Q: “Where is the Great Crowd Serving God?”

I have been struggling with something and I apologize if this has already been addressed on your site- I've read quite a bit but there is so much to read on it!

So anyway, a brother that used to be a high-ranking member of the Bethel family and was there during the 1980 shakeup wrote a booklet with the above title.
In this it has very convincing arguments that the Great Crowd are a heavenly class, just as was believed back in the days of Pastor Russell. Should we all be partaking of the emblems then? I am troubled by this doubt and it seems that everyday I find "one more thing" from the WTS that is not in line with scripture.
_________________________

A: Is the Great Crowd of Revelation in heaven? (Rev. 7:14,15) The tent [or tabernacle] that God directed to be constructed in the wilderness according to his specific instruction, and which was later replaced with the temple built by Solomon, sheds light on the subject. The apostle Paul explains: 
    
    "Here is the main point: We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven. 2 There he ministers in the heavenly Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands.
    3 And since every high priest is required to offer gifts and sacrifices, our High Priest must make an offering, too. 4 If he were here on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there already are priests who offer the gifts required by the law. 5 They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: 'Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.'”
    6 But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises." (Hebrews 8:1-6, NLT; Exodus 25:8,9)
  
 The tent that Moses built had two rooms (compartments, NWT), as Paul further explains:
 
    2 "There were two rooms in that Tabernacle. In the first room were a lampstand, a table, and sacred loaves of bread on the table. This room was called the Holy Place. 3 Then there was a curtain, and behind the curtain was the second room called the Most Holy Place. 4 In that room were a gold incense altar and a wooden chest called the Ark of the Covenant, which was covered with gold on all sides. . . 5 Above the Ark were the cherubim of divine glory, whose wings stretched out over the Ark’s cover, the place of atonement.
   6 When these things were all in place, the priests regularly entered the first room as they performed their religious duties. 7 But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. 8 By these regulations the Holy Spirit revealed that the entrance to the Most Holy Place was not freely open as long as the Tabernacle and the system it represented were still in use.
   9 This is an illustration pointing to the present time. For the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them. 10 For that old system deals only with food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies—physical regulations that were in effect only until a better system could be established.
  11 So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 12 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. 13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins." (Hebrews 9:2-14, NLT)
  
The Scriptures explain that no one but the High Priest was ever permitted to enter beyond the curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy (the Holy of Holies); and then even he appeared before God inside the curtain only once a year on the Day of Atonement. There was no exception! Anyone profaning the holy place was sure to die, as in the case of two of Aaron's sons, the priests Nadab and Abihu. (Lev. 10:1,2, 16:1,2, 11-17; Num. 3:2-4) Apart from the tabernacle with its Most Holy Place, God did not provide anything else to represent someone appearing before his presence. (Psalms 11:4) Every detail of the many regulations in connection with that system of worship was highly significant, because they were "a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven." That is why God strictly enforced the keeping of them. (Gal. 3:24) The apostle Paul explains that Christ Jesus as the high priest, entered the Most Holy—heaven itself—"to appear before the person of God for us," with the perfect sacrifice of his own blood on behalf of mankind. (Heb. 8:1,2; 9:24)
  
All this raises the question: If the great crowd of Revelation is in heaven, would that not place them in the Most Holy, whereas even the priests officiating in the first room at the temple were not permitted to enter beyond the curtain, under penalty of death? Are we to believe that the High Priest entering the Most Holy on the Day of Atonement foreshadowed not only Jesus entering into the presence of God in heaven, as the apostle Paul explains, but also the great crowd "out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues?" (Rev. 7:9) Is Paul mistaken in his understanding of the Most Holy and what it represented? Is the great crowd before God's throne waving palm branches in heaven? Can we imagine the Levites, who were appointed to assist the priests at the tabernacle, entering the Most Holy and wave palm branches before the ark of the covenant? (Num. 1:50,51) Some further assert that the great crowd "which no man was able to number," is in fact the 144,000—the Lamb's wife—"who have been bought from among mankind as firstfruits to God," and therefore they claim that the number 144,000 is merely figurative, symbolic and an indeterminate number. (Rev. 20:6; 21:9-11)

The apostle Paul explains that God has built his house, his temple, upon "the foundation of the apostles and prophets" [the holy ones], while "Christ Jesus himself is the foundation cornerstone." (Eph. 2:19,20) This is where God's people are rendering sacred service today under the new covenant. (John 4:21-24; Heb. 9:14,15; Rev. 7:14,15) By denying the 144,000 within God's arrangement, a person is not only denying them—the "spiritual house for the purpose of a holy priesthood"—but at the same time is denying Jesus, with whom they are closely associated. No one can exercise faith in Jesus while rejecting his "brothers," his "bride." (Matt. 25:45,46; John 13:20; Rev. 14:1-3; 19:7-9) That is what the apostle Peter writes: "It is to you, therefore, that he is precious, because you are believers; but to those not believing, 'the identical stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner,' and 'a stone of stumbling and a rock-mass of offense.' These are stumbling because they are disobedient to the word. To this very end they were also appointed." (1 Peter 2:7-9) Not only are the false teachers thoroughly confused, but they also demonstrate that they are not among God's people who are "being harmoniously joined together, into a place for God to inhabit by spirit." After all, can a person expect to know anything about God's temple, his household, if he doesn't belong to it, by trying to look in from the outside?  
  
