These 144,000 appear nowhere else in the Bible. We have very few words to work with, but let us use what we have. The Lord and the 144,000 stand on Mount Zion. Mount Zion can be seen as Jerusalem or the Temple Mount. In reality, Mount Zion is more important as a concept or ideology, and because it is a concept, it is not necessarily in Israel. The 144,000 appear not only before the tribulation but also before the fall of Babylon the Great. Who are they, are they to come, or are they already here? Revelations says they are Israelites. The Israelites were scattered over much of the world, so it could be anyone. But let us have a brief look at what happened to them. They were taken into exile around 800 BC by the Assyrians. The Bible says they went to the northern regions of the Assyrian Empire. The records of the Assyrians say the majority were sent to a northern region that was unpopulated. The mountainous area around where Georgia is today. A bit farther north than what the Bible says. At this stage, people were just settling into Italy, as Rome was founded at the same time. They had not spread far. There were probably 60 million people in total at that time, and around 4 million were Israelites. As the nations spread out, this 6-odd percent of the world's population was a reasonable number and would have led to large areas of the world's population today tracing their heritage back to Israel. They were still God's people, and they would have been blessed beyond others. There could easily be 20% or more of the world's population with Israelite heritage. Using old records and linguistics, they have been able to give us some idea of concentration areas. Ephraim and England, Manasseh and the USA, Issachar and Russia, Naphtali and Scandinavia. There are stories handed down through generations about how Ruben went east and ended up in the China, Korea/Japan area. The twist is that there is no one from the tribe of Dan. Dan has been replaced by Manasseh, while Ephraim comes under Joseph. Why? This does that not fit into the criteria of this essay? However, there is plenty of information on the Internet. In conclusion, you can see that the whole world has the potential to provide saints for the 144,000. They appear in Revelations 7 and 14, and we can glean some information. I cannot find any other reference to the 144,000 except in Revelations.

The 144,000 appear after the great calm, and there was a period of calm in the 1950s, so we should see the first of them arising in the 1960s, with a few in the late 1950s. Who are they? There is more about them in Revelation 14, but among the first was a person called Hal Lindsay. The reason for this is to come.