THREE ANGELIC PROCLAMATIONS (VERSES 6-13)

“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 — 7 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.’

8 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.’

9 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, 10 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. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 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.’

12 Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

13 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.’”

The First Proclamation (verses 6-7)

“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 — 7 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.’”

This section introduces a series of three angelic “heralds,” symbolizing things that are to be announced to men. The first proclamation that we have seen here in verses 6 and 7 is from an angel flying in mid-heaven, having the eternal Good News, the Gospel, to proclaim—to proclaim to a sinful world [“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…,” [verse 6].

His Message is concerning the blessings that will come to those who respond to this Message, and who will be obedient to God’s call. We don’t know if this was the entire Message, but this is what the Holy Spirit saw fit to preserve for us [“…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,” [verse 7]. The contents of this rather brief Message are similar to the Message that Paul had for those in Lystra in the long ago, Acts, chapter 14. Paul calls upon those Gentiles in Lystra to “…turn from these useless [vain] things to the living God, Who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them…,” [Acts 14:15b]. This Message was presented by Paul to a group of pagan Gentiles in Lystra, and John presents, in effect, the same Message that this angel flying in mid-heaven has to share with the world.

The significance of fearing God and giving God glory is really, in effect, a call to repentance, turning men away from idol worship to the true Creator of heaven, and of earth, and the sea and all things that are in them. Here is a command, being given to the world, to “worship God.”

Make that contrast between what we saw in chapter 13 and verse 12, in the attempt to cause people to worship the beast, and what we see here in chapter 14, verse 7. It’s an interesting contrast, isn’t it? You have a choice—you can worship the beast, who, we said, was an ally of Satan, representing evil in the world, OR, you can worship God.

Some commentators point to this particular passage here and suggest that it has a connection with Mark 13:10. In that Scripture, a parallel account to what Jesus says in Matthew 24 [Matthew 24:14: “14 And this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”], where Jesus is speaking about the signs of the end of the age, one of the things that He gives as a sign of the end of the age in Mark 13:10 is that “the Gospel must first be preached to all nations.” Well, that can be looked at in the way that the Gospel went out from Jerusalem to all nations. Paul could say that at one point, the Gospel had been preached to “every creature,” [Colossians 1:21-23: “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight — 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.”].

Here is the connection, then, that some commentators are making. That is, is this a sign of the end of the age—the fact that the Gospel has gone out and is reaching around the world more and more and more everyday through the medium of television, of radio, and now through the world-wide web? Of course, we know that the Gospel continues to go out, even to this day, but this is an interesting thing to think about. Of course, we know that every moment of every hour of every day of every week that goes by, we are closer to the end than we were before, but, nevertheless, as we think about the call of the Gospel that is going out around the world, maybe as the Holy Spirit has said here through John, the hour of judgment is coming very, very near [“Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come,” verse 7.].

That term “hour” is not specifically meaning a period of 60 minutes, but rather, it is a definite or specific event. It’s sort of like saying, “The hour of worship.” We’ve come up with that phrase, and everybody seems to think that we can only worship for an hour, but we’re coming to know more and more that that is only a reference to a specific event, which is going to take place, that has a starting time, but it does not have an ending time that is published.