What did the 3 Angles say?
Have you ever thought what angels have told us? Then read this outline and learn something! If you are still confused or lost reply!
Date: 10/7/2011 10:31:50 AM ( 13 y ) ... viewed 2250 times
Introduction
If you are one who has not yet decided if there is a God or not, or if you have, but still came here one more time to see what is going on, you are like many of us were. Many people push the idea of a real God just aside. Why? Because something tells us, if there is a God - if He really exists, then I'm in deep trouble because of the way I live. - If you hear that voice in your mind or somewhere, you will notice an immediate change in your face and the faces of those who listen. All those faces reflect all of a sudden the working of their consciences, in sync, starting to grind against themselves. Then it will be like the temperature is increasing from the friction going on behind everyone's forehead. And that is what causes uncomfortable faces. Thing to do then is to surrender all to God and change your life for one to learn to trust and cooperate with the only One who can save the human race. When accepting Christ, no one has to try and hide away anymore for He loves and came to save sinners for they are topmost on His mind. When you take a minute and read His word, if you pay attention, the words will speak back to you, and you will say, `that is me who is described here in these pages - please, help me Jesus,' and He will, if you do that.
" " For a topic to be more easily understood, many times it helps to give a brief overview before the more detailed study is presented. For our topic we have eighteen steps in headlines which help us to get a handle on what the Bible teaches in the central chapters of the Book of Revelation.
Let us begin with the first point.
- The Three Angels Messages are proclaimed by human beings who are aided by the angels, Revelation 1:1-3.
In this scripture we learn that God follows a process or definite order in giving His messages. We gather in our reading of these verses that God gives His message to Jesus. Then, since we know that Revelation states repeatedly, "Hear what the Spirit says to the churches", we know that Jesus gives the message to the Holy Spirit, thirdly the Holy Spirit gives the message to the angels who give it to the apostle John, who gave it to the seven churches. (Rev. 2:1,11,17,29; 3:6,13,22). That is also what is happening in Revelation chapter 14, there we find that angels, messengers (`angelos'), are human beings aided by angels to proclaim these messages (Verses using `angelos': Phil. 2:25; Mt. 11:10; Lk. 7:24; Jam. 2:25; Acts 6:15).
- The three angels fly in the midst of heaven; which means that these messages are of heavenly origin. They are God centered messages sent by God from His throne. While these messages are of divine origin, Revelation also speaks of an opposing message. Their points of origin are opposite. We read, "And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon." Rev. 9:11. The opposition, we are told, has a king over them other then God. "They" in this verse is identified as "... those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads" (Rev. 14:1; 9:4); that is the wicked led on by Abbadon the destroyer. The two opposites, the mark of the beast and the seal of God, therefore, are presented just a few verses apart in Rev. 13:16 for `the mark' and in Rev. 14:1 for `the seal of God'. This point reminds us when God speaks it is well for us to listen.
- The three angels messages are proclaimed with a loud voice, that is with unmitigated power, Rev. 14:6-7. They are proclaiming loudly, "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 water." (Cmpr. Ex. 20:11). - The third angel proclaims his message also with a `loud voice.' God knows that many of His professed people are not building for eternity, and in His mercy He is sending a message of warning to arouse us from our stupor and lead us to make ready for the coming of the Lord. There is no instruction not to ruffle someone's feathers. There is no political correctness in these messages. The Bible teaches that God has given every person on earth a measure of faith, Rom. 12:3. If we do not excercise that faith it will grow weaker, but if we do exercise it, it will grow stronger. Thus we are not saved by grace alone, otherwise we would need no faith, but we are saved by the cooperative effort of exerciseing our faith in these messages and then grace saves us. That these messages must be presented is important for they are God's very last messages for people in the world to be still saved by faith just before Jesus comes. When Jesus has come faith is turned to sight and no one will be saved on that basis, Rom. 8:24.
- The angels are flying: That means the messages are to be proclaimed with the utmost speed and velocity. How angels give messages is beautifully illustrated in Ezekiel 1. We abbreviate,
"Out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. ... they had the likeness of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. ... they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass. ... Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. ... their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. ... And the living creatures ran and returned (they are going on missions and come back to get new commissions) as the appearance of a flash of lightning." Utter grandeur and speed is here presented as God sees it. We read here about fire, lamps and lightening denoting power and speed. (Hebr. 1) We learn here that God and the angels want to speed up the finishing of His work.
