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Author	: Bill Kochman
Publish	: Dec. 16, 1998
Update	: Jun. 14, 2025
Parts	: 03

Synopsis:




When I authored the original version of this series back in December of 1998, I was of a very different mindset than I am twenty-six years later today. As I explain in other BBB articles, including in "Jesus Christ's Return: Have We Been Deceived?" and "Fight Against Futurism!", back then I very strongly embraced a doctrinal belief system -- that is, a theological perspective -- which is commonly referred to as Futurism.

For those of you who may have never heard of this word, and who thus may not fully understand what Futurism is, in the simplest of terms, it is a doctrine and belief system which takes ancient, already-fulfilled prophecies, and places them in our current time, as if they have not been fulfilled yet.

One of the core beliefs behind Futurism is the belief that the return of Jesus Christ will occur at some point in the near future. But even saying "near future" is a subjective phrase, the reason being that there are a lot of different points of view within Futurism. As a result, when someone states that Jesus will return soon, it is actually wise to inquire of such a person exactly what they mean, because for some of them, "soon" is a matter of days, while for others, it could really mean weeks, months or even years. That in itself is one of the deceptions of Futurism, because due to its flexibility, a person who promotes Futurism has a layer of protection, so that it can be challenging to prove them wrong. Just ask them what they mean by "soon", and you will see exactly what I mean.

At any rate, it is upon this core belief in the near future return of Jesus Christ that a number of other beliefs are based. Most notable among these are those which concern the exact timing of such events as the theorized construction of a third Jewish temple in Jerusalem, the signing of the Holy Covenant, the rise of the Beast and the False Prophet, the appearance of the Two Sackcloth Witnesses in Jerusalem, the Great Tribulation, the 144,000, the Mark of the Beast, the destruction of Babylon the Great, the Battle of Armageddon, and the Rapture. The Futurist-leaning interpretation of all of these events form a part of this widely-accepted belief system.

As I said a moment ago, twenty-six years ago when I penned the original version of this article, I was a rather solid Futurist, and there was no way that anyone could convince me to believe otherwise. I had the very same expectations as so many other Christians. I embraced the same beliefs as many of my Christian friends still do today. I earnestly clung to the firm belief that many of the events I just mentioned to you were future events, and not past, fulfilled events. Most importantly, I enthusiastically awaited the return of Jesus Christ during my lifetime with eagerness and anticipation. Furthermore, I preached Futurism quite fervently to others for forty-two years of my adult Christian life.

However, then, as I explain in "Jesus Christ's Return: Have We Been Deceived?", in 2011-2012, the Lord just began to shake up my Futurist beliefs, and challenge me by showing me verses which seemed to contradict what I had so fervently believed for so many years of my life. You can read about it more in the aforementioned series. The end result is that I was forced to make a complete U-turn in my belief system, and totally re-evaluate everything I had believed regarding Bible prophecy up until that point.

One of the byproducts of that major theological shift in my personal thinking, is that I had to begin the very lengthy process of going back and re-reading all of my BBB Bible articles and series which had been written up until that point, and editing each one of them accordingly, so that they conform to my current beliefs. Thus, after I had written "Jesus Christ's Return: Have We Been Deceived?" in 2016, in which I fully explained how and why I had made such a dramatic shift in my thinking, I began to update all of my other articles and series where I discuss Bible prophecy to some degree.

My friends, that is precisely what I have been slowly doing ever since that year, and I am still far from done, because this is a one-man ministry, I am getting old, my health is in a slow decline, and I just have so many different things that I need to do with the BBB ministry. In other words, in addition to updating all of my old articles, I am constantly writing new articles, creating new graphics, composing new poetry and songs, compiling new KJV Bible Verse Lists, and keeping busy posting on the social networks. It is a lot for an old guy like me, so your prayers are much appreciated.

But, thank the Lord! Alas, after so many years, I am finally getting around to updating this series called "The Woman in the Wilderness and the 144,000". My friends, believe me when I say that it is long overdue, because what I stated in the original version of this article back in 1998 was wrong, sad to say. So as I said earlier, the 144,000 and the woman in the wilderness are two of the events which Futurists claim to be hinged on a future return of Jesus Christ.

