The 144,000 Army, part 1
The seventh chapter of The Revelation (about the army of 144,000 people) has, like so much of The Revelation, been ignored by most Christians on the basis that it could be misinterpreted by fanatics to make them think they are part of the army and others are not. How silly!
At the very least, we need to take more seriously the lessons which are implied in the overall passage, since they probably will relate to us at some time in the future. We shouldn't just tear that chapter out of the Bible because it may be misunderstood.
What lessons are these?
For starters, there is the fact that these 144,000 people are "virgins" "which were not defiled with women". There is a liberal, highly spiritualised interpretation of this passage. In the same way that there are with other passages in the New Testament about celibacy, suggesting that people could be married without it affecting their ability to work for God, so long as they didn't have children. There is truth in both of these more spiritualised teachings, which will be looked at in a bit more detail later in this study.
One danger with these teachings is that couples can use them to avoid other parts of the Bible that are much clearer about our need to forsake our spouses and children for God. And, having taken that first step, to get married, it would not be a big surprise for them to fall away from literal obedience to just about anything else that Jesus taught.
There isn’t any point in forbidding marriage (as the Catholics do for their leaders), since the Bible teaches that such a doctrine is wrong. But we should be doing what the Bible does, and be fairly certain about telling people where marriage is likely to lead them. Chances are that, if a single who is fully dedicated to God gets married, they will not continue to be such a radical 100% sold-out red-hot warrior for Christ. It doesn't have to be that way, but, there is a good chance that will be the outcome.
This thought could re-enforce the notion that the army of 144,000 may in fact be literally virgins, who have kept themselves from women. I would still question the "virginity" thing a bit as a literal condition that excludes for life anyone who has ever had sex. It probably means something more along the lines of "holy" people who have been set aside for the Master's use, and who stubbornly refuse to let sex distract them from God's will. It may even be that a married person could become part of that army... but the conditions would still be pretty strict.
Paul says to the Corinthians, "The time remains that those who have wives should be as though they had none." In other words, there may be an option for those who are married to still make it into the army, but the only way it could be done would be by very seriously and perhaps very literally forsaking their spouses. The Catholic Church has something along those lines, where a married man can become a priest by literally leaving his wife. The system in general is shocked by it, but the Catholics still do it. And I think that is just a small sample of what God is wanting us to do. What Paul said is echoed by Jesus when he says that no man can come after him unless he is willing to "hate" his wife.
This approach does not require people to justify themselves to any of their friends, colleagues, relatives, or other system "authorities". All of these people unanimously "despise authority"... whether it be a Christian’s, God's, or anyone's except their own. They are not convinced, as a true follower of Christ would be, that they have found the answer in the teachings of Jesus. They do not regard his teachings as the pearl of great price for which they would sell all that they own.
It doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t try to be friendly to these people, but it is important to remember: fence-sitters are never neutral, although they always pretend they are. In fact, they are usually the most dangerous of "friends". All of these people are governed by a social conscience, i.e. a need to be accepted in the eyes of others. Often, even their occasional niceties are carefully calculated to prove something to you, to each other, and/or to the system.
What the point is, is that people must at least be willing to cut their ties with all of these vestiges of respectability that each of their system and family friendships represents, and to spiritually disappear, if need be, into the great unknown in the way of all so-called "cults". It is the willingness of any group to cut all ties with their families and with the system that gets them labelled a cult in the first place; but it is this same willingness that makes them so effective. It may be time for others to discover the same effectiveness.
If the virgin army only includes those who have kept themselves from women (i.e. bachelors to the rapture) then all of these guys who are being led around by their wives are out before they even start. It may even mean that the remaining married couples are, at best, only going to be part of some kind of an army auxiliary, shouting encouragement to the rest of the army from the sidelines.
Nevertheless, if that is the standard, then that is what must be preached, and toward which we should aspire. It is only the grace of God that may allow some individuals to be part of the virgin army; but his grace will only be made available to those who are prepared to acknowledge what the standards at least should be. And those standards include forsaking spouses and children for Christ.
