Someone told me that it says in the Bible that only 440,000 peope who ever lived will be saved. Is this true?

Answer 1

No - it is not in the bible.

Answer 2

According to Jehovah witness doctrine, they believe that. It will be people from their belief system.

It is mentioned in the bible about 144,000 male virgins that make up a heavenly choir in Revelations 14:1-5.

In Rev.7:!-4 it mentions 144,000 servant of God from the tribe of Israel.

No where is it mentioned about just 440,000 people who ever lived will be saved.

Answer 3

You are probably referring to the number of 144,000 mentioned in the symbolic book of Revelation. In Revelation, this is a number given for a special group of 'the twelve tribes of Israel'. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that only 144,000 people will be 'saved', and nowhere does it say that only 144,000 people will go to heaven. In fact after speaking of the 144,000 it mentions another group, a great multitude of people serving God in his heavenly temple who also came from the earth, out of the great tribulation.

Besides the 144,000 kings and priests of the twelve tribes of Israel, Revelation 5:9, 10 shows that people of all nations, not just from Israel, will rule as kings and priests. Of course, the book of Revelation is open to interpretation being written in signs and symbols. Nevertheless, you can read the Bible cover to cover and you will not find any Scripture that limits the number of people going to heaven to 144,000,

Answer 4

I can tell you exactly who told you that. It was a Witness of Jehovah.

That particular 'belief-system(*)' now counts in excess of four million world-wide. And out of those 4,000,000 only 144,000 of their 'believers' have been saved. I think that is kind of sad, especially since that number was filled in the early nineteen-hundreds when they were still being called "Russellites." In other words, whoever told you about the 144,000 cannot possibly be included in that number. And he is still trying to recruit new members--amazing!

Of course, they have arrived at that exact number of 144,000 through faulty theology. They see the number mentioned in Revelation as an exact number without understanding that Revelation is apocalyptic literature. This literature uses much symbolism and imagery to arrive at a 'revelation.' To interpret apocalyptic literature, you have to understand the symbolism. Jehovah's Witnesses fancy themselves as experts in the Book of Revelation. During their short history they have several times professed to know and predict the exact date and time of the End of the World. Now they have developed collective amnesia concerning their predictions which failed to come true!

But I digress; getting back to the 144,000. That is a number correctly arrived at by using the following formula:

144 to the thousandth power. You see, to the early Christians, the number 1,000 was the ultimate number representing not an actual amount but an infinite, un-countable number. There were Twelve Tribes of Israel and to the Jews and early Christians, twelve was the number of God, the perfect number. When you multiply the twelve tribes of Israel, times God's perfect number, twelve, you get 144. Then multiple that by the infinite number and you get 144,000--a number too large to count. That is how many are destined to be Saved--an infinite number, not a paltry 144,000.

I hope this helps and gives you some peace of mind. You don't have to be a JW to be saved. If you want to know more about the JWs, I strongly recommend you read: THE INCREDIBLE CREED OF THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES, availble for about three bucks from any bookstore that carries Tan Books out of Rockford, IL.

Best,

H

(*)I said 'belief-system' because JWs claim they have no religious or government affiliations and answer only to: "Jehovah-God."

Answer 5

No, that is not true. What it says is that God has His angels set aside 144,000 Jews to be special messengers to the world after the Tribulation starts. The Jehovah Witnesses somehow decided it was them. The bible very specifically says it is 12,000 out of each of the 12 Tribes of Israel. That is Revelation 7, immediately after that, there is a great multitude out of every nation, tribe, and tongue that is standing before the throne. That is God's church. Don't ever pay any attention to anyone that tries to tell you God has a set number of people in heaven. God says" Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" Whosoever means me, you, anyone who trusts in Jesus to save them.

Answer 6

That must have been a Jehovah's Witness, and the number is 144,000.... that comes from Revelations. JW's totally disregard the theory of grace, and believe they must earn their way into heaven, being one of the 144K. Trouble is, they think it is for all time. So how do you know where you stand? You dont'! What if the person next to you has brought more people into the JW church that you? Are they ahead of you in the line for hte 144K?! It's just ridiculous.

