(Through the Bible) Revelation 13-15 — Chuck Smith

Revelation 13: The Beast and the Ten-Nation Federation

Shall we turn to the book of Revelation, chapter 13. John said, I stood upon the sand of the sea, probably the Mediterranean Sea, and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads, ten horns.

Upon his horns, the ten crowns. Upon his heads, the name of blasphemy. The sea represents, of course, the multitudes of people. The Mediterranean Sea, the multitudes of people that live around the Mediterranean Sea.

And out of it, he sees this hydra-headed beast, seven heads, ten horns. We're told in the book of Revelation, the seven heads are the seven mountains upon which the beast sits. The ten horns are ten kings.

Daniel, as he also describes, the beast that he cannot really describe, a nondescript type of a beast, it had ten horns. And again, the Lord told Daniel that the ten horns were the ten kings that were going to give power to the beast.

So, there is going to arise upon the earth a ten nation federation. Ten kingdoms federating together. Daniel chapter 2, the vision or dream of Nebuchadnezzar and the interpretation by Daniel. And there shall arise, Daniel said, the eleventh, which shall destroy three.

Speaking blasphemous things, he'll take control, take power. And so, the rise of the beast, the Antichrist, the one who is going to rise to take over the control of the earth, speaking, as Paul said, blasphemous things against God.

Daniel makes reference of his blasphemies. He shall speak great words, he said, against the Most High. He shall wear out the saints in the Most High. And the beast which I saw was likened to a leopard.

His feet were like a bear. His mouth was the mouth of a lion. And the dragon, who of course is Satan, gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. Now, where is Satan's throne? It's on this earth.

We say, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and all they that dwell therein. That's prophetic. The earth right now is under Satan's control. This is his place of dominion. He rules. Jesus came to redeem the world back to God.

Satan took Him into a high mountain, showed Him all of the kingdoms of the world. And He said, all of these will I give unto you in the glory of them if you will bow down and worship Me, for they are Mine and I can give them to whomever I will.

Now, the fact that they are still Satan's is demonstrated by the fact that the Antichrist, which is yet future, receives from Him His authority, His power, and His throne. And so, Satan is going to invest in a man all of his power, all of his authority.

It will be Satan incarnate. And I saw one of the heads, as it were, wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast. Now, we are told a little further down, verse 14, that the false prophet that comes says to the people who dwell upon the earth that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live.

This man will be a world leader. There will be an assassination attempt, apparently successful, but he miraculously survives the deadly wounds. Though, according to Zachariah, it will probably leave him blinded in his right eye and without the use of his right arm.

Yet, the very fact that he survives this assassination attempt causes the world to marvel and it brings him immediately into a prominent position in the minds of so many people because it is by a definite miracle that this man survives.

One of his heads, as it were, wounded to death, but the deadly wound was healed. And they worshiped the dragon which gave power to the beast. Satan worshiped. Oh, people wouldn't worship Satan. That's ridiculous.

We used to think that, didn't we? And now they have the satanic church. And people are consciously, knowingly worshiping Satan. And here, they worship the dragon through his incarnated person, the Antichrist.

And they say, who is likened to the beast? And who is able to make war with him? He will have tremendous power. Tremendous authority. He will subdue three probably of the most powerful kingdoms to take over the rule.

He will put to death the two witnesses who have up to this point been invincible. We remember last week in chapter 11, the two witnesses, whoever would try to hurt them, they would call fire down from heaven and consume them.

And they have been invincible up until this point. And the beast destroys them. Puts them to death. And so, the world will marvel at this man's power. And they'll say, who can make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies.

Again, this is mentioned by Daniel both in chapter 7 and chapter 11, I believe it is. And power was given unto him to continue for three and a half years, 42 months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle, that is his dwelling place, and them that dwell in heaven.

The Antichrist, the Man of Sin, and the Persecution of the Saints

Now, this man is a man of open blasphemy. Again, Paul makes mention of that in 2 Thessalonians 2, as Paul talks about the man of sin, son of perdition. So, he opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he as God sits in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God.

