Revelation-Part 30

By: Dr. Robert Thomas; ©2001

Revelation 12-14 carried us through descriptions of great past and future battles in Satan’s attempt to eradicate national Israel. We have seen the victory of the 144,000. Now we come to four announcements pertaining to the awfulness of the upcoming “bowl judgments.”

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THE SEVENTH TRUMPET: THE SEVEN BOWLS PENDING—FOUR CLIMACTIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

In order to prepare for the pouring out of the seven bowls, Revelation 12:1–14:5 has carried us readers through great past battles and great future battles as Satan has sought to eradicate the people of God composed of national Israel. In 14:1-5 we have just wit­nessed the ultimate victory of the 144,000 Israelite servants of God as they stand on Mount Zion with the Lamb of God. With their song still ringing in our ears, we are now close enough to the judgments resulting from the bowls of God’s wrath in Revelation 16 to hear four climactic announcements pertaining to awfulness of those bowls (Rev 14:6-13).

First Announcement (14:6-7)

The angel who flies in mid-heaven with this announcement is the first of six angels in this chapter (see vv. 8, 9, 15, 17, 18). This angel has an eternal gospel to preach to a worldwide population composed of every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. His good news tells all people to give God glory and to worship Him as Creator of the material universe.

His gospel message has no invitation to believe in Christ as does the gospel of the grace of God in our day. Rather, it instructs earth’s inhabitants to fear God who is in process of bringing judgment on the world. It appeals to the universal human awareness of an ac­countability to God and consequently should lead logically to self-humiliation and self-surrender to Him. The command of this gospel recalls the words of Ecclesiastes 12:13: “Fear God and keep His commandments.”

Giving God glory is an idiom that speaks of repentance by acknowledging His attributes. It recognizes Him as God and, in the context of Revelation, refuses to make concessions to the dragon and the false Christ. To recognize God in this manner reverses the prevailing state of beast worship described in Revelation 13.

The reason for fearing God and giving Him glory is the arrival of the hour of His judg­ment. A crucial moment has arrived. It is the last chance for a person to change allegiance to the God of heaven. He is the Creator of “the heaven and the earth and sea and foun­tains of waters” (14:7b), a description of Him that alludes to Nehemiah 9:6 and Psalm 33:6- 9. This is an appropriate appeal to natural theology with the worldwide audience that in­cludes people who perhaps will have never heard the gospel of God’s grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Second Announcement (14:8)

The second angelic announcement concerns the fall of Babylon the Great. As with the remaining announcements, this one builds on its preceding announcement. It implies a rejection of the everlasting gospel just preached through the first announcement. The repetition involved in “has fallen, has fallen” is a kind of dirge that carries a tragic emphasis. The tense of the two verbs employed implies the imminence and certainty of the fall of Babylon which is included in the climax of the seven last plagues against the earth, de­scribed in Revelation 16.

Revelation 16:17–18:24 describes at length Babylon the Great and its involvement in the last of the bowl judgments. The angelic announcement at this point prior to that descrip­tion assumes that readers of Revelation have some preliminary knowledge about the city before that extended section comes. Unwarranted concepts about “Babylon” include two ideas, one that it is a code name for Jerusalem and the other that it is a way Christians had for disguising their mentions of Rome. The former suggestion is excluded by the impossibil­ity of Revelation’s being written and fulfilled prior to A.D. 70. As for the latter, “Babylon” did not become a secretive reference to Rome until the second century A.D. when the perse­cution of Christians had spread to the entire Roman empire.

To limit Babylon to the papacy or to apostate Christianity, as some do, is too limited. It symbolizes all false religion in Revelation 17. The best identification for Babylon is to refer it to the city by that name on the Euphrates River, as two mentions of the Euphrates else­where in Revelation indicate (see 9:14; 16:12). Place names have a literal significance in Revelation 1:9; 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14, and the writer clarifies whenever he uses as place name with a nonliteral significance as in 11:8. Babylon on the Euphrates will be the center of a future, worldwide, false religion as we will learn when we arrive at Revelation 17 in our study.

