Retired Pentecostal Pastor: What Do You Know About This Special End-Times Messenger?

Note: This is the first of a two-part end-times study.

In Revelation 14:6-7, the apostle John speaks of a special messenger having an “eternal gospel” to preach to all those remaining alive on earth. “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the eternal gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation and tribe and tongue and people. He said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory, for the hour of His judgment has come. Worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water” (emphasis added).

The word “nation” in verse six is the Greek word “ethnos” or, we can say, “ethnicity.” So, this angel is to bring a great and final message in the end times to ethnicities, or as the inclusive children’s chorus reads “… red, brown, yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight! Jesus loves the little children of the world!”

Actually, this “eternal gospel” preaching by the flying angel is significant in that it seeks to draw “every nation [ethnicity] and tribe and tongue and people” to worship our Creator God, “who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water” (v. 7).

Some might question why this great and final messenger would focus on creation. This “eternal gospel” (meaning Good News) is about the Maker of heaven and earth. He is the Creator of all things and therefore able to control and judge all things.

He was incarnated to earth and therefore able to redeem and restore all who come to Him. If no other witness or circumstance had ever “spoken” to them, the “God-shaped vacuum” in the human soul may respond to this basic gospel message and the fearful witness of the end times.

Commentator Henry Morris has said, “The creation is the foundation of the gospel, the second coming is the “blessed hope” of the gospel and the cross and empty tomb constitute the power of the gospel…One does not really preach the gospel unless he places and teaches all these together in their true majesty and fullness.”

The Hope of Heaven and the Horror of Hell

This “eternal gospel” (Rev. 14:6) conveys both the hope of Heaven as well as the reality of judgment and Hell to come.

God’s right to judge is also His sovereign right to reclaim the authority that had arrogantly been given by the god of this earth (Satan, the “dragon” of Rev. 13:3-8) to the “beast,” the antichrist of the last days, who exercised authority “over every tribe, tongue and nation [ethnicity]” (Rev. 14:7).

The urgency, which this final warning demands, is shown in the angel’s loud voice ( Rev. 14:7a), which boldly and bluntly declares, “Fear God and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come…” The right for God to judge every soul is founded on the fact of creation. God made and owns it all!

The angel urged those still on earth to “worship and honor God! The time has come for him to judge everyone. Kneel down before the One who created heaven and earth, the oceans and every stream” (Rev. 14:7, CVE).

This last phrase reminds us of the “fountains of the great deep” which were broken up as God judged mankind in Noah’s day (Gen. 7:4-12). The land/water/atmosphere complex, originally made by our Creator-God (Genesis 1 and 2), were all changed by the judgment of the Great Flood (chapter 6) and this flying angel will warn that another great divine judgment is imminent! “Fear God, and give glory to him!”

Both lost men and fallen angels have rejected God as Creator and refused to repent of their sins. Godless evolution has deceived our children for generations! Paul reminds us that unrighteous men of old deceived themselves and “exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever, Amen” (Rom. 1:25).

Now, at the end of the age, this angelic messenger warns all remaining mankind that “the hour of His judgment has come.” This is the “eternal gospel,” which both warns and encourages the inhabitants of the earth.

Warning: We All Are Accountable to God

The Bible teaches that “each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Rom. 14:12). See 2 Corinthians 5:10; Hebrews 4:13 and Revelation 20:11-13. Jesus was clear: “On the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” (Matthew 12:36). If other believers sin against us, we are to hold them accountable but also to freely forgive them (Matthew 18:15-17). Leaders are clearly accountable for their actions (1 Tim. 4:12; Heb. 13:17; Luke 16:10-12; James 3:1).

It is interesting that when Paul witnessed to his fellow Jews, he sought to convince them that Jesus of Nazareth was the prophesied Messiah. But when he turned to the Gentile ethnicities he first preached the gospel of creation (Acts 14:14-17; 17:22-30).

Possibly this is why the angelic messenger urged all mankind, even those of isolated cultures or limited understanding, to turn in simple faith to the One who had created them, trusting Him to save them “from the wrath to come!”

Accountability in the Gatherings of God’s People

After condemning sexual immorality among believers, Paul instructed the church at Corinth to remove a man from their fellowship who had ongoing sexual relations with “his father’s wife” (1 Corinthians 5:1-2). Then he warned: “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump” (v. 6-7). We must hold fellow believers accountable to live up to the high calling they and we have in Christ. Gathered accountability is for our mutual sakes and to prevent the escalation of sin and its consequences in our gatherings of God’s people (see 2 Samuel 12:1-14; Luke 17:3; Galatians 6:1-5; James 5:16).

How About You?

One day, when least expected, while life is continuing as usual (as in Noah’s day), the time and day of God’s judgment will come (Matt. 24:37-39). Are you ready? Are you trusting in your ethnicity, education or social ideology to preclude any judgment that may await mankind in these last days? Are you hoping that God will “grade on the curve?”

Don’t do that!

In simplicity, follow these ABCs:

• Acknowledge your sins to your Creator God.
• Believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, and His redeeming and reconciling work on the cross, as affirmed by the empty tomb and the teachings of His apostles.
• Confess Him to others as your Savior and transforming Lord of your life and future.

Part 2: “Jesus, the Judge of all the world!”

Gary Curtis served in full-time ministry for 50 years, the last 27 years of which he was part of the pastoral staff of The Church on The Way, the Van Nuys’ California Foursquare church. Now retired, Gary continues to write a weekly blog at worshipontheway.wordpress.com and frequent articles for digital and print platforms.