grace. Thus, they have been redeemed fully from Satan’s jurisdiction of reward and punishment and from the mindset it creates in us, that causes us to look at God through fear.
The prophet Isaiah describes this sealing process—a complete settling into the truths that Jesus taught—which is taking place right now:
For the Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying:
“Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’
Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy,
Nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.
The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow;
Let Him be your fear,
And let Him be your dread.
He will be as a sanctuary,
But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense
To both the houses of Israel,
As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And many among them shall stumble;
They shall fall and be broken, Be snared and taken.”
Bind up the testimony,
Seal the law among my disciples.
And I will wait on the Lord,
Who hides His face from the house of Jacob;
And I will hope in Him.
Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me!
We are for signs and wonders in Israel From the Lord of hosts,
Who dwells in Mount Zion (Isaiah 8:11-18).
Those who have turned from the false god to the living God are “the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins.” This group of people have not been defiled with the lies that many religions or churches—“women”—teach about God: that He is violent, vindictive, punishing. They are “virgins” because they have the knowledge of a pure God, a God who is only agape love. They are pure, set apart from the contaminated knowledge of God which abounds in the world.
They also “follow the Lamb wherever He goes.” They “follow” Jesus, as a lamb follows a good shepherd. They are not forced to follow Him. They don’t follow Him with the motivations of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: out of a selfish desire to be saved—reward—or out of fear of being lost—punishment.
Rather, they follow Him by the motivation of the Tree of Life: out of their own free will, out of a deep love for Him, because they have known the love that He has for them. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). They have an appreciation and admiration for this new God they have come to know and love.
To the one hundred and forty-four thousand, Jesus has become a much beloved leader and teacher, and as a result, they no longer allow Satan to teach them lies about God. They believe whatever Jesus teaches them, and they follow His example of agape love, which He gave throughout His life. They love Jesus so much that they even do “not love their lives to the death” (Revelation 12:11). They would willingly give their lives for Jesus and His cause of revealing God’s agape love, this knowledge that means salvation for each one of us.
It is interesting that the hundred and forty-four thousand were not only redeemed from the “earth,” from all that is earthly and satanic, but they are also “redeemed from among men.” This means that they are different from the rest of all the world at this time, who according to Revelation thirteen are following the beast:
And all the world marveled and followed the beast (Revelation 13:3, emphasis added).
But the one hundred and forty-four thousand are not an elitist group. They remain separate from the world because they have caught a glimpse of the war between God and Satan, and they see that in order to save even more people, God needs them to fully consecrate themselves to the cause of His kingdom. Thus, they are “firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.” This means that they are the first of many more to come. They are “the first installment, or pledge, of the great harvest” (Seventh-day Adventist Commentary, Vol. 7). The “great harvest” is that great multitude spoken of in the Book of Revelation:
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands (Revelation 7:9).
After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God (Revelation 19:1)!
And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns (Revelation 19:6)!
The one hundred and forty-four thousand are also “those who are victors in the great conflict with the beast and his image” (Seventh-day Adventist Commentary, Vol. 7). Their victory over the beast, who is the principal agent of Satan in the last days, is a victory on behalf of all humanity. They stand strong against the world’s influence and pressure to join them in their delusions. If need be, they will even give up their own lives for this cause.
Like Daniel’s three friends, the one hundred and forty-four thousand say to the beast from the earth—the beast who tells “those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived” (Revelation 13:14), and who is threatening that no one can “buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name (Revelation 13:17):
O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up” (Daniel 3:16-18).
The one hundred and forty-four thousand will stand strong for God against the world not because they are motivated by pride or insanity. Instead, they are motivated by agape love for the very people who are pressuring them to conform to their violent ways, who are using violence to make them join their ranks. Their victory will mean redemption for many—for they are the firstfruits of the great harvest of the earth.
Finally, we are told about them, that “in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.” What is this “deceit,” this “guile” about? This deceit is referring to all the deceptions of the serpent, who was the most cunning of all God’s creatures (Genesis 3:1), “that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9).