Speaking blasphemies against God. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was given to him over all the families, tongues, and nations. Now, this war with the saints and overcomes them is also predicted in Daniel.

He makes war with the saints, Daniel said, and prevails against them. These saints could not be the church of Jesus Christ. When Jesus announced to Peter His church, He said, upon this rock I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

There's no way that Satan can prevail against the church of Jesus Christ. But these are the people who have received Christ during this final seven year period after the church has been taken out. As a result of the witnesses of those two witnesses or the witness of the 144 ,000, these people have received Jesus Christ as Lord, has acknowledged Jesus as their Lord.

But He will make war against them and prevail against them. He has power to put to death. And He will put to death those that believe in Jesus Christ. But being martyred is preferable to submitting to His authority or worshiping Him.

Because we will find out in the next chapter that if anybody worships Him, they lose any chance of salvation forever. And so, John tells us here of the rain over all of the families of the earth, the tongues and nations and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship Him.

Whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. So, there is interestingly enough a book of life. And Moses made mention of this when he was praying to God in interceding for the nation of Israel.

God forgive. And if not then, he said, I pray You will blot my name out of Your book of remembrances. The book of life is mentioned again here in the book of Revelation. Paul makes mention of it. And Paul tells us that our names were written in the book of life from the foundation of the world.

Now here is the book of life of the Lamb. The Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world. Now, there is a teaching that I feel borders on blasphemy of the character of God that declares the limited knowledge of God.

In other words, it would deny that God is omniscient. That He knows all things. And this teaching basically declares that Adam disappointed God and took Him by surprise when Adam sinned. That then the plan of redemption was inaugurated.

Now that Adam blew it, what are we going to do? And the redemption plan was then devised. But here, the plan of redemption, we are told existed before the foundation of the world. Before man was ever created.

God knew. Why would God create man if He knew He was going to blow it? Because God desired fellowship. God desired meaningful fellowship with man. It's a big universe. You could get awfully lonely in the universe.

But to have true friends, to have meaningful relationship with them, there's got to be this freedom. God could create robots. The worship of a robot would be meaningless. The robot says, I love you, but how do you know?

It's all programmed into his computer. You could also program into the computer, I hate you. Again, it wouldn't do too much to you and go home all devastated because the robot said, I hate you. You know, it's just a robot.

It doesn't have any will of its own. It's only spitting out what's been programmed in. God could have made us that way, little robots spitting out what's programmed in. But you really wouldn't have a meaningful relationship.

You'll never develop a meaningful relationship with a robot. You'll have a more meaningful relationship with your dog than you will a robot. Because your dog can disobey you at times too, you know. He has the will.

You usually make him submit to your will, but he has a will of his own. And so you can develop a relationship of sorts with a dog, but you'll never be able to develop a relationship with a robot. So God made us with our free wills in order that my relationship with him might be meaningful because I don't have to relate to God.

I can blaspheme God if I want. I can turn my back on God and say, hey, don't want it. And because there is that capacity and because my relationship with God is something that is volitional on my part, I want to relate to him.

I desire and long for this relationship. I love him. And my declaration of such is meaningful then because it's the expression of my will. You see, I don't have to. I'm not forced to. So from the foundation of the world, God knew that man was going to sin.

God was ready to redeem man using really a strong incentive for man to come to God, declaring God's love to man. I mean, how can God show you that he loves you more than by sending his son to die in your place?

Greater love, Jesus said, is no man than this. And a man will lay down his life for his friends. The supreme sacrifice showing supreme love. No man can ever doubt God's love who looks at the cross. And it is interesting that God never seeks to prove His love for you apart from the cross.

There's not one Scripture where God tries to prove His love for you except those that relate to the cross. God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. Here in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and gave His Son as a propitiation for our sins.

For God demonstrated His love towards us in sin that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. And God giving His Son to you is the only way by which God has ever sought to prove that He loves you.

Sometimes in our relationships, as puerile as they often are, we say, prove that you love me. What do you want? See's candy? Or at Calvary, hell and grace candy. Prove that you love me. Well, if you would say to God, prove that you love me, He would just point to the cross.

