What Happens to the 144,000 Jews in the Tribulation?

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Good afternoon, and glad to have everybody here in the studio, and again, for those of you watching on television, we'd like to invite you to sit down with us and have your Bible ready and open it to these various Scripture references. We love to just compare Scripture with Scripture. For those of you who have not been listening very long, we're an informal Bible study. We're not associated with any particular group. No one underwrites us. We depend completely upon the gifts of God's people to stay on the air. And again, we want to remind you, all of these programs are available on videotape all the way back from Genesis 1 up to the present, and for those of you who are interested in the last tape, tape number 11 is now available, and book number 3 is just about ready to come off the printers. So we hope that within the next week or two, we'll be able to be sending them out to you. All right, now let's get right back into the book after all these 30 minutes go so fast. And we want you to turn today to Revelation chapter 7 for just a little quick review from where we left off in our last program, where, as you remember, the book of Revelation is dealing primarily with those final seven years leading up to, of course, the return of Christ and the setting up of His kingdom here on earth. But in this seven-year period, it is primarily—now, I always have to emphasize certain words. I want to make sure that I'm not misunderstood. It is not exclusively for the Jew, but it is primarily God dealing with the nation of Israel. Now, we won't look at it right now, but at some future time through the program or in the next few programs, we'll go back to Jeremiah chapter 30, where God's Word explicitly says that it is the time of Jacob's trouble. It's God dealing with, again, His covenant people, and for this reason, of course, we see them coming back to their homeland. Everything is being set for the culmination of these final seven years. Then, as we've been teaching now in the last several programs out of the book of Revelation, I always like to emphasize that the book just doesn't unfold chronologically. You have to learn how to just sort of skip around and find the events that take place in the opening, and then find the events that take place at the midpoint, and then find the events that take place at the end of it, and then you can kind of fill in the two gaps. So for the last several weeks now, we've been looking at the things at the beginning, the appearance of the Antichrist out of Daniel, of course, chapter 9, when he will sign that seven-year treaty with the nation of Israel, which will, again, kick God's time clock back in gear, which has been stopped, now remember, all during the church age. And then when this seven-year period kicks in gear, the Antichrist signs that treaty with Israel, a whole bunch of things take place. Number one we pointed out was the appearance of those two witnesses, who I refuse to name specifically, some think it could be Moses and Elijah, some think it could be Elijah and Enoch, but I prefer to just simply leave it as two men of God's own choosing who will come to the nation of Israel, especially the environs of Jerusalem, and they will begin proclaiming God's word to the nation of Israel, and I think out of the ministry then of those two witnesses, God is going to seal and commission 144,000 young Jewish men, whom God will use to circumvent the globe. And they're not going to be taking the gospel of grace as we know it, but rather they're going to be reverting back again to the gospel of the kingdom as it was being proclaimed during the time of Christ and Peter and the 11. Now a lot of folk can't comprehend that there is a difference between the gospel of the kingdom and the gospel of the grace of God, but there is a vast difference, and when you understand that, the Bible just loses a lot of its confusion. But anyway, these 144,000 young Jews will be going around the globe with the gospel of the kingdom. The age of grace has ended, the church is gone, there is no longer an invitation to join a local congregation, but rather with these final seven years coming on the scene, they will tell the world that the king is coming. And after all, that was the message in Christ's earthly ministry, and he himself referred to it more than once as the gospel of the kingdom. The king and his kingdom were about to come on the scene, and of course Israel rejected that, and the king was crucified, God raised him from the dead, called him back to glory, you might say, to sit at the father's right hand until his enemies should be made his footstool, and of course that until signifies the time then when he will return once again to deal with his nation, his covenant people of Israel. So we closed our last program with the sealing of these 144,000 Jews, 12,000 out of each one of the 12 tribes listed here, and I goofed if you remember, I failed to say that it was Dan and instead I said it was Gad, but it's the tribe of Dan and Ephraim who are left out simply because they were the first to go into idolatry back in their origins, back when the tribes were still under Joshua. So I'd like to have you look at these verses a moment again in Revelation chapter 7, where verse 9, after they've been sealed, John says, after this I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all nations. Now that indicates that these 144,000 will not limit their ministry to the nation of Israel, but rather they're going to circumvent the globe, and it goes on to