Now, if you were to ask a Futurist who the 144,000 are, the common answer which you will probably receive is that they represent 144,000 Jews/Israelis who will come to know Jesus Christ during the three-and-a-half-year-long, or perhaps the seven-year-long -- depending on who you want to believe -- Great Tribulation. Supposedly, these 144,000 Jews will then proceed to evangelize the world. The common belief regarding why this will become necessary, seems to be that based on a widely-held misunderstanding regarding the phrase "Come up hither" which we find in Revelation 4:1, the Church will no longer be on the Earth, having been taken up in the Rapture, prior to the beginning of the Great Tribulation. Consider the following verse:

"After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter."


Now, if you had asked me if I believed this a dozen years ago, I would have probably agreed with it to some degree. Not so anymore, my friends. So let us begin to set things straight, shall we?

As some of my readers will know, in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, we find a sermon that was given by Jesus which is commonly referred to as the Olivet Discourse, being as Jesus shared this extremely important message with His followers as they sat on the Mount of Olives, which overlooks the city of Jerusalem across the Kidron Valley. This sermon resulted from the Lord's followers asking Him a two-pointed question: When would He return, and when would the end of the age occur, as we see by these verses:

"And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?"


The next thing we need to do is to see how Jesus responded to their inquiry. The very next three verses in Matthew 24 state as follows:

"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet."


Thus began Jesus' explanation regarding all of the dreadful events which would occur prior to His return to the Earth. Now, for those of you who are wondering why my explanation is beginning at this point, instead of digging straight into the Book of Revelation where the 144,000 and the woman in the wilderness are mentioned, it's for a very simple reason. The fact of the matter -- as I have explained before -- is that the prophecies of Daniel, Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21 and the Book of Revelation focus on some of the same events. Thus, for us to properly understand Bible prophecy, it is important that we see the links between these books, as well as their links to the actual historical record.

There are two important things which you need to understand from the previous sets of verses. First of all, as I explain in "Jesus Christ's Return: Have We Been Deceived?", there is a translational error in the AKJV version of the Holy Bible. Yes, I can already hear some of you KJV extremists groaning. But the truth of the matter is that whereas the KJV Bible states "end of the world", some other Bibles state "end of the age", and rightly so.

Why do I say this? Well, to begin with, the Koine Greek word which is used in the previous verse is "aion". According to Thayer's Greek English Lexicon, the primary meaning of the word "aion" is a period of time, or an age. The word "aion" can also refer to perpetuity of time and eternity. In all cases, it primarily concerns units of time. In fact, as you may have already figured out, it is from this Greek word that we likewise derive our English word "eon". We all know what an eon is. It is a very long period of time, right?

There is another Koine Greek word which is also translated as "world" in the New Testament of the KJV Bible. That is the word "kosmos". This word is primarily concerned with the physical planet, or with the inhabitants of the Earth, or with the governments of the world. It can also refer to the Earth as a whole, or even the universe. It is from this word that we derive English words such as cosmos, cosmology and cosmopolitan. But what I find so interesting here is that Matthew 24:3 does NOT use "kosmos". It uses "aion". So what does this mean? It means that the Apostles did NOT ask Jesus when the end of the world would occur. They asked Him when the end of the age would occur.

If you require a more thorough explanation than what I have provided here, then I again invite you to read my seven-part series "Jesus Christ's Return: Have We Been Deceived?". The second thing to which I wish to draw your attention is the fact that in Matthew 24:6 above, Jesus says "but the end is not yet." So the Lord mentions a few signs, and then He says this. Thus, we have the Apostles asking when the end of the age will occur, and then we have Jesus sharing a few of the signs and then saying the end is not yet. So the question we need to ask ourselves is what in the world age are they all talking about?

As I clearly explain in some of my other Bill's Bible Basic articles, when Jesus says "the end is not yet", I'm inclined to believe that He is actually referring to the end of TWO things. First is the end of the prophetic age of Daniel. In other words, the conclusion of the Seventy Weeks prophecy of Daniel which consisted of seventy seven-year periods, for a total of four hundred and ninety years in all. So Jesus is talking about the end of that 490-year period, or prophetic age.

