What proves that the book of Revelation is truly inspired by God is its Good News, not its bad news.

The last book of the Bible, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ,” reveals the Saviour in a unique way. He interacts in the affairs of world history throughout the centuries. He does not manipulate history, but He constantly redeems it.

It’s a mistake to misread Revelation to make it say that the Lord sends disasters on the world. He does not hate mankind and torture them, but He warns us about what Satan is bringing, so we can prepare. The Bible would be tragically incomplete without this special “Revelation” of a divine hand continually averting humanity’s otherwise suicidal destiny.

Pictures That Get The Point Across

What God did to make Revelation easy to understand has been misunderstood as making it difficult. What we thought was a closed door turns out to be an open one. God “signified” its message by communicating it to John in the easiest way possible for us to understand — in coded cartoon symbols. They make sense to anyone who will take the trouble to look at the book twice. Only the careless and thoughtless miss out.

These vivid pictures or symbols – beasts, horns, candlesticks, seals, trumpets, angels, mountains – communicate rather than obscure truth. They are decoded by abundant usage elsewhere in Scripture. Thus, learning the “language” of Revelation is more simple than deciphering the operating instructions for most of the electronic gadgets we have become so familiar with today.

An “angel” is the code word signifying a special message that God communicates to the world (“angel” in Greek means messenger). The divine Author is happy to reward our sincere search for enlightement, for Jesus said, “If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine” (John. 7:17). 

Those who finally reject God's grace will hear no scathing denunciation from either the Father or the Son. They will hear only silence from God, and voice of their own accusing conscience.

The book of Revelation assures us of a solid reason for hope, revealing how Heaven’s constant communication with humanity illuminates otherwise dark corridors of history. And it does more, opening up a cosmic view – the eternal significance of world history, past, current, and future. It is a profound docudrama that depicts in a few words world truth more profound yet recognizable than anything we could gain from a shelf of uninspired books.

The climax of Revelation focuses on unprecedented on the earth as we approach the end of time. Every worldly institution that we have thought secure will prove to be vanity. Great powers that we have naively assumed were benign will metamorphose into those destructive of liberty and true human happiness. “The cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found” (16:19, 20).

It isn’t a pretty picture. But common sense sees that injustice, corruption, crime, greed, and sensuality are already steadily gaining the upper hand. The ruin of civil wars that we have seen on TV is an object lesson of what the whole world is ultimately headed for, according to Revelation. What proves that the book of Revelation is truly inspired by God is its Good News, not its bad news. It tells of redemption and salvation.

God’s “wrath” is not a tit-for-tat retaliation against rebellious mankind. He is too big and too wise for that. The future time of trouble is simply the natural result within history of man insisting on his own self-centered way. Although God has given us freedom of choice, “all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way” (Isa. 53:6). Man’s final rebellion is symbolized in Revelation by the “battle of Armageddon” when the nations “will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb” (Rev. 17:13, 14). Note: they hate Christ, and they start the war, not He.

Preparing for Armageddon

That battle is the final scenario for a world rejecting God’s grace. At last all pretense will be thrown off, and man’s “enmity against God” will be laid open (Rom. 8:7).

God’s greatest joy is seeing alienated, miserable, wrecked people find the sunshine of a healing reconciliation with Him.

But how can mankind’s puny war against God bother Him? There is one thing that will arouse His wrath: the wicked try to take out their hatred against Him by oppressing His people.

How would you react as a parent if you saw hoodlums beating your innocent child, trying to kill him? Every cell in your body would be shot through with adrenaline as righteous wrath drove you to the defense of your child. This gives us some insight into God’s final “wrath” against sin. It is not selfish no His part.

On the cross, Christ freely forgave those who murdered Him. And He has kept silent for millenniums while tyrants and persecutors have tortured and killed His followers by the millions, because some seed of hope blossomed that humanity might learn to do better. God must give the world every chance to learn and to repent. But humanity has misinterpreted His mysterious silence.

When the world attempts to crucify the Lord again in the person of His saints, Armageddon will be its final refusal of His grace, a deliberate attempt to reenact Calvary and His cross on a global scale. After will be a withdrawing of His mercy, leaving the world to itself at last as never before except in the flood of Noah’s day.

