Revelation 14:9

14:6-13 The progress of the Reformation appears to be here set forth. The four proclamations are plain in their meaning; that all Christians may be encouraged, in the time of trial, to be faithful to their Lord. The gospel is the great means whereby men are brought to fear God, and to give glory to him. The preaching of the everlasting gospel shakes the foundations of antichrist in the world, and hastens its downfal. If any persist in being subject to the beast, and in promoting his cause, they must expect to be for ever miserable in soul and body. The believer is to venture or suffer any thing in obeying the commandments of God, and professing the faith of Jesus. May God bestow this patience upon us. Observe the description of those that are and shall be blessed: such as die in the Lord; die in the cause of Christ, in a state of union with Christ; such as are found in Christ when death comes. They rest from all sin, temptation, sorrow, and persecution; for there the wicked cease from troubling, there the weary are at rest. Their works follow them: do not go before as their title, or purchase, but follow them as proofs of their having lived and died in the Lord: the remembrance of them will be pleasant, and the reward far above all their services and sufferings. This is made sure by the testimony of the Spirit, witnessing with their spirits, and the written word.

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, {7} If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, (7) That is, will not worship God alone, but will transfer his divine honour to this beast, whether he do it with his heart, or counterfeiting in show. For he (says Christ) that denies me before men, him will I deny before my Father and his angels Mt 10:32. This is the voice of the holy ministry, which at this time is used of the holy and faithful servants of God. For having now sufficiently found out the public obstinacy of Babylon, they no longer work to speak out against the same: but to save some particular members by terror (as Jude speaks) and to pluck them out of the flame: or else lead them away by vehement commiseration of their state, they set before them eternal death into which they rush unaware, unless they return to God in time, but the godly who are of their own flock, they exhort to patience, obedience and faith to others.

Revelation 14:9-12. And the third angel followed — At no great distance of time; saying — As the two former had done; with a loud voice — With authority and earnestness; If any man worship the beast, &c. — The commission of this angel reaches further than that of the preceding; it extends not only to the capital city, not only to the principal agents and promoters of idolatry, but to all the subjects of the beast, whom it consigns over to everlasting punishment. If any man worship the beast — That is, embrace and profess the religion of the beast; or, what is the same, the religion of the Papal hierarchy; the same shall drink, &c. — The worship against which judgment is here denounced, consists partly in an inward submission to the beast, a persuasion that all who are subject to Christ must be subject to the beast, or they cannot receive the influences of divine grace; or, as their expression is, “There is no salvation out of the church;” and partly in a suitable outward reverence to the beast and his image — the antichristian kingdom, and the pope that rules in it. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God — The wine of God’s indignation, tempered with various ingredients of wrath; which is poured out without mixture — Namely, of mercy, and without hope.

Bishop Newton renders the expression, the poisonous wrath of God; observing, “His punishment shall correspond with his crime; as he drank of the poisonous wine of Babylon, so he shall be made to drink of the poisonous wine of God; του κεκερασμενου ακρατου , which is mixed unmixed, the poisonous ingredients being stronger when mixed with mere, or unmixed wine;” in the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone — In the day of God’s future vengeance; in the presence of the holy angels — From hence some conjecture that possibly the torments of the damned may, at certain seasons, through eternal ages, become a spectacle to the inhabitants of the blessed world above; and in the presence of the Lamb — This signifies that their punishment shall not only be appointed by the infinite majesty of God, but approved moreover by men and angels, and by him also who loved us unto death, even Christ, our merciful and compassionate High-Priest. In all the Scriptures there is not another threatening so terrible as this. And God, by this greater fear, intended to arm his servants against the fear of the beast.

God letteth his servant John know, that during the reign and rage of antichrist, as he would have ministers of the gospel that should preach the truth, and mind men to keep themselves from idols, worshipping God alone; and others that should assure them the papacy should go down, mystical Babylon should fall; so he would have others that should give warning to men and women of those dreadful plagues that should come upon them that entered themselves in this great city, either worshipping the devil after the pagan manner, or the image of the beast, i.e. committing idolatry after the antichristian, popish fashion, or that should either be subject to this idolatrous head, or be a soldier to fight for it. What those judgments should be, God showeth in Revelation 14:10 , and possibly there is not a more severe denunciation of judgment in the whole book of God.

Revelation 14:9 . Ἄλλος , another ) The preaching of the angel with the everlasting Gospel is a good, that of the second and third is also a good: but yet the second and the third angel are distinct from each other . Spener, for instance, properly confined himself within his own limits; see Canstein, in his Life, § 32. But if any one should suppose that the investigation and testimony to the truth of prophecy is to be confined within the same limits on the part of posterity, he would commit an error. There is a variety both in gifts and times. See Erkl. Offenb . pp. 145, 158, 159, 166, 167, 176, etc., 1041, 1042, 1117.— εἴ τις , κ . τ . λ .) If any man shall worship the beast and his image, and shall receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture in the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the angels, and before the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day and night, who have worshipped the beast, and whosoever shall have received the mark of his name . This threatening stands by it self, and is the most dreadful of all contained in the whole of the Scripture. The fear of Him, who is able to destroy both soul and body, banishes the fear of those who slay the body: Luke 12:4-5 .

Revelation 14:9-11 . The third angel proclaims that the deliberate adherents of the Imperial cultus are to be held responsible for their actions, and punished accordingly. The object is that these votaries may be “scared into faith by warning of sin’s pains”. The plea of force ( Revelation 13:12 ) is no excuse ( cf Matthew 10:28 ).

(9) And the third angel . .—Better, And another angel, a third, followed them, saying in a loud voice, If any man worship the wild beast and his image, and a mark upon his forehead or upon his hand, he also himself shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled pure (in full strength, undiluted, e.g., “He shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy,” James 2:13 ) in the cup of his indignation, and shall be tormented in fire, &c., &c. This third angel naturally follows the other two, which describe the powers which are in conflict: the word of God, and the Babylon of the world; the gospel will triumph; Babylon is doomed; hence comes the warning that men should not identify themselves with the city of worldliness, falsehood, and sin. The reference to the wild beast, the image, and the mark, carries us back to the last chapter, and shows us that Babylon is only another aspect of the work of God’s enemies: it is the city of the world-power. The warning not to receive the mark is a declaration that man, individual man, is responsible: there is no necessity for his receiving the mark, the hall-mark of a cowardly connivance at wrong-doing, or for setting his judgments by the fashions of the world.