The 144 000 is a LITERAL number NOT figurative. I will just give you brief reasons for my answer. For more information on your question, please visit the links below.

Reasons why literal:
1. John heard the number (Rev 7:4).
2. John saw the 144 000 standing with the Lamb on Mt Sion (Rev 14:1).
3. John divides the number mathematically (Rev 7:5-8).
4. They are from Israel (modern Israel = SDA Church) (Rev 7:4 and Vol, 9 Testimonies for the Church, page. 164)
5. They are called virgins (Rev 14: and Christ Object Lessons, page 406)
6: Sister EGW says they are numbered. Early Writings, page. 14 “The living saints, 144,000 in number”

https://youtu.be/0PI3HA1Fu6U
http://www.shepherds-rod-speaks.org/rod-publications/

Yours in Christ

Brother Lindoll

It is prudent for you to take your time and prayerfully study what inspiration has to say about the stone in Daniel 2 rather than mindlessly repeat what you have been taught without considering that the Bible has two meanings for a stone and in its proper context the stone that comes from the mountain (SDA church) cannot logically be Christ at His second coming because when He comes, He comes from heaven, NOT from God’s church on earth. Think it though without being a bait hunter.

It is best not to be so short sighted to ignore all that Ellen White said about the subject of the 144,000. For example, if we are told to “strive with all the power God has given us to be among the 144,000.” — The Review and Herald, Mar. 9, 1905 then how can we be expected to follow this admonition if we are never to have any discussion on the topic of the 144,000? Perhaps it would be wiser if we humbled ourselves and considered that more light would shine on this most important subject as given below in a quote from the original Shepherd’s Rod, Vol. 1, Tract Ed. pp. 6-18.

“The mystery concerning the sealing of the 144,000 is probably peer to any vexed Bible subject. Theory has crowded theory, only the more to mystify and confuse the truth of it. No Christian denomination seems to have escaped the controversy which, in giving rise to many divergent views, has only increased the rift in the Protestant lute.

This has been exceedingly regrettable, and very much the more so among us as Seventh-day Adventists, for long ago the messenger of the Lord admonished us to “strive with all the power God has given us to be among the 144,000″ (The Review and Herald, March 9, 1905), and then graciously placed in our hands the necessary knowledge for the time then present as to when and where, why and what, the sealing is.

“This sealing of the servants of God,” the Lord revealed, “is the same that was shown to Ezekiel in vision.” — Testimonies To Ministers, p. 445. (Read Ezekiel 9).

And in amplification of the subject the messenger wrote: “Especially in the closing work for the church, in the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand who are to stand without fault before the throne of God, will they feel most deeply the wrongs of God’s professed people.” — Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 266.

Accordingly, the marking takes place in the church because of “the abominations” practiced in her midst. Hence, the removal of those who foster the abominations is her closing work, not the world’s.

With this key knowledge in hand, the church was to have gone on enlightenedly with the progress of Truth and at the appointed time be enabled to unlock the mystery. But failing to obey the voice of the Lord and thus to walk in the Light and to advance from knowledge to knowledge, she lost her way and consequently has for years wandered in the wilderness of theory, so to speak.

And while she was in confusion on the subject, the Spirit of Truth pronounced silence on it then to be “eloquence.” But eloquence for how long? Forever? — Obviously not, but only until the Lord Himself should unroll the scroll, the sealing commence, and the subject become present truth. Then silence could no longer be eloquence; in fact, not even possible — not if there are ever to be 144,000 sealed and made ready to stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion (Rev. 14:1).

A thoroughgoing knowledge of the subject must necessarily be of as great importance as is a comprehensive knowledge of Daniel 7, Revelation 13 and 17, the Three Angels’ Messages of Revelation 14, or any other revealed Bible mystery or prophecy. And how can one escape the slaughter unless one knows what the sealing, marking, is, when it is, and where it is to be?

So while on the one hand is seen the utter necessity and hence the absolute certainty of Inspiration’s fully unfolding the subject at the time of the closing work for the church, on the other hand is seen the consequent utter impossibility of anyone’s discovering the whole truth beforehand.

