SBS   Course   Lesson 19

URL: http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/sbs777/course/lesson19.html

The Everlasting Gospel

The word Gospel means good news. In a world daily bombarded with bad news it is encouraging to know that there is some good news to be heard. This lesson is about the everlasting Good News.' In Bible terminology it is called the Everlasting Gospel.

According to Bible prophecy the Everlasting Gospel is scheduled to be preached to all the world just prior to the end of this age, just before the Day of Judgement.

Revelation 14: 6: And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven,
having the EVERLASTING GOSPEL to preach unto them that dwell on earth, and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people.

Have you ever heard the Everlasting Gospel? Can you tell me what it is, what its requirements are, what's so good about it and why it is called 'everlasting' in the first place?

Believe it or not, comparatively few people know the Everlasting Gospel. To be sure, millions have heard parts of it, and countless billions of Gospel tracts have been published through the centuries. But, astonishingly enough, not many people really know the Everlasting Gospel and what it calls for. If you were to ask a dozen Christians to list the main points or requirements of the Everlasting Gospel, you would probably come away with a dozen different answers, some the very opposite of the others.

Well, let us not speculate any longer. Let us find out what the Everlasting Gospel is. And, more importantly, what its requirements are. The book of Revelation tells us that shortly before the return of Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) three angels will bear special messages to mankind. The First Angel's Message is called the Everlasting Gospel. It is the message on which we will concentrate in this lesson. Angels, in normal circumstances, do not preach to mankind. The work of preaching the Gospel has been committed to men. Yes, men will preach the Everlasting Gospel to all the world just before the return of Jesus Christ to earth. As you read the Bible text below, notice the twofold requirement of the Everlasting Gospel. In particular notice the second requirement which calls for worship of the Creator.

The First Angel's Message

Rev.14: 6:And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the Everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, kindred, tongue and people,
7: Saying with a loud voice:
Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His Judgement is come: and
worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the fountains of waters.

Closely examine the above message. Read it again and again and let its eternal truth sink deep into your mind: for you are in fact reading the Everlasting Gospel encapsulated in a single sentence. Of course you will not understand all that it means - no man on earth does - but here before you in essence are the twin requirements of the Everlasting Gospel, the message which throughout eternity will engage the minds of all the inhabitants of the mighty universe. These instructions are everlasting! They are ageless. They will never become obsolete; but will be carried out by the redeemed host for all time. What's more, the blessings the Everlasting Gospel brings to those who accept it, are eternal! So let us without further delay study the Everlasting Gospel and see what it says.

What does this twin instruction mean? How does one go about obeying it? What are we expected to do - or not do - when called upon to "Fear God and give glory to Him" And finally how can a believer be sure he is worshipping the One who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the fountains of water?

This lesson is designed to briefly answer those questions; especially the one concerning the 'worship of Him who made the heavens, the earth and the sea and the fountains of water.'

Fear God & Give Glory to Him

To fear God means to recognise Him as the supreme authority in the universe; to look upon Him with reverential awe and holy respect. Jehovah (Yahweh) the Almighty God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a Being of absolute holiness, power and truth: One whose character is so noble and whose ability so great that eternity will be too short to tell His worth. The whole human race is now being called upon to fear God, to stand in reverential awe of the Holy One of Israel; to have faith in Him and to respect Him for what He is and what He has done and is still doing for mankind. To "give glory to God" the Holy One of Israel is self explanatory. It simply means to render Him honour, praise and thanks for what He has done for you. Do you know what the Most High has done for mankind, for you? Has anyone ever told you the reason why you should give glory to God?

Well, to begin with He created mankind to live in perfect happiness with Him. But man sinned, he set aside the Almighty's instructions, which if obeyed would have led to life. Instead man chose the way of doubt, disobedience and death. That was indeed a tragic day for mankind when our first parents sinned; for it wasn't long before sin, suffering, sickness and death engulfed the whole human race. The Almighty, however, was not caught off-guard by man's disobedience. In His infinite wisdom He already had an emergency plan to salvage mankind should sin enter the world. And this is how that plan found expression:

John 3: 16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17: For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18: He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Yes that is what the Almighty did for mankind, for you and for me. He allowed His only begotten Son Yeshua (Jesus) to die in our stead in order to redeem us from eternal death. It now remains for us to gratefully accept His free gift of salvation made available through His Son Jesus and to give glory to Him for so great an act of love and mercy. "And how," you may well ask, "does one accept salvation?" "How can we be saved?"
The Apostle Paul gives us the answer.
Acts 16: 31: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

