Saturday, February 24, 2007

A Hundred and Forty Four Thousand of Israel

The great commission was given to Jews to be witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). And according to The Valley Church, we may have a part in bringing it to completion by putting “tools in the hands of a hundred and forty four thousand of Israel.”

A ministry God has given to Valley Church. … The thing that will bring individuals to Jesus Christ after the church is gone is what we leave behind. … Sure there will be men out trying to destroy them. … Who’s to know where a little pocket size cassette may go? … Can the Anti-Christ and his forces go into every nook and cranny? … Sure, they can recognize a Bible. … Certainly, Satan and all his forces can’t listen to all the tapes … such a great opportunity as the opportunity that we can have to leave behind even if the church is raptured today … We have over twelve hundred tapes setting out in that library … and after the church is raptured, some of you who have been witnessing to people in the community … [They will] probably storm that door to find out what kind of a message it was. … Some of those people may listen to tapes and find Jesus Christ. ... Maybe this one. … We have today one of the most fantastic opportunities to get this message out to all quarters, and then leave it behind when we are raptured so it can be perpetuated through seven years of awful tribulation. … There will be a hundred and forty four thousand of Israel that will be spared. Most of the rest... will die. … We may be able to put tools in the hands of a hundred and forty four thousand of Israel right here (The Valley Church, emphasis added).23
There are some of course who have claimed that we are the one hundred and forty four thousand. … It is very necessary that we recognize this to be literal as we see it here in the book of revelation. One hundred and forty four thousand could not be a representative number for we have the hundred and forty four thousand divided very carefully into twelve thousand from each of twelve tribes of the nation of Israel specifically named by God. And when they were named in the Old Testament, no one doubted that they were literal. But when they are named here in the book of Revelation, a great many people try to say … there must be some spiritual meaning to this rather than taking it in its natural form that which God intended… The Greek is very clear, it should be taken literal (The Valley Church, emphasis added).24
When Gentiles come to Christ, Jews get jealous. … And some of the remnant of the people of Israel were seeing this and seeing the reality in the lives of those people and the result was that they were turning to Jesus Christ and proving that they were a remnant according to God’s choice. And someday the day will come, particularly at the rapture when people are caught up to meet the Lord in the air, the church is gone and the Jews say: you know, that should have been us. One hundred and forty four thousand will be saved in a day and become evangelist during a seven year period of the tribulation… and their immediate result will be that they will be a blessing to the world. But it all came because the Jews rejected and the Gentiles didn’t. So the Jews were a blessing to the Gentiles in giving them the gospel, because when they rejected it, it went to the Gentiles. The blessing of God that was theirs went to another, and having gone to another, now that same blessing is going to come back to the Jews and then together there is going to be a great movement of the Spirit of God (The Valley Church, emphasis added).25

23The Valley Church, The Dispensation of Judgment, 11/10/74, (audio tape).
24The Valley Church, Salvation of a Multitude, 11/24/74, (audio tape).
25The Valley Church, Let’s Make People Jealous of Jesus, 3/8/87, (audio tape).

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