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§15 The Eschatological Outcomes of the Conflict: The Judgment of the Faithless (Rev. 14:6–20)

14:6–7 / The function of angels throughout Revelation is to facilitate God’s redemptive program; this is the role, then, of another angel that John saw flying in midair (cf. 8:13; 19:17). In particular, this first of a triad of angels proclaims the eternal gospel … to those who live on the earth. John uses the technical word for gospel only here in Revelation; its use is made more striking since the angel intends it for the lost inhabitants of earth rather than for the saints who have trusted its claims and have been redeemed from the earth. More specifically, the audience for this angelic proclamation of “good news” are those on earth who worship the beast (cf. 13:8); they are the enemies of God. This surprising point is further sharpened by John who distinguishes the 144,000, “who have been redeemed from the earth” (14:3; apo tēs gēs), from these unredeemed who dwell on the earth (epi tēs gēs).

The question forced by the seer at this point is this: how can the eternal gospel be “good news” for God’s enemies? Our response to this important question is threefold. First, the eternality of the gospel reminds the reader that its content is theocentric; it is rooted in the truth of the eternal God, “who was, and is, and is to come” (4:8). This point is underscored if, as Ford and others contend, Rome’s imperial cultus and its Caesar worship lie behind John’s use of the term (Revelation, p. 247). While neither the Roman Empire nor its Caesar have eternality, God has created all things and all things have their being in their Lord (cf. 4:11). Every creature, redeemed or unredeemed, is made in God’s image and for God’s purposes; logically, even the unredeemed creature must finally admit that the evil intentions of the anti-Christian kingdom are ultimately against humanity’s well-being. In this sense, the eternal gospel heralds what every creature must acknowledge: the course of human history is undermined by the beast’s evil intentions.

Second, these intentions not only corrupt human existence, they are “forced” upon everyone by the very structures of human society. While every creature is made in the image of the creator, the social order in which every creature lives has been re-made in the image of the Evil One (cf. 13:15–17). According to apocalypticism, human society corrupts human souls. From a sociological perspective, people tend to view themselves as powerless in the face of the beast’s corrosive and coercive powers. Simply to survive, they find it necessary to enlist in the beast’s war against the saints. Thus, for those lost, trapped, and held powerless by the anti-Christian elite, the gospel issues a liberating word and an opportunity to escape the very evils that war against humanity’s well-being. God’s “first” word is always a redeeming one.

Third, not only is the gospel a liberating word from God, it is an inclusive word as well. In light of the “new song” just sung (cf. 14:3), the reader is reminded that God’s redemption is for everyone from “every tribe and language and people and nation” (5:9). It is apropos that the first angel proclaims God’s good news to every nation, tribe, language and people because they are the very ones who are redeemed from evil for God by the blood of the slain Lamb.

The proper response to the eternal gospel is to fear God … give God glory … and worship God. The call to repentance is not made in a vacuum; it is issued in the light of God’s vindication of the exalted Christ. Further, it is issued in the confidence that the positive yield of responding to the gospel is salvation from those evils that undermine the creator’s good intentions for all creation. The worship of God, to whom glory is given rather than to the beast (cf. 13:8, 15; cf. Rom. 1:18–23), is “the fruit in keeping with repentance.” Repentance envisions an eschatological decision simply because it recognizes that eternal life is granted to those who believe, and wrath to those who do not (cf. John 3:16–21; Rom. 1:16–32).

14:8 / A second angel continues the evangelical message of the first with another element of the “word of God.” The position and repetition of the aorist verb, fallen, place keen emphasis on the certain and complete destruction of Babylon the Great—the center of the Evil One’s earthly power. This is the first mention of Babylon in Revelation, here echoing Isaiah’s oracle of the city’s eventual destruction and the discrediting of its false religions (cf. Isa. 21:8–10). Yet, the prophet’s prediction was focused not by the fall of Babylon but by the restoration of God’s exiled people which would be signaled by the demise of their oppressors (cf. Jer. 51:6–10). John has not altered the theological intention of the OT prophets: God’s gospel announces not only the end of evil’s reign, but the renewal of Israel’s worship of God through the exalted Christ (cf. Jer. 51:11).

The difficult phrase, all the nations drink the maddening wine of Babylon’s adulteries, has been variously understood by Revelation’s commentators. All agree that the phrase in some way explains why Babylon will fail; what is not as clear is the relationship between the wine of Babylon’s adulteries (cf. 17:2) and the “wine of God’s fury” which brings the city to its knees (14:10).

