Revelation 14:6,7 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And As a further motive to Christian patience and constancy, this vision of the happy state of faithful Christians was followed by another; I saw another angel A second is mentioned Revelation 14:8; a third, Revelation 14:9. These denote great messengers of God, with their assistants. The first exhorts to the fear and worship of God, the second proclaims the fall of Babylon, the third gives warning concerning the beast. Happy were they who made a right use of these divine messages! Fly Or flying, going on swiftly; in the midst of heaven Through the air; having the everlasting gospel to preach unto every nation and people Both to Jews and Gentiles, even as far as the authority of the beast had extended. In the fourth and fifth verses the nature and character of the true Christian Church, in opposition to the wicked antichristian kingdom, were described; and here it is predicted that three principal efforts would be made toward a reformation at three different times, represented by the three angels appearing one after another. Or, that the gospel, here said to be everlasting, because, like its Divine Author, it is the same yesterday, to- day, and for ever, should be preached during this period, in opposition to the novel doctrines of the beast and the false prophet, which should be rooted up, Matthew 15:13. And the swiftness with which the gospel should be disseminated and spread over the world, is admirably represented by the swift flight of the first angel; and the nature of the doctrine, and the earnestness wherewith it should be especially inculcated, is set forth by the first clause of the next verse; saying, with a loud voice That is, urging in the most zealous and forcible manner, Fear God, and give glory to him, who made heaven, earth, the sea, &c. Revere, stand in awe of, dread to offend, worship, and serve him; for the hour of his judgment is come It is now denounced with certainty, and in due time will be fully executed on the impenitent, unbelieving, and disobedient. “It is,” says Bishop Newton, “a solemn and emphatic exhortation to forsake the reigning idolatry and superstition, and such exhortations were made even in the first and earliest times of the beast. Besides several of the Greek emperors, who strenuously opposed the worship of images, Charlemagne himself held a council at Frankfort in the year 794, consisting of about three hundred French, and German, and Italian, and Spanish, and British bishops, who condemned all sorts of adoration or worship of images, and rejected the second council of Nice, which had authorized and established it. At the same time the Caroline books, as they are called, four books written by Charles himself, or by his authority, proving the worship of images to be contrary to the Scripture, and to the doctrine and practice of antiquity, were approved by the council, and transmitted to the pope. Lewis the Pious, the son and successor of Charles, held a council at Paris, in the year 824, which ratified the acts of the council of Frankfort, and the Caroline books, and affirmed that, according to the Scripture and the fathers, adoration was due to God alone. Several private persons also taught and asserted the same Scriptural doctrines. Claude, bishop of Turin, declares, that ‘we are not commanded to go to the creature that we may be made happy, but to the Creator himself; and therefore we should not worship dead men; they are to be imitated, not to be adored; let us, together with the angels, worship one God.' Agobard, archbishop of Lyons, wrote a whole book against images, and says, that ‘angels or saints may be loved and honoured, but not be served and worshipped; let us not put our trust in man, but in God, lest that prophetic denunciation should redound on us, Cursed is the man who trusteth in man.' Many other bishops and writers of Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, and France, professed the same sentiments; and this public opposition of emperors and bishops to the worship of saints and images, in the eighth and ninth centuries, appears to be meant particularly by the loud voice of this first angel flying aloft, and calling upon the world to worship God. In another respect, too, these emperors and bishops resemble this angel having the everlasting gospel to preach unto every nation; for in their time, and greatly by their means, the Christian religion was propagated and established among the Saxons, Danes, Swedes, and many other northern nations.”