A Multitudinous Great Crowd

Having described the sealing of 144,000, John goes on to report one of the most exciting revelations in all Scripture. His heart must have leaped with joy as he reported it, saying: "After these things I saw, and, Look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes; and there were palm branches in their hands." (Revelation 7:9) Yes, the holding back of the four winds allows for the salvation of another group besides the 144,000 members of spiritual Israel: a multi-language, international great crowd. -Revelation 7;1.

Worldly commentators have interpreted this great crowd to be fleshly non-Jews converted to Christianity or to be heaven-bound Christian martyrs. Even the Bible Students in the past regarded them as a secondary heavenly class, as noted in 1886 in Volume I of Studies in the Scriptures, The Divine Plan of the Ages: "They lose the prize of the throne and the divine nature, but will finally reach birth as spirit beings of an order lower than the divine nature. Though these are truly consecrated, they are overcome by the worldly spirit to such an extent that they fail to render their lives in sacrifice." And as late as 1930, the thought was expressed in Light Book One:"Those who make up this great crowd fail to respond to the invitation to become the zealous witnesses for the Lord." They were described as a self-righteous group that has a knowledge of the truth but did little about preaching it. They were to get to heaven as a secondary class that would not share in reigning with Christ.

There were, however, other associates of the anointed Christians who later became most zealous in the preaching work. They had no aspirations of going to heaven. Indeed, their hope was in line with the title of a public talk featured by Jehovah's people from 1918 to 1922. Originally, this was "The World Has Ended-Millions Now Living Will Never Die." Soon thereafter, the Watch Tower magazine of October 15, 1923, explained Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46), stating: "Sheep represent all the peoples of the Nations, not spirit-begotten but disposed toward righteousness, who mentally acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Lord and who are looking for and hoping for a better time under his reign."

Some years later, in 1931, Vindication, Book One, discussed Ezekiel chapter 9, identifying those persons marked on the forehead for preservation at the world's end as the sheep of the above parable. Vindication, Book Three, released in 1932, described the upright heart attitude of the non-Israelite man Jehonadab, who joined Israel's anointed King Jehu in his chariot and went along to see Jehu's zeal in executing false religionists. (2 Kings 10;15-17) The book commented: "Jehonadab represented or foreshadowed that class of people now on the earth during the time that the Jehu work [of declaring Jehovah's judgments] is in progress who are of good will, are out of harmony with Satan's organization, who take their stand on the side of righteousness, and are the ones whom the Lord will preserve during the time of Armageddon, take them through that trouble, and give them everlasting life on the earth. These constitute the 'sheep class." In 1934 the Watchtower made it clear that these Christians with earthly hopes should make a dedication to Jehovah and be baptized. The light regarding this earthly class was shining ever brighter. -Proverbs 4:18

The understanding of Revelation 7:9-17 was not about to burst forth in all its sparkling brilliance! (Psalm 97:11) The Watchtower magazine had repeatedly expressed the hope that a convention scheduled for May 30 to June 3, 1935, in Washington D.C., U.S.A., would be "a real comfort and benefit" to those pictured by Jehonadab. That it proved to be! In a stirring talk on "The Great Multitude, " delivered to about 20,000 conventioneers, J.F. Rutherford, president of the Watch Tower Society, gave Scriptural proof that the modern-day other sheep are identical with that great crowd of Revelation 7;9. At the climax of this talk, the speaker asked: "Will all those who have the hope of living forever on the earth please stand?" As a large part of the audience stood up, the president declared: "Behold! the great multitude!" There was a hush, followed by thunderous cheering. How elated was the John class-and also the Jehonadab group! On the following day, 840 new Witnesses were baptized, most of these professing to be that of the great crowd.

Next time: Confirming The Identity Of The Great Crowd