The 144,000
Note that the 144,000 are Christians who follow Christ whithersoever he goeth and are the firstfruits unto God and to Christ (Revelation 14:4), and there are no Christians outside of the church (Ephesians 4:4-5).
Can't Jewish Christians like the Apostle Paul be part of the church? "I am verily a man which am a Jew" (Acts 22:3).
Can't the 144,000 be Christians and members of the 12 tribes at the same time? Isn't the Apostle Paul a Christian and a member of the tribe of Benjamin at the same time: "For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin" (Romans 11:1), and isn't the Apostle Barnabas a Christian and "a Levite" at the same time (Acts 4:36)?
Note that the fact that they need an outward seal does not necessarily indicate that they are not sealed inwardly at that point in time.
Note that their not being defiled by women (Revelation 14:4) in no way requires that they be under the law, for the law has been abolished (Hebrews 7:18-19, 22). Their not being defiled by women would be in the sense that Paul refers to when he says: "It is good for a man not to touch a woman" (1 Corinthians 7:1-2), that is, they had not committed fornication with women as single Christian men, for even a virgin can have an emission in their sleep that would make them ceremonially unclean under the law (Leviticus 15:16).
If you say that Revelation 14:4, which says they are Christians, refers to after the tribulation, then you can't use that same verse to say they are unsaved during the tribulation because they are undefiled with women.
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Evangelists Saved During Trib?
See RepentedNot.html
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Jews And Gentiles
Some say the 144,000 are Jewish Christians only. But I believe when Gentile Christians are grafted into spiritual Israel (Romans 11:17), they're joined to one of the 12 tribes (compare Ezekiel 47:21-23), so that the 144,000 Christians of the 12 tribes sealed in the tribulation (Revelation 7:3-8, 14:1-3) are both Gentile and Jewish Christians alive today who will enter into the tribulation.
Some have asked, "so then which tribe are you?" I believe I've been grafted into the tribe of Naphtali, but I don't claim to be one of the 144,000. I believe if you are a Gentile Christian and you pray and ask the Lord he will bring to your mind which tribe you have been grafted into.
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Why Sealed?
The 144,000 are sealed probably because they are the firstfruits of the church: "A Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand... These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth... being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb" (Revelation 14:1, 4). It's possible God deals with them as he had the firstfruits dealt with in the OT: "As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the LORD: but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour" (Leviticus 2:12), that is, they are not to suffer the fiery trial (1 Peter 4:12-13) as the rest of the church on the earth will.
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When In Heaven?
Note that the 144,000 will go through all of the seals and at least through the first 5 trumpets (Revelation 9:4; 7:3). I believe Revelation 14 later shows the 144,000 "before the throne of God" in heaven (Revelation 14:1-5) while other of us Christians are still suffering and dying on the earth under the Antichrist (Revelation 14:12-13).
I believe there is a heavenly mount Sion and Jerusalem which we have already come to in a spiritual sense: "Ye are come (perfect tense in the Greek) unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Hebrews 12:22). Compare: "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6).
What verse shows the 144,000 in heaven prior to Revelation 14?
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The Locusts
I believe only those of us Christians who will receive a particular seal of God in our forehead will be protected from the locusts: "It was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads" (Revelation 9:4). I believe this refers back to Revelation 7: "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads" (Revelation 7:3).
I believe it's possible that those of us Christians who are not one of the 144,000 could suffer under the locusts (just as we will suffer in many other ways during the tribulation, none of which ways will be the wrath of God) as I believe only the 144,000 will receive the particular seal referred to in Revelation 7: "I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel" (Revelation 7:4). I believe there will be more than 144,000 of us Christians on the earth at that time. Note that later when the 144,000 are already before the throne in heaven (Revelation 14:1-3), there are other of us Christians still suffering and dying on the earth under the Antichrist (Revelation 14:12-13).
Note that it doesn't say the locusts are the wrath of God.
God has allowed faithful Christians to be tortured by men, and to be tormented by scorpion stings, and to suffer from excruciatingly painful diseases such as cancer, throughout history, from the beginning of the church down until this day, and not because he was bringing his wrath against them.
I believe it's possible that "it was commanded" the locusts by God to torment "only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads" (Revelation 9:4) in the same way that God controlled exactly what Satan could do during his tormenting of Job: "The LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life" (Job 2:6); God could be saying "Behold, all men can be tormented; but the sealed men." Note that none of the suffering that God allowed Satan to bring upon Job was God's wrath against Job.
