The 144,000 are born again as spiritual sons of God.
1 Pet. 1:23; John 3:3; Rev. 7:3-4.
The Watchtower Society teaches that only 144,000 members of the body of Christ will attain heaven. Those believers who are not part of this group will form a secondary class, known as the great crowd of “other sheep.” The “other sheep” will never experience heaven, but will live on a renewed earth after the battle of Armageddon. The Society teaches that the gathering of the 144,000 began in the first century and continued through the year 1935. Why 1935? The date was selected by Judge Rutherford when he realized that the Society was growing and would outnumber more than 144,000. The 144,000 will live in the upper-atmosphere and co-reign with God. Only members on the elect, 144,000, can partake of the emblems, which is the Society’s form of holy communion.
Rev. 7:4-8: “And I heard the number of those who were sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel.”
The Witnesses take the first half of this verse literally and the second half of the verse figuratively.
But, if we are to take the 144,000 literally, then, let’s look at Rev. 14:2-5 where the 144,000 are described:
RSVCE – Rev. 14:2-5, And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpers playing on their harps, and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste; it is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes; these have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are spotless.
If this passage is to be taken literally (which most biblical scholars would deny), it means that the 144,000 are to be virginal, Jewish, males.
In actuality, the assembly described is an idealization of the Church, protected by Christ and gathered about him. It includes all those who belong to Christ and to the Father and who therefore bear their mark, which shows them to be the children of God. They are so many that it is impossible to count them, but their number is complete. They are given a symbolic number.
The number 12 indicates fullness. The 144,000 is the number 12, the number of the tribes of Israel, multiplied by itself and then multiplied by 1000 (a number indicating a huge scale). The number, cited in Rev. 14, indicates the fullness of Israel; the Church in the NT is conceived as the fullness of Israel, and this is the heavenly Church in its final completion.