Few realize how actively God’s Spirit works to restrain evil in the world, counteracting men’s murderous designs. Thank Him that at least part of the time the bombs are discovered before they explode, and the police can catch at least some of the criminals who lurk almost every where.

Revelation discloses what goes on behind the scenes: “I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth [the final tornado of unrestrained human hatred], that the wind should not blow on the earth” (7:1). Offer a prayer every time you get home safely, for those “four angels” holding the “winds” helped you. Thank God also that we haven’t had a more serious nuclear disaster, and that scheming global terrorists have been foiled as often as they have.

God is not the author of this mayhem. Those “four angels” are increasingly straining themselves to hold back the hurricane of wild human passion. But God has commanded them to hang on tight until the gospel of His grace can accomplish its purpose in the world.

The focal point of Revelation is not the terrible time of trouble that is coming. God has better news for us than that. There is a last-day proclamation of a message of grace.

A Message That Demonstrates God’s Love

This astounding work of grace is accomplished by a message of Good News procalimed by three special angels. Because it is called “the everlasting gospel,” we know it isn’t a new invention, but it is given in a modern setting of our last-day needs. It is in language people today can understand, symbolized as a message given by three angels flying like helicopters over the treetops: “I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth – to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people – saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water’” (14:6, 7).

The picture is clear: the angel symbolizes a worldwide proclamation of pure, unadulterated truth, a rediscovery of something long lost sight of. It recovers the solution to mankind’s deepest psychological and spiritual needs – the conquest of inner insecurity. Thus it embodies deliverance from every evil that enslaves or distorts the human soul.

A second and a third angel follow, bringing the first angel’s message to completion. The message of the three angels achieves a phenomenal world-wide impact. Every “nation, tribe, tongue, and people” hear it. What a courageous prediction to make some 2000 years ago!

Why Is the Message So Striking?

It says, “worship Him who made heaven and earth” (vs.7). swimming upstream almost alone against the world current of evolutionary teaching, this creation-message makes its way against popular opinion. The memorial of His creation that God appointed is the seventh-day Sabbath – the true Lord’s day. Already, in response to this “angel’s” message, millions of Christian seventh-day Sabbath-keepers are scattered in almost every nation in the world.

The call to “fear God and give glory to Him” is not a call to crawl on our stomachs like a cowering slave before a tyrannical master. To “fear God” means to reverence Him, to have a humble appreciation of His true character of love and righteousness. God does not want us to shake with terror before Him, but to shiver with the delightful thrill of appreciating His glorious character of love that led the Son of God to sacrifice Himself totally for us on His cross. The death He died for us was the equivalent of what Revelation calls “the second death,” the despair of being “forsaken” of God (Matt. 27:46; Gal. 3:13; Rev. 2:11; 20:14).

Nor is God a selfish potentate who revels in the shallow flattery of fawning admirers. To “give glory to Him” means to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in demonstrating His love to the world, to pass on the sweet message, “Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20). God’s greatest joy is seeing alienated, miserable, wrecked people find the sunshine of a healing reconciliation with Him. This is His glory – saving lost people. And we can “give Him glory” by cooperating with Him in that work of reconciliation.

God does not want anyone to serve Him in terror of being condemned in the judgment. The “hour of His judgment” cannot be the hour when He condemns the world, for “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John. 3:17). If anyone is condemned at last, it won’t be the Father who condemns him, for Jesus said, “The Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son” (5:22). And furthermore, Jesus says that neither will He condemn those who reject Him. “If anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” (12:47).

Thus it is evident that those who finally reject God’s grace will hear no scathing denunciation from either the Father or the Son. Amid the silence from God, the voice of their own accusing conscience will be deafening. “He who rejects Me, and does not receive my words, has that which judges him – the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day” (vs. 48). And the one whom Christ will judge, He vindicates. “I will confess his name,” He says, “before My Father” (Rev. 3:5).

So the angels’ call to believe God’s “everlasting gospel” in the context of “the hour of His judgment” is really a message assuring us of vindication. It tells us that “in Christ” God has accepted us, forgiven our sins, and adopted us.

