The first verse of Revelation Chapter 7 deals with events before the Rapture, whilst the second verse onward deals with events after the Rapture. John saw four angels holding back the four winds from blowing a total destruction upon the earth. These winds represent war, and more specifically, World War One, that ravaged the earth from 1914 to 1918. This war was supernaturally stopped by the Angel of the LORD, who is the sealing Angel of verse 2. World War One came to a sudden end at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month (November 11).
The sealing Angel that stopped World War One is the very same Angel that spoke to the prophet William Branham in 1916 at the age of seven whilst the war was still raging. The Angel told the boy prophet not to drink, or smoke, or defile his body in any way, for there was a work for him to do when he got older. The prophet stepped onto the world stage in 1946 with a tremendous healing revival, and would later restore the original truths that had been lost during the seven church ages. The war was stopped from becoming a total annihilation of the planet because a Gentile Bride had not yet been called and sealed under the ministry of a Gentile prophet (Malachi 4: 5; Revelation 10: 7), and the 144,000 Jews of Israel’s twelve tribes (Revelation 7: 4-8) had not yet been called and sealed under the ministry of the two Jewish prophets (Revelation 11: 3).
The sealing Angel is Jesus Christ, who was “the” Son of Man (Revelation 10: 1) veiled behind “a” son of man (the Gentile prophet), calling out a Bride and sealing Her with His Spirit (Ephesians 4: 30) before the Rapture. But after the Rapture, the same Jesus will veil Himself behind the two Jewish prophets, and will call out the 144,000 Jews in order to seal them with His Spirit. The calling and sealing of these elected Jews will happen during the Great Tribulation.
The 144,000 Jews are called the servants of God (Revelation 7: 3), and the next group John saw are also called as servants (Revelation 7: 15). This second group that John saw in Revelation 7: 9-10 are the foolish virgins, who, along with the 144,000 Jews, will shed their blood in martyrdom during the Great Tribulation and are seen standing on the sea of glass in Revelation 15: 2-4. The details of the sea of glass we shall look at in Chapter 15 of our series.
The number of the foolish virgins was far beyond what any man could number (Revelation 7: 9). John at first did not know who these people were, and needed one of the elders to tell him. As a Jewish man himself, John was able to recognize the Jewish group (the 144,000), but he did not recognize the second group, because they were Gentiles that would come out of the newly established Church in the seven church ages that followed Pentecost. We learn from all of this that the number of foolish virgins in each church age far exceeded the number of wise virgins (to understand this subject, please read The ten virgins). Though many heard the message of each church age messenger in their respective ages, yet it was only the wise, who are very few, that were actually sealed by the Holy Spirit.
The Bible is clear that the second group John saw came out of the Great Tribulation (Revelation 7: 14). This cannot be the Bride, for She is raptured at the end of the seven church ages when John was called up higher in Revelation 4: 1, and does not appear again until Revelation 19, where She returns with Christ to the earth when He sets up His Kingdom. But the many sanctified ones in the end time that heard the message and were not sealed by the Spirit of the message, they will go into the Great Tribulation and seal their testimony with their own blood. Whereas the 144,000 Jews will be resurrected for the Millennium and be servants to Christ and His Bride during the Kingdom Age, the foolish virgins will come up at the second resurrection (Revelation 20: 11-13) and receive eternal life at the Great White Throne of Judgment, after which they are ushered in to Eternity and will be attendants to Christ and His Bride there.
Proceed to Revelation Chapter 8