These passages were compiled by our brother, Alan E. Kurschner, Ph.D., Eschatos Ministries. I have the pleasure and liberty to comment on them briefly.
In passage #7, we looked at the martyred saints whose souls were quartered under the Goden Altar in the Holy Place of the Temple of God in Heaven. In passage #8, we shall look at the innumerable multitude which no one could number.
PASSAGE #8
Revelation 7:9, 13–14
Rev 7:9 “After these things I looked, and here was an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands. . . . Then one of the elders asked me, “These dressed in long white robes—who are they and where have they come from?” So I said to him, “My lord, you know the answer.” Then he said to me, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb!(NET).
“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”(KJV).
Rev.7 occurs in the interlude between Rev.6:17, the end of the sixth seal and Rev.8:1, the breaking of the seventh seal. This is the interim inter-wrath or interim inter-tribulational period that occurs between the end of the wrath of Satan, the Great Tribulation, terminated by the breaking of the sixth seal, the cosmic and celestial disturbances which constitute the sign of the End Of The Ages, and the breaking of the seventh seal which is the wrath of God(God’s retaliation or tribulation on those who trouble us) in the Day Of The Lord. The wrath of God is the natural consequence of God’s retributive justice. Within this interlude three main events occur: viz., the appearance of the Shekhinah in the heavens, signaling the Coming(Parousia:arriving) of Christ and the sounding of the last trump with the voice of the archangel. Christ is about to punish the world for their evils. The inhabitants of the Earth are instinctively aware of the impending wrath(doom) of God upon them when the sign is given in the Sun, Moon, and Stars. They begin to run helter-skelter, seeking refuge under the rocks and the mountains of the Earth, invoking these to fall upon them, and to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb which is about to fall upon them: for it is better for the rocks and the mountains to crush them to death than for them to face the wrath of the Lamb which is more severe(Rev.6:15-17). But the rocks and the mountains offer no protection at all.
Will the God of the whole Earth not do right? Should He punish the righteous with the wicked(Gen.18:25). No, God will not punish the righteous with the wicked. The wrath of God is for the unrighteous wicked earth-dwellers(Eph.5:6; Col.3:6). The saints are not appointed to God’s wrath(1 Thess.1:10, 5:9). So, while the unrighteous wicked earth-dwellers are mourning and wailing(Rev.1:7; Matt.24:30b), the saints start rejoicing. They are looking up with their eyes focused on the Shekhinah in the heavens. Why? For their redemption draweth nigh(Luk.21:28). The Shekhinah signals God’s deliverance to the saints but eternal doom to the unrighteous wicked earth-dwellers. It is as though it were at the parting of the Red Sea. The pillar of cloud was light, deliverance and freedom to the Israelites but darkness, dearth, and doom to the Egyptians.
So, in this interim period, the 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel are sealed for protection with the seal of God(Rev.7:1-8), and the saints are raptured, evacuated from the Earth, to keep them away from the scene of the wrath of God from which they are exempt(Rev.7:9-17), which is impending, overhanging, about to begin. And then, the seventh seal is broken in Rev.8:1, and the wrath of God in the Day Of The Lord begins. This is unmistakable. Rev.6:12-8:1 parallels Matt.24:29-31. The only difference is in the details. In the Olivet Discourse, Christ was dealing with earthly events only. Whereas, in the Scroll Of Revelation, the earthly as well as the heavenly events are unveiled.
Now, let us look closely at the innumerable multitude. They are from all nations and tongues. In other words, they are international and universal in scope. They are clothed in white robes which signal righteousness. Therefore they have bodies. They have palms in their hands. They are in the Throne Room of the Temple of God in heaven. What this means is that they are not in this physical and mortal body of ours. For flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption(1 Cor.15:50). They are in their glorified eternal immortal resurrection bodies. So, some of them are risen from the dead, and some are translated. They have palm branches in their hands which signal victory. Apostle John the revelator did not know who they were. One of the 24 elders in the Throne Room of the Temple of God in Heaven with whom he was in conservation told him, “these are they who came out of the Great Tribulation.” Is there any indication they were all martyred? No. Some of them may have been martyred and others not martyred. Are these not the raptured saints in heaven? When we consider the fact that this event occurs in the interim inter-tribulational period or interim inter-wrath period within which the saints are evacuated from the Earth, one cannot but conclude they are the raptured saints in heaven.
Avraham Shallom.
Mt Zion Heritage Ministries 