Monday: The First Angel’s Message – Part 1
Read Revelation 14:7 along with Ecclesiastes 12:13-14. What does it mean to “fear God”? How does the concept of fearing God relate to the gospel, and what does the gospel have to do with keeping God’s commandments? (See also Rom. 7:7-13). What is the connection between fearing God and glorifying Him?
The call to “fear God and give glory to Him” (Rev. 14:7, NKJV) is proclaimed in the context of the “everlasting gospel”. A realization of what Christ has done for our salvation results in a positive response to Him.
In the Bible, fearing God and giving glory to Him are closely related (Ps. 22:23, Rev. 15:4). Together, they designate a right relationship with God (Job 1:8) and obedience to Him.
To fear God does not mean to be afraid of Him but to take Him seriously and allow His presence in our lives. God’s end-time people are the ones who fear God (see Rev. 11:18, Rev. 19:5). God desires His people to love Him (Deut. 11:13, Matt. 22:37), obey Him (Deut. 5:29, Eccl. 12:13), and reflect His character (Gen. 22:12).
It is important for God’s people to give Him glory because “the hour of His judgment has come” (Rev. 14:7, NKJV). The judgment in view here is the pre-Advent investigative judgment, which takes place prior to the Second Coming. The purpose of this judgment is to reveal whether or not we are truly serving God – a choice made manifest by our works (2 Cor. 5:10). At the conclusion of this judgment, the destiny of every person is decided (Rev. 22:11), and Jesus will come to bring His reward to every person according to his or her deeds (Rev. 22:12).
Judgment in Revelation 14 is a part of the gospel. To those who are in a right relationship with God, judgment is good news; it means vindication, salvation, freedom, and eternal life. However, it is bad news for the disobedient, unless they repent and turn to God by accepting this end-time, judgment-hour message. God does not want anyone to perish but all to come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9).
| How could you stand, alone, in the judgment? What verdict would your life reveal? What does your answer tell you about the need for the gospel and why it is linked so closely together with judgment in the first angel’s message? |
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The prevailing view of life of most unchurched people is that there is no divine scorekeeper and you can do anything that pleases you. The idea that you may have to account for your selfishness just simply does not occur. In this climate, preaching that there is a judgment is nonsense because the listeners are over the horizon and cannot hear.
It does, however, make sense to live one's life in the Gospel. I have mentioned before the notion that the miracle of Christ's resurrection is that he is risen in our lives and is making a difference in the way we live and our attitude towards others. That is how we should be proclaiming the Gospel. The issue for most unchurched folk is that they see Christianity as just another form of self-interest; as businesses seeking money, power, influence, rather than addressing the needs of others. If we are to promote the idea of judgment, then we need to live the idea of judgment ourselves. Proclamation of the Gospel is not about shouting about it but by living it.
Micah has a message for us from God:
If I read this correctly, it is saying that religious observance is not meaningful if we miss out on the big principles of justice, mercy, and humility. And if we are true to those principles then others will hear the message. That is a bit of a challenge for us to think about.
(I should add that there are quite a few unchurched people, who though think there is no personal God, believe that they are accountable to history, the principle of life, or the force within themselves etc and live their lives altruistically. I have no quarrel with that and think these people have just called God another name.)
Do any other group believe in the pre Advent judgement?
What does this first angel (messenger) tell the people of the world? He tells the world to ...
'fear God' - What does it mean to 'fear God'? Well, take a look at Proverbs 8:13 ... 'The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogance, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.' ... So living in the fear of God is to hate the things that God hates - sin. Which means we are to turn away from all manner of sin and wickedness - and that includes watching sin on the TV or listening to sinful music! So to 'fear God' is to love righteousness. And Jesus said in Matthew 5 that those who 'hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled.' Filled with the Spirit of God.
It is a call to everyone of us proclaim this message to the world. This is message we have been known of for a long time, but unfortunately, devil us trying all it can to silence the message from us.
Our pastors are now trained to mute from an important messages and are busy enriching themselves with earthly messages that has got nothing to do with salvation.
We have left the work into the hands of evangelists who are at times frightened by church officials if they preach against their wishes, God forgive.
Lets join hands to spread this message,
We should be careful about blaming pastors, evangelists and church officials; they are only a reflection of us as church members. If we are living the gospel as we should, then we would only need leadership as enablers, not as directors. The First Angel's message is a wake-up call for us, the church laity, to live the Gospel.
Negative made positive
Fear God : This means take Him seriously and allow His presence in our lives. Love Him, obey Him and reflect His character. For the hour of His vindication, salvation, freedom and eternal life has come.
You are on the right track Cyrus with your elaboration of "Fear God".
If we consider the phenomenon of fear, when we fear something enough, it totally dominates our focus and attention. Now it does so because we 'fear' that it will harm us. And that is where the description differs. God will not harm us, but if we walk out of harmony with that which alone is capable of promoting and sustaining life, that will kill us. That is why Paul said the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). So, "fear God" is a call to pay undivided attention to who God is and what God is about because our very existence depends upon us doing so.
