ANGELS AND THE GOSPEL

We tend to think of angels as God’s messengers bringing good news, like the angels of Luke 2:8-14. That isn’t how John saw them. Instead, these messengers brought a message first proclaimed by Christ himself. It could never be replaced and so was “an eternal gospel. By his life, death and resurrection Christ had ransomed for God every human being who ever lived. The function of the martyrs to whom John wrote was to proclaim the same message with their lives and their deaths. That is the meaning of 14:6-7.

At the same time a second angel (vs. 8) declares that judgment has come to those who would destroy God’s purpose for creation. As in the Old Testament, Babylon represented all worldly powers marshaled against God. In this instance, John meant Rome which seduced other nations and peoples into believing in its absolute authority through worshiping the emperor.

But what if someone did not believe and continued to worship the idol? A third angel (vss. 9-11) describes what would befall them if they did not repent. John’s description of a life of eternal torment after death is almost beyond words. He is saying as best he could with references from Jewish apocalyptic literature what it would be like for those who rejected God’s offer of redemption through faith in Jesus Christ. We must decide if this still confronts the unrepentant today.

Remember that John was issuing this dire warning and an urgent appeal to the faithful Christians of the seven churches to endure to the end (vs. 12). They might well be martyred for their faithfulness, but even so they would receive the eternal blessing of God. They would inherit eternal bliss and rest in God’s presence (vs. 13). He firmly believed too that their martyrdom would win many more converts to the faith.