“Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth – to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people – saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.’” Revelation 14:6-7.
This section begins with one of three angels flying in the midst of heaven and while the proclamations are pretty straight forward, the circumstances should be examined to better understand them.
Our timeline would still be the middle of the tribulation or very shortly after. Something that has not been spoken of in Revelation up to this point is the super church, which is mentioned in Revelation chapter 17.
This will all be discussed later when we come to that chapter, however the gist of it goes like this; after the rapture there will be a huge vacuum created by the loss of some political leaders and a total loss of the true Christian church.
In the ensuing chaos there will be a scramble for power in both of these areas, with many praising their great fortune in being rid of the Christians who have been a thorn in the sides of progressive thinkers worldwide.
“…because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools…” Romans 1:21-22.
This paradigm shift, as the followers of the new age religion would call it will enable crafty men empowered by Satan to create a religion that accepts all religions.
This, by the way, is already going on today within the liberal churches, it is called ecumenicalism.
Whether they are apostate Christian churches, Hindu, voodoo, or the worship of a rock somewhere, it matters not, all are paths to heaven, just so long as they are part of the one church.
This attitude is evident, even now, in the so-called Christian churches that have taken down the cross so as not to offend anyone; and have stopped preaching Christ Jesus and Him crucified, just to be politically correct.
So powerful will the church be that the whole world will be members. The super church will persecute those who are converted to Christ through the preaching of the 144 thousand Israelites, it will feed on the blood of innocent men and women for the first half of the tribulation.
At the end of the first half of the tribulation the super church will be utterly destroyed and the beast will proclaim himself to be God,
“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4.
You will find that this verse correlates with Revelation chapter 13. So in the midst of the tribulation the super church is utterly destroyed and the persecution of Christians is increased under the hand of the beast.
Additionally the beast will also begin to persecute the Jews and make every attempt to annihilate them just as the Muslims are attempting to do now.
With the complete destruction of the super church, once again, there will be a brief vacuum and, I believe, no little confusion and consternation on the part of the average man.
It is into this vacuum that the 3 angels spoken of in this section come.
This first angel “flying in the midst of heaven”, is in the skies above us and everyone will see him. Shoot at him if you would like, send in the army; file a complaint with the thought police against him for offensive speech.
Do as you wish, you cannot shut him up! What a breath of fresh air he represents; yet there is more.
He has the everlasting gospel to preach, which is not just the things recorded here, but would include the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you…” 1 Corinthians 15:1a.
“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures…” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.
The gospel that is quoted in Revelation 14:7 is significant in its content and worth examining.
“Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.” Revelation 14:7.
In a pantheon of gods both human and inanimate the angel reminds all men that there is but one true God and Creator of everything who is about to judge the world of men and its gods.
The words fear God can either mean, fear, as in be afraid, or fear, as in reverently trust depending on the context; this is seen in the Lord’s words below.
“But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” Luke 12:5.
Whom should you fear? The God who can, after death, cast you into hell, fear be afraid of Him!
Too often folks who live through hurricanes, city leveling earthquakes, tornadoes, and volcanic explosions and now flash floods, forget that the God who controls these things has the ability to cast them into hell.
In this case the angel is warning those on earth, trust God, reverently trust, accept Him as Savior and give Him the glory.
“The hour of His judgment has come”, this warning indicates that even at this bleak hour in the second half of the tribulation there are those who can and will accept Christ as Savior.
“Worship Him”, in the chaos of all the coming pagan worship the call will be to worship the true God who deserves to be glorified for He made all things, “heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water”.
Demonic imposters have been stealing credit for creation, and where they have not taken credit, they have deceived and lied to mankind by saying it all came about through the big bang, and we evolved from there.
You can trust the science:
1960’s all oil will be gone in 10 years, didn’t happen.
1970’s another ice age in 10 years, didn’t happen.
1980’s acid rain will destroy all crops in 10 years, ditto.
1990’s ozone layer will be destroyed in 10 years, ditto.
2000’s global warming will melt ice caps in 10 years, ditto.
2000’s climate change replaces global warming. No proof of it.
1859 Origin of Species claims we evolved from slime, didn’t happen.
But by all means, trust the science.
