Before the Door Closes

The Three Angels' Warning to a Dying World

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Read: Revelation 14:6-13

Today, we see three angels with three messages.

One: Impending Judgment

The first proclaims “an eternal gospel.” This is the message of the church to a lost and dying world: “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come, and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” Every nation must give God the glory He deserves, for “the long-awaited reign of God and His Christ is about to be consummated.”

Two: Present Judgment

The second proclaims a message of judgment: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.” Later chapters of Revelation speak in greater detail about Babylon, which represents the seduction of material prosperity, sexual immorality, and other forms of worldliness that entice the naïve into sin and spiritual adultery. This empire, though powerful over the kings of earth, will fall at the end of history when God pours out His wrath on the wicked.

Three: Eternal Judgment

The third angel announces the fate of the beast’s worshipers who bear his mark. They will “drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of His anger, and He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.” The smoke of their torment will dwarf the greatest tragedies in human history, going up forever and ever, and contrary to those who believe the wicked are eventually annihilated, we see that their suffering is eternal.

What are we to make of these three angels?

Many commentators believe these angels are actually the church’s ministers, similar to those in the beginning of Revelation. These ministers preach of what many would call “fire and brimstone,” which for some reason has a negative connotation, probably because these topics make us uncomfortable. We don’t like to think about death.

A big church today that preached on these topics probably wouldn’t remain a big church for long. But this makes no sense; speaking of these things often and urgently is obviously the most loving thing a Christian could possibly do, minister or otherwise. The lost are caught in a spider’s web of sin and destruction with eternal consequences. We use that word eternal so often that it’s lost a lot of its shock value. But think about what being tormented forever really means.