There are no more lies about God’s character in the mouth of this group of people. They no longer believe Satan’s lie that God is an accuser, a harsh judge, a vindictive ruler, a destroyer of sinners. They now understand and believe that God justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5), which is the condition of the entire human race (Romans 3:9-18). Thus, they now know that all are freely pardoned, freely justified and beloved of God.
Although they are fallen human beings, the one hundred and forty-four thousand know that in God’s estimate, in His eyes of agape love, they are completely without fault. They know that their salvation is not based on their own goodness, which in the Bible is compared to menstrual rags:
But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags [MENSTRUAL RAGS]; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away (Isaiah 64:6).
The one hundred and forty-four thousand know that their salvation is based on the love of God shown on the cross by the God who “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16) as a ransom to redeem us from the lies of Satan, the Destroyer, and his band of destroying angels.
Thus, as they no longer speak lies about God, the one hundred and forty-four thousand are then prepared to proclaim the “everlasting gospel” about the eternal God. Their message, their good news about the agape-love-character of the eternal God is proclaimed through the heavens:
Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people—saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water” (Revelation 14:6-7).
The message of the hundred and forty-four thousand rings out with incredible speed, authority, and power—it flies “in the midst of heaven.” They “preach,”—euaggelizō—which means “to proclaim good tidings.” And the “good tidings” they proclaim reaches all “who dwell on the earth”—“every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.” These messengers say “with a loud voice,” that is, with authority and power:
Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water (Revelation 14:7).
The one hundred and forty-four thousand tell the world that in worshipping a god of violence they are in effect worshipping an idol, a false god, the god of this world. They point them to the true God, to the One who is a Creator, not a Destroyer: “Fear God and give glory to Him!” “Stop worshipping Satan the Destroyer god and worship instead the true God, the Creator!”
They beckon the human race to worship the God “who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.” Who is this God “who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water”? Speaking of Jesus Christ, Paul wrote to the Colossians:
He [JESUS CHRIST] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist (Colossians 1:15-17).
The message of the one hundred and forty-four thousand points us right back to Jesus, the One who created all things. Do we want to see God as He truly is? If so, then there is no way out of it—we must look to Jesus!
Just as the double portion of manna—which was a type of Jesus— was poured out in the desert on the sixth day, Jesus is now, at the very end of the sixth prophetic day—in the sixth millennium—also pouring out a double portion of light regarding Himself—the antitype of the manna—because He is the express image of the true God, the “true manna,” “the bread of life.”
Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst (John 6:26-35, emphasis added).
Jesus is “the true bread from heaven,” because He is the One who gives us the truth about the Father’s character. “Moses did not give” the “bread from heaven,” because Moses was “earthly,” he had an earthly view of God’s character. Jesus was “from above,” therefore He has much more authority than Moses. Notice what John said in this regard:
He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:31-36, emphasis added).
Jesus, then, is our double portion of manna that comes straight from heaven, from the Father, to us living right now at the end of six thousand years of sin. And He will continue to do this special work of pouring down the truth, which we could call a work of intercession, until every living person on this earth makes his or her decision for or against God. This decision-making process is being made by us. Who do we appoint as our king, God or Satan? Which moral law do we choose, agape love or the moral law of Good and Evil? Under whose jurisdiction do we want to be?
The special work Jesus is doing at this time is the work of the High Priest. In Moses’ sanctuary, which is a type for us to understand the plan of salvation, the High Priest went into the Most Holy Place once a year to cleanse it of all the sins of the people. We have previously talked about sins and the sin. Sins are all those transgressions we commit daily, like lying, stealing, etc. The sin, however, is “missing the mark” about who God is. The sin is mistaking Satan for God, which is what happened when Adam and Eve ate of the serpent’s tree. The sin is what Paul explained in Romans chapter one, the chapter on “the wrath of God”:
Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen (Romans 1:22-25, emphasis added).
