Prophecy
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The First
Angel’s Message: An Outright
Demand
Revelation 14:6
And
I saw another angel fly in the midst
of heaven, having the everlasting
gospel to preach unto them that dwell
on the earth, and to every nation,
and kindred, and tongue, and people,{6} I
looked into the sky and I saw a
brilliant angel descend from
God’s throne. He came to
Earth and orbited the planet for
1,260 days. He carried a demand
from Jesus – a timeless truth
– a gospel that is everlasting,
having no beginning or end. He
spoke to the people below, to every
nation, tribe, language, and
people. Everyone understood his
words in his or her own tongue.
Revelation
14:7
Saying
with a loud voice, Fear God, and give
glory to him; for the hour of his
judgment is come: and worship him
that made heaven, and earth, and the
sea, and the fountains of waters.{7} He
said in a loud voice, “Fear God
Almighty. His name is Jesus
Christ. Be afraid of Him. Give
Him the honor and glory that He is
due. Submit to His authority
because the time has come for Him to
pass judgment upon the living.
You must worship Him by resting from
your labors on His holy day, His
seventh day Sabbath. His
Sabbath remains a memorial to His
creative work. He created the
heavens, the Earth, the sea, and the
springs of water in six days and
rested on the seventh.”
The Eternal
Gospel
A display of
divine power on Day One of the Great
Tribulation will stop the world in
its tracks. Jesus will put
mankind on notice that the previous
order of life has been
terminated. Jesus will take
matters into His capable hands and He
will ensure that everyone hears and
intelligently considers His
gospel. The casting down of the
censer and the physical phenomena
(including a global earthquake) that
follow will serve as a signal which
no one can deny. These events
will tell the informed that Day One
of the Great Tribulation has
begun. For 1,260 days
God’s prophets will proclaim the
eternal gospel to every nation,
kindred, tongue, and people.
The eternal
gospel is a timeless, non-negotiable
demand that has no beginning and no
end. Therefore, it would be a
contradiction in terms to say that
the eternal gospel
is limited to the 1,335 days allotted
for the Great Tribulation.
Before time began and anything was
created, the Father ordained the
eternal gospel. This gospel is
that throughout eternity, all
creation must worship Jesus Christ,
the Creator, just as they worship the
Father.[18] This
is the reason for the term, the
“eternal” or
“everlasting” gospel.
When Lucifer tempted Jesus in the
wilderness, Jesus reminded Lucifer of
the eternal gospel.[19] Jesus
is the Creator of everything that
exists.[20]
Therefore, every being in Heaven and
on Earth is commanded to fear, honor,
and worship Jesus the Creator.
During the Great Tribulation, every
human being will hear the 144,000
proclaim the eternal gospel and
everyone will be required to submit
to its demand or be destroyed.
This is the Father’s will.
Each person’s eternal destiny
will be determined by his response to
the eternal gospel.”[21]
As you might
expect, when the eternal gospel is
proclaimed to the world with power
and authority, it will offend
billions of people for two
reasons. First, most of the
world opposes the idea that Jesus
Christ is Almighty God (an equal with
the Father in every way) and second,
billions of people (including
millions of Christians) reject the
idea that Jesus is the Creator of
Heaven and Earth[22] by
rejecting His claim that He made the
Earth in six days and rested on the
seventh. Most Christians also
believe that it is not necessary to
obey the Creator’s Ten
Commandments, especially His fourth
commandment which declares the
seventh day of the week to be
holy. Therefore, when
Catholics, Protestants, Jews,
Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and all
other religious groups are told to
worship Jesus Christ by resting from
their labor on His seventh day
Sabbath, a huge majority of the world
will immediately become hostile
toward the 144,000!
The eternal
gospel will upset most everyone in
one way or another, but the Father
determined long ago that it must be
presented to the world as a
testing truth before the
end can come.[23] To
subdue the hearts and minds of people
so that they can hear the eternal
gospel, Jesus will send a series of
divine judgments. An awesome
display of divine authority will
bring the whole world to a stand
still on Day One of the Great
Tribulation. Then, a few days
later, the first four trumpets will
begin. In other words,
overwhelming and overpowering wrath
will subdue and humble the
world. Nuclear war will cease
and mankind will hear what Jesus has
to say. The 144,000 will be
selected and sealed just before Day
One occurs. Then, on Day One,
they will be empowered by the Holy
Spirit to fearlessly present the
eternal gospel. The 144,000
will perform great signs and wonders,
the Holy Spirit will deeply trouble
every listener’s heart with the
validity of the eternal gospel and
the Bible will plainly validate the
testimony of the 144,000. What
could be more fair?
