Your Answer:  Great Multitude

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New American Standard Version of the BibleAfter these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands... Revelation 7:9 (NAS)

Two ways to describe the same group?

Following Jesus' death on the cross, we are under the New Covenant of Christ.  There is no longer any distinction or wall of separation between Jewish and Gentile followers of Christ.  The followers of Christ (whether Jew or Gentile in the past) are now one body of Christ; one household of God.  For more information refer back to the scriptures on the subject of Spiritual Israel

If the reference in the Revelation to the "sons of Israel" represents both Jews and Gentiles who are "in Christ" (having been "clothed with Christ"), then the figurative amount for the sons of Israel in the first part of the chapter may be just another way of describing this great multitude in the second part of the chapter:

To illustrate this thought, we look at Psalm 50:10:

New American Standard Version of the Bible"For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. Psalm 50:10 (NAS)

In the second part of the verse it says that the cattle on a thousand hills belong to God (the figurative number 1000 is used to represent all).  The first part of the verse says that every beast of the forest belongs to God (a literal amount of "all").  If you read the entire Psalm 50, you'll see that the point is that everything belongs to God.  "The cattle on a thousand hills" is just another way of describing the same concept of  "Every beast of the forest."

Perhaps "the 144,000 of the sons of Israel" is just another way of describing the same group; the "great multitude which no one could count...clothed in white robes." 

John does not say that he sees the first group and then sees the second group.  Instead John says that he hears the number of those sealed...and then sees the great multitude.

Or, two different groups of the bond-servants of God and Christ?

What if the 144,000 and the great multitude are really two groups instead of just one?  In any event, it would appear that all bond-servants would receive the seal of God on their foreheads given the introduction to this chapter:

New American Standard Version of the Bible"Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads."

The Great Multitude described in greater detail:

John says that there was a great multitude, more than anyone could number, that were standing before the throne and the Lamb.  Who is this great multitude from every nation and all tribes and people and tongues (or languages)?

New American Standard Version of the Bible"And one of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and from where have they come?"  And I said to him, "My lord, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."  Revelation 7:13-14  (NAS)

What does it mean to "wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb?"  Click here for more information.

If you were a Christian and a descendant from one of the tribes of Israel...or if you were a Christian from any of the tribes, nations, peoples, etc. of the earth...and you were suffering great persecution...what effect would it have on you to know that the "ones who come out of the great tribulation...and have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb...these will stand before the throne and the Lamb?"

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