I want to remind all interpreters of the Scriptures that "east" in Hebrew also means "antiquity".
Therefore, when we read
And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
(Revelation 7:2,3)
- this means that the seal of the Holy Spirit was placed on all the meetings of the Church from antiquity, from Pentecost in 32 AD, and maybe even earlier, because the prophet Ezekiel saw how a sign, a cross (the letter "tav" in the form of a cross, in pre-Babylonian inscription) was placed on the foreheads of the grieving Jews in Jerusalem.
Yes, today, ever since Pentecost,
all born again Christians have the
seal of God's ownership, by receiving the permanency of God's FREE Gift of His Eternal Holy Spirit.
However, that would NOT be the case for Israel, during the time of
the Age of Indignation, under the OC.
No one then could ever HAVE the PERMANENT indwelling of the Holy Spirit UNTIL the shedding of Christ's blood.
The best that God could do for them, was to have their names written in "a book of Remembrance". Malachi 3:16.
In the day of Jesus' mortal death on the cross, many of those whom God remembered, were resurrected out of their graves. All of them ARE the OC. sealed saints, the figurative 144,000 of Israel.
God did NOT forget them whom He had remembered. Mat. 27:50-54
Even the
repentant thief on the cross understood that, when he said: "
Remember me when you come into your kingdom", of which Jesus' reply guaranteed it for him.
So then, now that God has long ago safely secured and redeemed the
figurative 144, 000 saints of Israel
into Heavenly Jerusalem above,
AFTER the shedding of Christ's blood, there is now after Pentecost, "the Great Mulitude" of NT. born again Christians, being both Jews and Gentiles. All of such are
still waiting for THEIR redemption, "looking for" the return of Jesus from heaven, in the Glory of His Immortality, "in flaming fire".
2 Thes. 1:7-10
As for Rev. 7:2-3, I would remind all to focus on
when verse 3 began to take place, which is a sign of
God's Age of Grace, through faith in Jesus, coming to an END, ever since the 1800's.
"Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants [born again NT. saints] of our God in their foreheads."
What and when was
Dynamite discovered, and then following, the many
weapons of mass destruction?
en.m.wikipedia.org
Edit: by the way, if you have any memory of your "school years", I am sure you can recall the many, many inventions and discoveries that suddenly emerged into society, during the 1800's. Many are from the subtil benevolence of satan's evil genius, who is "
the prince OF the power of the AIR".
Eph. 2:2
Inventions in the 1800s put the world in a remarkably better position. The world was evolving from the crude age, the Industrial Revolution
www.inventiongen.com