And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having [the] everlasting glad tidings to announce to those settled on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people,
John sees an angel cross the open sky with news for every nation on earth. The message is called eternal, yet it sounds nothing like the preaching heard in churches today. What is this gospel? Who is it for? Why does it come at this hour?
The word "gospel" covers more than one message in Scripture. This one is not the message going out today. Older translations call it the "everlasting gospel."
Why is it called "everlasting"? We must remember that the gospel preached now is a very special gospel, and in no way an everlasting gospel. Nobody ever heard the gospel we preach now until Jesus died, rose, and even went to heaven... So the gospel of the grace of God is not rightly called the "everlasting gospel." Scripture never calls it that.
The two messages also run in opposite directions.
This is not the message of salvation that God now sends to men by the preaching of the name of Jesus. To apply this passage to missionary work today is to shut the mouth of the angel. He says, "The hour of His judgment has come." God, on the contrary, still gives us time to announce and proclaim His grace towards poor sinners... The gospel we have to preach gathers the church for heaven. The angel's gospel announces judgment to the earth. God always sends a special testimony before judgment. He sent Noah before the flood, and He will act the same way before the judgment of the earth.
Writers differ on where the word "everlasting" points. Some trace it back to the first promise God ever made to fallen humanity.
In the garden of Eden, in the paradise ruined and lost by sin, God still pointed to the Seed of the woman. Note that He is the bruised Seed of the woman, and He was to bruise the serpent's head. Is this not gospel? Has it not been blessed gospel from the very first? Is it not also the gospel to the very last — "everlasting gospel"?
Others root the word in something even more basic than promise — the claim the Maker has always had on the people He made.
It is called the everlasting gospel for this reason. God has always stood to men as Creator to His creatures. That is true apart from His special revelations to Israel and to Christians, and so beyond every era of His dealings. As Creator He has a right to their reverence and worship.
The angel's call in the next verse tells men to fear God and worship the Maker of heaven, earth, sea and springs. Why name God that way?
This testimony clearly matches the evil of the time. The previous chapter tells us that they worshipped the dragon, because he gave his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast. So men worship Satan and the Roman beast. In these circumstances the gospel identifies God as the One who created all things. What a comment on the state of the world! Men are so carried away by Satan's influence that God must spell out who He is. When He claims the worship due to Him, He has to name Himself as the One who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of water.
The verse names two audiences: those who dwell on the earth, and then every nation, tribe, tongue and people. Why that order?
In chapter 14 we find God sends a solemn message, the everlasting gospel. And with whom does He begin? With the worst — "those who dwell on the earth," which literally means "those who sit"... then the message goes out to men in general. Other passages fully confirm this. To "dwell on the earth" is not a vague description of men; it expresses a moral condition.
John sees an angel carrying the message. But who does the preaching?
Will a spiritual being really proclaim the glad tidings from mid-heaven as he speeds along?... God has given the preaching of the gospel to men and not to angels. That is true whether it is the gospel of the kingdom, of the grace, or of the glory of God... We understand that the preachers of the Everlasting Gospel will be mainly converted Jews. The result of their mission will be a great, countless crowd of saved Gentiles gathered in for millennial blessing. The flying angel shows that a wide and rapid testimony to grace, with a warning of judgment, goes out on the eve of "the day of vengeance of our God."
- Everlasting — this good news runs from Eden's promise of the Seed of the woman to the end. Commentators differ: some point back to that first promise, others to God's unchanging claim as Creator.
- Different — no one could preach the gospel of grace until Christ had died, risen and gone to heaven. So Scripture never gives it this title.
- Opposite — today's message gathers a people for heaven. The angel's message warns the earth that judgment has come.
- Timely — the angel calls men to worship the Maker of heaven, earth, sea and springs just as the world bows to the beast.
- Wide — God starts with the worst, those settled down on earth. Then He reaches every nation, tribe, tongue and people, through preachers who are men, not angels.
saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and do homage to him who has made the heaven and the earth and the sea and fountains of waters.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.