The sin, the lies about God, is the root cause of all our sins. We commit sins because we first commit the sin. Only Jesus can take the sin away from us, because He is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” (John 1:29, emphasis added). Only Jesus, the pure, white, non-violent Lamb can take away our wrong understanding—the missing the mark—that God is a violent God. This false view of God came into the world through Satan and his moral law of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
As we said, right now, Jesus is pouring upon us a double portion of the truth about God’s character—He is revealing the “eternal gospel” through His followers here on earth. He is doing this through what He Himself accomplished by His life, His teachings, and His death. Right now, He is teaching us everything we need to know about the true God. This is part of that “hour of His judgment has come,” spoken of in Revelation fourteen.
Once the “everlasting gospel” is given to every person on earth, then everyone will have the opportunity to make his or her final decision about who God really is. Our decisions will be expressed either through thought, word, or action.
The message of the one hundred and forty-four thousand is a sealing message. Those who accept and believe it will receive the “seal of the living God.” They will belong fully to His jurisdiction, and Satan’s destructive wrath will not be able to affect them. They are protected by God, and the winds that harm the earth and the sea will not come near them. Like the Passover in Egypt, they are covered by the blood of the Lamb, and the Destroying angel cannot enter their abode because he has no power in that jurisdiction.
When this happens, Jesus, our High Priest who has been in the Most Holy Place cleansing God’s character of all the lies which Satan has attributed to His character, will finish His work of cleansing our hearts and minds. Those who accepted Him are sealed and safe, and those that have remained in Satan’s jurisdiction will receive Satan’s seal—the mark of the beast.
Jesus’ work in the Most Holy Place, that compartment of the plan of salvation that contains the truth about the Most Holy God (the law and the mercy seat, the throne of mercy), has been to pour out a double portion of understanding of God’s Most Holy character based on His life and death here on earth. This is the latter rain. This revealed knowledge of God is what cleanses the sanctuary from the sin, that foundational sin of “missing the mark” about who God really is.
“Missing the mark” about God’s character is the darkness that has enveloped the earth for six thousand years due to the enemy’s lies about Him. When this sin is removed from us, all other sins follow suit. And then we are cleansed, because by “beholding” Him, by seeing His true character, “we are changed into the same glory”:
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Jesus’ intercession in the Most Holy Place means that He has been doing the same work the high priest in the earthly sanctuary did. A high priest offered sacrifices for sins. Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice for sin “once for all”:
Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12, emphasis added).
Jesus, our High Priest, entered the Most Holy Place—the place where God’s true character is revealed—with His own blood. His own sacrifice was the offering for our sin. With this sacrifice He revealed God and is now pouring out truth to us about Himself and the Father. He is sending us a double portion of Himself, the Bread of Life, on the sixth day of the week—the sixth millennium.
During this phase of the plan of salvation, this period of time of the ministry in the Most Holy Place, this antitypical Day of Atonement, Christ is interceding with us, pleading with us, beseeching us to choose Him who is the Word, the True Witness, “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14: 6).
If we reject Jesus’ testimony of who God is, then we are left with the only other alternative, which is Satan’s lies about who God is. Isaiah also describes what will happen to the group that rejects the true knowledge of God:
Bind up the testimony, Seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait on the Lord, who hides His face from the house of Jacob; and I will hope in Him. Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion.
And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness (Isaiah 8:16-22, emphasis added).
“To the law and to the testimony!” To the law of agape love, to the testimony of Jesus regarding the character of God. If they do not speak according to this word—according to God’s law of agape love and the True Witness’ testimony—then “there is no light in them!”
What will be the consequence of rejecting this final message? Look at verse twenty-one. They will be enraged at God, because when they look to all the destruction Satan is causing on the earth, they will think it is God who is doing it. Then they “curse their king and their God.” Like Job’s wife they will say, “Curse God and die!” Thus, they will be driven into utter and outer darkness—the darkness that is present outside of God’s kingdom of light. There, there will be gnashing of teeth:
And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’ (Matthew 25: 30, emphasis added).
Jesus’ words above are directed in particular to believers. They are “unprofitable servants”—they have been working for the Master. He makes this even clearer in the next verse:
But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12, emphasis added).
Satan’s portrayal of God is a false portrayal. The character he ascribes to God is actually his own character of Good and Evil. Those who worship this god of Babylon, will “drink the wine of the wrath” of Babylon’s “fornication” which we will discuss in the next chapter.