Now behold the 144,000.  Their experience is very much like that of Christ's, as seen in SpM p.2A-3: 

    The remnant in the time of trouble will cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" 

    They too, will come to that great decision climax.  Like Christ, they will be completely emptied of self;  therefore,  they too will need some source of motivation outside of themselves. 

    What is this motivation?   For an answer,  let us turn to the next angel in line in Revelation 14. 

            Revelation  14:17-- "AND  ANOTHER ANGEL CAME OUT  OF  THE TEMPLE WHICH IS IN HEAVEN.  HE ALSO HAVING A SHARP SICKLE."

    This is the sixth angel, and like the fifth angel, he also comes out of the temple.  Here, the 144,000 are again represented.  But why are they represented as  having a sharp sickle and what are they going to reap?    Let us first consider the seventh and last angel: 

    "AND  ANOTHER  ANGEL CAME  OUT FROM THE ALTAR  WHICH  HAD POWER OVER FIRE;  AND CRIED WITH A LOUD CRY TO  HIM THAT HAD THE SHARP SICKLE, SAYING, THRUST IN THY SHARP SICKLE, GATHER THE  CLUSTERS OF THE VINE OF THE EARTH;  FOR HER GRAPES ARE FULLY RIPE.  AND THE ANGEL THRUST IN  HIS SICKLE  INTO  THE EARTH, AND CAST IT INTO THE GREAT WINEPRESS OF THE WRATH OF GOD.  Revelation 14:18,19 

    This  angel is a different group of people from the 144,000 for they come from a different place:  the altar.   Notice also that it is the wicked who are gathered by the sixth angel, for they are cast into the "GREAT WINEPRESS OF THE WRATH OF GOD."  How do the 144,000 accomplish this? 

    "FEAR NOT, THOU WORM JACOB,  AND YE MEN OF ISRAEL; I WILL HELP THEE, SAITH THE LORD, AND THY REDEEMER, THE HOLY ONE OF  ISRAEL.   BEHOLD,  I  WILL MAKE THEE  A  NEW SHARP THRESHING INSTRUMENT  HAVING TEETH:  THOU  SHALT THRESH THE MOUNTAINS, AND BEAT THEM SMALL, AND SHALT MAKE THE HILLS AS CHAFF."   Isaiah 41:14,15 

    The Bible says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart.   (Ex.  4:21)   However, "There  was no exercise of supernatural power to harden the heart of  the king. God gave to Pharaoh the most striking evidence of divine power; but the monarch stubbornly refused to heed the light." (PP 268)  Thus, God by trying to soften His  heart, caused it to harden.   The same sun that softens the peanut butter hardens the clay.   When the wicked reject the marvelous light that the 144,000 have to offer, their decisions bring their hearts into a harder condition and finally to ultimate destruction.   THE EXISTENCE OF  THOSE  WHO  KEEP  GOD'S COMMANDMENTS  JUSTIFIES  GOD'S PUNISHMENT OF THOSE WHO DON'T,  those who  keep God's commandments prove that God's law can be kept by human beings restored to a vital connection with Him.   Therefore, those who violate the law are without excuse.  So the "Cains" in our world hate the "Abels"  because the obedience of the Abels condemns the disobedience of the Cains. 

    THE SEVENTH ANGEL, WHICH COMES FROM THE ALTAR, ARE THE DEAD IN CHRIST.  But we know very well that "THE DEAD KNOW NOT ANYTHING."  (Eccl.  9:5)   Therefore, they cannot speak.  Speaking of the time of Jacob's trouble: 

   "The cries of the faithful,  persecuted ones ascend  to heaven.    And as the blood of Abel cried from  the  ground, there are voices also crying to God from martyr's graves, from the sepulchers of the sea,  from mountain caverns,  from convent vaults: 'HOW LONG, O LORD,  HOLY AND TRUE, DOST THOU NOT  JUDGE  AND AVENGE OUR BLOOD ON THEM THAT DWELL  ON  THE  EARTH?'"   5 Testimonies 451. 