describe in that verse then, of all nations, kindreds and people and tongues. I tried to find the word the other night and I threw it out to my class and I said there's a word up here in my mind and I just can't pull it out for some reason, and I think I found it this morning just driving up. You know, I've said before, my wife must wonder why I'm quiet, but I'm thinking, and I think that word came. I've been trying to use it for the last two nights of my classes, and I like to use the setting. Many times we've seen a, like a pro football player, maybe their star, or a pro basketball player, or even in the college ranks, at just a crucial minute they drop the ball, as we say, and they just simply goof it. But later on in the game, we call it now, and here's the word I was looking for, what do we say they do if all of a sudden they make a fantastic play and they win the ball game? Well, they redeem themselves. Isn't that the word we use? They sort of redeem themselves from being the goat to all of a sudden being the hero. I think that's the word I was looking for, because you see, as I've emphasized all the way up through the Old Testament, the reason God set aside the nation of Israel was, of course, to fulfill the promise of Genesis 3.15, that the seed of the woman would come to be the Redeemer of mankind. But in order to bring that to a fulfillment, of course, He set aside the nation of Israel, promised Abraham that through that nation of people, through those covenant people, would come this Redeemer, the Messiah. And so God begins to prepare the nation of Israel for the role of being the missionaries, the evangelists, whatever you want to do. Exodus 19 says, and I will make of you a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. Put them under law, I maintain, to prepare them for that tremendous role, which would be theirs to carry out. But when the opportunity came, and they could have had the king and the kingdom, they could have brought all the nations of the world to a knowledge of their God, they dropped the ball. As Dorothy always liked to say, they blew it. Well, what happened? In their unbelief, they rejected the king and the kingdom. They in turn were dispersed out into the world. They lost their temple. They lost their worship. And God turned to the Gentiles without using the nation of Israel. Now, using that same analogy then, in order to just get a sweet taste of some sort of a redeeming of themselves, I think God is going to let these 144,000 Jews at least get a taste of what the nation as a whole missed. And so they are going to literally, as I've said before, circumvent the globe. They're going to go to every tongue and tribe and nation, and they're going to see a multitude come to a knowledge of salvation through their ministry. All right, now if you would get that picture, these 144,000 ministering to all the Gentile nations, not Israel per se, but to the Gentiles. And continuing on in verse 9, those people now stand before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cry the loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, who is set upon the throne and unto the Lamb. In other words, they're going to be martyred almost as fast as they're converted throughout the tribulation. And then you see down to verse 13 and 14, and after John sees this multitude of converted people, and one of the elders answered, verse 13, saying unto me of Revelation 7, and one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What or who are these who are arrayed in white robes, and whence or where did they come from? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they who came out of, and I like to put in the article if I may, the great tribulation. These are they who came out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Now then, let's go back to 2 Thessalonians, because immediately I think the thought should come to any student of Scripture, well, if they've missed being saved or converted during this age of grace, you mean there's going to be a second chance? No, there's not going to be a second chance, and here's why I think Paul now then by the Holy Spirit in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 identifies who will not be recipients of the message of the 144,000. Now Paul, of course, is not associated with prophecy per se. He's associated with the doctrines of grace, with the mysteries, but nevertheless he connects the end of the church age with the tribulation age by a description of what will take place as the Antichrist comes on the scene here in chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians. And let's come down for sake of time to verse 7. Up in verse 3, 4, and 5 he's calling attention to the coming of the son of perdition, or the man of sin, the Antichrist. Now in verse 7 he says, For the mystery of iniquity doth already work. And of course that goes all the way back to the Tower of Babel, remember. Only he who now hindereth will hinder until he be taken out of the way. And I always have taught that I feel that's the Holy Spirit who is the hindering force in the person of the believer until he's taken out of the way, which of course would be in the departure that we talked about up in verse 3 when the church is removed. And then verse 8, And then. In other words, when the church is gone, the Holy Spirit in His role as indwelling the believer has ended. Now of course the Holy Spirit will be back on the earth as the omnipresent God. Never lose sight of that. Just because the Holy Spirit leaves as His role of the indwelling of the believer doesn't mean He won't be on the earth during the