The lie of evolution will not go away until the Lord Jesus Christ comes to earth to reign. This vicious fallacy underlies all of the philosophy of despair which permeates and is destroying this country, and the world today.
One last thing to notice about this angel’s message is that it is “to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people”. Not one person or language is left out, everyone, whether deaf, blind, or at the bottom of a mine shaft, will hear the gospel.
No one will be able to plead ignorance as an excuse for worshiping the beast.
The word tribe is considered to be a reference to Israel, so they too will hear the gospel of Jesus Christ from an angel.
“And another angel followed, saying, ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’” Revelation 14:8.
The words Babylon is fallen, is fallen are a reference to the super church which will be destroyed at the end of the first half of the tribulation. This was touched upon in the opening paragraphs of this study.
Again this will be discussed at length when we come to chapter seventeen of Revelation. It will suffice to say that this again confirms that these angelic announcements are at mid-tribulation point.
“Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.’” Revelation 14:9-11.
If you review Revelation 13:11-18, posted here on 8-28-22 it should help you understand what the image and mark of the beast are which is mentioned in the first sentence above.
Just as the angel with the gospel spoke in a loud voice, so this angel speaks with a loud voice; this is serious stuff, there can be no mistake eternal souls are at risk.
One expositor divides verse 10 in half, putting it this way:
“…he himself [those who take the mark] shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation.” Revelation 14:10a.
It is meant here that those who take the mark of the beast will be particularly tormented by the bowls of wrath which will be poured out in the final half of the tribulation.
Those then who have accepted Christ as their Savior will not feel the full brunt of the impact of the judgments to come. They will not, for instance, be afflicted with the loathsome sore that those who bear the mark of the beast will receive.
Let us not lose sight of the fact that this will be a time of unprecedented persecution of Christians and Jews, so life will still not be much better for anyone.
“And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.” Revelation 14:10b.
Verse 10b and the following verse 11 are a reference to the lake of fire, which will be the final destination of Satan and his angels, and those with the mark, as well as all who have rejected God’s offer of salvation throughout time.
One writer felt that this verse indicates that both an angry God and the holy angels would be looking down on the inhabitants of the lake of fire, watching their torment forever and ever. This is not what the verse means.
They will be tormented in the presence of the holy angels because it will be their job to cast each person into the lake of fire after he is condemned at the great white throne of judgment.
“And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:15.
Christ Himself will be witness to this because at the beginning of the Millennium He will sentence the unsaved and those with the mark of the beast to hell to await judgment day when He will have them cast into the lake of fire.
“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels…’” Matthew 25:41.
This is why it is called the second death, when the last person is cast into the lake of fire, the the gates are shut and the inhabitants left completely alone forever, without God, which is what they wanted all along.
“And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” Revelation 14:11.
The Amplified Bible renders the above verse this way.
“And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, and they have no respite – no pause, no intermission, no rest, no peace – day or night, these who pay homage to the beast and to his image, and whoever receives the stamp of his name upon him.” Revelation 14:11 Amplified New Testament, Zondervan Publishing.
This term “forever and ever”, comes from the strongest Greek work for eternity; there is no annihilation, no sleep, no second chances, just forever and ever.
Three angels, the first gives the gospel of the one and true God who created everything.
“He [Jesus] was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” John 1:2-3.
Worship Him.
The second angel announces the destruction of the super church aka, Babylon.
“I saw the woman [the super church], drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.” Revelation 17:6.
“And the ten horns [ten kings] which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot [super church], make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire [unbelievable rage!].” Revelation 17:16.
And the third angel makes it very plain that no one should worship the beast, who announces himself as God. So upon the destruction of the super church the beast tells the world that he is the only God, and his worship is made mandatory.
“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day [tribulation period] will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4.
The three angels are in effect saying this; the true religion is the salvation of God in Christ. The next angel is saying the old religion is dead. And the final angel says the old religion (super church) is dead; do not take the new religion.
“Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, ‘Write: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.’” Revelation 14:12-13.
The second half of the tribulation will be a period of unimaginable horror. Turn to Jesus now and be saved from this time of peril.
Revelation 14:6-13 taken from godisrevealed.com updated on 1-19-17, reposted on 9-7-22.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.