Where is the Great Crowd?
by
Keith and Becky Walker
A recent
Watchtower Magazine (May 1, 2002) addresses a question that we thought would be
interesting to cover. In the section titled, Questions from Readers the magazine answers the
question, “When John saw the ‘great crowd’
rendering sacred service in Jehovah’s Temple, in which part of the temple were
they doing this? -Revelation 7:9-15”
The Watchtower Bible and Tract
Society (WT) teaches that there are two classes of Christians, the anointed,
numbered at 144,000, and the other sheep, which is an innumerable “great
crowd.” The anointed serve Jehovah in the sanctuary of the temple (heaven)
while the great crowd is said to serve Him in the outer courts of the temple
(on earth).
Any time a Christian tells a
Jehovah’s Witness (JW) that they know they are going to heaven, the JW quickly
dismisses the idea because the WT has taught for scores of years that only
144,000 JWs will go to heaven to serve Jehovah in the temple. Since the
Born-again Christian obviously isn’t a JW, there is no possibility in the JW
mind that anyone else has a heavenly hope. According to WT doctrine, the door
was closed to heaven in 1935. In fact, most JWs believe that they will not go
to heaven and don’t even want to go there! The WT teaches that the rest of the
JWs will live forever on a paradise earth and all other people will be
destroyed in the battle of Armageddon. The only hope that others have is to
join the WT and be counted among the number of the great crowd and serve
Jehovah in the outer courts of the earth.
The question is, is the Great
Crowd really confined to this earth with no heavenly hope? According to WT
interpretation, the Book of Revelation places the 144,000 in heaven and the
great crowd on earth. The 144,000 is mentioned only twice in all of scripture
(Rev 7:1-8, 14: 1-5), but the great crowd is mentioned three times in the Book
of Revelation (Rev 7:9, 19:1, 19:6). Two Greek words are used to differentiate
between the sanctuary, where the 144,000 are said to dwell, and the outer
courts of the temple, where the great crowd supposedly resides.
The Greek word hierón, means “sacred” or “temple.” It
often includes not only the building, but the courts and all the sacred ground
or enclosure. The other word, naós,
means “to dwell.” A dwelling, temple. (Sometimes naós referred only to the interior and most sacred part of a
temple…) (The complete Word Study Bible and Reference CD) The WT recognizes
this fact by quoting a bible commentary in this recent WT magazine. It states, …the Greek word (hieron) translated ‘temple’ that is
used with reference to the court of the Gentiles ‘refers to the entire complex,
rather than specifically to the temple building itself...’ In contrast, the
Greek word (naos) translated
‘temple’ in John’s vision of the great crowd is more specific. In the context
of the Jerusalem temple, it usually refers to the Holy of Holies, the temple
building, or the temple precincts. It is sometimes rendered ‘sanctuary.’” (WT, May 1, 2002
P.30-31)
The above WT quote is the last
of five reasons given to explain why, according to their view, the great crowd
is not in heaven. The only problem with this interpretation is that Revelation
7:15, speaking of the great crowd, states, “For this reason, they are before
the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle
over them. The word used in this verse for temple is not hieron, but is naos.
In this recent WT magazine,
the WT attempts to draw the attention of the reader away from this fact by
talking about the word hieron in context of the heavenly temple when the word hieron doesn’t even appear in the whole
book of Revelation!
In 1980 the WT recognized that
the word naos is used in Rev 7:15
and wrote an article that gives five reasons why naos in Rev. 7:15 doesn’t refer to the sanctuary. “The Greek word
na·os' refers often to the inner
sanctuary representing heaven itself
BUT it was the entire temple (na·os') that had been 46 years in the building
It was the entire temple (na·os') that was destroyed as a judgment from God
It was from the courts of the outer temple (na·os') that Jesus drove the money
changers
It was in the outer temple (na·os') that Judas threw back the 30 pieces of silver
HENCE it is consistent that the “great crowd” serve God in
the earthly court of the spiritual temple” (WT, August 15,1980 P. 15)
Although the first four
statements are true, the last one is a logical fallacy. Just because a word can mean something doesn’t mean it
always does. Context is always helpful in defining words. For instance, if I
were to go into my attic to look into my trunk, I’m referring to a piece of
luggage. If I’m at the zoo looking at the animal with a trunk, I’m talking
about an elephant. If I have to climb up a trunk to get a kite down, I’m
referring to a tree. The same word in different contexts means different
things. What about the context of the book of Revelation? What does the word “naos” mean there?
Unlike the word hieron, which doesn’t appear in the book of Revelation, naos appears 40 times in the New Testament and 13 times in Revelation alone. We’ll look at just a few examples and then make comments.
REV 7:15- “For this reason, they are before the throne
of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the
throne will spread His tabernacle over them.
Even the footnote to this verse in the JW’s own New World Translation (NWT) says, “divine habitation (dwelling).” In other words, this verse puts the great crowd in the sanctuary of God’s temple.
REV 11:1-2- Then
there was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, “Get up and
measure the temple
of God and the altar, and those who worship in it. “Leave out the court
which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been
given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for
forty-two months.
This verse makes a distinction between the outer courts and the temple proper. As we can see, God is only interested in the sanctuary and those who worship in it and not the outer courts.
REV 11: 19- And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His
covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and
sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.
If verse two of this same chapter makes a distinction between the naos and the outer courts, and verse nineteen tells us that the naos is in heaven, where do we get the idea that the great crowd is in the outer courts? We cannot emphasize enough the fact that the word hieron is never used in the book of Revelation! The context always refers to a heavenly scene.
If this isn’t enough, there is one passage in the NWT in Revelation that specifically states that the great crowd is in heaven.
REV 19:1- After these things I heard what
was as a loud voice of a great crowd in
heaven.
There is no mistaking where this verse places the great crowd.
Keith and Becky Walker are the founders of Evidence
Ministries, a missionary outreach to Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. They can
be reached at Evidence Ministries, P.O. Box 690371, San Antonio, TX 78269
210-340-TRUE or keith@evidenceministries.org