The ministry
of the 144,000 during the Great
Tribulation is represented in this
prophecy as three glorious angels
orbiting Earth because the eternal
gospel will be presented to everyone
in the clearest of terms. The
orbiting angels (flying in the sky)
indicate global coverage.
Because the 144,000 will be located
in every quadrant (or geographic
cell) of the world on Day One, the
delivery of the eternal gospel will
be quickly heard throughout the
world. Additionally, the
arrival of three angels from Heaven
indicates there will be three
messages that come straight from
God’s throne. To level the
playing field, the eternal gospel
will not be presented by a religious
body or organization. The
144,000 will consist of
honest-hearted people coming from all
walks, cultures and religious
systems.[24] Once
they meet with Jesus (as Paul did on
the road to Damascus and as John did
when he received the little book),
they will become believers in Christ
and they will be given the words that
God wants them to speak to their own
people. Because Jesus intends
to save as many people as possible
during the Great Tribulation, Jesus
will have “brothers”
speaking to
“brothers.” What
could be more effective than having
an honest-hearted Moslem who has met
with Jesus and believes in Jesus
delivering the words that Jesus gave
him to speak? This converted
Moslem knows the language, culture,
and religious beliefs of his
brothers. What could be more
effective at winning Moslems over to
the eternal gospel of Jesus?
What could be more effective than an
honest-hearted Catholic speaking the
words that Jesus gave him to speak to
fellow Catholics? What could be
more effective than a converted Hindu
speaking the words that Jesus gave
him? In terms of saving the
highest number of people, what could
be more effective than 144,000
brothers and sisters speaking
to their own brothers
and sisters?
The Great
Tribulation will begin like a thief
in the night. It will be an
overwhelming surprise, even to those
of us who anticipate it. People
will be traumatized, confused and
disoriented for awhile, but the
demands of the eternal gospel will
not abate. The eternal gospel
existed before life was created and
this gospel of God’s kingdom
will endure throughout
eternity. This eternal truth
will be declared: Jesus Christ
is Almighty God just like the
Father. Jesus is an equal of
the Father.[25] He is
the Creator of everything that exists
and on the basis of Jesus’
divinity, the Father has determined
that Jesus will receive the same
honor and worship given to the
Father, whom no one has seen or can
see.”[26]
Fear Jesus?
Why does the
eternal gospel begin with the phrase,
“Fear God?” Why
should we be afraid of our Creator,
Jesus Christ? The Greek
word, phobeo (English:
phobia) literally means what it says,
“be afraid!” Within
the context of the eternal
gospel, phobeo means
that all created beings are to fear
the Creator (Jesus) with the same
fear, honor, and respect that we give
to God the Father.[27] You
have heard the expression, “Like
father, like son,” and in this
case, this phrase is an eternal
truth. Although Jesus is a
separate and distinct co-eternal God,
He has every power and substance that
the Father has![28] This
means that the redemption of mankind
is far more expensive than most
people realize. To redeem
sinners, our Creator, a coeternal
member of the Godhead who is equal
with the Father,[29] gave up
everything He possessed, even His
eternal life so that we might have
it.
Before Jesus
came to Earth as “the Son of
man,” He set aside His divine
powers and subjected Himself to
whatever the Father required for
man’s salvation.[30] The
Father predetermined that Jesus
should be presented to the human race
as a poor man, a man without
education, good looks, or
wealth. The Father decided that
Jesus had to live among the poorest
of people. Jesus was not given
a handsome appearance. There
was nothing physically appealing
about Him.[31]
Socially speaking, Jesus was an
outcast.[32] In
terms of human behavior, He was
strange, unlike His peers. Even
as a teenager, He never sinned.[33] If it
had not been for the words and
miracles that the Father performed
through Him, the leaders of Israel
would not have given Jesus two
minutes of their time. Even His
disciples abandoned Him when He stood
before Pilate and went to the cross.
