What are we to make of the 144,000 in Chapter 7 of the Book of Revelation? Jehovah’s witnesses and others claim to be that group of people, sealed by God.
This essay explores the beliefs of early Christian writers on this issue. It categorizes their ideas into preterist, eschatological, and ecclesiological views.
The preterist views are those which saw the 144,000 as fulfilled in early Christianity. The eschatological views represent those who thought that they will be fulfilled in the last days right before Jesus returns. The ecclesiological views explain the number as a symbol of the church or all Christians. The essay will also examine the merits and demerits of each view and I will weigh in telling which view I think is correct and why.
I am preparing the essay to deliver as a conference paper at the annual Providence Theological Seminary conference this summer (2012) in Colorado Springs, and also to submit it as a journal article.
