Related commentaries –

Will any be saved during the tribulation? – Revelation 7:1 – 7:8

Misappropriated Scripture

In their earlier days, the group known as Jehovah’s Witnesses claimed they constituted the144,000. They misappropriated this Scripture and applied it to themselves, though they are not Jews and never were. They ran into difficulty, however, when the group grew beyond 144,000. They did not know what to do with the leftovers, so they started another category of 144,000. They taught there was an earthly band of 144,000 and a heavenly band, and if you believed their doctrines in the early decades of this century you could belong to the heavenly band. But now, again, they have a problem because they number more than 288,000 today, so they have created still a third band called “the servant band.” If you join the Jehovah’s Witnesses today you must come in at the servant level. That is just one example of the many ways people can twist Scripture to make it fit their own program. (Lou Nicholes, Author and Missionary).