tribulation. You go back to Genesis 1, right in the very verse what, verse 2, 3, 4, somewhere in there, who moved upon the face of the deep? Well, the Spirit did. See, and so the Holy Spirit was evident on the earth all throughout the human experience. And during the church age of course He has taken on the role of indwelling the believer, but He's still the omnipresent Spirit of God. And so as the believer is taken out, the Holy Spirit's role as such ends, but He will still be the omnipresence of God here even during the tribulation. So then, verse 8, And then shall that wicked one, that is the Antichrist, the man of sin, then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, that is at the end of the seven years, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming. Verse 9, Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan. In other words, He's still referring to this man of sin, the Antichrist, and He's going to come with power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. In other words, to the unbeliever. Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. Now get the picture. Those who will be ready to accept the coming of the Antichrist will be those who had an opportunity to hear the gospel, the truth of the Word of God, but they loved their unrighteousness and they rejected it and spurned God's offer of salvation. Now then, verse 11, For this cause, now you want to remember as we are entering into the tribulation, we're entering in again to God dealing in the realm of the supernatural, which we are more or less unaccustomed to. Now I know God still works in miraculous ways, but we are not living in a day where the supernatural is just taking place commonly. But as soon as God begins this seven year period of dealing with Israel, the supernatural does become commonplace. And so for this cause, because this group of people have heard the gospel, they've contemplated it, but they rejected it, and so for that cause God shall send them a strong delusion that they should believe, and again I like to use the article the rather than a, that they should believe the lie. Now remember there's been one lie all through Scripture, and I call it the lie, and that is when Satan tells a person, you can be God. All right, they're going to believe it again. And so God will send these people who have heard the gospel, they've rejected it, they've had nothing to do with it, and as soon as the Antichrist signs that treaty with Israel, these will be the very first people to acclaim Him as the God of this world, the one they've been looking for. And then verse 12, that they might all be condemned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. All right, now let's flip back just for a second to the book of Ephesians. That's just a few pages back to your left, and come over to Ephesians chapter 1, because here we have almost the same kind of language, so that you'll know exactly what Paul is talking about. That as we come down now to the appearance of the Antichrist, and the church has been removed, there's going to be one group of people who will not have an opportunity of salvation from the message of the 144 ,000. These who have heard the gospel, contemplated it, understood it, and rejected it. They will immediately be blinded, and they will immediately embrace the man Antichrist. All right, now to use the language then of 2 Thessalonians in Ephesians 1, Paul comes back in verse 13. Ephesians 1, verse 13, In whom you also trusted. Now remember, Paul always writes to what people? The believer. And so he says, In whom you also trusted, or believed, or placed your faith, after you heard the word of truth. Now what's the word of truth? The gospel of your salvation. And in whom also after you believed, you were sealed, you were preserved with that Holy Spirit of promise. Now, the gospel of course, maybe we should look at it, because we have new people coming in on the program all the time. Come back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Because especially as we look at the awful things that are about to come upon the earth, I think there's nothing wrong with the whole concept of literally being scared out of our boots. And maybe fear will prompt someone to seek God's saving grace in order to escape some of these things. And I think that's one of the reasons it's put in here. Now I am not one to embellish the fear concept. But on the other hand, when the scripture makes it so plain that these awful, terrible days are coming on the earth, and we can escape it by simply partaking of God's salvation, then why not? Why not? Why be foolish and spurn so great a salvation only to end up in the horrors that are coming on the earth? And they're coming. The world is getting ready for it. We see instance of it, just little tidbits here and there of just what it's going to be like. Alright, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, beginning with verse 1. Here is the most explicit definition of the gospel I think you can find in the whole Bible. