The first of six angels who bring a message from God, appears.1 Together with Christ Himself, who had said: “There will be no more delay,”2 time is up, they constitute the seven – the number of perfection or completion – announcing the Heavenly judgment with all its plagues, trials and tribulations that is about to be executed. The message is meant for ‘those who dwell upon the earth’, who are followers of the deluding ideologies and slogans of the ‘beasts’, who are keeping up appearances that they are saving the world. An ‘eternal Gospel’ goes out to ‘those who live on the earth’, those who are stuck to the earth with their hearts and souls, cleaving to it—apostate, full of pride, hardened, sinful, rebellious, not repenting, unregenerate fallen humanity. This messenger brings an ‘eternal Gospel’, and ‘Gospel’ means: Good News. Yes, ‘good news’ for the persecuted and the oppressed, understanding that God finally says: enough is enough! Yes, ‘good news’, for God’s judgment is at hand! And therefore: ‘your redemption is drawing near’!3
But this is not good news for the ‘population of the world’. It’s against the inhabitants of the earth. It is an everlasting gospel so important that all the people who still are alive on earth after all the plagues that hit planet earth, and who honour the ‘beast’ instead of God, must hear it. A final message. The message rings out from ‘mid Heaven’ – perhaps via satellites, or radio or television transmitters, whose signals travel through the air and can be received everywhere in the world. It is a message that is directed against those who are on earth. They are put on notice.
The Greek word ‘eu-angelion, gospel, Good News’ that John uses here must therefore be understood in a somewhat different way. Because in a sense it is not ‘good news’ at all. The word ‘gospel’ is used in seventy-six places in the New Testament with the meaning of a message of grace, of ‘good news’, with which the followers of Jesus are commissioned to reach all the nations.4 But in the Book of Revelation this is the only place where John uses this word ‘euangelion’. It is used only once, right here, and it means that this is a proclamation from the Creator Himself for the whole world! To at least give Him the glory for Who He is and for what He has done by Creating Heaven and earth. This is not a message that tells people how they can be saved. That ‘time of grace over the Gentile world’ apparently at this stage is over.
For the era of the ‘Gospel of Grace’ in the Pauline sense has passed. The fact that the article used is ‘an’ i.e. an eternal gospel, rather than the Gospel is very remarkable. This is a Gospel, not the Gospel. It is almost an Old Testament proclamation, a prophetic message from Heaven announcing the final victory of God and of His Christ. All other bragging statements of the world-leaders pale in comparison, for this is an eternal message. The anti-Christian rulers and their vassals, the ‘powers that be’, the ‘mighty ones’ among the inhabitants of the earth as well as their worshippers and followers must hear it, this ultimate declaration. It is a last and final warning. It is an impressive announcement, like a blare of a trumpet, a call that penetrates ears and minds and hearts.
In the Roman Empire, and particularly in the Emperor-cult, every major event was made known and proclaimed to the exited masses in an impressive way. Whether it concerned the beginning of the reign of the New Emperor, the birth of an imperial son, the announcement of his adulthood, or victories of the imperial legions on the battlefield, and so forth. All the slogans and false truths, publicity texts and self-glorifying announcements of power, all that propaganda pales in comparison with this dramatic announcement. Yet, conversion, turning back, repentance apparently no longer seems to be possible. Yet for us, today, it is still possible! Let’s rise to the occasion as far as we are concerned!
• When the Lord Jesus speaks for the first time in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:16-21) He reads Isaiah 61:1-2: “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim ‘Good News’ to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” He then closes the book and says: “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
• The year of the Lord’s Favour is now. The Gospel of Grace may be proclaimed and believed. You who are reading this may also come to Jesus and be changed and saved now.
• However, when you look up Isaiah 61:1–2, from which Jesus quotes, you will observe that Jesus stopped right in the middle of a sentence! He did not read the rest of the sentence that says: “and the day of vengeance of our God.” Jesus knew exactly how to read the Bible. How to read prophecy, understanding what was fulfilled and what would one-day be fulfilled. He knew what time it was on the clock of history.
• One-day that ‘day of vengeance of our God’ will come but not yet, not during His days on earth. That great ‘Day of Vengeance’ of our Lord, that ‘Day of the Lord’ is announced and proclaimed here in this verse. Only a sudden ‘Fear of the Lord’ remains, no more grace.
Bible References:
1.Revelation 14:6, 8, 9, 15, 17, 18 2.Revelation 10:6 3.Luke 21:28 4.Mark 13:10
