Who are the 144,000?

For some perhaps many there is confusion regarding who the 144,000 are in the Bible in the book of Revelation. According to the Jehovah Witnesses organization, these witnesses are a special group that will reign in heaven with Jesus Christ at the end of this age. JW's literature claims that heaven filled up in 1935 so there is no more room for anyone else. In other words, no one else goes to heaven.

This is not true! There are and will be an innumerable amount of saints in heaven. In Revelation 7:9-10 we read, "After this, I (John the apostle) looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every tribe and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"

John was seeing one of many visions; visions of the end times. In this chapter, God seals his witnesses on their foreheads to protect them from the judgments that are prevailing on the earth during the Great Tribulation. We learn in chapter 14 that the 144,000 are virgin men, 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel (Revelation 7:5-8). These witnesses have not been identified yet. As a matter of possible fact, they may not even be alive yet. No one knows. So the idea that these witnesses are Jehovah's Witnesses from today is unbiblical. How JW's have attached themselves to the witnesses in the book of Revelation is a mystery to me and a lie.

The deception is that only the 144,000 will enjoy the glories of heaven, whereas the rest of the JW members will live here on a Paradise Earth. Non-Jehovah Witnesses will not go to hell because JW's do not believe in hell. Nonbelievers will be annihilated - that is cease to exist - another false doctrine obviously not supported by holy scripture.