When we open to Revelation 14, we find the three angel’s messages going out to the world in the midst of these end-times and just before the return of Jesus Christ.

These angels are symbolic of the church giving these messages to the world. The word “angel” actually means “messenger” and that is what we see here in Revelation 14:6-12. Before I share some brief thoughts on these three angels, allow me to remind us of the context by summarizing the two chapters that precede chapter 14.

In Revelation 12 we saw that Satan went off to scheme for an end-time war of deception against the people of God “which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).

In Revelation 13 we saw that this end-time scheme is the enforcement of the mark of the beast on a global scale that would lead to a death decree against those who “would not worship the image of the beast” (Revelation 13:15).

In Revelation 14 we see that despite Satan’s plan to deceive, the church will be faithful to Christ and His word. We also see from this chapter that it is the three angel’s message that the church will proclaim to assure that not all on the earth will be deceived. So let’s look at this message needed in these last days to prepare a people for the return of Jesus.

First Angel

“Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”’ Revelation 14:6-7 NIV

This is a message that calls people in our world to fear the Creator. Our world does not fear the Creator as it ought and as we travel closer to the end, mankind is turning further away from the God who created all life.

People don’t fear God. They scoff at the idea that there is a God whom they will one day stand before in the judgment. Man acts like he or she is their own final authority. They care only about their own selves and what they want, but the message the church is to give the world today is to turn toward the Creator God and fear Him.

You may ask, Why is it so important that we fear the Creator God? The simple answer to this is found in our culture today. Our culture has turned its back on God’s created order of life and it is demanding that we all believe a lie. God created male and female, man says there is multiple genders and differing versions of His image.

Genesis 1:27 states that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” yet sinful man tries to contradict the Creator by marring His image through gender confusion.

Second Angel

“A second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.” Revelation 14:8 NIV

Babylon is a term of confusion and this message warns those who are being confused by apostasy and compromise in harlot churches. Not every congregation that identifies as a church is actually Christian or believers in God’s Word.

Our world may appear to have the upper hand against God’s saints by demanding our acknowledgement and celebration of their sick twisting of God’s image, but they are fallen. This spiritual Babylon in culture, false churches, and political parties is fallen and soon to succumb to wrath of God.

When we look a little further in Revelation to chapter 17 and 18 we find additional insight into this message, including Revelation 18:4 which says, “Then I heard another voice from heaven say: Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues” (NIV).

Third Angel

“A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”  Revelation 14:9-11 NIV

This is a message that warns people not to receive the Mark of the Beast because that will result in receiving God’s wrath. It is a warning to us all not to buy into the culture, not to adapt the culture’s aberrant beliefs, not to follow the way of the beast, but to fear the Creator God.

There have been a myriad of speculative interpretations regarding the Mark of the Beast. Many well-meaning ministers have said it is a tattoo, or a small identification device planted under the skin, or as we have heard so often in recent months, it’s a vaccine.

However, we must rightly understand that the symbolic language of this prophecy is steering us away from literal interpretations of this mark. One can’t read these verses without considering that the book of Revelation draws heavily from the Old Testament as its foundation for figurative meanings. So in the case of the Mark of the Beast being “in their right hand, or in their foreheads” we have to consider the practice referred to in Exodus 13:9-10 and Deuteronomy 6:8 as marking one’s self with God’s Word.

To receive the Mark of the Beast in the hand may actually be a reference to those who will worship/accept the mark by their own choice of go-along to get-along. To receive the Mark of the Beast in the forehead may actually be a reference to those who will worship/accept the mark by their own choice of agreement.

Revelation 13:17 says that the Mark of the Beast is “the name of the beast” and the term “name” in Scripture means character. The Mark of the Beast may simply mean the beast’s character. People would receive the Mark of the Beast by the accepting his character through agreement in their minds or taking action as if they support him.

Final Call

After the three messages are given in Revelation 14 we read this in verse 12, “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus” (NIV).

This final call regarding these messages is a call to those who “keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus” because these are “the people of God.” We may not know the details of the prophecy of these chapters but we can certainly know that our calling is to keeping the commandments and the faith of Jesus.

It is interesting to me that in Scripture we have two definitions of sin. 1 John 3:4 states “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness” (NIV) and in Romans 14:23 we read “But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin” (NIV). Sin is the breaking of God’s commands and not living by faith.

How fitting then that “the people of God” are those who “keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.”