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No, not all Christians hold to the number 144,000 being a literal number. I believe 144,000 is a symbolic number, as are a lot of numbers in the Bible. I believe it is intended to communicate absolute completeness, and refers to the total number of the saved.
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So now we are interpreting what the bible means?
What happened to the literalism? What happened to the inerrantcy?
You have to see how this type of picking and choosing of what is real and what is not causes many to look very askew at the whole.
Can't you see that?
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So in that regard, I don't "hope to be one of the 144,00 - I know I am*. But there are others who look at that number literally. Can I offer a word of advice? I will anyway - please grow beyond your hangup on literalism - as I've pointed out, not all of the Bible is literal - or meant to be literal. Taking such a view towards it is extremely superficial and severely limits ones understanding of what God communicates in it.
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But that is EXACTLY the point... fundamentalist and evangelicals quote chapter and verse on some points and tell the world that it is the inerrant bible that tells us so, and then, when questioned on some points, the rest of us are told not to take it so literally.
You can't have it both ways... either the bible is literal or it isn't.
If it isn't, then doesn't that substantiate my much earlier comment that if it is taken allegorically and metaphorically, that the spiritual message is much stronger then if any part of it is taken literally?