Bock (p.222-232) notices a change of tone at the transition from chapter 13 to 14. We get a preview of the land of eternity, which opens up beyond the threshold that is guarded by the demonic forces. We see the Lamb, standing on mount Sion, with the 144,000 sealed. They have overcome the seduction, fear and suppression that are exerted by Lucifer, Ahriman and Sorat. The number of 144,000 symbolizes the free community of unified mankind. It refers to twelve times twelve times thousand, the total completion of mankind as a whole. The Lamb welcomes them when they are trespassing the threshold. They are the first wave of human souls that fulfill their vocation and are moving towards unification with the Christ. They are purified, in them is no deceit. We hear at this realm not the trumpets, but the fine music of harps and the singing of a new song that weaves the future.

The heavenly role of the Lamb

The Lamb is a leading image in the time when the Apocalypse was written. At the first ages of the Greco-Roman cultural-period (747BC – 1413) the vernal point of the Sun did rise in the first zodiacal sign, the constellation of Aries or the Lamb, as during the Egyptian cultural-period this was Taurus, or the bull Apis.

Mount Sion

Mount Sion stands in the Bible primarily for the city with the stronghold of King David on the holy hills of Jerusalem. But in time it also became the city of the temple of King Solomon, and gradually the meaning evolved to the city of God, and to the kingdom of God and to the place closest to heavenly Jerusalem.   

Events take a new turn

In the vision presented in this fragment 36, the first wave of human souls is not yet united with the Son of man, this will be reported later and is presented as the image of the wedding of the bride with Christ. It is a preview that makes us confident that we are moving toward the height of the Apocalypse. Events take from here an unraveling turn. Things resisting the mission of the Christ are decoupled from the upward movement. We see the Lamb on mount Sion with the 144,000 sealed souls, between, on the one hand, the number 666, and on the other the fall of Babylon, which we will read about later. The freedom of man to choose remains, but the consequences are becoming increasingly hard to transform.

The heart of the seven great images

Schult (p.230-233) characterizes the image of the Lamb on mount Sion as the heart of the seven great images that John perceives after the sounding of the seventh trumpet. First we saw the image of the heavenly virgin giving birth to the Self of man, then the picture of the dragon standing ready to kill the child, followed by the two beasts which seduce man by confusing his observations and his ability to judge which can indirectly result in the killing of the child. In the fourth image, the ultimate goal of creation emerges, the transformed earth and the start of reborn humanity. This central image shows us mount Sion, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the Lamb, representing purified man moving towards becoming man-in-God.

The 144,000 carry the names of the Christ god and of the Father god on their forehead. Love and wisdom are united in them. These people are the same as those mentioned in the sealing scene (Rev. 7: 1-8, fragment 19). Now, they are liberated from their bonds with physical earth. And the division in male and female is dissolved in an androgyny state, represented by the heavenly woman.  Here men become bearers of the Christ, and follow him in compassion, death and resurrection.

The 24 elders sang at the start of the Apocalypse (Rev. 5:8, fragment 12) with harp music and a new song. Here, the new song is coming from the 144,000 sealed men. The harp music, the voice of many waters, and the voice of a great thunder, sees Schult as expressions of the evolved thinking, feeling and willing of the 144,000. The new song proclaims the revelation of God in the free I of this new mankind.