I believe we are to look to the patient suffering of Job as our example: "Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy" (James 5:10-11). We Christians will need such patience in the coming tribulation, whether during the torment from the locusts, or during the persecution from the Antichrist: "Here is the patience and the faith of the saints" (Revelation 13:10); "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" (Revelation 14:12-13).
I believe many Christians under torture, or in overwhelming pain from cancer, have prayed to die, just as Job did (Job 6:9).
God knows what we can bear. Note that God allowed the 1st century church of Smyrna to be imprisoned, tried, and killed by Satan (Revelation 2:10) while he kept the 1st century church of Philadelphia from the hour of trial (Revelation 3:10).
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Firstfruits
Note that even the 144,000 firstfruits (Revelation 14:4) have to go through the tribulation at least until the 5th trumpet (Revelation 9:4, 7:3-4), and they don't have to be caught up bodily into heaven. They could get there by dying.
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Firstfruits Of The Resurrection?
Some point out that there are three stages of harvesting: firstfruits, main, and gleanings, and go on to argue that there then must be a pre-trib firstfruits resurrection, a tribulation main resurrection, and a post-trib gleanings resurrection. But it says that the firstfruits of the resurrection was already fulfilled in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23), and that all they that are Christ's will be resurrected at the 2nd coming (1 Corinthians 15:23), so the 144,000 must be firstfruits in some other sense. Note that calling someone "firstfruits" in the NT doesn't have to refer to the resurrection (1 Corinthians 16:15; James 1:18)
Note that calling someone "firstfruits" in the NT doesn't have to refer to an occurrence of the OT feast of firstfruits (1 Corinthians 16:15; James 1:18)
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Raptured?
Note that the 144,000 being in heaven in Revelation 14:1-4 in no way requires that they be raptured, or that the rapture of the church referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 be pre-trib or mid-trib. I believe the 144,000 could get into heaven by dying, as in "to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8).
Note that all it says is that the seal the 144,000 will receive (Revelation 7:3) will protect them from the locusts of the 5th trumpet (Revelation 9:4). It doesn't say it will protect them from dying altogether.
Note that even if the "caught up" in Revelation 12:5 does refer to the 144,000, and not to Christ's ascension, as many believe, this still doesn't require that the 144,000 were caught up bodily, for note that Paul was "caught up" into heaven, but he said it might have been apart from his body: "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth) such an one caught up to the third heaven" (2 Corinthians 12:2).
Note that even if the 144,000 are translated into heaven like Enoch and Elijah were, in their mortal bodies, this still wouldn't be a rapture as that term is commonly understood to include the transformation of the living into immortal bodies, and nothing requires that the 144,000 are transformed into immortal bodies. Nor would their translation in any way require that the rapture of the church referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 be pre-trib or mid-trib.
Note that even after the 144,000 are in heaven (Revelation 14:1-4) there are some of us Christians still alive on the earth (Revelation 14:12-13).
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Two Different 144,000's?
I believe that Revelation 7 and Revelation 14 refer to the same 144,000, who will go through the seals and at least through the first 5 trumpets (Revelation 9:4; 7:3) on the earth, and then enter into heaven to be with the Lord (Revelation 14:1-3), possibly by dying (2 Corinthians 5:8).
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Are They The 24 Elders?
Note that Revelation 14:3 specifically distinguishes the 144,000 men from the 24 elders and the 4 beasts, and specifically distinguishes their song (which only they can learn) from the other new song which the 24 elders and the 4 beasts sang in Revelation 5:8-9.
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The Only "Servants Of God"?
I believe all Christians are servants of God (Ephesians 6:6, Romans 6:22, 1 Peter 2:16, Revelation 1:1).
Some of us Christians will be persecuted and killed in the tribulation, both before and during the Antichrist's rule (Luke 21:16, 18; Revelation 6:11; Revelation 13:7-10; Revelation 14:12-13; Revelation 15:2; Revelation 20:4).
Some of us Christians will be protected on the earth during the final period of the tribulation by fleeing to a place prepared (Revelation 12:14, compare Matthew 24:15-16), for some of us must be "alive and remain" until Jesus' coming (1 Thessalonians 4:15).