While on a missionary trip in the Near East, the writer, in company with another brother, attended a Seventh-Day Adventist service in Bucharest, Roumania. After the sermon another brother requested that we be given the opportunity to speak a little, but the request was absolutely refused. It was explained that we would say nothing against them or their work but only speak about salvation; but we were not permitted even to testify in a few words. The difficulty was that we did not have either the "mark of the beast" or its "name."
CHAPTER XIV.
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.
2. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
3. And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
4. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
5. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.
There is no difficulty in identifying this company on Mount Sion as the true people of God in marked contrast with the worshipers of all corrupt and false religion. As to the chronology of the event, it is evident that we have here a continuation of the same series of prophecy beginning with the apostolic period in [chapter XII], describing alternately the true church and the false church.
At the beginning of this series the true church, symbolized by the star-crowned woman, fled into the wilderness and was there lost to view; while the leopard beast and the two-horned beast of [chapter XIII], symbolizing the two leading forms of organized Christianity, were brought into prominent view. It is therefore fitting that the true church should again appear and be given her proper position and work in the world before the end of all earthly things.
That the company here brought to view represents the true church is shown by its agreement with the church of God before the apostasy began. In the seventh chapter we have seen that before the political calamities befell the Western Roman Empire the work of sealing God's servants was accomplished, twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes of Israel being sealed, thus representing symbolically the fact that God's church, comprising the true Israel, was perfect and complete, no part being omitted. In the chapter under consideration we have this divine sealing process again after the apostasy, and once more the definite number 144,000 occurs, showing that the church before the end is to be perfect and complete.
The contrast of this company with the ecclesiastical powers in the preceding chapter proclaims in an unmistakeable manner the fact that we have here described a true reformation and work of God before the end of time. In the morning-time of the dispensation the redeemed of earth were represented as singing praises to Christ; so also the company here brought to view unite in singing a song which only the redeemed can know. This company is on Mount Sion, not in the darkness of the wilderness, they are with the Lamb, not wandering after the beast; they are not even following the beast that was "like a lamb," but they are with the true Lamb, the Savior of the world; they have the "Father's name written in their foreheads," not the mark or the name of the beast. It is said of them that "these are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins." Fornication and adultery, as will be explained later, is a symbol of spiritual idolatry; and the chastity of this redeemed company shows that they were free from the abominations of the apostasy. They "follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." Their names are in the book of life, and they do not worship the beast. Chap. [13:8].