---
title: Revelation 7:14
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-7-14/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-7-14.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Revelation 7:14
testament: NT
section: Prophecy
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Revelation 7:14

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> “Sir,” I answered, “you know.”  So he replied, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb"

## JW Usage

Watchtower commentary takes Revelation 7:14 as foundational to the great-tribulation doctrine. The "great crowd" who "come out of the great tribulation" are the earthly-hope class who survive Armageddon — having washed their robes in the Lamb's blood by associating with Jehovah's organisation. The tribulation is a future event in which the United Nations destroys all false religion, then turns on Jehovah's Witnesses before Jehovah brings paradise earth at Armageddon.

## Protestant Usage

Read Matthew 24:15-21 alongside Luke 21:20-24. Where Matthew says "the abomination of desolation" (which the Watchtower takes as a future UN attack), Luke records the same teaching with the explicit explanation "Jerusalem surrounded by armies." The great tribulation is the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem, not a future JW-specific persecution. The "great crowd" washing their robes in the Lamb's blood are the redeemed of every age — drawn from "every nation, tribe, people, and tongue" (v9) — not a separate earthly class. They stand before the throne (heaven, per 4:2 and 5:11), serving God day and night in his temple (naos — heavenly throughout Revelation). The Watchtower bunker-doctrine of a future tribulation targeting JWs has no textual anchor outside Watchtower commentary.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Great Tribulation Was AD 70 — Not a Future Attack on JWs](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/great-tribulation-matt24.md) — Matthew 24:15-22 / Luke 21:20-24 / Matthew 24:34 [Eschatology]