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, and which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if ye keep in memory what I have preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. In other words, you have to know what you believe. And here it is, verse 3 and 4. This is our gospel. For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Now that's what Ephesians calls the truth of the gospel. And this is what Paul is referring to now then in 2 Thessalonians when he says, now if you care to, I'd like to have you turn back to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And so this is what he means when he says up in verse 10, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, coming back again to verse 10, "...and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth." And what's the love of the truth? The gospel. And what's the gospel? That Christ died for my sins, that He was buried, and that He arose from the dead. Now those of you who have been in my classes over the years, you know that I do not ascribe to just an easy believism. In other words, just simply saying, yeah, I believe that Christ lived, and I believe that He died, and I believe that He rose from the dead. That's not what the Bible is talking about. The Bible is talking about a concerted faith and trust in that very act of God, that God Himself paid the penalty for all our sin. And I've told my classes so many times, I like to put it this way, if you or I had been the only person living, Christ would have still gone to the cross to purchase our redemption. And when you have that kind of faith, and you can honestly say, I believe that with all my heart, and I know He is alive, I know that His Word is true, then God sees that faith as salvation. As Romans 4 makes it so plain, that it wasn't by works that Abraham was saved, but by faith. And what was Abraham's faith? He believed God, and God accounted unto him as righteousness. He was a believer. All right, so now then, these folks who have heard this gospel have been convicted by the Holy Spirit that this is what they need, and they reject it. They are the ones that will be immediately blinded to the truth, and they will be immediately embracing the man Antichrist. But, now let's face reality. There are literally billions of people on this old planet tonight who have never heard the gospel. I always maintain in every city that I teach, that there are multitudes who have never heard the gospel. Now that's hard for us to believe. But listen, there are people who may walk into a place of business, and there may be a preacher on radio or on television preaching the gospel in all of its truth and sincerity, but they don't hear it. They don't pay any attention to it. And so I maintain, they're going to still be candidates for the preaching of the 144 ,000. I feel that the only ones who will be completely condemned will be those who have heard it, plainly understood it, were convicted by it, and then said, no thanks, I'll do it later, or whatever. So you see, you've got these multitudes, even within America, even within our own communities, who have never heard the gospel. Church people. Now you'd be surprised how many people I've had in my classes. Some of you are already nodding your heads. I've had so many people in my classes who have come and told me, Les, we've never heard the gospel before. And they've been in church all their life. Now that's a sad commentary, I know it is, but it's still the truth. And so when these 144,000 Jews go out around the world, there's going to be no one being saved as a second chance, because those who have heard it and rejected it, they're going to be condemned. They're going to be the first, as I've said already, to embrace the Antichrist. We won't get into it in this program, but we will in the next one. They will be the first ones to take that mark of the beast. That scares the wits out of so many people. But for us who are believers tonight, we have nothing to fear. We're not going to be faced with that mark of the beast. That's only for the tribulation people. But anyway, they will accept that mark of the beast at the drop of a hat, because they've already been completely deluded by a sovereign act of God that the Antichrist is the man the world is looking for. But for the rest, these 144,000, as John said back there in Revelation 7, they're going to see a multitude believe and be converted, but they'll be martyred. Now I think it was Tim LaHaye in his book on Revelation, and who am I, just a layman, to disagree with a man of that stature? But I think Tim LaHaye made the statement, and I hope I'm not misquoting him, that he feels these 144,000 may possibly see more converts in that six or six and a half years, however long they will minister, than the church age has in 2,000 years. Well, I have several reasons to disagree with him. Number one, I think the church age is still God's harvest, the main harvest, as it's depicted in Israel's history, whereas the tribulation saints are merely the gleanings and the harvesting of the corners, you'll remember. But whatever, we know that these young Jewish men are going to supernaturally, like I said, sort of redeem Israel from what they missed 2,000 years ago, and they are going to see a great harvest of souls under those horrible circumstances. Now, we were talking about one of our classes here a while back, and someone said, well, I imagine one reason it'll be so easy to bring people to believe this is because of the awful circumstances which will then be evident, and anything would be better than what they're in. Well, whether that's the case or not, I do not know, but the Scripture says that there's going to be multitudes from every tongue and tribe and nation that will hear the message of the 144,000. Now, of course, we haven't got time in this program nor in the next one, but somewhere down the road, we're going to come to the place of who goes into the millennial reign of Christ. Well, it'll be the few who will survive, who have heard and believed the gospel as it was preached then by the 144,000. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer -supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time.