It's like what can happen with remarried divorcees. It may be okay for couples that had been remarried for many years to remain together, as long as they would teach that in principle, what they did was wrong, i.e. that they should not have remarried after being divorced. But often people just want to make the standard fit their own conduct rather than make their conduct (or at least the conduct of those whom they might influence) come closer to the standard; and so there may be a flat refusal to teach such a principle.
It is important that this does not happen with regard to the virgin army. If forsaking spouses and children is the standard, then so be it.
If it is understood that this concept of being "virgins" and being "separate from women" is part of a direction on a continuum, and something that spiritually reflects every area of our life, then we should be teaching it and doing all that we can to start practising it now. Whether or not we ever qualify for membership in the army ourselves, we "sons (and daughters) of God" need to be totally sold out to God the Father, so that no beguiling spirit (or spirit of Eve) can come between us and him. Those that are married should be as though they were not in this regard.
Such a doctrine can only be taught by recognising the legitimacy of masturbation. That's a vital key that has been left out by most people who teach celibacy. Because it has been left out, sexual hypocrisy and perversion has resulted. (Note: Even the anti-masturbation teaching is a product of the Jezebel influence in the churches, where mothers dictated what was right and wrong for their sons, rather than honest fathers.)
By accepting masturbation, married people can even accept being separated from their spouses for Christ. Being a virgin does not mean that you are asexual. But by practising masturbation, you do not have to let your sexual needs dictate your lifestyle. Our sexual needs are like many other biological needs... i.e. just biological. No one can stop going to the toilet for God, but it can be agreed upon to not do so in public (for example) without feeling that it is an impossible ethic to follow. And the same is true of sex. Ejaculation is a biological need, but it can be agreed upon to not engage in illegitimate sex, and agreed upon that it will not compromise a person in their spiritual walk.
So what about singles who may want to marry? It cannot be forbidden for any of them to marry, but if they do it’s very likely they will end up feeling more comfortable working with people who don’t have the vision for staying single in the end times. If you wish to grow quite literally toward the vision of being part of the virgin army, it means not being afraid of appearing to be cultish, which just ends up in your hands being tied spiritually. It would mean being controlled by the spirit of Jezebel, usually in the form of our own spouses.
This situation exists throughout all the churches, where there is hardly a leader anywhere who has control over his own family. The sin isn't that they are married, but that in the important spiritual decisions that these husbands must make, they are "defiled by women" (i.e. by their emotional dependence on their wives). Because they feel that they cannot live without their wives, they become wimps for God. Under such conditions, they cannot do anything but teach that rebellious wives must be tolerated by the rest of the community.
This is not about hating women. But the devil is always going to take the one you love most and use that person to pull you away from God. And this should not be tolerated.
If someone wants to insist that they bring their spouse into line, they are going to be faced with the possibility that their spouse will refuse to have sex with them, or leave them if they try to take a hard line with them, and that is when they will find out both what their spouses are made of and what they are made of.
While operating under some perverted doctrine of grace, where no demands need to be made on spouses, it will never be clear what they are capable of spiritually. But when the law of God is laid down, they are either going to submit and become true followers of Christ, or they are going to rebel and show themselves to be agents of the devil.
Certainly if any one is considering marriage, it would be a lot easier to lay the law down to begin with, when rebellion from the potential spouse will leave the person open to marry someone else some day, or better still, to be part of the virgin army.
Just ruling marriage out as a recommended option does not rule it out as a possibility. But, as St. Paul said, that people who get married are going to be faced with incredible temptations that will very likely make them pretty much ineffectual for God.
It may be that, in some hypothetical situation, God himself could actually encourage a person to get married. But if that is true, then it is up to God to make it clear. The instructions we have from scripture are that it's better to stay single, and we should discourage marriage as a general principle.
If you can't handle being single, then go ahead, but, as Paul said, there are going to be problems.
In the meantime, rather than looking for potential marriage partners, why not go looking for more people who are committed to staying single for God, to add to the army. For they are the ones who are going to make the Virgin Army cult most effective!