Give glory to Him. The meaning behind the concept of glory is two-fold. One aspect means character. When Moses asked God to show him His glory in Ex 33, Moses was asking God to show him His nature and character (also represented by the term 'name' which equals character). The second aspect refers to the resultant appreciation we experience when we recognise the intrinsic value and worth of something. I've thought many time of how to convey this idea and the closest I can come to so far is when walking in nature and climbing a mountain and then arriving at the summit on sunset and beholding a vast panorama - or perhaps similarly beholding the whole of a starry night sky out in the desert at night. And when you behold these experiences, the response within you of "Wow!" would go part way to describing the experience of seeing inherent 'glory'. These two ideas naturally go together when referring to God - the natural response of a sense of 'awe' that is reflexively awakened when we perceive God's inherent value and awesomeness.
For those who resonate with God's nature and character, 'fear' will reflexively awaken a sense of God's awesomeness. For those who resonate with a different nature and character (ie, the alternative referred to in Gen 6:5), the normal 'fear' that we are familiar with will be awakened (even if it is subsequently masked by and expressed as anger/rage against God).
I would propose that Rev 14:7 has been misunderstood. I will lay out as brief as possible summary of my evidence for this proposition and invite you to investigate this for yourself (Acts 17:11).
By way of overview, I would propose that the 1st angel’s message is completely God-focussed, the 2nd angel’s is context focussed, and then the 3rd angel’s message is focussed on us (though very badly mistranslated with respect to its portrayal alleging ‘holy retribution’).
An interlinear translation of Rev 14:7 says “saying in a loud voice ‘Fear God and give Him glory because has come the hour of the judgment of Him...”
The use of the word “Him” in both instances is the same Greek word (auto). The grammatical structure of the first phrase “give Him glory” is verb, personal pronoun, noun. This parallels the second phrase “has come... the judgment of Him” - verb, noun, personal pronoun.
So, it is plausible that this verse is saying that the time for God to be judged has arrived. But technically we would have to say that the verse in isolation is ambiguous. Consequently, I will draw on the largest possible context to see if there is suggestion of interpretation.
So let’s consider the very origin of the Great Controversy. At its core, this origin was an accusation by Lucifer/Satan against the nature and character of God. Now God could not defend this accusation by any other means than letting Satan’s associated claim of the superiority of his (Satan’s) proposed alternative ‘play out’ for all to see. God just saying that Satan’s accusation was false would be insufficient and problematic.
In other words, the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Darkness each had to ‘play out’ side by side to reveal/display their nature, character and outcomes. The ultimate result of this ‘playing out’ would be a track record of irrefutable evidence that would ‘speak for itself’.
I believe that Rev 14:7 is therefore the first of three dimensions in the finalisation of this Great Controversy. As such, I believe and would propose that the 1st angel’s message is in fact announcing officially and formally that the time has finally come for everyone throughout the entirety of all created intelligent beings to each come to a personal conclusion regarding the allegations that started the Great Controversy because the track record of each Kingdom has now been fully and completely manifest. Hence, each being is now in a position to judge for themselves whether the accusations and allegations that Satan has made against God are true or not - and therefore whether God is vindicated in regard to those allegations or not.
Phil, I'll just address the idea of God being judged. Paul writes about God being justified "when Thou art judged." (Rom 3:4) He is loosely quoting from David's prayer of repentance, "that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest." (Ps 51:4)
Certainly, as you suggest, the great controversy is all about God being "judged" by the created beings of the universe. Satan has slandered the character of God, and God is giving all a clear view of His way of dealing compared to Satan's way.
And everyone in the universe will be able to see and judge for themselves that God is loving and just and mighty to save.
I believe God is judged in the character of His people. God has offered to transform their hearts to harmonize with the law of life for the universe. (See Jer 31:33) So the question is two-fold: "Is God truly loving, rather than self-serving?" and "Can He do what He has promised?"
In Revelation we get a foretaste of the verdict of the universe in the paean of praise in Revelation 5 that arises not only from the heavenly beings but "every creature which is in heaven, and n the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea." (Rev 5:13) God, has, indeed, demonstrated His self-renouncing love in incontrovertible fashion. And His power to save and transform is evident in the holy army of the 144,000.
It's all about God, and if we think it's all about us, we're missing the important contribution our church has made to the understanding of the Gospel - the great controversy theme.
Thanks for the Rom 3:4 reference. I was searching for that exact verse but for some reason couldn’t locate it in a word search.
God has one message for sinners: “Repent ye, and believe the Gospel”. In Adam's race, there are none righteous before God until they receive this one message, which means to receive Jesus, who will give them power to become the sons of God(John 1:12, Rom 1:16).
To fear God is to be like Joseph when tempted to sin, who said: “how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” He did not want to disappoint the One who had comforted and blessed him. He “feared” to offend the One he loved with all his heart. The Wise man teaches us to “fear the Lord, depart from evil”. Noah “moved with fear, and built the ark”.
The “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”, and has nothing to do with being afraid, but rather, it is being devoted, and serving out of reverence and love, while fearing only to offend.
