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Doctrine Matters with Kevin DeYoung
What Are the Great Tribulation, the 144,000, and the Number of the Beast?
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Hello, I'm Kevin DeYoung, pastor at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina, and you are listening to Doctrine Matters. Each week on Doctrine Matters, we explore the rich doctrine of the Christian faith. We'll pull from the church's long history, complex debates, and over the course of the year, the hope is that we'll begin to frame out what is a clear, accessible, systematic theology, be looking at different Christian doctrines and their relationship to each other. And the hope, Lord willing, is we will grasp more and more the riches and the beauty of God's word. Thanks for listening. Let's turn to this week's Doctrine Matters. Just two weeks left. Whether you are just joining the podcast or have been here all throughout the year or bouncing in and out, glad that you're with us. For this week. We've been talking about eschatology, the doctrine of last things, personal eschatology, heaven, hell, the intermediate state, cosmic eschatology, talking about the new heavens and the new earth, and millennial views. Talk about those probably next week. At the very end here, what I want to do is go through a few different topics that are perennially interesting to Christians and really to almost everybody who has some knowledge of the Bible. And they're often controversial and difficult. So here's the categories I want to talk about the great tribulation, the 144,000 and some 666. Let's see if can shed some light on these and understand they're contested among Christians. But here's my understanding. First of the Great Tribulation. What is this thing called, the Tribulation? Well, we read in Revelation 7:14 that the great tribulation first there's a multitude. There's a multitude in white robes who have come out of this thing called the Great Tribulation. The Greek word is thlipsis. It occurs over 40 times in the New Testament. And it's clear from these occurrences that tribulation is not just something that comes at the end of the age, but Christians are now in a time of tribulation. The church from the time of Christ to the end of the world will face hardships, sufferings and afflictions. This is in John 16 and Acts, in 2nd Thessalonians and in Revelation, of course. Now what about related to this, the doctrine of the Rapture. So this is old news to some, maybe eyes open to others. I do not believe in a secret rapture of the church. And until 200 years ago, people didn't teach it. Now the Bible does talk about those left behind. Those left behind in Luke 17 and Matthew 24 are the faithful ones not like the ones taken, as in Noah's day for judgment, or as the ones gathered in Matthew 13 to be burned with fire. Both left behind. Passages in the Gospels are about the harvest at the close of the age, not about a secret rapture. So it's really quite the opposite. People talk about left behind. You're going to be left behind. Well, those left behind are the faithful ones. The ones taken are the ones taken to judgment. The promise of Scripture is not that the church will be kept safe from tribulation, but we will be kept safe in tribulation. I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world. Revelation 3. The only other time that phrase tere o ek keep from is used in the New Testament is John 17:15. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. The promise. There Jesus is saying he's not rapturing them out of the world. He's saying, I will keep you safe from the evil one in the midst of these trials. The promise is not a physical rapture or the termination of suffering, but that in our suffering, Jesus will protect us from evil and sin. So we are in this time of tribulation. There's no secret rapture prior to a tribulation. But what about. Is there something at the end of the age that we might call a great tribulation? Because this is the language. Matthew 24, Revelation 7, a Thlipsis megas a great tribulation. I think this refers to a time that's different in scope and severity, but not different in kind than previous tribulations. And this sign of tribulation is not restricted to the end of the age, which is why the descriptions of death, famine, war, disease that Jesus talks about in the Olivet discourse we find in Revelation. These can fit in any era of history. You wonder why people are always saying this is the end. Because these things have occurred throughout history. Wars, rumors of wars. Now, none of this is to say that there isn't an extreme form of suffering and tribulation that comes at the end. And Revelation 7, we have a picture of the 144,000 more on them in a minute, sealed among the sons of Israel, a picture of the great multitude from every nation. These groups are the same. They are those who will be able to stand in the day of judgment in the Lord's wrath. So when the day of great tribulation comes, this intensification, I think there is a contemporaneous growth of good and evil in the world. I think we have reason for optimism in this church age that the gospel will go forward and we'll see great advances of the church and the gospel. We've seen this throughout history, and at the same time, there will be an intensification of evil and a continuation of threats and persecution right up until the end. Now, the 144,000 are not an ethnic Jewish remnant, nor, as Jehovah's Witnesses teach, the literal number of people who will be resurrected to heavenly life. They are those Revelation 7, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel, and they represent the entire community of the redeemed. Now, here are some reasons to justify that claim. One, in Revelation 13, we read that Satan seals all of his followers. So it makes sense that God would seal all of his people, not just the Jewish ones, but all of his people. Two, the image of sealing comes from Ezekiel 9, where the seal on the forehead marks out two groups of people, idolaters and non idolaters. The sealing of the 144,000 makes a similar distinction based on who worships God and who does not. Third, reason that 144,000 are called the servants of God. There's no reason to make this any more restricted than that the phrase servants of God always refers to God's redeemed people in Revelation, not just an ethnic Jewish remnant. Fourth, the 144,000 mentioned later in chapter 14 are said to be those who have been redeemed from the earth, those who were purchased from among men. Now, this is generic everybody kind of language. The 144,000 is a symbolic number of the redeemed, drawn from all peoples, not simply the Jews. If the number is not symbolic, we have to consider Revelation 14:4, which describes the 144,000 as those who have not defiled themselves with women. And are we to think that the 144,000 refers to a chosen group of celibate Jewish men? It makes more sense to realize the number is a symbolic number to describe, and it uses the imagery of celibate men to highlight the group's moral purity, set apartness for spiritual battle, just as the Jews of old were told to be as they went into battle. And the last reason for thinking that the 144,000 is the entire community of the redeemed is the highly stylized list of tribes. Now, the number itself is stylized, it's not to be taken literally. Now, when I say that people say, you don't believe the Bible No, I believe the Bible. But to say every part of the Bible is not literal, it's not to say every part of the Bible is not true. And we understand that instinctively. There's all sorts of things about, you know, God's white hair and his strong right arm, or Revelation talks about the whore of Babylon and a prostitute on a beast. People there understand. Well, this is apocalyptic imagery to describe real things. But to take it literally would be to take it as it doesn't mean to be taken. The 144,000 is 12 times 12 times a thousand. 