There's the proof. It's the only proof you'll ever need. Jesus died for your sins and that was a part of God's plan from the foundation of the world. Now, because God knows all things, that's when He wrote your name in that book.

Knowing my response to His love and grace, my name was written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. Now, someone has suggested that God wrote everybody's name in. But then those who refuse to receive the grace of God, their names are blotted out.

I don't know. But here we are told that those that dwell upon the earth whose names were not written, so it sort of contradicts that concept, everybody's name was written, whose names were not written in the book of life or are not written in the book of life, slain from the foundation of the world.

If any man have an ear, let him hear. Whenever the Lord has had something quite important to say, He usually throws in that little he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear. He that leads into captivity shall go into captivity.

Now, the Antichrist is making war against the saints, taking them captive, destroying them. But they that live by the sword will die by the sword. Those that take those believers into captivity will themselves soon be taken into captivity.

He that kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. And here is the patience and the faith of the saints. And so, it's a word of encouragement to the saints who are going to be experiencing this horrible persecution from the Antichrist.

The False Prophet and Satan’s Counterfeit Miracles

And I beheld another beast, false prophet, coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb. In other words, he looked like a lamb, but he spoke like the dragon. Jesus said, Beware of false prophets who will come to you in sheep's clothing.

The one thing about the false prophet is that he never looks like a false prophet. Satan never looks like the caricatures of Satan. He does not have horns, a forked tail, and a pitchfork in his hand. And he doesn't wear a red leotard.

He would like you to think that he did. He would like you to think that he is some grotesque looking character that would scare the wits out of you if you saw him. He would like you to think that because that way he can go around cleverly disguised as an angel of light.

Beautiful. Speaking such soothing words to the flesh. Why don't you just go ahead and enjoy yourself? Drink of pleasure to its full. Oh, that can't be Satan. He's so charming. So enticing. Satan's ugly.

I don't see any pitchfork. And that's why he's able to deceive. So the false prophet, he has horns like a lamb. Listen to what he says. Words out of hell. He exercises all of the power of the first beast which was before him.

And he causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly womb was healed. So several times there's the mention of this deadly womb being healed. And it is really sort of the rallying point by which the false prophet draws the people to worship the beast.

And he does great wonders so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth and the sight of men. Now, you remember the two witnesses were doing this. They were bringing down fire from heaven. Now, he duplicates it.

You remember in the case of Moses going before the pharaoh how those in Pharaoh's court were the magicians were able to duplicate to a point the miraculous things that Moses was doing. Moses threw down his rod on the floor.

It became a serpent. They threw down their rods and they became serpents too. That duplication of godly miracles. Now, Satan is able to counterfeit many of the things of God. He can't counterfeit all of them.

But he can counterfeit many of the things of God. And does counterfeit many of the things of God. And here is a counterfeit. The two witnesses calling down fire from heaven. Now, this fellow comes along and he calls down fire from heaven in the sight of men.

And he deceived them that dwell on the earth by means of the miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast saying to them that dwell on the earth they should make an image to the beast which had a wound by the sword and did live.

Now, again in 2 Thessalonians you have parallel type of passages in chapter 2. As the Antichrist is described, he is called, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.

With all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause. What cause? Because people did not love the truth.

The truth of God. Jesus said, I am the truth and the life. But people don't love the truth. And for this cause. If you don't love the truth, God will send to them a strong delusion that they would believe a lie.

That they might be damned to believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness. So, God is going to give them a strong delusion that they might believe in the Greek. It's a definite article. The lie.

The big lie of Satan. The Antichrist and the false prophets. So, he deceives them. They don't want to believe the truth. God gives them over to delusion. God allows them to be deceived. You know, I am amazed at the things that people believe who have rejected Jesus Christ.

When you reject the knowledge of the truth in Christ, you are a prey to all kinds of stupidity. I am amazed at the foolish things that people do who reject the truth of Jesus Christ. Wear white robes, standing on street corners, shaving their heads, and working finger symbols.

