The Great Crowd in John's Revelation

Great Crowd, which no man was able to number

Who are the great crowd who come out of the great tribulation?

Are they currently only 8 million Jehovah's witnesses?
Or, are they innumerable people around the world as written in the revelation?

Who are they that will survive Armageddon at the time of Christ's return?

The Bible teaches that the righteous ones of all the earth will survive the upcoming judgment by Christ on his return.

Is that Jehovah's Witnesses?
Let's check it out.

Pr 2:21-22
21 For the upright are the ones that will reside in the earth, and the blameless are the ones that will be left over in it. 22 As regards the wicked, they will be cut off from the very earth; and as for the treacherous, they will be torn away from it.

How does God view people?
Are those who do not know God unrighteous?
Does God view person like that?

What does the parable of the kindly Samaritan teach us about God's view?

Lu 10:29-37
29 But, wanting to prove himself righteous, the man said to Jesus: "Who really is my neighbor?" 30 In reply Jesus said: "A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jer′icho and fell among robbers, who both stripped him and inflicted blows, and went off, leaving him half-dead. 31 Now, by coincidence, a certain priest was going down over that road, but, when he saw him, he went by on the opposite side. 32 Likewise, a Levite also, when he got down to the place and saw him, went by on the opposite side. 33 But a certain Samaritan traveling the road came upon him and, at seeing him, he was moved with pity. 34 So he approached him and bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine upon them. Then he mounted him upon his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him, and whatever you spend besides this, I will repay you when I come back here.' 36 Who of these three seems to you to have made himself neighbor to the man that fell among the robbers?" 37 He said: "The one that acted mercifully toward him." Jesus then said to him: "Go your way and be doing the same yourself."

The Israelite priests and the Levies are the true worshipers of God.
On the other hand, the Samaritans are those who do not know God.


Which one is right in the eyes of God?

It is not the religious people like priests and Levies.
Rather it is the Samaritan who does not know God but acted mercifully.

Those who will be viewed righteous by God are not limited to God's worshipers.

God, who can see exactly what is in everyone's heart, knows who is right, regardless of religion.


Therefore, the WTS teaching that only Jehovah's Witnesses can be saved cannot be proven from the Bible. Their teaching is false.

God, the source of life for all mankind, treats all people equally and without prejudice.

Ac 10:34-35
34 At this Peter opened his mouth and said: "For a certainty I perceive that God is not partial, 35 but in every nation (in any religion) the man that fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.

Ro 2:6-11, 12-16
6 And he will render to each one according to his works: 7 everlasting life to those who are seeking glory and honor and incorruptibleness by endurance in work that is good; 8 however, for those who are contentious and who disobey the truth but obey unrighteousness there will be wrath and anger, 9 tribulation and distress, upon the soul of every man who works what is injurious, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who works what is good, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 11 For there is no partiality with God.

12 For instance, all those who sinned without law will also perish without law; but all those who sinned under law will be judged by law. 13 For the hearers of law are not the ones righteous before God, but the doers of law will be declared righteous. 14 For whenever people of the nations that do not have law do by nature the things of the law, these people, although not having law, are a law to themselves. 15 They are the very ones who demonstrate the matter of the law to be written in their hearts, while their conscience is bearing witness with them and, between their own thoughts, they are being accused or even excused. 16 This will be in the day when God through Christ Jesus judges the secret things of mankind, according to the good news I declare.

God's judgment is made by the conscience of individuals.
There is no unfairness in this regard.
Everyone will reap what he or she is sowing.

Ga 6:7-8
7 Do not be misled: God is not one to be mocked. For whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap; 8 because he who is sowing with a view to his flesh will reap corruption from his flesh, but he who is sowing with a view to the spirit will reap everlasting life from the spirit.

Reaping what one has sown has nothing to do with religion. One is judged not by knowledge, but by one's own inner voice about the image of God.

All those who reflect the image of God and act in a merciful manner at all times will receive God's mercy on the Day of Judgment.

Mt 5:7
7 "Happy are the merciful, since they will be shown mercy.

Jas 2:13
13 For the one that does not practice mercy will have [his] judgment without mercy. Mercy exults triumphantly over judgment.