This first part of the Everlasting Gospel - of having faith in the Almighty God and accepting salvation through His Son Jesus is very well known to the Christian world. Millions of sermons have been preached about this vital first step towards salvation. But have you personally accepted Jesus as your Saviour? Have you committed your life to Him? Are you giving God the Father glory for what He has done for you? It is not enough to know that the Almighty's Hebrew name is Yahweh, or how His name is pronounced; or even to believe that His Son Yeshua Jesus was a righteous person who died for the sins of the world. The devils know all this; but it avails them nothing. What you must do if the Everlasting Gospel is to benefit you is to repent and confess your sins before the Almighty, make a total commitment to His Son and accept him as your personal Saviour. Nothing short of this will do. You may do so at this very moment by praying - in the secrecy of your own home - a short prayer like this:

"Yahweh I now believe in you. I accept your free gift of salvation through your only begotten Son Jesus. Forgive my sins, cleanse me from guilt, put your Holy Spirit within me and lead me in the way everlasting."

A simple prayer like this, and of course the words may be changed without corrupting the meaning, will testify to the angel host that you have personally placed your faith in God and have begun to glorify Him by accepting salvation through Jesus.

To glorify God by personally accepting salvation through His Son Yeshua (Jesus) and then by declaring your allegiance to Him is the first requirement of the Everlasting Gospel. You will not live for eternity if you refuse to meet this requirement. It is mandatory. And now to that second requirement: the one very few preachers proclaim.

Worship The Creator

'Worship Him that Made the Heavens, the Earth, the Sea and the Fountains of Water.'
This requirement of the Everlasting Gospel, to worship the One who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the fountains of water, is mostly forgotten. The Everlasting Gospel calls all believers to go beyond the first stage of reverential awe and faith into the arena of obedient worship. This lesson concentrates on worshipping the Creator by obeying Him; not because it is the most important aspect; but because it is the most neglected. To be sure, a mental acknowledgement of Yahweh's authority and the acceptance of salvation through Jesus are vital: but worshipful obedience is also vital; especially that form of obedience which commemorates the creation of the heavens, the earth, the sea and the fountains of water. In other words, the Everlasting Gospel is calling upon mankind to worship the Creator of the Universe!

Let us now examine this most neglected aspect of the Everlasting Gospel, the aspect of OBEDIENCE. One day a young man asked Jesus this question::

"Good Master what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?
And he said unto him: ... If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments."
(Matthew 19:17)

"Keep the commandments." Is the Master here pointing to an alternative route to salvation? Is he perhaps making a colossal ecclesiastical blunder by stating that obedience, instead of faith, is the real path to eternal life? Could it be that Yeshua is here disagreeing with the Apostle Paul who said:

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved?"

The answer is obvious: the Master knew very well what he is talking about. He was not defining an alternative route to salvation. He was not disagreeing with Paul or cancelling the necessity for faith. He was merely pointing to the other side of the same coin of salvation: that most neglected side of the Everlasting Gospel - the matter of obedience. "keep the commandments." Yes keep the commandments: for that, according to Jesus, is the way to life.

When questioned further as to which commandments, Jesus specified the Ten Commandments. In other words obedience to the Ten Commandments is a vital consideration in this matter of salvation. It is a part of the Everlasting Gospel - the neglected part. And that is exactly what the First Angel's Message calls for. It is calling for obedience. So let us now briefly consider this most neglected aspect of the Everlasting Gospel; the one which calls upon mankind to worship the Creator by obeying Him.

"Worship Him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the fountains of water."

How does a Christian meet this vital requirement of the Everlasting Gospel? What are we supposed to do to ensure that we are in fact worshipping the Creator, the One who "made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the fountains of water? For example, how can you prove that you are worshipping the One who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the fountains of water? A man may think that he is doing so; but can he prove it? Yes he can. The only one way a true believer can prove that he/she is worshipping the One who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the fountains of water is by keeping the seventh day Sabbath which is the divinely appointed Memorial of Creation.
Read the above statement again in the light of the Bible text below, which is the fourth of the Ten Commandments:

Exodus 20: 8: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9: Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Can you now see the link between the Sabbath commandment in Exodus 20 and the the First Angel's Message in Revelation 14? Can you recognise the fact that both texts are calling upon mankind to worship the CREATOR! the One who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the fountains of water?