Doing their little chantings. Doing their mantras. Doing their omens. Watching the people up in Oregon as they are worshipping their guru. Seeing the outlandish things that he is leading them to do. As they have mass hysteria.

Heavy breathing calisthenics followed by uncontrolled screaming. Writhing on the floor, screaming. What a prey man becomes who rejects the truth. God says, Hey, you don't want the truth, alright? You can believe a lie.

You don't want to be wise and receive my grace? Then be stupid. And people believe and do the most stupid things who have rejected the truth of God. I am amazed at many of these college professors who, you know, pretend towards superior intelligence of some of the weird things that they do.

Supposedly intelligent men. But because they did not love the truth, God gives them over to a strong delusion that some believe a lie. Several years ago, I was invited to come to a meeting of the supposed intelligentsia of Orange County.

A bunch of college professors and doctors. They were supposed to be the cream of the intelligentsia. And I was brought as a specimen of ignorance so they could play games and be amused by the fact that I actually believed in a living God who created the heavens and the earth.

And so I was brought for their amusement that they could eat me up. And as I sat there during their preliminaries and this one sort of leader of the group of superior intelligence sat on the floor in the lotus position and began to tell me all of his accomplishments and all of his intelligence and everything else.

I felt sorry. So wise and yet so deceived, so foolish. Finally, after a period of time, they said, well, what do you have to bring to us tonight? Because they had told me how that they had had LSD sessions.

These very intelligent people. They called themselves seekers. They were seeking truth. And they had had LSD. They had had coke. They had had everything. You know, after all of your seekers, you can excuse anything you want to do.

Seeking truth. The one sitting in the lotus position declared that he was a Buddhist priest. He had studied Buddhism under him. I said, well, you know, you've obviously searched through everything. But the fact that you call yourself seekers, you're obviously still searching.

I said, maybe in all of your searching, you've overlooked something that you've already searched through. I said, why don't we start with basics. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

One of them interrupted me immediately and said, now when you say God, are you talking about an anthropomorphic concept of God? And then some other guy started challenging him and they got in this big rhubarb.

And as they were in this big rhubarb, I bowed my head and I started praying. I said, God, if you get me out of this place, I promise I'll never come again. I've been neglecting my wife. I haven't spent enough evenings at home with her.

Lord, forgive me. I'm sorry. I should be home tonight with my wife and my family, my kids. They need me, Lord. And here I am in this mess. God, get me out of this mess, you know. Or do something. Because I knew that there was no way I was going to get anywhere.

And I didn't need the hassle. So finally, some lady that was there said, would you guys shut up? We hear you all the time. Every week we hear you guys going through the same inane arguments. Now, we've invited this fellow to speak to us.

The least we can do is listen. So they apologized and said, okay, you have the floor again. And I looked at them and I said, my soul and spirit are at complete rest. I'm completely satisfied. Hey, they all sat up on the edge of their seats.

And they started listening extremely attentively. Because that's something none of them could say. With all of their arguments, with all of their intelligence, with all of their background, none of them could say, my soul and spirit are at rest.

I am satisfied. And the Lord allowed me to share for about an hour the richness and the fullness that can be experienced in Jesus Christ. And then the Lord got me out of there. But, in the succeeding weeks, I had several of them call, come in, and receive Jesus Christ.

Because there's only one way that a man can find rest and peace, and that's in and through Jesus. And you may search the world over, and you may have all kinds of bizarre experiences, but you'll never have rest until you have Him.

But, those who refuse the truth are open for deception. And so He comes with deceiving wonders. And they make this image, and then they have power to give life to the image of the beast. Now, there's a lot of talk lately by some of the far-out physicists of creating a computer that can be biologically connected to certain types of organisms and will have life in itself.

And this bio kind of computer, they've written several articles on it. There's a research group up in Canada that's working on such a thing. Sort of a computer that will be able to think on its own kind of an idea.

One that you can't turn off. And they say that this is the next step in the evolutionary process. It'll be higher than man. It'll be able to rule man and give us the answers to life and its problems and so forth because they can create it with so much more intelligence than man.