Not only Jehovah's Witnesses, but also the merciful people around the world will be come out of the great tribulation due to their mercy and will enjoy the blessing of Christ's 1000 years reign.

The number of those who survive the great tribulation is said that no one can number.

Therefore, the Jehovah's Witnesses' teaching that only about 8 million Jehovah's Winesses will be saved is incompatible with the Bible. The Great crowd is so large that no one can count them.
Their interpretation of the Great Crowd is just a way for WTS to keep their followers in their organization.

Re 7:9-10, 13-14
9 After these things I saw, and, look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes; and there were palm branches in their hands. 10 And they keep on crying with a loud voice, saying: "Salvation [we owe] to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb."

13 And in response one of the elders said to me: "These who are dressed in the white robes, who are they and where did they come from?" 14 So right away I said to him: "My lord, you are the one that knows." And he said to me: "These are the ones that come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

When is it that the great crowd wash their robes?

When would those who came out of this Great Tribulation wash their robes with the blood of the Lamb and make them white?

Before being saved or after being saved?

The English expression uses the word "and" to indicate that it is after salvation.

Re 7:14
"These are the ones that come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

After people are saved, they will know exactly what kind of God saved them.


1Ti 2:4-6
4 whose will is that all sorts of men should be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all-[this is] what is to be witnessed to at its own particular times.

Notice the order.
It is not that people are to be saved after gaining the accurate knowledge of God.

1Ti 2:4
"all sorts of men should be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of truth"

After being saved, people gain an accurate knowledge of God.
After being saved, they come to know exactly who saved them.
Accurate knowledge does not come first, but salvation does.

Jehovah's Witnesses teache the opposite of what the Bible says. Their teaching is not harmonized with the Bible teaching, since they teach that first the accurate knowledge of God is necessary for the salvation.

It is not just 8 million Jehovah's Witnesses alone to survive Armageddon.
The great crowd that no one can count will survive Armageddon as the Bible teaches. Hundreds of millions of merciful people around the world will come out of the great tribulation.

The Watchtower's teaching that the great crowd of other sheep of baptized Jehovah's Witnesses alone will come out of the great tribulation is wrong.


When Christ come back and judge the world, he is to separate people into sheep and goats.

Mt 25:31-40, 46
31 "When the Son of man arrives in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne. 32 And all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will put the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left.

34 "Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, YOU who have been blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for YOU from the founding of the world. 35 For I became hungry and YOU gave me something to eat; I got thirsty and YOU gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and YOU received me hospitably; 36 naked, and YOU clothed me. I fell sick and YOU looked after me. I was in prison and YOU came to me.' 37 Then the righteous ones will answer him with the words, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty, and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and receive you hospitably, or naked, and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to you?' 40 And in reply the king will say to them, 'Truly I say to YOU, To the extent that YOU did it to one of the least of these my brothers, YOU did it to me.'

46 And these (goats like people) will depart into everlasting cutting-off, but the righteous ones (sheep like people) into everlasting life."

What kind of people are the righteous who will be saved?
They don't know Jesus' brothers.
However, they are merciful people who show human kindness to others' unfortunate circumstances.
Such people around the world will be saved.

The sheep are not baptized Jehovah's Witnesses who support the Watchtower's anointed ones as the Watchtower teaches.

The merciful people of the world, who do not know the sons of the kingdom, will show human kindness to their brothers in Christ as they always have. Such people will be granted mercy at the time of judgment, placed at the right hand of Christ, and will survive the Great Tribulation, after which they will receive the eternal blessings of the Kingdom of God.

Most of the merciful sheep are not baptized Christians.
After they are saved, they will know about God and Christ who saved them from Satan's tyrannical system that has exploited the people of the world.
After they are saved, they will wash their garments in the blood of the Lamb during the 1000 years of Christ's reign.

Water baptism is not necessary for the great crowd.

Water baptism is not necessary for the great crowd to be saved.

The sinner who was crucified beside Christ realized who Jesus was from what happening around him and showed faith in Jesus at the last moment.

