The Signs of the Times (8): Proclamation

 “…Then I saw another angel flying in mid-air, and he had the eternal Gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. He said in a loud voice, ‘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 NIV

In the book of Revelation, the apostle John sees ‘another angel’, the first of six angels: messengers who bring a message of God’s judgements. Is this about what we heard in the preaching of the ‘Gospel of the Kingdom’ in Matthew 24:14, or about something completely different?

This angel brings an eternal Gospel, and ‘Gospel’ means: Good news. Yes, Good news indeed for the persecuted and oppressed: enough is enough! Finally God’s judgement breaks forth! But your salvation is near! That’s the good news for the martyrs! But this ‘eternal Gospel’ by this angel is intended for other people.

This eternal Gospel is intended for ‘the people who live on the earth’. A message in the midst of frightening plagues that scourge and ravage and sweep the whole earth. People on earth who do not honour God, but who honour ‘the beast’ = the antichrist = the man of lawlessness. People who worship nature as being divine. People who do not want to live by God’s laws and commandments, but who have declared themselves to be divine and are their own standard and law. People whose citizenship is not in heaven (compare Philippians 3:18-21) but on earth. Who worship creation instead of the Creator. These people will and must hear the proclamation of this ‘eternal Gospel’.

This message resounds from mid-air – through satellites, radio and television channels, internet, social media, whose signals move through the sky and that can be received by antennas and cables anywhere and everywhere in the world, the electronic highways. But it’s a message that’s directed against (literal translation) ‘those who live on the earth’.

This is the only place in the Book of Revelation where one finds the word ‘Gospel’. And the meaning of the word ‘Gospel’ that John uses here has a completely different meaning. The word ‘Gospel’ one finds in the New Testament seventy-six times. It always means ‘good news’; the message of Grace for lost sinners. Brought and told by followers of Jesus. A message of salvation that may reach all peoples, nations, in every language.

But at this point in the book of Revelation, the time for this Gospel as we know it from the Pauline epistles, is over. This is no longer a message about sin and grace, about salvation and thankfulness. This message is about the judgements of God that are coming upon the earth.

It’s also remarkable that in the original Greek language, the definite article ‘the’ is missing. It says: a gospel, not the gospel. It’s almost like a proclamation from the Old Testament, a message from heaven declaring the final victory of God and Christ. Announcing His final decisions and judgments.

All the other bragging and boasting declarations and proclamations of sinful man full of pride suddenly fade away. And it’s an eternal, an everlasting message. The anti-Christian rulers and their servants, as well as their deluded worshipers and deceived followers: they all must hear it. One more final call to repent, to bow down, repent and submit. A last chance to worship the one and only God: the Creator of heaven and earth. It’s a last and final warning.

What is the content of this ‘eternal Gospel’? It’s this: at least give to the Creator the glory He deserves. Honour to Whom honour is due. Do not rob Him of His Glory by removing Him from your mind, and replacing Him with the theories of your brain of rational science and technology. By believing in evolution by chance and time. Matter organizing itself upwards, without intelligent design. Like believing in a computer functioning by its hardware, without added software.

Stop claiming in the depths of your mind and heart that you yourself are a ‘god’. That you are divine. That everything is divine. Stop proclaiming pantheism and panentheism, which is essentially a combination of theism (God is the supreme being) and pantheism (God is everything). While pantheism says that God and the universe coincide with one-another, are one-and-the-same, panentheism claims that God is greater than the universe and that the universe is contained within God. Panentheism is unbiblical since it denies God’s transcendent nature, says that God is changing, confuses creation with God, denies miracles, and denies the incarnation of Christ along with the atoning sacrifice.

And we as mankind are running out of time. Because soon there will be an end to this shape and form of creation. The Apostle Peter writes in his second epistle, chapter 3:7 “…the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of the ungodly…”

The content of this ‘eternal Gospel’ is: “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.” Bow before the great Creator of all things.