“Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, ‘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.’” (Revelation 14:6-7)
Angels figure quite prominently in the book of Revelation, right from the beginning. An angel appeared to John and delivered to him the words and images we find so fascinating and enigmatic. An angel stands over or represents each of the 7 churches that the Lord addresses. Yet angels are, essentially, messengers of God. So we can assume that, though angels are real beings who God uses to accomplish His will, the use of them here in this book can also signify that a church or the church. This is supported by the vision we see in our lectionary reading: an angel delivers the gospel to all the world, followed by the warning of God’s imminent judgment. The proclamation of the gospel is the calling and responsibility of the church, that is, believers, not supernatural beings.
The Lord Jesus commissioned His disciples, the Church, to preach the gospel of grace through faith. Yet down through the ensuing centuries that message became eclipsed by Law, a man made law that transformed the gospel into a system composed of rules and precepts enforced by the cumbersome, harsh and elitist bureaucracy of the Roman Catholic Church. This law was as difficult to keep as was the Mosaic law, yet full of loopholes which allowed many to take advantage of or abuse the system, even to sin with impunity. In 1517, Martin Luther stood up against the system thereby igniting the Reformation that restored the gospel of grace back to the center of the Church. The eternal Gospel which had been obscured was once again proclaimed for all the world to hear.
Now this gospel is once again being eclipsed by philosophy, lust, selfishness, hatred and self-righteousness. The message of the Church is being silenced by the forces of darkness working through the media, the government, and the church itself. The gospel is being compromised in favor of political correctness, cancel culture, and identity politics. Truth is now relative or whatever an individual or group says it is. And yet the gospel of salvation by faith in Jesus is the only way to peace between God and man. And so, in the midst of the chaos and the shouting, we in the Church must continue to boldly preach the gospel. This good news must be preached to despairing sinners to let them know of God’s mercy and grace in Christ Jesus.