Lu 23:39-43
39 But one of the hung evildoers began to say abusively to him: "You are the Christ, are you not? Save yourself and us." 40 In reply the other rebuked him and said: "Do you not fear God at all, now that you are in the same judgment? 41 And we, indeed, justly so, for we are receiving in full what we deserve for things we did; but this [man] did nothing out of the way." 42 And he went on to say: "Jesus, remember me when you get into your kingdom." 43 And he said to him: "Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise."

This humble criminal had not been baptized, but he received the promise of an earthly paradise.

Thus, water baptism is not a prerequisite for receiving eternal life on earth.

After the great tribulation

The great crowd who survived the great tribulation will learn the worship of the true God who saved them.

It happens in the final part of Satan's days.

Is 2:2-4
2 And it must occur in the final part of the days [that] the mountain of the house of YHWH will become firmly established above the top of the mountains, and it will certainly be lifted up above the hills; and to it all the nations must stream. 3 And many peoples will certainly go and say: "Come, YOU people, and let us go up to the mountain of YHWH, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will instruct us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths." For out of Zion law will go forth, and the word of YHWH out of Jerusalem. 4 And he will certainly render judgment among the nations and set matters straight respecting many peoples. And they will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war anymore.

Mic 4:1-4
1 And it must occur in the final part of the days [that] the mountain of the house of YHWH will become firmly established above the top of the mountains, and it will certainly be lifted up above the hills; and to it peoples must stream. 2 And many nations will certainly go and say: "Come, YOU people, and let us go up to the mountain of YHWH and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will instruct us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths." For out of Zion law will go forth, and the word of YHWH out of Jerusalem. 3 And he will certainly render judgment among many peoples, and set matters straight respecting mighty nations far away. And they will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. They will not lift up sword, nation against nation, neither will they learn war anymore. 4 And they will actually sit, each one under his vine and under his fig tree, and there will be no one making [them] tremble; for the very mouth of YHWH of armies has spoken [it].

This prophecy is not applicable to the present because we are in the opposite situation of the prophecy. We are in the age of military expansion.

This prophecy describes the change in attitude of those who survived the Great Tribulation.

Compassionate people from various backgrounds will receive mercy and survive into a purified Earth, and will come to know the God who saved them and his teachings.
And they will thank God for the teachings of Him and follow them.

The gathering "the things on the earth" begins with the Christ's 1000 years reign.
Billions of dead since the day of Adam will be resurrected on earth and will learn the true God and its worship.

Eph 1:10
10 for an administration at the full limit of the appointed times, namely, to gather all things together again in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth. [Yes,] in him,

Through Christ's 1000-year reign, known as Judgment days, Adam's family will know exactly what the true God and his salvation means, and will thank and worship YHWH, the true God.

Re 20:4
4 And I saw thrones, and there were those who sat down on them, and power of judging was given them. Yes, I saw the souls of those executed with the ax for the witness they bore to Jesus and for speaking about God, and those who had worshiped neither the wild beast nor its image and who had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand. And they came to life and ruled as kings with the Christ for a thousand years.

All who are saved will come to an accurate knowledge of God and His will after they are saved.

Adam's deceased offspring are saved from death first, then after being resurrected into Christ's millennial reign they will learn YHWH who rescued them from grave. Many of them have died out without knowing the true God, so they will only know YHWH when they are resurrected. Thus, salvation comes first, and the accurate knowledge of their salvation comes afterwards.

Even in the case of the multitudes who survived the Great Tribulation, there would first be salvation, and after they were saved from the Great Tribulation, they would come to know precisely the means of God's salvation through Christ Jesus. Thsu, Bible teaches us that sheep like ones of every nation who show compassion for others will be saved even though they don't know the Christ's brothers so called the channel of salvation.

In this way, salvation comes first, then afterward the accurate knowledge of the salvation. Salvation is not something that can be obtained by striving to gain an accurate knowledge of YHWH. We can't think of salvation as an entrance exam. It is a free gift from YHWH to Adam's family. God would first show His love to us, and we would come to love Him in response.

1Joh 4:19
19 As for us, we love, because he first loved us.

Re 5:13
13 And every creature that is in heaven and on earth and underneath the earth and on the sea, and all the things in them, I heard saying: "To the One sitting on the throne and to the Lamb be the blessing and the honor and the glory and the might forever and ever."