Unravelling the mystery of the 144 000 (Part 2)
L M Leteane | Friday July 10, 2015 16:23
Firstly, why is the number limited to the tribes of Israel? Secondly, why is it exact and apportioned equally between them? Thirdly, why is it limited to men only since, in Revelation 14:4, they are described as “those who have not defiled themselves with women, and are chaste men?’’ Most worryingly, if “sealed” is interpreted to mean “saved” (i.e. those who will not be cast into the “Lake of Fire”), will only 12 000 from each tribe be saved? We did not directly answer these questions in the last article. Instead, we focused on where this curious number appears to emanate from, and what it means.
Is the number, in any case, literal or is it another of John’s symbols? Actually, those that worry that they might not have a place in heaven due to limited numbers need not fret. In the very next verse (v. 9), John marvels at “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, tribe and peoples and tongues, clothed in white robes…who shall hunger or thirst no more…for the Lamb…shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them to the springs of the water of life, and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes.” Clearly, the strange number of 144 000 does not shut out many.
Instead, we explained last week, it relates directly to the Mayan Baktun (unit of 144 000 [days]) of which, in a nutshell, 13 of these make 1 872 000 days which, counted from the famous Mayan calendar date of 3113 BC, make 5125 additional solar years, leading to 2012 AD. But, what’s with this date?
Thoth’s famous “return” in the thirteenth Baktun simply counts to the rebirth of Enlightenment; a great time of “tribulation” (whose true etymology we unveiled using Setswana). Those who “come out of” (i.e. survive and accept) this great “revelation” will bask continually in Jesus’ Light. Indeed, tribula (tharabollo) connotes resolution rather than judgement and even a “tribune” is designed to resolve issues, not just pass judgement. So, to calmly and honestly accept the light of truth is to survive this tribulation; to make Jesus’ sacrifice worthwhile.
If, as I decipher, the 144 000 related to a future time, why in Revelation is it coded as “the twelve tribes of Israel”? Here, we need to understand the true role of the Jews in our religiosity. It means going back to 3113 BC when the Mayan calendar was commissioned by the great Egyptian wisdom-god Thoth (a real character of history, not a mythical being) after he left Egypt following a tussle for power with his brother Marduk/Ra (see details in Part 1).
Thoth, who then joined a rival clan, the “Enlilites”, to spite Marduk, later turned his back on these Enlilites when they began to cruelly enforce “monotheism” as the new, preferred outlook from 2160 BC – the year the Age of the Ram (Aries) began: a move that suddenly outlawed the prior, encouraged worship of individual gods. The Jews, the children of Israel, were to be the bastion, the epitome, of this “monotheism” – which, in reality, was simply a contrivance aimed at allaying bitter rivalry between the gods. As such, whenever the Israelites strayed into old habits, they were mercilessly slaughtered (see Exodus32:19-28). As threatened in Leviticus26:27ff, they were finally cursed with the “unrelenting” wrath of their Enlil, the god of Israel, and were to be chastised “seven times” for their transgressions. This was not just a literal seven times. A “time” also meant 360 years and 7 x 360 years was 2520 years counting from the Artaxerxes Decree of 457 BC to 1844 AD when the similarly sly Edict of Toleration was issued that allowed Jews to return to Jerusalem after millennia as a diaspora. That, Decree, however, John notes in Revelation 14, was only meant to prepare them, like ripe grapes ready to be crushed into blood-red wine, for their seventh, final, and most terrible Chastisement: the holocaust of World War II. Indeed, it was not “prophetic” that Thoth could estimate 2012 AD for the rebirth of Enlightenment: the Enlilite Blueprint partly outlined in Daniel actually lays out its sinister timetable – even the future time they believed everything would be “sewn up”.
“Men” (as in “the third part of men”, etc.) is a symbol John uses for anyone “manly”; who is brave and upright. As a Gnostic who feared for Mary Magdalene (“the woman clothed with the sun”: Rev. 12), John, unlike Peter (see the gnostic Gospel of Mary Magdalene, or the Pistis Sophia) and Paul (see I Corinthians 14:33-36; I Timothy 2:11-15), does not exclude women or say they cannot be leaders. Being “chaste”, as such, simply means not prostituting oneself to the Great Harlot (apostate Pauline Christianity: see Rev. 17) simply because everyone else is and you do not want to seem different; it means revisiting and embracing true Gnostic Christianity. As for the equal apportionment of “seals” between the Twelve Tribes (who symbolise the troubled epicentre of our religiosity), Light, by its nature, radiates equally onto whatsoever it shines on. Like their real “New Jerusalem” (i.e. one of Truth, not deceit), which is cube-like (see Rev. 21:16), truth is the same whichever way it is turned.
As such, John predicts that those who, like Balaam, were secret stumbling blocks for the Jews (Rev. 2:1) will be exposed come the time of the tribulation. As hapless pawns in a protracted and sinister game long decreed by ancient “gods” that later played God Himself, John saw the Jews’ enlightenment (being “sealed”) as the very turning point, the epicentre, of the great tribulation (revelation) to come – first outlined in clear and proper detail in my column.
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