God bless you!
The seventh chapter of The Revelation (about the army of 144,000 people) has, like so much of The Revelation, been ignored by most Christians on the basis that it could be misinterpreted by fanatics to make them think they are part of the army and others are not. How silly!
At the very least, we need to take more seriously the lessons which are implied in the overall passage, since they probably will relate to us at some time in the future. We shouldn't just tear that chapter out of the Bible because it may be misunderstood.
What lessons are these?
For starters, there is the fact that these 144,000 people are "virgins" "which were not defiled with women". There is a liberal, highly spiritualised interpretation of this passage. In the same way that there are with other passages in the New Testament about celibacy, suggesting that people could be married without it affecting their ability to work for God, so long as they didn't have children. There is truth in both of these more spiritualised teachings, which will be looked at in a bit more detail later in this study.
One danger with these teachings is that couples can use them to avoid other parts of the Bible that are much clearer about our need to forsake our spouses and children for God. And, having taken that first step, to get married, it would not be a big surprise for them to fall away from literal obedience to just about anything else that Jesus taught.
There isn’t any point in forbidding marriage (as the Catholics do for their leaders), since the Bible teaches that such a doctrine is wrong. But we should be doing what the Bible does, and be fairly certain about telling people where marriage is likely to lead them. Chances are that, if a single who is fully dedicated to God gets married, they will not continue to be such a radical 100% sold-out red-hot warrior for Christ. It doesn't have to be that way, but, there is a good chance that will be the outcome.
This thought could re-enforce the notion that the army of 144,000 may in fact be literally virgins, who have kept themselves from women. I would still question the "virginity" thing a bit as a literal condition that excludes for life anyone who has ever had sex. It probably means something more along the lines of "holy" people who have been set aside for the Master's use, and who stubbornly refuse to let sex distract them from God's will. It may even be that a married person could become part of that army... but the conditions would still be pretty strict.
Paul says to the Corinthians, "The time remains that those who have wives should be as though they had none." In other words, there may be an option for those who are married to still make it into the army, but the only way it could be done would be by very seriously and perhaps very literally forsaking their spouses. The Catholic Church has something along those lines, where a married man can become a priest by literally leaving his wife. The system in general is shocked by it, but the Catholics still do it. And I think that is just a small sample of what God is wanting us to do. What Paul said is echoed by Jesus when he says that no man can come after him unless he is willing to "hate" his wife.
This approach does not require people to justify themselves to any of their friends, colleagues, relatives, or other system "authorities". All of these people unanimously "despise authority"... whether it be a Christian’s, God's, or anyone's except their own. They are not convinced, as a true follower of Christ would be, that they have found the answer in the teachings of Jesus. They do not regard his teachings as the pearl of great price for which they would sell all that they own.
It doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t try to be friendly to these people, but it is important to remember: fence-sitters are never neutral, although they always pretend they are. In fact, they are usually the most dangerous of "friends". All of these people are governed by a social conscience, i.e. a need to be accepted in the eyes of others. Often, even their occasional niceties are carefully calculated to prove something to you, to each other, and/or to the system.
What the point is, is that people must at least be willing to cut their ties with all of these vestiges of respectability that each of their system and family friendships represents, and to spiritually disappear, if need be, into the great unknown in the way of all so-called "cults". It is the willingness of any group to cut all ties with their families and with the system that gets them labelled a cult in the first place; but it is this same willingness that makes them so effective. It may be time for others to discover the same effectiveness.
If the virgin army only includes those who have kept themselves from women (i.e. bachelors to the rapture) then all of these guys who are being led around by their wives are out before they even start. It may even mean that the remaining married couples are, at best, only going to be part of some kind of an army auxiliary, shouting encouragement to the rest of the army from the sidelines.
Nevertheless, if that is the standard, then that is what must be preached, and toward which we should aspire. It is only the grace of God that may allow some individuals to be part of the virgin army; but his grace will only be made available to those who are prepared to acknowledge what the standards at least should be. And those standards include forsaking spouses and children for Christ.