Any thinker knows that to have made known the truth of it before time, would have left it as vain, valueless, and ineffective as would making known the truth about the image of the beast years before or a minute after it does its deceptive work. But at the striking of the foreordained hour, the time Inspiration unlocks the mystery, all can behold the truth and profit by it. Happily, we can then intelligently strive to be among this guileless company, and can be sealed with them, if we sincerely and steadfastly follow on to know the truth on time.

“When,” someone asks, “will this closing work for the church begin?” — Obviously, it is already in progress. Light is pouring in upon the subject, dispelling the darkness which has long enveloped it. Having consequently become present truth to lighten the way in which the 144,000 are to “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth” (Rev. 14:4), it must be proclaimed as from the housetops.

In 1844, as all Seventh-day Adventists know, Sister White was given a vision of the 144,000 signalizing the sealing angel’s starting his ascent from the east (Rev. 7:2-4). From then on he was ascending, and the saints were awaiting his arrival. Finally, in 1929, through the Sabbath School Lessons the Lord announced throughout the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination that the angel had arrived. Then the scroll began to unroll and the angel’s presence to be felt by many of those who were agonizing for truth and righteousness.

“But how can we know for sure,” another questions, “that this and companion publications are the genuine fruit of the unrolling of the scroll and of the sealing angel’s arrival?” — Simply if the claimant herein on trial is vindicated by all relevant Scripture and other inspired testimony. And if it is, then the only admissible conclusion is that the Divinely appointed and long-awaited hour has struck, and that this literature is the instrument used by Inspiration to make the event known to God’s people.

Since, as we have previously seen from the Spirit of Prophecy, the sealing and the slaughter take place in the church during the closing work for her, they could not antedate the present time. And the prophecy itself shows that the sealing must begin at a time when her spiritual life is at its lowest ebb, when she is polluted with sin — in “exceeding great…iniquity.” Ezek. 9:9. For it is her defiled condition that causes a Holy God to do in her midst the work of marking, sealing, the saints, and of doing away with the sinners among them.

How did she start to reach this condition? — The servant of the Lord sadly answers:

“The Lord has not closed Heaven to us, but our own course of continual backsliding has separated us from God. Pride, covetousness, and love of the world have lived in the heart without fear of banishment or condemnation. Grievous and presumptuous sins have dwelt among us. And yet the general opinion is that the church is flourishing, and that peace and spiritual prosperity are in all her borders.

“The church has turned back from following Christ her Leader, and is steadily retreating toward Egypt. Yet few are alarmed or astonished at their want of spiritual power. Doubt and even disbelief of the testimonies of the Spirit of God, is leavening our churches everywhere.” — Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 217.

“We have wandered away from the old landmarks. Let us return. If the Lord be God, serve him: if Baal, serve him. Which side will you be on?” — Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 137.

“As Jesus views the state of his professed followers today, he sees base ingratitude, hollow formalism, hypocritical insincerity, Pharisaical pride and apostasy.” — Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 72.

“Who can truthfully say, ‘Our gold is tried in the fire; our garments are unspotted by the world’? I saw our Instructor pointing to the garments of so-called righteousness. Stripping them off, He laid bare the defilement beneath. Then He said to me: ‘Can you not see how they have pretentiously covered up their defilement and rottenness of character? “How is the faithful city become an harlot?” My Father’s house is made a house of merchandise, a place whence the divine presence and glory have departed! For this cause there is weakness, and strength is lacking.’” –Testimonies, Vol. 8, p. 250. “The time has come for earnest and powerful efforts to rid the church of the slime and filth which is tarnishing her purity.” — Testimonies To Ministers, p. 450.

Thus with humiliating certainty we are made to see and to acknowledge that the condition of the church “is deplorable in the sight of God.” — Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 253.

And it is a mournfully admitted fact among all the informed and honest throughout the Denomination, that though she has for years been steadily declining spiritually, she has never hitherto reached her present low level where she retains scarcely any of her former distinction from the world.

“Spiritual death,” laments the Voice of Inspiration, “has come upon the people that should be manifesting life and zeal, purity and consecration, by the most earnest devotion to the cause of truth. The facts concerning the real condition of the professed people of God, speak more loudly than their profession, and make it evident that some power has cut the cable that anchored them to the Eternal Rock, and that they are drifting away to sea, without chart or compass.” — Christ Our Righteousness, p. 36 (1941 edition).

