<p>7:14 <em>And I replied: My lord, do you know? And he explained to me: These are they that came out of the great tribulation</em>- The great tribulation in latter day Israel of Mt. 24:9,21,29. &lsquo;Coming out&rsquo; can be a Hebraism for coming forth successfully from a trial- e.g. &ldquo;When He has tested me, I shall <em>come forth</em> as gold&rdquo; (Job 23:10). These are the group who respond to the traumas of the six seals and repent. Their white robes connect with those given to those who die during the tribulation under the fifth seal (&ldquo;And each one was given a white robe&rdquo;, Rev. 6:11).</p><p><em>And they washed their robes</em>- Perhaps a reference to mass baptisms into Christ in the beast dominated Israel of the last days?</p><p><em>And made them white in the blood of the Lamb</em>- It is the function of the three and a half year Elijah ministry which will occur at the same time as the tribulation to be &ldquo;like fullers&rsquo; soap&rdquo; so that Israel may &ldquo;abide the day of Messiah&rsquo;s coming&rdquo; (Mal. 3:2). Fullers&rsquo; soap is what makes white. The reference is to those in Israel who respond to the Elijah ministry and make their clothes white. These are the 144,000 or great multitude.</p><p>The 144,000 are redeemed from all the tribes of Jewry in the last days, and they wash their robes through baptism in the blood of Jesus as a result of &ldquo;the great tribulation&rdquo; (Rev. 7:14 RV) which they pass through. This great multitude are Jews yet out of every nation and language (Rev. 7:9)- for as Ron Abel shows in <em>Wrested Scriptures</em>, the great multitude and the 144,000 are to be read as identical. The witness to them will thus be world-wide. This &ldquo;great tribulation&rdquo; is one of many links discernible between Revelation and the Olivet prophecy. The Lord had prophesied that the &ldquo;great tribulation&rdquo; such as never was for Israel will occur in the very last days before the return (Mt. 24:21). It is only for the sake of &ldquo;the elect&rdquo; that the days of the great tribulation are shortened. This elect are surely the 144,000 of Rev. 7- Jewish brethren in Christ,&nbsp;converted during the very last days. It is this &ldquo;elect&rdquo; which is to be gathered from &ldquo;the four winds&rdquo; (Mt. 24:31) by the Angels. This suggests that they are not just Jews in the land who are converted, but those throughout the world-wide Diaspora. For the time of Jacob&rsquo;s trouble, worse than anything they have ever experienced (including the holocaust) must affect all Jewry world-wide. And this includes the USA and other apparently pro-Jewish or tolerant nations.</p><p>We must face the questions: Are the 144,000 the same as the great multitude? And are these 144,000 the same as the 144,000 in Revelation 14? I believe they all refer to the same group of faithful believers, perhaps literal Jews, who repent during the early part of the tribulation which is described in the six seals. But each passage gives different aspects of the same picture. The seven trumpets are the tribulations brought about by the four winds of 7:1. These can still be responded to by those within the land. The 144,000 group are preserved from them, just as Israel experienced the first plagues to come upon Egypt but were preserved from the later ones (cp. Is. 26:20). The seven vials are clearly based upon the plagues upon Egypt, and they are part of the extensive description of the beast&rsquo;s judgment which interspersed with visions of the faithful dominate the rest of the book of Revelation.</p><p>But are these 144,000 the same as the 144,000 in Revelation 14? The differences don&rsquo;t necessarily have to make them different; John hears the 144,000 and then sees the great multitude, just as earlier John hears about the Lion but turns to <em>see</em> a Lamb (Rev. 5:5,6); and so it could be that he is<em> told</em> about the 144,000 and turns to <em>see</em> a great multitude. It would be facile to suggest that the Lion and Lamb are two different beings. They are simply different aspects of the same personage- the Lord Jesus. And this is common in Revelation and Jewish apocalyptic generally. So the differences are not fundamental, but rather presenting to us different aspects of the same group. In one sense they are the innumerable seed of Abraham, in another sense they are the 12 tribes, the true Israel. The great multitude are dressed in &ldquo;white robes&rdquo;- and this has just been used about those slain at the start of the tribulation (6:11). A specific group is in view- Jewish believers who suffered in the land at the hands of the beast during the time of the seals.</p><p>There are similarities between the 144,000 and the &ldquo;great multitude&rdquo;. The 144,000 of Rev. 14:3 are &ldquo;before the throne&rdquo; just as the &ldquo;great multitude&rdquo; of Rev. 7:15,17 are. If the 144,000 represent the church generally, it&rsquo;s hard to understand why there should be such a laboured enumeration of them as coming from the various listed tribes of Israel. The idea surely is that they are Jewish Christians from within the land- perhaps the mention of the 12 tribes is to show that they will come from the entire geographical inheritance of Israel.</p><p>The great multitude have palms in their hands (:9) as if they are lining the streets of Jerusalem to welcome Jesus as King (Mt. 21:8). The term &ldquo;great multitude&rdquo; is repeatedly used in the Gospels for the crowds who followed Jesus. So although they do refer to the group of Jewish Christians of the last days, they are clearly to be understood as looking forward to the entire community of Jesus-followers. Rev. 7:14 says of the great multitude: &ldquo;These are they which came out of great tribulation&rdquo;. The many connections with the Olivet Prophecy would surely mean that the tribulation in view is partly that of the last days (Mt. 24:21,29).&nbsp;</p>