When John writes, “who made all nations drink,” he means that this great city used coercive power over earth’s inhabitants in causing them to choose a path that they would not have chosen without her influence. By yielding to Babylon’s influence, they have in­curred the wrath of God which is bound to respond to every kind of excess that expresses unfaithfulness to God. Revelation frequently attributes “fornication” or “unfaithfulness” to Babylon (see 17:1, 2, 5, 15, 16; 18:3, 9; 19:2), an unfaithfulness that will demonstrate itself in the worship of false gods.

Third Announcement (14:9-12)

Note the progression: from the first announcement that commands the fear and worship of God to the second announcement that tells the fall of Babylon for not fearing and wor­shiping God to the third announcement that graphically describes the eternal punishment of those allied with fallen Babylon in their repudiation of the truth. Listeners to the announce­ments should realize the folly of yielding to the threats of the second beast regarding boy­cott and death (Rev. 13:11-17). This third announcement brings an awareness of the worse fate that awaits those who worship the first beast of Revelation 13:1-8: “Waverer, beware! The suffering you may avoid if you worship the beast is immeasurably smaller than the eternal punishment you will otherwise incur for worshiping him instead of the God who created all things.”

The beast will expect undistracted loyalty from everyone, reinforcing his expectation with the threat of death to each person refusing to comply. Outward indications of that loyalty must include worship of the beast and his image and acceptance of his mark of identification on the forehead or the hand. Yet for anyone to grant that homage will result in dire consequences. A person who does grant it will eventually experience the vehement fury and utmost intensity of God’s anger. Against that person, God will release the white heat of His wrath that He has delayed from bringing upon a rebellious world for so long. Drinking from the cup of His wrath is equivalent to eternal torment in fire and brimstone spoken of later in Revelation (19:10; 20:10; 21:8). An endless trail of smoke from their torment will keep on ascending forever. This third announcement contains what is probably the most horrible picture of eternal punishment in the entire book.

The announcement closes with a reminder of the all-importance of endurance and perseverance. To any weak saint who may consider defecting to beast-worship, this is a word to remind him that being killed by the beast is better than suffering eternal torment in company with the beast. Living faith in Jesus will keep the saints obedient of God’s com­mandments and sustain them in the face of severe persecution.

Fourth Announcement (14:13)

The fourth announcement comes not from an angel, but through a voice from heaven. It furnishes a positive incentive for loyalty to complement the negative one just given: “Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on.” Here, the voice from heaven is a divine pronouncement as it was earlier at Revelation 10:4, 8; 11:12.

The voice commands John to write the second of seven beatitudes in Revelation (see also 1:3; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14). In this instance, the dead receive a special blessing not pronounced for anyone else. By remaining faithful to the point of being martyred by the beast, these saints can anticipate the heavenly bliss experienced by the 144,000 in 14:1-5 and by overcomers in 15:2-4.

“The dead” are doubtless the victims executed at the prompting of the beast (see Rev. 13:15). The temporal indication found in “from now on” therefore refers to the future period during the last half of Daniel’s seventieth week that is the subject of much of this part of Revelation. At death those victims “will rest from their labors” in contrast with the beast worshipers who, when they die, will “have no rest day and night.” The blessed ones’ works, including their spiritual attitude, steadfastness of faith, obedience to God’s commands, and firm resistance to the pressures of the false Christ, will continue with them. No one can separate them from what they have done, even after death.

As we think ahead to these saints of the future, we as present-day believers have bushels to learn from them and their example. Their faithfulness to Christ in times of great­est duress makes our efforts to remain steadfast look so puny. May God help us to remain true to Him and His Word in times of uncertainty and in the face of any opposition we may face in standing for His righteousness and truth.

Note: For more details about the four announcements of Revelation 14, see my discus­sion in Revelation 8–22 (Moody Press, 1995), pages 201-217. To order this volume, you may contact Grace Books International at (800) GRACE15 or www.gbibooks.com.

 

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