Revelation 14 tells of three important messages to the world. The Three Angels’ Messages are the final messages of warning to the world. These messages ensure that everyone has had a chance to choose between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Earth—Satan’s kingdom. When the messages have reached everyone, the time of probation will close and Christ will return to free His people.
The great war between Christ and Satan reaches its climax as these messages are preached, and the people of the world will be split into two groups: the followers of Christ and the followers of Satan. The contest will be fierce and there will be a time of the worst trouble to ever happen (Daniel 12:1). This war has been raging ever since Adam and Eve chose Satan’s way over God’s way, this planet has been a battleground for a spiritual war and it will conclude as Christ the victor. The Three Angels Messages, and end time message, rings with a loud cry for humanity to make a final decision. This time is likened unto Noah’s day, for 120 year the gospel message was preached and warning was given of an impending disaster. All were called to make a decision and when that climax was reached is when the flood came. There was no more opportunity to change ones mind for the door of the ark had been closed. This is our example that was left for us, this is serious and it is a matter of life and death. (comment added).
Throughout the book of Revelation, the two great camps are contrasted. Satan tries his best to counterfeit the plan of salvation, in order to deceive God’s chosen people (Matthew 24:24). Revelation tells of a Beast power, which we see to be Roman Catholicism (the system), that Satan uses to counterfeit the ministry of Christ. He even sets up a false trinity (dragon, beast, and false prophet) to lead the world astray. (Comment added)
Only the true Prince of this world, Jesus Christ, can save us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness:
And from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood (Revelation 1:5).
When Christ returns, the false prince—Satan—will be judged and cast out (John 16:11).
The battle between good and evil and the stark differences between the two sides is a theme in the book of Revelation.
The First Angel’s Message
The First Angel’s Message was to remind God’s people to fear God and worship Him as Creator, because the judgment is coming. This was the message proclaimed by the Millerite movement.
The First Angel’s Message is not only a message of judgment, but also a message of the “restoration of all things.” It is the Elijah message, the final reformation that would separate the remnant of spiritual Israel from the world, and prepare a people for the coming of the Lord.
Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people—saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water” (Revelation 14:6-7 NKJV).
The angel spreads the everlasting Gospel to every nation. We see this as God using His people to be coworkers together with Him in the spreading of the Gospel around the world.
The First Angel’s Message has three central themes:
- The Everlasting, Unchanging Gospel
The everlasting Gospel is the great theme of salvation—we are saved by the blood of the Lamb. This Gospel has never changed.
Adam and Eve were taught the lesson of salvation by grace when God covered their nakedness with the pelt of a sheep to symbolize the righteousness of Christ which would cover them.
Abel offered a lamb as sacrifice because he understood that salvation was to be found outside himself in the merits of the Lamb that was to be slain for the sins of the world. Cain, however, sought favor through the works of his hands and his offering was not acceptable to God. The great divide between salvation by grace and salvation by works was established from the very beginning.
Abraham understood the significance of the Lamb when God demonstrated the plan of salvation in miniature form through Abraham’s own son, Isaac. Isaac was a symbol of God’s Son who was to be offered. But in Isaac’s stead God provided His own lamb—a ram, a symbol of Jesus who would die for the sins of the world.
The Jews were taught the plan of salvation through the ceremonial law, and the same principles still apply today: our salvation lies in the Lamb that was slain. The Gospel has never changed, but Satan perverts the Gospel to suit his ends.
2. Judgment and Grace
The Lamb was slain because the law could not be compromised. If the law could have been done away with, then Christ need not have died. To be saved by grace does not give a license for sin, which is transgression of the law (1 John 3:4):
For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified…Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law…How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? (Romans 2:13, 3:31, 6:2).
Every deed will be brought into judgment (2 Corinthians 5:10). God’s grace is as great as God’s justice:
Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven (Matthew 7:21 NKJV).
The Gospel rests on the twin pillars of law and grace. Satan knows this and wars against those who bring these twin pillars into a right relationship:
And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation 12:17 NKJV).
In ancient Israel, Satan exalted the law through the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes; and crucified the Lamb – while in spiritual Israel he exalts the Lamb and crucifies the law by this widely accepted idea that it was nailed to the cross. Make no mistake—we cannot claim the merits of Christ while we deliberately keep on sinning: (comment added)
For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins (Hebrews 10:26 NKJV).
We cannot accept justification before God without also accepting His work in our lives to make us holy (2 Corinthians 5:15). Without holiness, no one will see God (Hebrews 12:14).
We accept sanctification in the same way as which we accepted justification—through faith in Christ. We can’t keep the law in our own strength. It is only through Christ in us that obedience becomes possible. Sanctification is a growth in Christ and not a magic wand. Through abiding trust in God, our bent sinful nature can be overcome.
Some strive for perfection, and some even believe that they are sinless. All such striving is useless for only through Christ in us can we attain the victory. By ourselves we can do nothing.
Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us (1 John 3:24 NKJV).
You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked (2 Peter 3:17 NKJV).
Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall (1 Corinthians 10:12 NKJV).
The nearer we are to Christ, the more we will be humbled by His beauty. Like Isaiah of old, we will be led to exclaim, “Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5).
3. Creation and its Memoria
The everlasting Gospel to be preached by the remnant will set the record straight and put the issues of law and grace in the right perspective:
Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water (Revelation 14:7 NKJV).
The remnant will not only preach the judgment but also exalt the Creator who made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of water. This is the seal of God, which is the sign of His authority. It also appears in the Sabbath commandment which emphasizes not only God’s authority over the universe, but also His ownership of the universe.
The Sabbath is a memorial to creation and the remnant is to point to and exalt God as Creator. It is noteworthy that, at the close of the 2300-day prophecy in 1844, God sent a message into the world reminding the world of its origins while at the same time (1844), Darwin’s concept of evolution was being readied for the world.
The First Angel’s Message calls for a choice between truth and error; between the binding claims of the Gospel and popular humanism; between exalting God and exalting self.
The Second Angel’s Message
When Advent believers were expelled from the established churches in the 1800s, they came to believe that because these churches refused to accept God’s warning, they had fallen in the eyes of God. This was the first ‘fallen’ of spiritual Babylon (comment added).
They associated this fall with the fall of Babylon—the Second Angel’s Message in Revelation 14:8:
And another angel followed, saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication” (NKJV).
Ancient Babylon was opposed to Israel. Babylon enticed Jerusalem into paganism and idolatry. Babylon eventually took the whole nation of Israel captive, and only a small remnant returned to rebuild the ancient ruins.
God pronounced judgment on ancient Babylon:
Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand,
That made all the earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
Therefore the nations are deranged.
Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed.
Wail for her!
Take balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.
We would have healed Babylon,
But she is not healed.
Forsake her, and let us go everyone to his own country;
For her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies (Jeremiah 51:7-9 NKJV).
In similar fashion, antitypical Babylon—the confederacy of religious powers that opposes God at the end of time—will lead people astray and take them captive through her numerous false doctrines. The same judgment pronounced in Jeremiah 51:8 on ancient literal Babylon is given to end-time spiritual Babylon in Revelation 14:8. And, the same call given in Jeremiah 51:6 and 9 to come out of Babylon is given in Revelation 18:1-5: (Comment added)
After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities” (NKJV).
The Second Angel announces the fall of Babylon, but the loud call to “come out of her my people” is made later. God’s people are thus still in Babylon. It is Babylon’s system of religious structures aligned against God that is condemned—not the individuals…as can be seen by God calling them out of systems that have doctrines and practices that are not biblical. (Comment added)
There are two calls out of Babylon. Just as Jesus began and ended His ministry on Earth by cleansing the temple, so there are two calls to the churches at the end of time. The first of these calls was made at the beginning of the Advent movement around 1844, and was confined largely to America, whereas the final call will be worldwide and climax in the loud cry just prior to the close of probation. This experience will be accompanied by the outpouring of the latter rain.
The Third Angel’s Message
The Third Angel’s Message is the most fearful message ever given to the world.
Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus (Revelation 14:9-12 NKJV).
It was only after the Great Disappointment in 1844 that the message of the Third Angel began to be understood.
The Third Angel’s Message is the final message of warning to the world. It is filled with power and deep spiritual truths. As its significance came to be understood, the symbolism of the entire book of Revelation was unfolded.
Consider these elements of the Third Angel’s Message:
The Message warns against the worship of the Beast or its image.
Accepting the authority of the counterfeit religious system instead of God’s authority is the same as worshiping the Beast system rather than God. Accepting the first-day Sabbath means accepting of the authority of the Beast in the place of the authority of God. As the Beast obtains his authority from the Dragon (Revelation 13:2), acknowledgment of that authority is worship of the Dragon—Satan himself. Revelation 13:4 NKJV explains:
So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
To worship the counterfeit system, one must not only accept its authority but follow its principles. For example, end-time Babylon teaches that in Christ all are free to do as they please.
For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be (Matthew 24:38-39 NKJV).
Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them (Ezekiel 22:26).
Those that are in Christ, on the other hand, will align themselves with the principles of Christ (Romans 12:1-2). They will strive for holiness and stay away from things that separate them from Christ:
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial?
…Wherefore, Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 6:14-15, 17-18; 7:1).
The whole lifestyle of believers in Christ must reflect this relationship. Babylon is in enmity with God, and teaches a doctrine of compromise, but compromise with sin is impossible.
It is a Message of Separation from Babylon and its Principles.
The Third Angel’s Message puts our relationship with Christ in its right perspective. It is a message that brings about lifestyle changes necessary for those who want to stand in the presence of a holy God.
Separating from the world does not mean retiring to solitary confinement. We are to labor in the world as Christ labored, but we are not to be trapped by the ways of the world. It will take courage for us to stand for truth, but we know that Christ has overcome the world. The Bible tells us the consequences of following Babylon:
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb (Revelation 14:10).
