END OF TIME PROPHECIES 164

The everlasting gospel                              Revelation 14v6-7.   

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."

This spectacular vision of a mid heaven proclamation by an angel, possibly refers to chapter 8v13, where it says a similar thing.   There the angel pronounced a triple woe to the inhabiters of the earth and here in verse 7 His proclamation is in the context of his statement  "the hour of his judgment is come."   If this is the correct interpretation, then it means that in the midst of pronouncing judgment, God is also providing a way of escape.   It is clear from the book of the Revelation that God continues to appeal to mankind to the very end; in the words of the apostle Peter in 2nd Peter 3v9  "He is longsuffering to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.  It seems that during these last three and a half years of time as we know it there will be a twin proclamation of judgment, and also of mercy.   The angel preaches the everlasting gospel to all mankind.

Not to angels did God give the task of preaching the gospel.   He gave it to men who had personally experienced his salvation, and these men faithfully proclaimed His word (Matthew 28v18, Mark 16v15, Luke 24v47, Acts 1v8, Colossians 1v22-29, 1st Timothy 1v12, 2nd Timothy 4v1-2).   During these end times there will be others preaching the gospel on earth; for example the one hundred and forty four thousand of chapter 7, the two witnesses of chapter 11, and possibly many others.   However such will be the nature of these last days it will require a divinely instituted miraculous proclamation from the very centre of heaven itself.     We consider this preaching in three ways:

• The scope of it.     It will be to every nation and kindred and tongue and people, that is to all people in all their different groups no one will be in any doubt who is speaking or what is being said.   Jesus refers to this event in Matthew 24v14  "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations.   And then shall the end come."   
• The subject of it.     It is not so much the declaration of salvation in Christ, because the people on earth have rejected Christ; it is the clear cut command to fear God and to worship God.   The amplified version puts it like this  "fall down before Him."   This will be in days when Humanism grips the world (we are on the verge of it right now).   This belief that God does not exist, that we are on our own and we have to take control of ourselves and of the earth with a view to an imaginary utopia to which all earth dwellers aspire.   A world without death, disease, pain and poverty.    Man becomes God and they will follow a man who claims to be God.   Against this the angel will call on all humanity to acknowledge the God of heaven.   Thus the emphasis is on creation, that indeed God made heaven and earth and sea and the fountains of waters all of which men require for life.   What the angel preaches is not so much the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, but the responsibility of man to their Creator God.   A response to this will ultimately lead to Christ.
• The solemnity of it.     We have already seen that Jesus said after this period of preaching the end will come.   The angel flying in mid heaven proclaims the hour of His judgment is come. During this period the trumpets will be sounded and the vials of wrath will be poured out.   These judgments will be merciless and unrelenting.   The world which has rejected the Lamb and therefore the love of God will experience the vengeance of. God.   The scriptures of old come flooding over into this end time catastrophe (Isaiah 28v17-21, Isaiah 34v1-2, Joel 1v15, Joel 2v1-3, Joel 2v11, Zephaniah 1v15-17, Malachi 4v1).   All through these vexing times God will preach His everlasting gospel, conceived in eternity and leading to eternal bliss.   God will never abandon man even in the misery of his existence, but man must choose for himself.

For those who may be confused as to the nature of this "gospel preaching" by the angel, bear in mind that the worship of God is the end product of the gospel.

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Amazon bookshelf   George Neilly