So no, it's not true. The Bible tells us to "believe in your hearts adn confess w/ your lips that Jesus is Lord, and you will be saved." Period. There's room for everyone.

Answer 7

NO.

The quote is 144,000.
They are Jews and they are men.
12,000 from each tribe of Israel.
The men are virgins also.
You can read about them in the book of revelation. Chapter 7 and chapter 14.

This is what is going to happen after the Church is departed.
That is to say, the true Christians.

The word picture that shows the church leaving is Revelation 4:1,2.
John is the picture of the church.
It is the rapture taking place.

Answer 8

No.
It talks of the 12 tribes of ISRAEL, the number is 144,000.
The J.W.'s are convinced that only 144,000 will get into Heaven.
But this verse (Revelation 7:4) only talks of the twelve tribes of ISRAEL.
So if they are all that is going to get into Heaven, why do the rest of us even bother.
I believe, that by giving your life over to CHRIST, you get into heaven.
Believe in HIM that is the ticket.
I think I hate it here.
I wish it were like some of those movies, where you can create your own paradise.
But truly we can allready do that here, we/ I just seem to get hung up in all the worldly stuff all the time.

Answer 9

No, that is decidedly un-true. In the bible book of Revelation, it speaks of only 144,000 people being given the gift of heavenly life by God. It says they will rule in heaven alongside Jesus Christ as "kings and priests". Rule over whom? Well, the bible says that the other will be here forever and the meek will reside on it forever. Remember from the book of Genesis that when God created man, he put them right here on earth with the purpose of making the earth a paradise and filling it with perfect people who would live forever. God's purpose has not changed....there WILL be a paradise right here on earth and it will be filled with perfect humans to enjoy the life God wanted us to enjoy.

There was no provision in mankind's beginning for them to live on earth a short time and then go to heaven. If that would be the case, it was pointless for God to put them here on earth. No, God decided for himself to give a gift of heavenly life to those whom HE selected. These days preachers and churches will try and say that anyone who accepts the Lord and lives a good life will go to heaven when they die. That's not the case at all. GOD determines who is given heavenly life.

Since man's beginning and even through today, there have been a great many more than simply 440,000 who have lived and died faithful to God. In fact, Jesus Christ called the 144,000 (who go to heaven) a "little flock", because in contrast with the millions or billions who will be living on earth forever, it is a very small number.

Also, Revelation does not specify that these 144,000 would be literal Jews or that they come from the fleshly twelve tribes of Israel? Why can this be said? Well if you read through Revelation 7:4-8, it shows that it cannot be the tribes of natural Israel because there never was a tribe of Joseph, the tribes of Ephraim and Dan are not included in the list here, and the Levites were set aside for service in connection with the temple but were not reckoned as one of the 12 tribes. Rather this group would be made up of members of the "Israel of God", which was made up of some members of literal Israel, but also members of people of the nations (Gentiles as it were) once God cast off his favor from the literal nation of Israel forever when his Son was killed.

Those with a serious reading comprehension problem will try and say that the Bible doesn't specify the 144,000 as only the ones who will go to heaven. Those ones, are, categorically incorrect. Revelation 14 specifies these 144,000 as ones that were "bought from the earth" - in other words, only this little group of ones are literally taken from the earth to be given heavenly life. The "great crowd" mentioned shortly thereafter refers to those with an earthly hope, to fulfill God's original purpose for the earth to fill it with perfect humans who will live forever in paradise.

Answer 10

Yes. the number is 144,000 and it is from the book of Revelation. But Revelation is a highly symbolic book written about a dream so it's hard to say what if anything it means to us.

Answer 11

it is 144,000... but these are not the only ones to be saved..... they are selected out from the 12 tribes of Israel to spread the gospel to the world in the time of the tribulation. They are young people who are pure of heart.