When Revelation says “poured out without mixture” it means not watered down. This wrath of God will contain no mercy or grace:
Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law die without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a fearful things to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:28-31 NKJV).
In ancient Israel, the enemies of God were to be totally destroyed (Deuteronomy 7:2; 20:16-18). The false prophets that led Israel astray were to be executed without mercy (Deuteronomy 13:7-10). This typology is applicable also to the enemy of God in the last days.
But to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God (Romans 2:8-11 NKJV).
We can see the Third Angel’s Message coming to fruition today. Spiritualism is making inroads into the Christian Church, the Papacy is making stealthy but rapid progress towards global control, and the observances of the Catholic Church are being enforced by civil authority. It is crucial that God’s people cling to the truth and do not become overtaken by these happenings.
God’s People Need Not Fear the Judgment in this Message
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:18-19 NIV).
We are heading for perilous times, a time such as never was. But be encouraged:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us (Romans 8:35-37).
In Scripture, those who accept the mark of the Beast are set in sharp contrast with those that receive the seal of God. In Revelation 7, John sees the 144,000 who receive the seal of God. These 144,000 have a number of identifying characteristics, given in Revelation 14:
- They have the name of the Lamb and His Father written on their foreheads (Revelation 14:1). The name stands for their character. They have a share in the nature and character of God.
- They are redeemed from the earth (Revelation 14:3). They stand in sharp contrast to those who receive the mark of the Beast—they are a called out people.
- They have not defiled themselves with women, and they are chaste virgins (Revelation 14:4). They refuse to be defiled by women, which means that they refuse to become involved with idolatrous practices.
- They follow the Lamb wherever he goes (Revelation 14:4). They remain faithful to Jesus.
- There is no lie found in their mouths and they are blameless (Revelation 14:5). Their character has been investigated, and they have been found justified.
We should be holy and without blame before Him (Ephesians 1:4, Philippians 2:15, Colossians 1:22, 2 Peter 3:11). This is not a message of legalism or perfectionism, since without Jesus we can do nothing. It is a recognition of the power of Christ.
Christ depicts His bride dressed in spotless white, covered with the righteousness of Christ. We should never dare to utter “I am sinless,” but Christ can write that very truth in His book, because His forgiveness not only removes the stain of sin, but also the record of sin.
In the book of Leviticus we read that priests were only permitted to marry virgins, a type of Christ and His bride. The priests were not even permitted to marry chaste widows, because they had previous relationships. Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, all of us fall into the category of having had previous relationships with evil. To fulfill the requirements of the typology, the forgiveness of God has to be so complete that not even the record of the previous unfaithfulness of God’s people will remain. Only then can they qualify as the chaste virgin, pure and undefiled.
All the honor and glory belong to God. This leaves no room for legalism or salvation by works. There is nothing we can do to earn forgiveness.
We cannot receive a more emphatic warning than the one we find in the Third Angel’s Message. God wants everyone to know the result of following the Deceiver’s rationale. God wants everyone to choose Him and His grace.
Source: Professor Walter Veith, Amazing Discoveries – Africa.
Disclaimer: THE PLAIN WORD may quote an outside article(s) or provide references to outside materials, which indicate that we stand behind the content of that particular article, topic or reference; but it is not an endorsement by The Plain Word of the author’s opinion, lifestyle or work published elsewhere.
2 Timothy 2:15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” AND 1 Thessalonians 5:21, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”
Below is an in-depth bible study on ‘The Three Angel’s Messages” hosted by Pastor John Lomacang, Pastor Ryan Day, and Pastor John Dinzey of Three Angel’s Broadcasting Network. What is the purpose of the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14? What is true worship, and what does the Bible mean when it talks about “the fall of Babylon?” Join us for a revealing study into these important, end-time messages.
Pastor Ivor Myers:
Click here to access the The Three Angels’ Messages presentations are aired by Three Angel’s Broadcasting Network (3ABN) during the 2018 Spring Camp Meeting, speakers include: John Bradshaw of It is Written, Wes Peppers of It is Written, CA Murray of 3ABN, David Shin of Ouachita Hills Academy President, Stephen Bohr of Secrets Unsealed Ministries, Elder Jay Gallimore – retired SDA Michigan Conference President, Shelley Quinn of 3ABN, Steve Wohlberg of White Horse Media, Pastor John Lomacang of Thompsonville SDA Church, Pastor Whitney Phipps of Palm Bay SDA Church, and Kenny Shelton of Behold the Lamb Ministries.1.
Disclaimer: THE PLAIN WORD may quote an outside article(s) or provide references to outside materials, which indicate that we stand behind the content of that particular article, topic or reference; but it is not an endorsement by The Plain Word of the author’s opinion, lifestyle or work published elsewhere.
2 Timothy 2:15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” AND 1 Thessalonians 5:21, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”