When the
first message is presented to
mankind, fearing Jesus will be a new
thought for most people because
currently, the full identity of Jesus
is poorly understood. You might
be interested to know that a similar
thing happened to the angels!
Please consider the following story.
The Revealing
of Jesus Christ in Heaven
[Note:
This explanation on the origin of sin
is to be understood as my “best
guess.” I have merged many
Bible facts and a few parallels from
Christ’s ministry on Earth to
tell a story about Lucifer’s
eviction from Heaven. The
purpose of this explanation on the
origin of sin is to demonstrate how
the eternal gospel
could have been used to separate the
angels in Heaven and of course, how
it will also be used to separate the
people of Earth during the Great
Tribulation.]
There was a
time in Heaven when the angels poorly
understood the fullness of all that
Jesus is. The angels called
(and they still call) Jesus by the
name, Michael. He was Michael,
the archangel, long before mankind
called Him Jesus.[34] The
angels were delighted to worship
Michael whenever and wherever they
saw Him. Physically speaking,
Michael looked like an ordinary
angel. Even though He was the
archangel, there was nothing special
about His appearance. He
mingled among the angels in Heaven
with the same humility that He later
displayed among men on Earth.
In both cases, one could not tell by
His physical appearance that He was
in fact, the Creator of the universe.
Even though
the name Michael means “One who
is like God,” the angels did not
question the origin of Michael or the
natural order of their wonderful
life. They were happy and
safe. Heaven was harmonious and
the angels were completely engaged
with learning and doing new things
every day. God’s universe
is huge and full of ceaseless
wonders. To make matters even
better, Michael conducted classes in
different parts of Heaven from time
to time and sitting at His feet was a
very special treat for the
angels. Michael was their
favorite teacher although Lucifer was
deeply loved and respected as a
substitute teacher. Lucifer
served as the leader of the angels
when Michael was elsewhere, but
Lucifer was not the archangel.
For a long time, Lucifer was very
close to Michael and they spent much
time together. Lucifer had many
natural gifts and
responsibilities. Lucifer was
Heaven’s most extraordinary
angel.
Lucifer held
the highest position given to any
created being. As the second
covering cherub, he stood on the left
side of God’s throne whenever
convocations with the Father were
held,[35] whereas
Michael stood at the right hand of
the Father. The angels
worshiped the Father on a regular
basis and they also worshiped Michael
wherever and whenever they saw
Him. The angels always looked
forward to worshiping in the presence
of the Father who lives in
unapproachable light.[36]
The angels
knew the Father was the Supreme
Ruler, the Most High God of the
universe. His gifts to the
angels constantly renewed their love
and adoration for Him. The
angels also worshiped Michael
whenever they saw Him because they
understood by faith that
He was their Creator. They also
understood by faith that
Michael was the source and sustainer
of life within each angel. In
Him, the angels moved and had their
being.[37] Even
though the angels believed these
things about Michael, they had no
idea how His creative powers worked.
Adam and Eve
did not see Michael create the Earth
because they were created last, on
the sixth day of the week. In
fact, Adam did not see Jesus create
Eve because Jesus put Adam into a
deep sleep![38]
Similarly, the angels did not watch
Jesus create the universe.
Jesus created them after He
created the universe. This is
important to the story because the
angels did not witness Michael
exercising His awesome creative
powers before Lucifer
fell. The angels knew that
Michael created them, but they
embraced this truth and worshiped
Michael on the basis of faith
alone. The angels did not
see the creative powers of Michael
demonstrated in much the same way
that all of Creation Week was hidden
from human view.
Over time,
Lucifer became jealous of
Michael. His jealousy began
when he coveted ‘the higher
position’ of the other
covering cherub. The
angels worshiped Michael, but they
did not worship Lucifer.
Michael could enter into the
unapproachable light that surrounds
the Father[39] and
Lucifer could not. It was also
odd that Michael looked like an
ordinary angel and Lucifer did
not. Lucifer was created as a
model of perfection; he was more
beautiful than any of the other
angels. Lucifer eventually
became jealous of Michael because he
allowed passion to overrule
self-control. Lucifer’s
jealousy began with vanity and a
desire for higher entitlement.
He came to think more of himself than
he did of Michael and he coveted the
worship and adoration that was given
to Michael. Lucifer nursed his
envy for a long time before he made a
fatal choice.
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