In its setting, Revelation 7:9-17 depicts the earthly survivors of the coming tribulation. So someone who wanted to be extremely exacting might restrict the term “great crowd” to persons who have survived that tribulation. But is it necessary to be that restrictive? We do not believe so. Obviously, those who will survive had to have been gathered before “the great tribulation” so that they could qualify for survival. Thus we have applied the term “great crowd” to loyal Christians who at this time serve Jehovah God with the prospect of survival and of their being ‘guided to fountains of waters of life’ on earth. (Revelation 7:17)

Someone might reason: Jesus was pointing to a future gathering of “other sheep,” hence the term applies only to those who, after Jesus spoke, would accept the Biblical hope of everlasting life on earth. However, it seems unnecessary to confine the term thusly, as if Jesus were defining matters chronologically or sequentially. We believe that he was stressing that he was the shepherd of the unified sheep.