    Revelation 6:9-11  speaks of this same group.  They are seen, at this time under the altar.  The seventh angel comes out from the altar.   After their cry is  made,  they are told "THAT THEY SHOULD REST YET FOR A LITTLE  SEASON  UNTIL THEIR  FELLOW SERVANTS ALSO AND THEIR BRETHREN,  THAT SHOULD BE KILLED AS  THEY WERE, SHOULD BE FULFILLED." (vs.11)  Some things remain to be fulfilled.   The three  angels had not yet sounded,  and the 144,000  had yet to  fulfill  their mission.    (These verses refer to all those in past ages who were martyred for their Lord.) 

    The souls of all the righteous dead and all of us who were dead in sin spoke to Christ's heart in a figurative sense and  gave  Him  the  necessary motivation to go on with His mission.   The dead spoke to the heart of Christ; they spoke in the fifth seal,  and they will again speak;  this time  to  the hearts of the saints in the last days.   If it were not for them, the last work would  not  be accomplished.   Their voices give the last generation of God's people the necessary motivating force to press on.   It is for the sake of the righteous dead, as well as for Jesus that the 144,000  have the desire to press on.  Thus we see that all of the angels in Revelation 14 are absolutely essential to the finishing of God's work on earth. 

    The last generation's character confrontation has accomplished the desired effect.   God's character and law are fully vindicated before all men, and in full view of the entire witnessing universe.   God's universe is forever safe from another rebellion,  for the drama of the ages has fully established God's throne.   Whenever a doubt arises, God can just play back the scenes  involved and all will see the results of sin.   Thus sin will never arise a second time. This is the end of the great controversy. 

    (With this  revelation of the work of the 144,000  represented by  the  six angels of Revelation 14, we now can get a complete picture of the work the Lord has  outlined for them to do,  and the terrible responsibility that  rests upon them to fulfill the mission the Lord has given them.   To aid them in this task not only has the Lord given them of His Spirit mightily, but He  has also provided them with specific written instruction from three major sources.) 
 

    As far as we know Revelation,  Early Writings,  and Song of Solomon are the only books written exclusively about and for the 144,000,  Bride. These books contain almost all that is written about the Bride.   All instruction needed by this  group  is contained in these books.   These books plus revelations  today make it possible for the 144,000  to be positively identified.   The reader can know for a certainty who this group is. 

    We have recognized for some time that the Book of Revelation is a revelation of Jesus Christ and His work in the Sanctuary as High Priest.   But we may not have realized this is also a book about His Bride who are identified as the 144,000.   Have you ever wondered why in all of Scripture this group is found mentioned by number only in The Revelation of John? 

    In these books we can see what the Lord has planned for His Bride,  as well as for members of the wedding party.  Is it coincidence that Revelation was the LAST prophetic book given to the FIRST church and that Early  Writings was  the FIRST book of prophecy given to LAST church? 

    But these books are not exclusively for the 144,000.   The 144,000 are just the firstfruit of the experience all the elect must have.   So the instructions given apply to ALL the saints.   If inspiration and instruction applied only to the 144,000 Bride of Christ, there would have been no need for Volume Two to be written. 

    If  the Adventist people in 1844  had done what the Lord wanted them to do, the marriage would have been completed, the Bride sealed and taken home.  Early Writings  would  have been all the people needed from the pen of inspiration. But  because they did not accept the Groom's offer, all the instructions, testimonies, and admonitions that followed were of necessity given in order to cope with the apostasy and lukewarmness that had already entered the church by 1850.  The good news of the soon return of Christ so sweet  to  the  taste certainly became bitter in the stomach. 

    Those who were at that time chosen to be among the 144,000  certainly had a bitter experience as the wait stretched from years,  to decades to more than  a century as they saw God's Spirit withdrawn.   Especially must this have been so for Ellen White.   An idea has been floating around for many years  that  the 144,000  will only be those who are translated without tasting death,  but this idea cannot be supported by the Spirit of Prophecy.