It's like what can happen with remarried divorcees. It may be okay for couples that had been remarried for many years to remain together, as long as they would teach that in principle, what they did was wrong, i.e. that they should not have remarried after being divorced. But often people just want to make the standard fit their own conduct rather than make their conduct (or at least the conduct of those whom they might influence) come closer to the standard; and so there may be a flat refusal to teach such a principle.
It is important that this does not happen with regard to the virgin army. If forsaking spouses and children is the standard, then so be it.
If it is understood that this concept of being "virgins" and being "separate from women" is part of a direction on a continuum, and something that spiritually reflects every area of our life, then we should be teaching it and doing all that we can to start practising it now. Whether or not we ever qualify for membership in the army ourselves, we "sons (and daughters) of God" need to be totally sold out to God the Father, so that no beguiling spirit (or spirit of Eve) can come between us and him. Those that are married should be as though they were not in this regard.
Such a doctrine can only be taught by recognising the legitimacy of masturbation. That's a vital key that has been left out by most people who teach celibacy. Because it has been left out, sexual hypocrisy and perversion has resulted. (Note: Even the anti-masturbation teaching is a product of the Jezebel influence in the churches, where mothers dictated what was right and wrong for their sons, rather than honest fathers.)
By accepting masturbation, married people can even accept being separated from their spouses for Christ. Being a virgin does not mean that you are asexual. But by practising masturbation, you do not have to let your sexual needs dictate your lifestyle. Our sexual needs are like many other biological needs... i.e. just biological. No one can stop going to the toilet for God, but it can be agreed upon to not do so in public (for example) without feeling that it is an impossible ethic to follow. And the same is true of sex. Ejaculation is a biological need, but it can be agreed upon to not engage in illegitimate sex, and agreed upon that it will not compromise a person in their spiritual walk.
So what about singles who may want to marry? It cannot be forbidden for any of them to marry, but if they do it’s very likely they will end up feeling more comfortable working with people who don’t have the vision for staying single in the end times. If you wish to grow quite literally toward the vision of being part of the virgin army, it means not being afraid of appearing to be cultish, which just ends up in your hands being tied spiritually. It would mean being controlled by the spirit of Jezebel, usually in the form of our own spouses.
This situation exists throughout all the churches, where there is hardly a leader anywhere who has control over his own family. The sin isn't that they are married, but that in the important spiritual decisions that these husbands must make, they are "defiled by women" (i.e. by their emotional dependence on their wives). Because they feel that they cannot live without their wives, they become wimps for God. Under such conditions, they cannot do anything but teach that rebellious wives must be tolerated by the rest of the community.
This is not about hating women. But the devil is always going to take the one you love most and use that person to pull you away from God. And this should not be tolerated.
If someone wants to insist that they bring their spouse into line, they are going to be faced with the possibility that their spouse will refuse to have sex with them, or leave them if they try to take a hard line with them, and that is when they will find out both what their spouses are made of and what they are made of.
While operating under some perverted doctrine of grace, where no demands need to be made on spouses, it will never be clear what they are capable of spiritually. But when the law of God is laid down, they are either going to submit and become true followers of Christ, or they are going to rebel and show themselves to be agents of the devil.
Certainly if any one is considering marriage, it would be a lot easier to lay the law down to begin with, when rebellion from the potential spouse will leave the person open to marry someone else some day, or better still, to be part of the virgin army.
Just ruling marriage out as a recommended option does not rule it out as a possibility. But, as St. Paul said, that people who get married are going to be faced with incredible temptations that will very likely make them pretty much ineffectual for God.
It may be that, in some hypothetical situation, God himself could actually encourage a person to get married. But if that is true, then it is up to God to make it clear. The instructions we have from scripture are that it's better to stay single, and we should discourage marriage as a general principle.
If you can't handle being single, then go ahead, but, as Paul said, there are going to be problems.
In the meantime, rather than looking for potential marriage partners, why not go looking for more people who are committed to staying single for God, to add to the army. For they are the ones who are going to make the Virgin Army cult most effective!
God bless you!