The Lamb, Babylon and the Sickles (2): The First Two Angels and Their Messages (Revelation 14:6-8) by Rev. Angus Stewart
I. The Idea of the Angels
II. The Commands of the First Angel
III. The Report of the Second Angel
Herman Hoeksema on Revelation 14:7: “... therefore, to every nation and tribe and tongue comes the demand: ‘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.’ From this point of view all is plain. The meaning of these words can now be understood. The angel sounds the eternal gospel. It is the gospel that God is sovereign, the gospel that God is supreme. It is the gospel that all creation must fear Him, and Him alone, and that He will judge all who refuse to worship Him. It is the gospel that He alone is worthy of worship since He made all things and therefore is the sole sovereign of them all. That demand is as eternal as God’s own decree, and it will last forever. That gospel God will never change. For unto all eternity, even in the new heavens and the new earth, it will still be the gospel. That demand is now placed over against the wicked kingdom of Antichrist. There, in that kingdom, they worship the beast; there they give glory to Satan, and they fear Antichrist. There they say, ‘Antichrist has made all things. Who is like unto the beast and who can war with him?’ There they cast God’s glory in the dust and trample His precepts under foot. But even over against this state of things God maintains His claim: ‘Fear Me, and give Me glory. For the hour of My judgment is come. And worship Me: for I have made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and the fountains of waters’” (Behold He Cometh, p. 495).
Abraham Kupyer on Revelation 14:8: “In Babylon the great evil was begun. The unholy principles which gave birth to the demoniac have from there been carried out into all the world. So it is entirely natural that Babylon as the great metropolis should for all time be the historic name of a demoniacal world life, that both in its beginning and in its course of progress, as well as in its peculiar typification, wages war against Almighty God. From of old the vigorous life of the great metropolitan centers of the world was the source from which falling away from God and consequent demoralization springs. Wherever this now shows itself is, in principle, all one with what sprang up in Babylon. And so Babylon, and notably Babylon as the great city, is the immortal name that designates the demoniacal revolt of the sinful world against its God” (The Revelation of St. John, pp. 142-143).