And that's the talk of the far-out physicist. Interestingly enough, they are going to make an image of the Antichrist, put it in the Holy of Holies of the rebuilt temple, and then they're going to give life to it.

Now, this is the ultimate blasphemy. This is the abomination which will cause the desolation or the Great Tribulation. This is the final straw. At this point, the wrath and the fury of God will be poured out upon the earth and the earth will go through a time of Great Tribulation such as it has never seen before or will ever see again.

When the Antichrist comes to the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, proclaims himself to be God, stands in the Holy of Holies, the holy place, announcing himself as God, that's the ultimate blasphemy. They set up this image in the temple and they give power to it that it should both speak and have life.

And they caused as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. Now, you have sort of a historic kind of a picture with Nebuchadnezzar. You remember when he made the golden image, set it in the plains of Dura and caused everyone to bow down and worship it in order that if anyone should refuse to worship it, that they should be cast alive into the burning fiery furnace.

Now, the image that he made was making a statement. Nebuchadnezzar had had a troubling dream that Daniel had interpreted. It was a great image. Had a head of gold, chest of silver, stomach of brass, legs of iron, feet of iron and clay with ten toes.

This dream interpreted was the image were the nations that would rule the world headed by Babylon, the head of gold, which was to be replaced by the Medo-Persian Empire, the chest of silver, which would be replaced by the Grecian Empire, the stomach of brass, which would be destroyed by the Roman Empire, the legs of iron.

And the final world governing empire, a relationship to the Roman Empire, ten nations, the ten toes, federated together. And during the time of the reign of these ten kings, the Lord of Glory would come and establish his kingdom that would never end.

Now, Nebuchadnezzar was making a statement with this image. Why? Because he made it all of gold. Thou and Nebuchadnezzar are the head of gold. God has given to you a kingdom and reign over the earth and all.

But, you're going to be replaced. He is saying, I'm not going to be replaced. Babylon will last forever. It was a statement. And people were ordered to pay obeisance to that statement, to acknowledge that Babylon would be eternal.

It would not be destroyed. It would not be overthrown. It was a statement of contradiction to God's Word that declared that Babylon would be overthrown. It was a statement of rebellion against God. And people were commanded to agree to that statement by bowing down and worshipping the image.

And you have that as a counterpart to this image being set up and everyone being ordered to worship this image and being put to death if they refused to worship the image. You remember that right after that he went insane.

Shortly after that. And spent seven seasons in insanity. Until what? Until he acknowledged that God did rule over the kingdoms of man and would set on the thrones those whom He would. His little statement of blasphemy against God was finally changed.

The Mark of the Beast and the Number 666

And so they caused everyone, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads. Now, in France they have developed and have already trial marketed a smart card.

The smart card looks much like your Visa card or Master Charge. With the exception that the smart card has implanted in it a little computer chip that keeps track of your account. And if you try to use that card and you're above your limit, it just won't work.

Your card knows what your limits are. It keeps the constant monitoring of your account and you can't go over your limits with this smart card. Now, the Bank of Americas and Citibank of New York are extremely interested in or looking into this smart card and they're thinking about the same thing for our use in Visa and MasterCard.

In fact, there's an article in today's paper on that. I think it was in the San Andres Register on the smart card. Because the banks, according to the article, are extremely interested in encouraging people away from writing checks.

They're getting buried in paper and they want you to start using smart cards. Now, there is of course already talk about the implanting of computer chips under the skin in a person's hand for a positive identification.

Same kind of a thing as the smart card. The same kind of computer chip implanted under the skin of your hand and it would do the same thing. Keep track of your account so you can never overdraw. It could replace money completely.

The computers could keep the whole accounting. The chip would establish your limits and you do all your buying and selling with a mark that is in your right hand. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their forehead.

This technology exists today. These smart cards are in use. They are going to now test market them in several of the cities in the United States. They've already been test marketed in France and have been successful to a point.

There's still a few problems, but it has eliminated a lot of the shenanigans that take place with credit cards. Do any of you have the new security pacific card? The one with the holyograph of a dove in it?