The second event that Jesus is talking about is the end of the coming First Jewish-Roman War, which concluded that same prophetic age. The end of that war and that age culminated in a very major event. If you don't know or understand what that event was, then I again refer you to the aforementioned series. Please remember that it was based on those two very questions in the aforementioned three chapters -- Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 -- that the Lord shared this astounding information with His Disciples. By the way, if you truly want to get into the nitty gritty of the First Jewish-Roman War, I likewise encourage you to read my 25-part series "Vespasian, Titus and the Fall of Jerusalem".

So then, let us continue with my explanation. The historical record indicates that the First Jewish-Roman War occurred from 66 AD to 73 AD. As you can see by the dates, it lasted for seven years, and it corresponds to the Seventieth Week -- or last seven years -- of Daniel's Seventy Weeks prophecy. As some of my readers will already know, it was precisely in the middle of that seven-year war in 70 AD -- which again, the Prophet Daniel specifically referred to as "the midst of the week" -- that Jerusalem and the temple compound were utterly destroyed.

This great destruction was wrought by the hands of General Titus and his Roman legions, along with their local allies, which included King Herod and his forces. In fact, coward Herod later fled to Rome along with his sister Berenice. But this comes as no surprise, considering that all the Herods were puppet kings of the Roman emperor. In case you weren't aware of it, the first Herod in the Herod dynasty -- Herod the Great -- was in fact appointed by the Roman Senate. He was actually Idumaean -- or Edomite, a descendant of Esau -- who married into a Jewish family, and thus adopted the Jews' religion as his own.

The destruction of the temple compound of course resulted in the temple sacrifice and the oblation ceasing, EXACTLY as the Prophet Daniel had also written. In his prophetic book, Daniel describes General Titus and the Romans as "the people of the prince that shall come", and he says that "the end thereof shall be with a flood". Please note that the word "flood" is sometimes used in Scripture to symbolize a host, or army, as in "the arms of a flood". While I discuss the Daniel prophecies in other articles, allow me to share the four key verses for those of you who may not be familiar with them, along with another verse where "the arms of a flood" is used:

"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."


"And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant."


Let me mention here that while this war had actually been initiated by his father, Vespasian -- as ordered by Emperor Nero -- Titus had to take over the war campaign after his father had to suddenly return to Rome in order to become the new emperor. This was a result of cowardly emperor, Nero, committing suicide in the late 60s. In describing how the city of Jerusalem would be encompassed about by the armies of Rome, Jesus offered this warning in the Gospel of Luke:

"And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh."


To say the least, it was a terrible time for the Jews. After all, they were feeling the full brunt of God's Wrath against them. This was due to their stubborn and foolish rejection of the Son of God, who was their very own Messiah who they had failed to recognize, and who they killed out of hatred, jealousy and fear of the Romans.

During the bloody First Jewish-Roman War, it has been been estimated that somewhere between six hundred thousand and one million plus Jews died. This was either a direct result of the actual fighting, or due to other causes, including Roman crucifixion, starvation, disease, and betrayal and infighting amongst the Jews of Jerusalem themselves, who were trapped within a Roman siege wall which surrounded Jerusalem. Concerning the various ways in which the Jews were killed during this dark period, you may find these verses from the Book of Revelation very interesting:

"And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."


Let me also add at this point that I am convinced that this terrible war is the very same war for Jerusalem that we find described by the Prophet Zechariah in the following verse:

"For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city."


Now, if you are wondering how all of the previously described events relate to the 144,000 sealed servants of the Lord and the woman in the wilderness, please recall what I shared with you earlier. As I explained, all of these various prophetic books and chapters are closely interconnected, and are to a large degree discussing some of the very same prophetic and historic events. While I have just spent considerable time describing these events for you, there is a really important reason for doing so. That reason is to establish the exact time frame for when these events took place -- meaning the distant past -- to show you how the Bible and the historical record match up, and to prepare you for what comes next in our discussion. Are you ready?

Now, in the aforementioned three chapters -- Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 -- when all of these terrible things began to occur in First Century Israel as the Roman legions encircled Jerusalem with their armies and their dreadful siege wall, do you recall what Jesus very clearly instructed His followers to do? For those of you who may not be too familiar with the chapters, let me share the following verses with you which reveal the answer:

"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elects sake those days shall be shortened."


"But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains: And let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein, to take any thing out of his house: And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment. But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter. For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be. And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elects sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days."


"And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."