These three angels proclaim an arresting message that focuses all the revealed truth that God has been communicating for thousands of years, demanding at last a complete response. No one can sit on the fence after hearing and understanding this last-day message. All choose either to believe and respond, or to disbelieve and reject. Everyone will line up on one side or the other for the final battle of Armageddon.

Has the World Heard This Message?

Yes, at least partially. As the Dark Ages came to a close, a sudden awakening took place among earnest followers of Christ in many lands. It was like birds awakening at dawn – one moment there is nothing but the darkness, and a few moments later the forest explodes with music.

The 1260 years of the Dark Ages foretold in Daniel 7:25 and Revelation 12:6; 13:5 ended in 1798 and ushered in what Daniel calls “the time of the end” (Dan. 12:4). Bible students in many lands began to realize that the prophecies had suddenly been “unsealed.” It was like a picture coming into sharp focus. They saw that the “time of the end” had already begun. “Christ is coming soon,” they began to proclaim to all who would listen.

Many who loved Bible truth in England, Scotland, Germany, Spain, and even in Muslim lands, forsook the comforts of home to preach this first angel’s message and urge people to prepare for Christ’s coming. In America, William Miller, Josiah Litch, and many others took to the lecture circuits. The Holy Spirit worked quietly, solemnly, to produce reformation of life, and to implant in human hearts a heavenly love. Ever since, the three angels have continued their flight, sounding their call.

Will the Message Succeed?

Revelation gives us no sorrowful picture of the Lamb of God turning away from the final scenes of history in a staggering defeat. Multitudes will joyfully respond to the call to reverence the Creator and Redeemer. It’s as though God can hardly contain His joy as He points to these people as the fruitage of His last appeal: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12).

Those who respond are described in Revelation as a special group. “I looked, and behold, a Lamb [the once-crucified Jesus] standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads” (Rev. 14:1). Who are these? “These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.… And in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God” (vss. 4, 5).

Can any of us reasonably hope to have God say of him that he or she is “without fault”? scripture says, yes. The grace of the Lamb will bring about this seemingly impossible goal. That is what Jesus died to accomplish, and He did not die in vain. That is the essence of the message of the three angels. The message is not sent to prepare people to die, but to prepare people for translation at His coming.

Satan insists that it is impossible to overcome as Christ overcame, and many theologians and preachers unwittingly side with the enemy. The message of the three angels is that God will certainly have a people who bring glory to Him. Revelation’s primary concern is the vindication of the Lamb who paid an infinite price to redeem us.

But His vindication also involves our own, for we are one with Him. Those who stand faithfully “with Him” in this final struggle will not do so in order to gain o reward for themselves. Salvation is indeed a bargain, but getting a good bargain will not be the motive for anyone who trully follows Christ in these last days. The little flower girl at a wedding is ever so sweet and lovable, but all she really cares about is getting some of the cake and ice cream at the reception. The bride, on the other hand, doesn’t care about the refreshments. Her interest is in the bridegroom, and in him alone.

Is it possible for us self-seeking humans, who all our lives have been immersed in pursuing trivial self-interest, to find a larger perspective – a genuine heart sympathy with the Lamb of God? Appreciation of Him for His own sake will transcend both our fear of being lost and a merely selfish hope of reward in heaven. This is the mature faith toward which God is calling us.

The 1888 Message – The Beginning of the Loud Cry!

Ellen White recognized that the 1888 message of much more abounding grace was “the third angel’s message in verity,” and “the beginning” of the work of that mighty fourth angel of Revelation 18 (Review and Herald, Nov. 22, 1892). For most of our 150 years of history “we” have been prone to see in the three angels’ message a fear-oriented, imperious demand to “shape up” or suffer damnation.

And true, there is an element of solemn warning. But the little lady who recognized in the 1888 message the “beginning” of the “loud cry” discerned that the apparent terrors of the third angel’s message are transcended by its genial proclamation of grace. The warning against the mark of the beast is in reality the Good News that the Lord is trying His best to persuade us to receive the seal of God. Herein is the overriding concern of the 1888 message – let’s stop resisting that on-going grace! Let Christ do what He wants so much to do – save us “to the uttermost.”

The essence of the message of the three angels is not to prepare people to die, but to prepare people for translation.