Exciting News!
This is exciting news that I cannot contain. Against all the backdrop of evil driven by the dragon and his associates, God commissions three (there’s that number again) mighty angels to deliver a summary of what He has done and what will happen between now and the second coming. This message will be universal, and it will polarize the world’s population. Over the next few days, you can read and rejoice in this message. But first an overview summary to whet your appetite.
The first angel has the eternal gospel (meaning good news) to proclaim to all who live in every corner of the earth. To all who have been impacted by the horrors of the trinity of evil comes the message, “fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship Him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.” Revelation 14:6-7
The fact that the gospel, which means good news, is eternal is significant.
It existed before the rise of evil, before the arrival of the dragon’s counterfeit trinity, and will exist forevermore. The curtain will be drawn, and the sun will set on the perversity of evil that he has perpetrated on this world through his rebellion in the beginning. God’s Love is from everlasting to everlasting, the unsaved will wither as the grass (see Psalm 103:15-17.)
The second angel declares the fall of “Babylon the great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.” (Revelation 14:8). John’s original hearers would have related to this. Babylon (code for Rome to them) was not their favourite city! The original Babylon was hated by their forefathers, now Rome had adopted the same evil characteristics. In our era, Babylon is not a literal city but rather an empire of force and religious coercion. According to this part of the good news – its time is up!
Then the third angel follows with “another ‘loud voice’ warning that anyone who worships the beast and its image and receives the mark of the beast will experience the wrath of God.” (Revelation 14:9-11) Note carefully – following the way of the beast and its image has disastrous consequences.
Imagine poor old John (at the age of about 90) trying to comprehend all this! He draws together the patient endurance he mentioned in Revelation 13:9 with the characteristics of commandment-keepers and faithfulness to Jesus highlighted in Revelation 12:17.
And old John is not wrong: this patient commitment to God is the only trait that will get anyone through the ongoing schemes of the devil and his cohort. And don’t be fooled, we will see the temperature of his efforts increase as we come closer to his curtain call.
If that wasn’t enough for you, consider this. The devil’s evil deceptions that started in heaven and has continued on earth ever since his expulsion will come to a spectacular end. The end is triggered by what the angel calls “the hour of God’s judgment” arriving. It is an intriguing comment because the Greek is ambiguous – I believe intentionally. If we were to read the Greek literally it would say “because has come the hour of judgment of him.” This could mean the hour of God doing the judging, which is the traditional position, or it could be translated as the hour for God to be judged has arrived. Remember, that we have discussed previously about the devil’s lies, slander, and accusations as being an important part of this conflict that God had to allow, in order to maintain the free will of his creation.
We often present this cosmic conflict as if we are the centre of attention, but, actually it is the character of God that is the central issue. We are just pawns in the devil’s attempt to bring God down.
In the phrase, “the hour of the Judgment has come,” we can see the final vindication of God’s character. This fits comfortably with the picture of the removal of the seals on the scroll revealing the true glory of God. Captured in all this is the Lamb and the subsequent impact of the glory of God on a sinful world. Plus, it is more consistent with the Greek and the intent of the entire book.
How amazing that God has put himself on trial before the universe. As Paul says in Romans 3:4 (NASB) “God must prove to be true, though every person be found a liar, as it is written: “So that You are justified in Your words, And prevail when You are judged.” I like the NLT translation of this when it says, “God is true. As the Scriptures say about him, “You will be proved right in what you say, and you will win your case in court.” Paul is quoting the Greek version of Psalm 51:4.
Here we see the end result of rebellion – the death of the rebels – as a consequent impact of the glory of God, which is the end of a process that had tried to discredit Him and the people He has saved. The results of lucifer’s rebellion are not pretty. Apart from his vicious attack’s on the character of God, we find brokenness all around us. The good news is that God can recreate and restore anyone’s life. Keep praying for those in your own life with whom you see this brokenness! I have heard of stories where people had prayed for years before the miracle was seen. In the end, those who are broken need to become willing, and maybe that should be the focus of our prayer for them.