In short, the Lord is giving His followers a clear warning regarding the approaching seven-year First Jewish-Roman War, and telling them that if they want to endure, and survive to the end of that awful war, they need to immediately flee to the mountains and hills surrounding Jerusalem, once they see Jerusalem surrounded by Roman armies and a siege wall, and once they witness the Roman standard -- or raised flag -- standing in the temple compound. That is, in the holy place.

For those of you who may not be aware of it, this standard was considered to be an abomination to the Jews, because as I point out in the four-part series entitled "Abomination of Desolation: Explained!", it had a metallic eagle on the top of it. The eagle is in fact an unclean bird according to the Levitical Laws that were given to Moses. The KJV Bible calls it an abomination, because it is something disgusting and detestable. Why so? I suspect that it is because the eagle eats its prey with the blood still in it, which is forbidden.

So, as I was saying, Jesus was telling His followers that if they really expect to endure or survive that war, and the terrible Roman destruction which is going to be wrought on Jerusalem and the temple compound, they have to get out of town, and they have to do it quickly. Jesus told them to flee with just the clothes on their backs. Don't even take time to try to get anything else, because that is how fast the wrath of Rome is going to fall on the Jews of Jerusalem. This urgency is explained more clearly in "Vespasian, Titus and the Fall of Jerusalem".

Okay, my friends, now we are ready to connect some more of the dots, and you will hopefully, and immediately, see how very clear the prophetic picture is.

First of all, I am convinced by the Scriptures that these obedient Jews who obey Jesus' warning to flee for their lives constitute the 144,000 sealed servants of the Lord who escape the wrath of the Roman Beast in the Book of Revelation. As you can see by the verses below, we are informed that 12,000 people are sealed from each of the twelve tribes of Israel:

"And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand."


Now here is a very important point which I would like for you to consider. As I mentioned earlier, Futurist-leaning Christians are convinced that the 144,000 represent modern Jews/Israelis who convert to the Christian faith at some point in the future as the Great Tribulation engulfs them. However, the simple truth of the matter is that these twelve tribes no longer even exist in Israel. As such, this seems to be clear proof in my mind that the Book of Revelation's prophecy cannot possibly be referring to our modern times, despite what misguided, Futurist-leaning Christians think.

Of course, having been a Futurist myself for more than four decades, and knowing how they think, I can just imagine how they will respond to my previous argument. They will probably say that even though the literal twelve tribes of Israel no longer exist in our current day, God still recognizes the Jews by their ancient tribal lineage. Personally, I view this as a weak argument, and stretching the truth. You see, one thing about Futurist thinking is that they will stretch the truth, and even twist the meaning of Bible verses, so as to find supposed support for their misguided beliefs.

In other words, if certain verses don't fit their Futurist theology, they will simply reinterpret them, and in effect invent something. A clear case in point concerns the third temple doctrine. The truth of the matter is that there is no mention of a third temple being constructed in Israel. When Jesus speaks of the temple in the aforementioned chapters, and when John likewise writes about the temple in the Book of Revelation, they are both referring to the temple which stood in Jerusalem during the First Century.

In fact, as I mention in a number of other BBB articles, God already destroyed their temple twice in the distant past due to their stiff rebellion, disobedience and corruption. That being the case, do you honestly believe that the Lord would allow the Jews to build yet another temple at some point in the future, so that they can continue with their blasphemous animal sacrifices, when Jesus has already died once for the sins of all men, and paid the full price for our Salvation?

Yet, once again, the Futurists have found a supposed way to circumvent the Scriptures by inventing a futurist scenario where a third temple is constructed. How do they do this? By pointing to certain verses of Scripture, and claiming that said verses are describing a third temple which is yet to be built. To be more specific, verses such as the following are used as supposed support for this wayward doctrine:

"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."


"And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months."


I am not absolutely certain at this point, but I believe the Futurist-leaning Christians may possibly take verses from the Book of Ezekiel which describe how the exiled Jews who returned from Babylon -- and later Herod the Great as well -- would rebuild and expand the temple which had been left in ruins following the Babylonian invasions. This temple became known as the second temple of Solomon, or as Herod's temple. It was the same temple which stood on Mount Moriah when Jesus walked the Earth. Consider the following verses:

"Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body."


Please go to part two for the continuation of this series.

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