“Men and women are in the last hours of probation, and yet are careless and stupid, and ministers have no power to arouse them; they are asleep themselves. Sleeping preachers preaching to a sleeping people!” — Testimonies, Vol. 2, p. 337.

Indeed, “the conviction is gaining ground in the world that Seventh-day Adventists are giving the trumpet an uncertain sound, that they are following in the path of worldlings.” — Testimonies To Ministers, p. 86.

For all these and for other reasons, some of which we know not, a pure and Holy God is “whetting his sword in Heaven to cut” down those who do not sigh and cry. “Oh that every lukewarm professor could realize the clean work that God is about to make among his professed people!” — Testimonies, Vol. 1, p. 190.

“Mark this point with care: Those who receive the pure mark of truth, wrought in them by the power of the Holy Ghost, represented by a mark by the man in linen, are those ‘that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done’ in the church.” — Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 267.

“The seal of God will be placed upon the foreheads of those only who sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land.” — Testimonies Vol. 5, p. 212.

Necessarily, “while the investigative judgment is going forward in heaven, while the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting away of sin, among God’s people upon earth.” — The Great Controversy, p. 425.

Now that this special work is on, there is doubt no longer that “the days of purification of the church are hastening on apace. God will have a people pure and true. In the mighty sifting soon to take place, we shall be better able to measure the strength of Israel. The signs reveal that the time is near when the Lord will manifest that his fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor.” — Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 80.

In another memorable vision of this same crucial work, Sister White “saw angels hurrying to and fro in heaven, descending to the earth, and again ascending to heaven, preparing for the fulfillment of some important event.

“Then I saw another mighty angel,” she continues, “commissioned to descend to the earth, to unite his voice with the third angel, and give power and force to his message. Great power and glory were imparted to the angel, and as he descended, the earth was lightened with his glory…. This message seemed to be an addition to the third message….” — Early Writings, p. 277

And “only those,” avers the Spirit of Truth, “who have withstood temptation in the strength of the Mighty One will be permitted to act a part in proclaiming it [the Third Angel's Message] when it shall have swelled into the loud cry.” — The Review and Herald, No. 19, 1908.

“The great issue so near at hand will weed out those whom God has not appointed, and He will have a pure, true, sanctified ministry prepared for the latter rain.” — B-55-1886.

Why are the sinners taken from among the righteous before the earth is lightened with the glory of the angel? — Because “one sinner may diffuse darkness that will exclude the light of God from the entire congregation.” — Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 265.

The clear sequence of facts here brought to view conclusively points out that we are now in “the closing work for the church, in the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand”; that the sealing, marking, sifting, shaking, “special work,” “important event,” “closing work,” and “purification,” all result alike in the destruction of the unsealed and in the purification of the sealed. Yes, this is the preparation for the time of trouble, the Loud Cry, the closing work for the world.

Obviously, then, the closing message for the world is proclaimed by the faithful only, and God’s people during the plagues are apart by themselves with no unfaithful among them.

So the subject of the 144,000, with its interrelated subjects coming into clear, harmonious focus, shows that the eleventh-hour call for laborers in the Lord’s vineyard is now in progress, and that now is the time to “strive with all the power God has given us to be among the 144,000.” — The Review and Herald, Mar. 9, 1905.” — Shepherd’s Rod Vol. 1, Tract Ed. pp. 6-18

That is why the Seventh-Day Adventist is true because we believed that the mountain and the rock in Daniel 2:44-45 clearly is the LORD. Why?
lets read Daniel 2:44-45
44. “And in the days of these kings(present time) the God of heaven will set up a kingdom (the Seventh-Day Adventist Church) which shall never be destroyed (because it is God who made the church); and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

45. “Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands (because it is God’s commandments not human endeavor), and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold–the great God has made known the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is true.

It is not the 144,000 endeavors, it is not a number or a thing, there is no such thing but the “LAW OF THE LORD” the only power which will smite the law of the kings here in our present times, because the kingdoms in our present times were runned by earthly and human laws which were like as the old time in babylon. that is why the LORD GOD is making a God abiding church the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Laodicean era.
If we do not accept God as the rock in our faith then we are thinking of a different rock except of Him. Beware of the misleadings.

Is it right to be zealous and eager to be part the 144,000?
Is it right to take over God’s plan? Isaiah 55:8 ” For My thoughts are not your thoughts, so are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.