12 being the number of completion for God's people, representing the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles of the Lamb. And 1000 being a number suggesting a great multitude. So 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles times each other times a thousand is a way of saying all God's people under the Old and the New covenants and the list of tribes there. There are lots of ways in the Old Testament where the tribes can be listed. And this one is unique. Judas first, because Jesus is in line of the tribe of Judah. That makes sense. All 12 of Jacob's sons are listed, including Levi, who usually wasn't because he didn't inherit any land except for one. Manasseh, Joseph's son, Jacob's grandson is listed in place of Dan. So why, why not Dan? Dan was probably left out in order to point to the purity of the redeemed church. From early in Israel's history, Dan was the center of idolatry for the kingdom. During the days of the divided kingdom, Dan was one of two centers for idolatry. There is recorded in some non biblical Jewish writings that the Jews thought the Antichrist would come out of Dan based on Genesis 49, 17. The bottom line is that the number and the list and the order of the tribes are stylized to depict the totality of God's pure and perfectly redeemed servants from all time over all the earth. That's the 144,000. Now what about finally 666? This comes from Revelation 13:18. This calls for wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man, and his number is 6, 6, 6. All sorts of numerical schemes have been concocted in various languages to try to decode this number. All of these solutions are calculated by a process known as gematria. In the ancient world, every letter corresponded to a number. Just like A might equal 1B, 2C, 3, so on. Every letter could also be a number. So names could be translated into numbers. This is the process called gematria. And it's true. People use this in the ancient world. This is not unheard of. This is not a secret code that we've invented. People did this. We know that if 666 refers to a specific historical person, the best educated guess is that it refers to Nero. And I have some sympathy with people who would argue that it refers to Nero. If you take the Greek Neron kaisar and transliterate it into Hebrew, you get 50 plus 20 plus 6 plus 50 and then 100 plus 60 plus 200, all of which together equals 666. And a possible corroboration for this view can be found in the Latin version of his name, neron Kaiser. Translator It 8 into Latin gives you 616, which is the number of the beast in some alternative manuscripts. It's also the area code for Grand Rapids where I'm from. So I don't like the 616 being the number of the beast. Nero fits the storyline of Revelation better than other alternatives. Nero killed himself in AD 68, but it was rumored he would come back to life or was still living, just like the beast, received a fatal wound that was healed. So we can see why many scholars believe 666 is most logically a reference to Nero. And you can understand Christians might put it in the form of a riddle like this that's sort of easily understood. If you know, you know. But plausible deniability. It protected the Christians from charges of sedition, further persecution. So there are reasons to think Nero. And yet there are problems with this hypothesis. It is far from certain. Most of John's audience would have known Hebrew. And to come up with 666, we have to spell Nehrun Kaiser without a yod, which is not the normal spelling in Hebrew. And we have the fact that none of the early church fathers calculated Nero and Kaiser as 666. And we are not told to solve the question of 666. We are told that 666 is the answer to the question. This calls for wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number so it doesn't say discern the code. It says calculate the number. And here is the number. His number is 666. That's the answer to the question, not the riddle. And more on that in a moment. Most importantly, when we try to find hidden, precise meanings in numbers, people often have to resort to various different extreme and sometimes unwieldy interpretive methods. So you use Hebrew or You go from Greek to Hebrew, or you misspell it, or you try it from one language to another, or you combine the. I mean, this is why there are so many examples throughout history. Ronald Wilson Reagan. All three of his names have six letters. He must be the beast. I mean, they just, they're, they're ridiculous. Now, Nero has more going for it than that. But when we think about how numbers are used in Revelation, they're not used as exact codes. They're stylized pictures, images. Broader, less exact. You have 24 elders, two witnesses, a woman. For the church, you have 144,000. For the multitude of the redeemed, the church age is symbolized by a measured temple, a trampled witness, a woman protected in the wilderness. There are various numbers for the church. Age, 42 months, 12, 60 days, 3 1/2 years. False Religion is symbolized by a beast, and here by a number in each of the pictures. The numbers mean something, but they refer to general truths, not to specific people or historical reference. So what's my answer? Well, not unique to me. In the end, I think the. The best analysis is to see that 666 is a general reference to man's number. That's what it says, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. The second beast is a counterfeit. He leads people into false religion. If 7 is the number of perfection, of holy completion in the book of Revelation, seven churches, seven lampstands, seven eyes, seven seals, seven trumpets, then six would be the number of imperfection, unholy incompletion. If seven is the number for God, then six is the number that most resembles but is not quite God, namely man. In short, 666 is man's counterfeit to 777. Whatever or whoever appears under the guise of true Christianity in order to draw people away to some human counterfeit, that is the work of the beast, and his number is 666. Thanks again for joining us on Doctrine Matters. I'm your host, Kevin DeYoung. Our hope and prayer is that this has been helpful to you as you look at scripture and try to understand the best of our theological tradition as Christians. Please consider subscribing to Doctrine Matters. And if this has been encouraging, consider passing it on to others. If you'd like to learn more about this week's doctrine can ask your pastor for good resources or check out my year long mini systematic theology book called Daily Doctrine, to be available in print or audio from Crossway.org the Doctrine Matters podcast is produced by Crossway. To learn more, visit Crossway.org.