To be sure you can. It is an indisputable link which only the spiritually blind will refuse to recognise. The Everlasting Gospel is calling upon mankind to Fear God and give glory to Him and to worship the Creator! Therefore, we repeat the assertion, that the only way a true believer can be absolutely certain that he/she is worshipping the One who made the heavens, the earth the sea and the fountains of water is by keeping the seventh day Sabbath, which is the divinely appointed Memorial of Creation. No other sensible conclusion is possible.

Put another way we may say that believers who ignore Yahweh's seventh day Sabbath (Saturday) are like soldiers who refuse to honour their country's flag. They are like army officers who trample on the official orders issued to them. Sad to say there are thousands of church leaders who are doing exactly that with Yahweh's law. They have little or no respect for His commandments and like rebellious military officers deliberately ignore the orders from above. They reject the Sabbath commandment, which if kept identifies true worship the One who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the fountains of water.

We trust, however, that you will be different: that you will heed the requirements of the Everlasting Gospel and:

  1. Fear God and give glory to Him,
  2. Respect the Almighty, put your faith in Him and accept His offer of salvation through His Son,
  3. And then keep His commandments, particularly His Sabbath command, which honours the Creator of the heavens, the earth, the sea and the fountains of water.
And that, very briefly, is the Everlasting Gospel. To be sure over the years you may have heard hundreds of Gospel sermons detailing the first part, to have faith in God and to accept salvation through Jesus. But today you have heard the second part, the requirement to keep Yahweh's Law; the part which Jesus referred to when he said: "keep the commandments." Both these requirements constitute the Everlasting Gospel; which is to go to all the world at the end of this age - just prior to the Judgement. That time has now come. The world is now approaching its final scenes and the Day of Judgement is near. It is high time that every true believer jettisoned the unproved theory of Evolution and began to acknowledge and worship the Creator by keeping His Sabbath day, which is the divinely appointed memorial of Creation.

The question is, are you willing to meet these two critical requirements?

These are questions you must answer for yourself. No one can answer them for you. When answering them bear in mind that obedience is better than sacrifice, more acceptable than prayer and far superior to praise and thanksgiving. Obedience is faith in action - living faith. The Bible tells us that obedience is true worship and that faith without obedience is dead.
(1 Samuel 15:22-23, Matthew 15:9, John 9:31, James 2:24-26)

Eternal
Also remember that the Everlasting Gospel will continue throughout eternity. It is eternal - everlasting! In other words the redeemed host will respect Yahweh, praise Him for salvation through Jesus and keep His Sabbath day - throughout eternity! Does the Bible teach this; that believers will congregate on the Sabbath day to worship the Most High - throughout eternity? It certainly does.

Isaiah 66: 22: For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.
23: And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one SABBATH to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.

False Worship

Various forms of false worship are mentioned in the Scriptures. A few are listed here in order that the reader may guard against them:
The Worship of Gold
The world worships the God of Gold. But gold is scheduled to loose its value when the economy of the world collapses at the Message of the Second Angel.
(James 5:1-7, Revelation 14:8)
Demon Worship
Devil worship, voodoo, black magic, witchcraft, Satanism etc. are all strictly forbidden in Yahweh's Word. Disorder and calamity are certain to fall on all who engage in them. They are by far the worst forms of false worship.
(Deuteronomy 18:9-13, Matthew 4:8-10, Exodus 20: 3-6)
The Worship of the Heavenly Host
The Scriptures strictly forbid humanity delving into astrology (the study of the supposed influence of the stars on human affairs) reading of horoscopes and various other pagan practices associated with the worship of the sun, the moon and the starry host.
(Deuteronomy 17:1-7, Job 31:26-28, Ezekiel 8:15-16, 2 Kings 17:13-20, 21:1-9)
The Worship of Manmade Products
In the final analysis there is nothing that man can make - be it a physical machine or an ideological system or doctrine - that can "save him out of his troubles." The material and mental productions of mankind may be ingenious to the extreme, they may for a short while dazzle the population, but in areas of real importance they are quite useless - because they cannot save mankind from sorrow, sickness and death. And it is because of this fact they are not to be venerated. Humanity is on the slippery slope to self destruction, and nothing we can manufacture or do can save us - except God. This ego-shattering fact must be realised before a person can hope to receive help from the Almighty.
So let us not delude ourselves by worshipping "the work of our own hands" or foolishly think that the ideologies and "doctrines of men" can save us - because they cannot. The productions of mankind are as incapable of solving our problems or saving our souls as were the wood, stone and metal idols our ancestors worshipped centuries ago. (Isaiah 2:4-8, Matthew 15:9, Isaiah 44:9-20, Jeremiah 1:16, Isaiah 46:5-7)
Baal or Nature Worship
The worship of the creature rather than the Creator is also strongly condemned in Yahweh's Word. Nature Worship is the inordinate adoration of the physical powers of the earth (rain, wind, fire) the beauty of the body, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. All such worship is Baal worship. It is earthly, sensual, devilish and corrupting in its influence and effect. Yahweh has created this earth with its millions of life forms to demonstrate certain spiritual lessons. But alas, mankind in blind wonder fails to see the spiritual lesson, the real purpose of the physical illustrations Yahweh uses, and he worships the creature rather than the Creator. When this happens, and especially when it continues to happen in spite of repeated warning, Yahweh usually hands the wilfully ignorant worshippers over to Satan who produces in them the most despicable of degradation.
In short, a person may study nature and learn the manifold spiritual lessons the Creator is teaching us; or he may completely miss the point and worship nature itself, and thereby risk being handed over by the Eternal to Satan. That in a nutshell is the choice.
(Acts 7:42, Psalm 81:8-12, Romans 1:21-32, Psalm 81:8-12)