- The messages are universal in scope: They are to go to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, Rev. 14:6. That means these messages are not primarily for the Jews. The gospel is to go into all the world and to all peoples irrespective of their background. That also means that there must be a people who believe and understand these messages so they can be preached by human beings empowered by God in all languages around all corners of the world. God's Sabbath keeping people are such a people. May you be challenged in cooperating and helping with this call from God. May you, if you are a member of a group of people which you know has not been reached, decide to step in and further this cause and reach your people (translate, speak, write).
- The messages of the three angels must be given in their proper order: They are consecutive and cumulative, Rev. 14:6,8,9. The sequence is, "And I saw another angel ... and another angel followed him ... and another angel followed them" The 1st angel gives three commands: a) Fear God, b) Give Glory to God, c) worship Him because the hour of his judgment is come, the 2nd angel makes a call, to come out of Babylon. The 3rd angel gives a dire warning not to remain in Babylon in order not to receive the unmitigated weath of God. The point is that these messages must be proclaimed in the order given in Revelation. No one can start the proclamation with the 2nd angel's message. You cannot call people out of Babylon unless you preach the 1st angel's message first to them. Because the reason Babylon falls is that they rejected the 1st angel's message. If people don't understand the 1st angel's message they feel no urgency to come out of Babylon -
- (1) because Babylon does not fear God;
- (2) Babylon does not give glory to God;
- (3) Babylon does not believe that we are in the hour of God's judgment;
- (4) Babylon does not worship the Creator -
- therefore we must begin with the 1st angel's message otherwise they will say, why should I come out? On the other hand, once they understand these messages they say, `Wow, I am in Babylon. I must come out,' and they come out because now they understand these messages and are ready for the 2nd message and the 3rd. - Since God is a God of love, we are told that God loves people, he does not want them to receive the inevitable death sentence sin brings on itself, and that is why He gives the world these three final warnings.
- The three angels messages are God's final messages and appeals before Jesus comes again, Isa. 61:2; Luke 4:19. There will be no other message to the world after these messages. That is how important they are. How do we know that? Because right after these three messages of the gospel commission (Mt. 24:14; Acts 1:8-11) are proclaimed, Revelation says, Jesus comes, in Rev. 14:14. This then is a challenge to preachers to not fail to present these most important, present truth messages (2.Peter 1:12; Rev. 14:6-12) everywhere in our world today. The Bible means to say, `Woe to those who do not present them.' Isa. 30:1; 31:1; Amos 6:1; Zech. 11:17; Rev. 8:13; 12:12;
- The messages are accompanied by the power of the latter rain. Anciently, those living in the Bible lands understood what `latter rain' meant. It was cyclic in their hemisphere for the farmers to sow their seeds and plant their plants just before the early rain and then harvest the crop after the latter rain. - With respect to the angels messages the latter rain means that these messages will be accompanied by a special power from on high which ripens the whole world for the harvest by opening hardened hearts and deaf ears one more time so people will be saved. That is why immediately after the three angels' messages are proclaimed, Jesus has a sickle in his hand, Rev. 14:14. By this time the world will be divided in two camps. Those who accept the messages that they are accepted of Christ already, will be reaped to be part of the kingdom of God, if not, you will be like "sour grapes" Ez. 18:2 which are rejected and will be in the "wine presses" Neh. 13:15 and lose eternal life with God. These messages will polarize the world because we know already that God's messages can either soften or harden people's heart. While God does not want to harden people, they are hardened by shutting their heart when they read or hear the message. That is a serious issue for these things will with certainty come about.
- These angels' messages are linked to the Most Holy Place of the heavenly Sanctuary. How so? They are connected to the Most Holy by the message of the first angel, to `fear God', `give glory to Him', and `worship Him.' As we explain from the Bible, these messages started to be understood and presented to the world when the door to the Most Holy was first opened as we read in Rev. 11:19. Therefore, these messages coming from the Most Holy place form the center of the Book of Revelation; they are framed by two important Bible texts where we read, "... the temple of God was opened in heaven ..." and, "... no man was able to enter into the temple ..." (Rev. 11:19; 15:8), which lets us know that the time of gospel opportunity is now, for after the temple of God in heaven is closed and all people on earth will have made their final decision, the time of probation is over. The opportunity to accept God's offer of salvation through faith in Christ who has accepted us already, is still reaching out for man and woman everywhere. After the message of the third angel is given to the world, the heavenly temple will be closed and the long time of probation is over for ever. [While we give all three messages now already, keep in mind the difference when the 1st , 2nd, and 3rd is given during those days when the unbelieving world will enforce 3 unjust Sunday laws, then it will be much harder to give.