To give God glory we must first fear and obey Him. Jesus taught that our “good works” seen of men will bring glory to God(Matt 5:16), and the psalmist writes that: “I will praise thee with an upright heart”. We could say that God is glorified when we reflect His Divine nature in our lives.
The judgment is the reminder that all will answer to God for all they did and said in their lives. The Holy Spirit brings this conviction of judgment to every soul, and the gospel is the escape from any and all condemnation as the repentant one is hid in Christ(can we see why it is “GOOD NEWS!”?) before the judgment of the “dead”(Rev 20:11,12), during the judgment of the living(by faith), or, day of atonement, when every sin confessed and repented of “before hand” is removed from the sanctuary and placed upon the scape goat, to be “remembered no more”(Isa 43:25).
THIS is the hour of that first judgment.
It seems that the "fear" of God is equal to many biblical truths? Somewhere I've read it is also an acute awareness of God's presence in relation to our being "in Christ and Christ in us".Col 1:27 & 2 Cor 5:17
Inside this acute awareness,can we be in constant or perpetual contact with the Lord? I see in my own experience that the simple biblical truths: 1. State of the dead,2.Seventh day sabbath, 3.Second advent,4.Santuary service (embodied in Daniel & Revelation)5.Spirit of prophecy/ Testimony of Jesus Christ(embodied in the book of Judges chap.4); bolster said acute awareness.
Maranatha!
Good news calls us to make God first in all of our life, and giving glory is a life that reveals that first place of God in our lives.
The judgment is a part of that good news that encourages us to worship God in that "fear" of Him.
According to this translation/interpretation we must read Rev 14:7 thus: “Fear God, and give Him glory, for/because the hour to *judge* Him has come.” Is that prophesied in Scripture?
“Of Him” is the Genitive Case/possessive. It is correctly read/translated “His Judgment” as generally done in all translations and as prophesied in Scripture (Isa 9:6,7; 11:1-5; 16:5; 32:1; 42:3,4; Ps 9:4,7-9; 82:8; 96:13; Jer 23:5,6; Jn 5:22,23). This is just a few of the prophecies of the promised judgment, which all Israel longed and hoped for (1 Kings 3:8-10; Ps 2:6-12).
Moreover, sinful humankind does not understand its own way (Prov 20:24) would God subject Himself to their judgment? His Son has explained Him to His people (Jn 1:18; Mat 11:27).
Not sure what you mean by your first sentence Kenny. I don't see that the lesson author or anyone else has suggested that "we must read Rev 14:7.." any other way than it reads.
We have, however, inserted the great controversy aspect which drives all of Scripture and, particularly, Adventist beliefs, into the conversatio. God has put Himself on trial in His people. We either demonstrate that God is able to save and transform us, or we make God look ineffective by failing to allow Him to work in our lives.
It is not an "either/or" situation, but a "this/and" situation. While humans are being judged, God also is judged by the onlooking universe. (See, for instance, 1 Cor 4:9, in which Paul suggests that we on stage, so to speak, for observation by "the world ... angels .. and men."
I have a question for you, Kenny: Do you believe there is a great controversy going on? If so, how does that understanding color your view of judgment?
Since the Greek for "has come" is in the aorist indicative active (aorist being a verb tense that can point to a time in the past, the present or the future), it indicates a judgement already in action having started in the past, now presently and will conclude in the future. This makes sense. The souls under the altar are asking when God will judge the earth-dwellers and God does that in the trumpets. Thus, the judgment has been going on in some phase since Jesus was found worthy to take the book.
This judging is to separate the true from the false. In the first angel's message to the earth-dwellers (those not of Christ) is to give ones life to God and become His for He made all things, to enter into the judgment that will be found to be made in favor of the saints (Daniel 7).
It seems that "His judgment" has a two fold application as suggested by Inge. First, the judgment is God's as distinction is made by God in the form of revelation of the life. In that sense it is God's judgment. At the same time, His judgment has been under the inspection of the unfallen universe, so in that sense a kind of judgment of God Himself. But it has already been shown that God's judgments are just in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Their is no doubt in heaven as to God's justice. Now the heavenly legions are seeking to get earth dwellers to see that Just and Compassionate God for themselves and accept His judgment of them laid upon Christ.
This is a call to the earth dwellers to turn back to their Creator and their Re-creator in Christ because in the end Babylon is fallen and the mark is to be avoid, the mark being an unwavering settling into error: spiritually, mentally and emotionally. Thus, come to God while the soul can make that choice for God.
Like the term "the Lord's day" in chapter one, there is a double entendre involved. The Lord's day can mean both "day of judgment" and the Sabbath. Primary meaning probably is the former and secondary the latter. So is the idea behind the term "His judgment."
Hopefully this helps.
It makes a big difference how we conceptualise the notion of judging as separating/distinguishing of true and false.
Are we conceptualising that God is making the separation/distinction of something that wasn’t already separated or that God is merely revealing the separation/distinction that is already in existence?
Obviously God already knows the distinctions and is a reason for the plagues. The plagues reveal who is lost and who is saved. The close of the 1,000 years also reveals that those lost are still deceived, solidifying the unchangeable distinction.