Why would anyone, who believes that the book of Revelation is written in figurative language and not to be understood literally—such as the number 144,000—argue at the same time that the "great crowd" is literally standing before the person of God in heaven? (Heb. 9:24)

But if the great crowd is not in heaven, before the throne of God, then where are they? Jehovah answers, "The heavens are my throne, and the earth is my footstool." (Isaiah 66:1; Matt. 5:34,35; Acts 7:49) Where was King David when he "came in and sat down before Jehovah"? How did Jehovah "walk about in all Israel"? (1 Chron. 17:6, 16) They are before the throne at God's footstool, and in his temple, for his temple is made up of God's faithful worshipers here on earth, as Paul explains: "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit." (Eph. 2:19-22, ESV; compare 1 Cor. 3:16,17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16-18) Jehovah is with the great crowd in the same way that he was with his people back in the days of Moses: “And I shall certainly put my tabernacle (tent) in the midst of you, and my soul will not abhor you. And I shall indeed walk in the midst of you and prove myself your God, and you, on your part, will prove yourselves my people." (Lev. 26:11,12; Mal. 3:17,18)
  
The great crowd that comes out of the great tribulation is made up of God's faithful and obedient people who rendered him sacred service before the global destruction breaks forth: "Before there comes upon you people the burning anger of Jehovah, before there comes upon you the day of Jehovah’s anger, seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth, who have practiced His own judicial decision. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. Probably you may be concealed in the day of Jehovah’s anger.” (Zeph. 2:2,3; Isaiah 55:6,7; Matt. 24:21,22; Rev. 7:1-3) The prophet Daniel wrote that God's people, whose names are written down in the book of life, will escape ("be delivered," ESV; "be rescued," NASB) out of the greatest of all tribulations. (Dan. 12:1) Rather than die and go to heaven, the great crowd "will never die at all." That is what Jesus promised: "I am the resurrection and the life. He that exercises faith in me, even though he dies, will come to life; and everyone that is living and exercises faith in me will never die at all." Then he added: "Do you believe this?" Many people evidently don't! (John 11:25-27; 8:51,52; 6:27) Jehovah has promised that he will deliver his people through the coming great tribulation, and "cut short" those days on account of them, otherwise "no flesh would be saved." (Matt. 24:22; 1 Peter 4:18) After the great tribulation they will continue to render sacred service to God on a cleansed earth, and enjoy his blessings forever: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.” (Revelation 7:9,10, 15-17; 21:3,4; Isaiah 25:8) Jesus said: "Most truly I say to you, He that hears my word and believes him that sent me has everlasting life, and he does not come into judgment but has passed over from death to life." (John 5:24; 3:16, 18; 10:27,28)


Note: The "great crowd in heaven" of Revelation 19:1 and 6, is not the same great crowd that survives the great tribulation. Not every "great crowd" mentioned in the Scriptures obviously applies to the one that comes out of the great tribulation. (Compare Matt. 14:14; 20:29; Mark 12:37; Luke 5:29; John 6:2, 5; 12:9, 12; Acts 6:7, NWT) Rather, this great crowd that John sees in heaven is the same great crowd that the prophet Daniel also saw in his vision, "a thousand thousands that kept ministering to [God], and ten thousand times ten thousand that kept standing right before him." In both visions, this great crowd kept standing right before the throne of God in heaven and "give him the glory" at the time when God's kingdom is established and the "son of man" receives the kingdom along with the "holy ones," the Lamb's bride. (compare Daniel 7:9,10, 13-14, 18, 27; with Revelation 5:11,12; 11:15; 19:6,7) This great crowd is made up of God's spirit sons in heaven, who were present when God created the earth and they "joyfully cried out together, and all the sons of God began shouting in applause." (Job 38:7) Throughout the centuries the angels in heaven have been keenly interested in the outworking of God's purpose regarding the promised seed and mankind's redemption. (1 Peter 1:12) These loyal spirit sons of God joyfully cry out together in thunderous applause "because Jehovah our God, the Almighty, has begun to rule as king"; and "the marriage of the Lamb has arrived and his wife has prepared herself." (Rev. 19:6,7; 12:10) They vociferously express their enthusiasm in welcoming into their midst the 144,000—the Lamb's wife—who have been "bought from among mankind as firstfruits." (Rev. 5:9,10; 14:1, 3,4) This same great crowd of angelic creatures in heaven follows "The Word of God" into battle against "the wild beast and the kings of the earth." (Rev. 19:13,14, 19; Matt. 25:31; 2 Thess. 1:7)

As to your further question: “Should we all be partaking of the emblems then?” This has really nothing to do with where we worship Jehovah. Please see the answer to this question in a previous letter I posted: "Is it a sin to partake at the Memorial when you shouldn't, or fail to do so when you should?"
(See also: Where is the great crowd of Rev 7?)

http://www.perimeno.ca/Index_A.htm