Chapter Nineteen/Sealing the Israel of God - The Israel of God Today

 Interestingly, the first president of the Watch Tower Society, Charles T. Russell, recognized the 144,000 to be a literal number of individuals making up a spiritual Israel. In the New Creation, Volume VI of his Studies in the Scriptures, published in 1904, he wrote: "We have every reason to believe that the definite number of the elect [chosen anointed ones] is that several times stated in Revelation (7:4; 14:1); namely, 144,000 'redeemed from amongst men.'" In Light, Book one, published in 1930 by the Watch Tower Society's second president, J. F. Rutherford, it was likewise stated: "The 144,000 members of the body of Christ are thus in that assembly shown as selected an anointed, or sealed." Jehovah's Witnesses have constantly held to the view that literally 144,000 anointed Christians make up spiritual Israel. 

Nevertheless, does not natural Israel today merit some special favor? In the period just prior to the Lord's day, when sincere  Bible students were rediscovering many of the basic truths of God's Word, it was thought that with the ending of the Gentile Times the Jews would again enjoy a privileged standing before God. Thus, C.T. Russell's book The Time Is At Hand (Volume II of Studies in the Scriptures), published in 1889, applied Jeremiah 31:29-34 to the natural Jews, and commented: "The world is witness to the fact that Israel's punishment under the dominion of the Gentiles has been continuous since B.C. [607], that it still continues, and that there is no reason to expect their national re-organization sooner than A.D.1914, the limit of their seven times' -2520 years." It seemed that the Jews would then experience a nation restoration, and this prospect apparently brightened in 1917, when the Balfour Declaration pledged British support for making Palestine a national home for Jews. 

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