What are the last three numbers in that security card? Take a look. The numbers that appear right over the holyograph of a dove. 617, okay. One of our pastors has one with 666. He's afraid to use it. I was curious as to whether or not all of them had the 666, but evidently not.

That's interesting. But they have the holygraph of a dove in the card. It's a very beautiful card. But suffice to say, technology does exist already to establish a monetary system that is based upon buying and selling with cards or identities such as a computer chip.

This will be inaugurated by the false prophet. And no man will be able to buy or sell unless he has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. Now, here is wisdom. Let him that has understanding count the number of the beast for it is the number of a man and his number is 666.

Now, the number of man in Scripture is six. You're aware with biblical numerics each number has a significance. The number seven is the number of completeness. The number six is short of completeness man, incomplete man.

The number 12 is the number of human government. And number 13 is the number for Satan. And in Hebrew and Greek it's more meaningful than in English because in the Hebrew and Greek they also count with their alphabet.

In other words, the alpha, beta, gamma, delta is 1, 2, 3, 4 as well as your A, B, C, D. And alpha, beta, gamma, delta is the same in Hebrew the 1, 2, 3, 4 instead of your A, B, C, D or it's your A, B, C, D also but it's also numeric so that every Greek letter has a numeric equivalent.

And so you can do fun things with Greek words such as you can total up the numeric equivalents of a Greek word or you can total up the numerics in it. And interestingly enough the number 8 being the number for Jesus it's the number of new beginnings.

7 is the complete number. 7 notes in a scale. 7 days in a week. So the 8th becomes the new beginning. You come to the 8th day you have a new week. You come to the 8th note you have a new scale. So 8 is the number of new beginnings.

Significantly it's the number of Jesus. He is the new beginning. And you total up in Greek the letters that spell Jesus and you have the number 888. And every name for Jesus if you total up the letters it's always divisible by 8.

If you total up the letters and all of the names for Satan in Greek it's divisible by 13. So there's a lot of interesting games that you can play with these numerics because there are the numeric values there and so there are a lot of things that could probably be figured out that are spoken cryptically in the Bible if you would follow through on this numbers program.

In fact Chuck Missler is trying to set up his computer to do this. Find what cryptic messages might exist in the Bible by setting his computer to discover these numeric patterns that exist. Now, here's the mind that has wisdom.

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number. It's the number of a man and the number is 666. Probably the total numeric value of the man's name. 666. Now when we get to the 17th chapter I'll give you another clue.

The 144,000 and Their Songs of Redemption

And I looked and lo there was a lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him there were 144 ,000 having his father's name written in their foreheads. Now back in chapter 7 we remember that these 144 ,000 were sealed of God in their foreheads.

And the angel was commanded not to hurt the earth until those could be sealed. And he saw them being sealed in their foreheads. 144 ,000, 12 ,000 from each of the tribes. So there is no reason at all not to believe that these 144 ,000 are the same group that we saw back in chapter 7 sealed in their foreheads.

Now here we are told what the seal is. The seal is the name of the father written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters. Jesus in chapter 1 when he spoke his voice was as many waters.

The voice of great thunder. And I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps. And they sang as it were a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures the cherubim and the elders.

And no man could learn that song but the 144 ,000 which were redeemed from the earth. Now, they are there. They are singing an exclusive song. They have an exclusive relationship with the Lord. They were sealed and they were preserved during a portion of the great tribulation period.

And so they have that special relationship with God and they can sing of that special relationship. In the same token, we the church have a special relationship and we have our own song that no one can sing except the church.

Ours is a song of redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ. And we find it back in chapter 5 and they sang a new song saying, worthy is the Lamb to take the scroll and loose the seals for He was slain and has redeemed us by His blood out of all of the nations, tongues, tribes, and people and has made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign with Him upon the earth.

That's a song exclusive for the church. 144 ,000 can't sing that song. They've got their own. Now, we find that the martyred saints have their own song in chapter 7. Angels, poor angels are left out of all of these songs.