The Second Angel's Message

When the Second Angels sounds his message the economies of all nations will collapse. There will be an international crash on all the stock markets of the world and millions of businesses will grind to a halt. Read Revelation chapter 18 where a total collapse of the world's economy is dramatically described.

The Third Angel's Message

Bible prophecy indicates that false worship will reach a climax when the world's economy crashes. At that time, and all the signs indicate that the day is near, the Antichrist will make a personal appearance on the stage of time. Yes, he will actually appear before mankind and pose as Jesus Christ. When that time comes the vast majority of earth's inhabitants will worship him in blind adoration, quite oblivious of the fact that he is the Antichrist.
(2 Thessalonians 2, Revelation 13, Revelation 17:8)
Revelation 13:4-8 "They worshipped the Dragon. (Satan)
They worshipped the Beast. (the Antichrist)"

Then the Antichrist will deceive most of mankind into thinking that he has the right to change the Ten Commandments. Because most people are basically unwilling to obey Yahweh's law - His Truth - God will hand over millions of souls to believe the Antichrist - to believe the Lie. The world will then gladly accept the falsehood taught by the Antichrist. This astonishing prediction is detailed in 2 Thessalonians 2 and Revelation 13. The choice facing mankind will then be between:

That will be the choice facing mankind in the near future. The Most High has given the world ample warning about worshipping the Antichrist - the Beast. Indeed you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and you will not find a stronger warning about false worship than that which is outlined in Revelation 14:9-11.

"... If any man worships the Beast and his image, and receives his Mark in his forehead or in his hand. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation..."

Here are divine threatenings of an awesome nature. We therefore humbly advise the reader to study Revelation 13 and 14 and to read Stewarton Bible School's explanation on The Mark of the Beast. You must understand what the Antichrist's Mark is.

Summary

Question:   What is the Everlasting Gospel and how may a believer meet its eternal requirements?
Answer:   The Everlasting Gospel requires people do the following:
  1. Fear God / Give glory to Him
    To respect the Most High and to stand in holy awe of His greatness and infinite goodness. To accept - by FAITH - Yahweh's gracious offer of salvation through His Son Yeshua (Jesus) and to give Him the glory.
  2. Obey Yahweh's commandments
    To express that faith by living a life of obedience to His commandments: bearing in mind that keeping the seventh day Sabbath is a special act of worship. It is the weekly acknowledgement that the LORD God of Israel is the Creator! the One who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the fountains of water. Obedience to Yahweh's commandments is, in fact, faith in action. (Exodus 20, Ecclesiastes 12:13, Deuteronomy 28)
King Solomon, one of the wisest men who ever lived, summed up the twin requirements of the Everlasting Gospel in a single sentence when he wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:13
"Let us hear the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments:
for this is the whole duty of man."
This, then, is the Everlasting Gospel, the good news that will prompt us to worship the Most High throughout eternity. If you accept the Everlasting Gospel and apply it to your life you will be blessed abundantly and will live for all time. That is the wonderful news! But if you reject it you risk losing eternal life at the coming Judgement. So pause awhile and re-consider those twin requirements of the Everlasting Gospel:
  1. Fear God, stand in awe of Him, have faith in Him
  2. And keep His commandments, especially the Sabbath commandment, which honours Him as the Creator of the heavens, the earth, the sea and the fountains of water.
The Everlasting Gospel has now reached you!
Author: David B Loughran
Stewarton Bible School, Stewarton, Scotland
August 1998
URL: http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/sbs777/course/lesson19.html