These features argue that they picture the 144,000 followers of Jesus Christ the Lamb of God, although symbolically these persons of advanced age are only twenty-four in number.

The twenty-four divisions of the priests under Israel’s high priest argues that the twenty-four persons of advanced age picture the 144,000, for these not only reign with Christ but will also be “priests of God and of the Christ.”

This does not include the 144,000 footstep followers of Jesus Christ who are referred to in Hebrews 2:16 as “Abraham’s seed,” by means of whom all the nations of our earth will procure an everlasting blessing. (Rev. 7:3-8; 14:1, 3; Gen. 12:3; 22:18)

Nineteen centuries ago Haʹdes or Sheol gave up the dead Jesus Christ, and these 144,000 faithful followers who are his spiritual brothers are made like him in having part in what is called “the first resurrection.”

After seeing a vision of 144,000 spiritual Israelites, he writes, saying: “After these things I saw, and behold! a great crowd, which no one could have numbered, out of every nation, and of all tribes, and peoples, and languages, standing before the throne, and in the presence of the Lamb, invested with white robes, and palm-branches in their hands; and they cry with a loud voice, saying, ‘The salvation be ascribed to that God of ours who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’”​—Rev. 7:9, 10, The Emphatic Diaglott, by Benjamin Wilson.

9. (a) So, does the “great crowd” need to be in heaven in order to serve God in his na·osʹ? (b) According to Revelation 3:12, may na·osʹ have a limited meaning?

⁹ Thus the “great crowd” may be said to be in the “temple,” or na·osʹ, of God and yet not be in heaven as spirit creatures with the 144,000 spiritual Israelites who make up the “little flock” of God. (Rev. 7:1-9, 15; Luke 12:32)

All together, they will number 144,000, whom the apostle John in vision saw sealed in the foreheads with the seal of the living God and standing with the sacrificed Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, on the heavenly Mount Zion.—Rev. 7:4-8; 14:1-3.

20, 21. (a) In what resurrection do the “rest of the dead” have part? (b) How does the apostle John describe their resurrection and being judged?

²⁰ The resurrection of the 144,000 partakers of the first resurrection, who sit on thrones with the “power of judging,” leaves the “rest of the dead” to be accounted for.

144,000 “Holy Ones”

⁹ The number of such “holy ones” chosen to rule with the Lamb Jesus Christ on the heavenly Mount Zion is revealed as being 144,000, “bought from among mankind.” (Revelation 14:1-5)

In fact, a few chapters earlier he saw 144,000 standing with Jesus Christ upon Mount Zion, where the temple was located.

It is significant that they are not shown here, for they are another symbolic presentation of the 144,000.

And on another occasion he used the term kingdom to refer to the realm over which he and his 144,000 joint heirs would rule.—Matt. 13:24-33; Luke 17:21; Matt. 25:34.

It is in a secondary sense, because of belonging to Christ, that the 144,000 are also “Abraham’s seed, heirs with reference to a promise.” (Gal. 3:29; Gen. 22:17, 18)

Why do Jehovah’s Witnesses take the number 144,000 mentioned in the book of Revelation literally and not symbolically?

Their number, 144,000, is understood literally for several reasons.

That it is a literal number is shown in Revelation chapter 7, where, after giving the definite number of 144,000, at Re 7 verse 9 it speaks of another group, a “great crowd” whom no man was able to number.

The number 144,000 could not be symbolic, for, if so, it would mean nothing.

It consists first of Christ and then of 144,000 spiritual Israelites, who exercise the faith of Abraham.

The 144,000 followers of Christ who experience this adopting are spiritual Israelites, the true seed of Abraham.

The first group numbers 144,000. (Rev. 7:4)

5. What will soon happen to the remaining ones of the 144,000?

⁵ Down through the centuries, thousands have been selected to be part of the 144,000. (Luke 12:32; Rom. 8:17)

God’s statement was of particular importance to 144,000 members of the human family who were to begin appearing on earth nineteen centuries afterward.

The Scriptural answer is, Not more than 144,000 of these spiritual sons of Abraham.

It will be made up of 144,000 tried and faithful followers of the Lamb Jesus Christ.

That means in our days, which are the “final part of the days” of spiritual Israel on earth, before the small remainder of its 144,000 members get into the heavenly New Jerusalem with God’s Son, the Lamb Jesus Christ.

That group is made up of 144,000 who will rule with Jesus in heaven. (Luke 12:32; Rev. 7:4)

That group would be made up of 144,000 zealous and dedicated Christians who had served God faithfully while on earth.

In a vision, the apostle John saw that these spiritual Israelites number 144,000.

6, 7. To whom does the expression “the twelve tribes of Israel” refer in the context of Matthew 19:28 and Luke 22:30?

⁶ The 144,000 will serve as heavenly kings, priests, and judges during the Thousand Year Reign. (Rev. 20:4)

14. How does Revelation 21:1, 2 picture the congregation of 144,000 underpriests in the heavenly Most Holy?

¹⁴ What a holy privilege it will be for the 144,000 underpriests of Jehovah’s spiritual temple to find themselves in its Most Holy, before the very person of Jehovah God!

There the congregation of 144,000 underpriests who serve under Jehovah’s High Priest Jesus Christ is likened to his bride on her wedding day.

5. According to what the book of Revelation shows, what proportion of mankind are taken into God’s new covenant through Christ?

⁵ In Revelation 7:4-8 the apostle John names the “twelve tribes” of spiritual Israel and puts the number of all these spiritual Israelites as 144,000, or 12,000 in each of the “twelve tribes.”

These 144,000 are spoken of, not as being redeemed or rescued from ancient Egypt, but as being “bought from among mankind as a first fruits to God and to the Lamb.”

3. How are anointed Christians and other sheep different with regard to the new covenant?

³ For the 144,000, the blessing of the Abrahamic covenant is administered through the new covenant.

Hence, only the 144,000 members of the Israel of God have properly partaken of the emblems during the Memorial of Jesus’ death, and only with them did Jesus make his covenant for a Kingdom. (Luke 22:19, 20, 29)

6. How many associate judges will assist Christ when he judges the living and the dead, and what transformation do they undergo when they are resurrected?

⁶ Other scriptures show that this unique privilege of being associate kings and judges with Christ in his kingdom is limited to a “little flock” of 144,000 faithful Christians “bought from the earth,” “bought from among mankind.” (Luke 12:32; Revelation 14:1-4)

10. For what reasons is the resurrection of the 144,000 termed the “first resurrection”?

¹⁰ The resurrection of the entire number of 144,000 anointed Christians called to reign with Christ in heaven is appropriately called the “first resurrection.”

Christ Jesus is the King, but he has with him 144,000 associate kings.

The number was 144,000, to correspond with the 144,000 spiritual Israelites who were sealed with the “seal of the living God” and who “keep following the Lamb [Jesus Christ] no matter where he goes.” (Rev. 7:1-8; 14:1-5)

It is also proper that, among the 144,000 Christians in the twelve tribes of spiritual Israel, one tribe is called “the tribe of Judah.”

No; all the 144,000 of all twelve tribes of spiritual Israel are joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

The exact number of the “little flock” approved by the Father to be Kingdom heirs was not known until Christ, through an angel, revealed it to be 144,000 “who have been purchased from the earth.”

This “little flock” of 144,000 Kingdom heirs, then, are those ones from among mankind who are “born again.”—1 Cor. 15:50; Luke 12:32; Rev. 14:1-3, NW.