- How do these messages present the love of God? God in His love presents these messages to you, to the whole world, because He loves people and does not want anyone to suffer the wrath of God but receive the 1st angel's message, which describes all the important truths God wants us to follow and come out of Babylon and be saved. Please be reminded that we are now in the period of the judgment in heaven which decides every case of those who knew and know presently His name. Like on Yom Kippur the faithful Israelites were separated from the unfaithful ones (Lev. 16:5,15-17,29-31). Then, once the temple is closed - meaning everyone has made their free will decision to follow God or not (Rev. 15:8) - there is no more day of grace left for the world, Rev. 15:5ff. The wrath of God, the seven last plagues take now effect, for the long period of salvation, of many gospel invitations, is past and `no man is able to enter into the temple.'
- The acceptance or rejection of these messages is a matter of life and death as demonstrated by the third angel's message. You either have the seal of God, which we talk about as you read further down, or you do not. Those who reject the invitational messages will receive the `mark of the beast' and find themselves outside of the city of God where the wrath of God is poured out without mixture of mercy after having tried all he could to draw all these to Him by faith exercising their own free choice, Rev. 14:10.
- The good news is God will have a victorious people in this world who will receive, proclaim and obey the three angels' messages even under severe and adverse circumstances, Rev. 15:2-4. This scripture teaches that God will have a people who will say `no' to the first and second beast, they say no' to the image, the mark of the beast, they will stand up for what is right and righteous in the sight of God and be true to their Heavenly Father. That is why we read, "And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest." Rev. 15:2-4. - Since these people are standing on the sea of glass they obviously were victorious in the hour of trial and testing of their faith. Remnants of all nations will be among them who decided to follow the messages of the three angels.
- The central issue of the controversy and conflicts raging now close to the end of time will be twofold:
(a) who you worship
(b) who you obey
People will either obey God or the Devil. Those are in the end the only two choices each one makes. Why is the devil so bent on bringing sin to everyone? Why does the devil do that, go out to influence everybody to sin? The devil does that because he wants you the sinner to die for him - just the opposite what Jesus Christ did, he died for you so you can live.
Therefore, the central end time issues are not about the Middle-East, politics, wars, science. They are about the same issues we find already in Genesis. There we have Cain and Abel. Abel believed God and followed His instructions that only a blood sacrifice is able to forgive sins; Cain followed his own wisdom and logic and decided that offering vegetables was what he was going to present on the altar thus demonstrating that he disdained and opposed God's instructions. In the same way people are choosing today every day which side they want to belong to - the Lord's side or the wrong side.
Street Missionary
As a street missionary was asked, "What do I have to do to be saved?"
We had best know what to say when a person asks that question because their eternal destiny is hanging in the balance.
I realized the awesomeness of it and darted a prayer to heaven to help me. Then I looked at the man and said,
- We are sinners and deserve to die. - He understood that.
- But God loves us and doesn't want us to die (the 2nd death).
- So He gave His Son Jesus to come and be a man like us and die in our place,
- so that, if we only give our life to Him, and accept Him as our Lord and Savior, we have eternal life.
Then I said, "I am going to open up the Bible and you put your finger on the promise of that verse that we will read now, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Revelation, chapter 3, verse 20. We just claimed these words as a promise for your life, and really for mine too. You claim it. Say, "I claim it," and Jesus will be your personal Savior! Are you willing to do that? - Then I stopped and gave him a chance to answer. He said, "Yes."
When you give someone that appeal question, stop, and let them say, "yes," or, "no." It is very important that you do that, because if you do not, they may never make that decision, and may be lost. When they say, "yes," to that question, it gives God permission to do (with His almighty power) what He could not do for them if they had not said, "yes."
Then you get out your Bible on that verse again, and say, "I will pray, and you just repeat the words after me." Then you start, and he will repeat the words. "Dear Heavenly Father, I come to you right now in Jesus holy name. I claim His blood to wash me clean from all sin. I claim Jesus as my Lord and Savior right now. Give me Thy power to obey You, and live for You, and not for self anymore. In Jesus holy name, Amen."
Then you can say, "Praise God! Jesus is your Savior!" And you tell them, to spend time with God in prayer and Bible study. If a person does that, and we ourselves too, we will grow in grace, peace, joy, and power to do right. If we do not, we may shrivel away and become a slave of the devil - to end up in worse condition than we were before. - To pray (breathe) study (eat & drink) and share our faith (exercise) keeps us strong, healthy, and close to Jesus. To quit breathing (praying) will kill you the quickest.
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