Friends,
This week we continue our series from earlier on the Bible as Divine Allegory. Wishing all of you a happy, healthy start to Fall!
Blessings,
Ethan
Who are the 144,000 in Revelation?
Some have taken this statement literally, meaning that only 144,000 people will make it to heaven. Thinking from the principle that the Bible is a Divine Allegory, this wouldn’t make sense, would it?
If God is love, then love by definition has to share itself. It can’t keep itself to itself! And only 144,000 people doesn’t seem like all the Love our Creator is capable of, does it? If we run on the assumption that everything we read in the Word is at some level about how to love God and treat our neighbor, we need to
think about how that would be possible. What if the numbers in the Word too are also allegorical? What if they mean something about my state of love and faith?
And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand. (Rev. 7:4) This symbolizes all people who acknowledge the Lord God of heaven and earth and are governed by teachings about the goodness of love, received from God through the Word.
These are symbolized by the number 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel because the twelve tribes of Israel symbolize a church made up of people who possess all love and truth from God. …The number 144,000 means all of those people. For that number has the same symbolism as the number twelve, since it is the product of
twelve times twelve, which is then multiplied by 1000; and any number multiplied by itself and then by 10, 100, or 1000, has the same symbolism as the original number. (Apocalypse Revealed # 348)
Ah…so there’s a spiritual numerology to the Bible? Again, think about how that transforms our reading of it! The 7 Days of Creation become seven stages we go through in our spiritual development, until we reach the Sabbath (so “7” means “a heavenly state of being”). The 12 disciples mean our possessing “all things of
love and faith” from God (just like the “12 tribes of Israel”, right?) As you start reading the Word through this lens of spiritual meaning, the stories literally come alive with application to your state of being.
Love and Peace,
Ethan
