Read: Revelation 14:6-13
From the heavenly scene (God’s throne room) God sends three heavenly messengers (angels) to proclaim His three heavenly messages to Earth. His act proves that:
- God has a message to the broken world and He is not indifferent about earthly matters. He has something to say about what is happening today and how to fix it.
- Heaven sets the standards for our life on earth. Earthly standards originate from heavenly authority and can’t be ignored without consequences.
- Heaven has the final words on what happens on Earth. Our life, our history, our values and our future are not independent from our origin (creation).
- We are known, observed and judged by Heaven.
- Our temporary life on Earth has eternal consequences.
Here are God’s three messages:
- From God’s throne-room comes God’s invitation. The first angel’s message is a heavenly invitation: the Eternal Gospel. God’s first message from His throne to mankind on Earth is His eternal good news; its His invitation into a fellowship with Him. The essence of the gospel summarized by the angel is this:
- “Fear God” – honor Him with your faith, live according to His law;
- “worship him” – place Him on the throne of your heart just as He is on the throne of Heaven, reject the idols of this world;
- “He made heaven and earth” – acknowledge Him as the creator of everything, including you; honor him as the source of all you see, breath, eat, touch, observe, enjoy, sense and love.
- “The hour of his judgment has come” – accept that He rules, He sets standards and holds all of us accountable.
- From God’s throne-room comes God’s worldview. The second angel’s message is exposing our current reality: sin destroyed our world. The heavenly message continues with revealing the reality of our world: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.” Sin destroyed our world. Moral decline always leads to the destruction of societies. God’s second message exposes the world we live in: it is corrupt, broken, fallen (past) and as is it can’t be redeemed. He warns us not to put our hope in the world we live in, not to live by its rules, values and standards, because those rules, values and standards led to it’s falling. He warns us not to buy into its narrative or follow its leaders. But the ‘eternal gospel’ is still proclaimed to us who live in this fallen reality, because although our culture, country, nation, world might be fallen, but we can be rescued and redeemed from it, if we obey to the first angelic message and accept the invitation of the Eternal Gospel to join the multitude of worshipers in God’s throne-room. Jesus died to rescue us, not to rescue our societies or nations or cultures. Corruption of nations, cultures and societies happened because of the corruption of man. The only hope for any social change if mankind is rescued from their own corruption by accepting God’s eternal gospel to reunite with him in his throne-room as his worshipers and return to the original purpose of our creation. If we do not obey God’s first invitation then any attempt to reform societies will remain futile. Mankind were created by God to be His image-bearers. Social structures were constructed by man. The soul of man is eternal. Countries and nations are not. He died to redeem the first, not the latter. God can repair and redeem man through his eternal gospel and once we are redeemed then we can start working on fixing of what we’ve created and messed up: our relationships, societies, nations and cultures. It wont work the other way around. That’s why proclaiming the eternal gospel is preeminent and is the first message from Heaven. It precedes anything else, because by it everything else can be fixed and without it everything remains broken and fallen. We can be rescued from our fallen world, but can’t be rescued by it – so don’t put your hope in your culture, nation, country or politician to fix what only God can fix and need to fix first and foremost: mankind’s corrupt nature.
- From God’s throne-room comes God’s warning. The third angel’s message is revealing our future reality: our choice will have eternal consequences. Ignoring God’s invitation will have eternal consequences. God’s judgement is as real as God’s invitation. Eternal punishment is a brutal reality. God’s warning is not a threat-tactic, its a loving message. Anyone we love the most we want to warn them of the consequences of their wrong choices. Anyone we don’t care about or we don’t like, we just let them suffer from the consequences of their bad decisions. Warning comes with conflict and its viewed as being judgmental. The 3rd angel’s message is that hell is real and brutal, ignoring God’s invitation will lead you there. Don’t believe the lie that it does not matter what you believe in, who you worship and how you live. Your choices have eternal consequences. The devil (who hates us) wants to hide, belittle or ridicule the reality of hell. He wants to keep us in the delusion and deception that we can just live our life as we want and there will be no consequences.
All three messages from Heaven are loving messages: an invitation, a revealing of reality and a warning. Anyone who shows us the reality and gives us a way of rescue from our destructive present and painful future can only be a loving person.
This heavenly message from God’s throne ends with two confirmations to believers from the voice of the Spirit:
- keep the faith and persevere because difficulties and persecutions are coming; be prepared because life will become harder for those who follow Jesus;
- reward awaiting for Christ-followers in heaven: ‘blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, their deeds follow them’. Our eternal future is much different than what’s described in the 3rd angel’s message. Our deeds follow us to Heaven. They do not lead us to heaven. They don’t open the door for us – Christ did that in Revelation 4:1.
There are two eternal realities. Our choices have eternal significances. God’s loving message to our fallen world is to accept his invitation to His throne-room!