The NIV does not help matters by translating the Greek noun, thymos, as an adjective, maddening, obscuring its natural meaning, “anger,” and its more substantive function within the sentence. Indeed, the weight of this phrase falls upon thymos which links together wine and adulteries. We would argue that thymos describes the oppressive effect of Babylon’s bullying (Babylon … made all the nations drink) and therefore the liberating effect of the eternal gospel for all those who believe. Freedom from the dragon’s anger (12:12), now mediated through the two beasts within the city, is freedom from its sociopolitical oppression of all those who live on the margins of Babylon (cf. James 5:6). For John, it simply is illogical for any person to make a free choice to follow the Evil One; it contradicts human experience of the dragon’s corrupting influence and the abiding truth of the eternal gospel. Those who belong to the beast, therefore, do so because of its coercive power, resulting in idolatry for want of material survival (cf. 13:17). The prophetic vision of God’s shalom includes a reversal in the economic conditions of the poor because to redeem one from grinding poverty is to set one free from the necessity to submit to the very social structures that impoverish.

14:9–11 / The third angel speaks with a loud voice, suggesting that its words mark the end of a series of announcements that grow in intensity as well as in volume (Beasley-Murray, Revelation, p. 227). The three messages taken together envision the “liberating logic” of divine grace: the first proclaims the gospel to everyone on earth; the second announces the defeat of the evil reign with its furious opposition to the goodness of God; and now the third clarifies the harsh consequences of rejecting the gospel: the one who rejects the eternal gospel that liberates from the dragon’s fury will drink of the wine of God’s fury (i.e., of God’s thymos). This message of God’s wrath, the “dark side” of divine righteousness, is another element of the eternal gospel.

The measure of God’s fury is subsequently described in horrific terms: those who worship the beast will be tormented with burning sulfur … and the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever, without any experience of God’s heavenly rest from their trials (14:13; cf. Heb. 4:1–13). More than an objective description of God’s future punishment of unbelievers, these violent images symbolize the absence of God’s eternal shalom that belongs to those “redeemed from the earth.” For John, the consequences of embracing or rejecting the eternal gospel are eternal; for him, the vivid images of his vision intend to call those “who live on the earth” to repentance and into God’s grace and peace.

John’s “aside,” which asserts that the unbelievers’ torment will take place in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb, is not an element of John’s vindication motif. The torment of the people who followed the beast does not bring satisfaction or some sort of demented delight to the angels and the Lamb. Rather, the phrase seems to insist on the certainty of God’s punishment of evil because of the satisfactory completion of the Lamb’s ministry and because of the ongoing presence of the holy angels who enforce God’s judgments.

14:12–13 / John reflects back on his vision of the three angels and offers a twofold commentary on its implications for Christian discipleship, especially in light of his vision of the 144,000. The first part of his commentary is for those who still live in Babylon and who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus: their call is for patient endurance. According to Revelation, the singular identity of the saints on earth is to walk “wherever the Lamb goes” (14:4)—since the historical Jesus was utterly faithful to God’s commandments (cf. 1 John 2:3–6). This devotion is of course challenged by the dragon’s fury; and the language of patient endurance implies temporary hardship and heartache. It also implies the condition of God’s eschatological salvation: while the disciple’s devotion to Jesus is constantly challenged by the experience of social injustice and human suffering, it is required from all who hope to participate in God’s final triumph over the dragon (cf. Matt. 24:13; James 1:12).

This eschatological condition frames the following promise of eschatological blessing that John is commissioned to write: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” The beatitude and the Spirit’s subsequent confirmation form together the second half of John’s interpretation of the eternal gospel, which is proclaimed by the triad of angels. The relationship of verse 13 to verse 12 is clear: “faithfulness to Christ issues in martyrdom, but the faithful dead are blessed in that they have entered victoriously into their rest” (Mounce, Revelation, p. 277).

The exact meaning of from now on is debated. Most insist that John intends a logical (rather than temporal) transition from the beatitude’s promise of future blessing to the Spirit’s promise of heavenly rest. Thus, the saints who remain faithful unto martyrdom can expect entrance into heavenly bliss. We prefer, however, to understand the phrase in a more time-specific fashion. In this instance, John is writing for those believers who face the growing prospect of martyrdom; salvation’s history has kicked into a new period of intensified suffering immediately after the Evil One has been defeated by God and banished from heaven to earth. This is the now to which John refers. And those saints in his audience, who will be martyred during this period of increased tribulation, can expect a special blessing from God, for their deeds (i.e., martyrdom) will follow them into heaven.

14:14 / Caird argues that this section of John’s vision functions ironically, so that traditional, apocalyptic images of divine retribution are imaginatively transformed into a portrait of God’s salvation of the church’s martyrs (cf. Revelation, pp. 189–95). While one may disagree with aspects of Caird’s treatment, he has correctly called our attention to the language of salvation embedded in John’s description of “the great winepress of God’s wrath.” In this sense, John’s vision continues the angelic proclamation of the eternal gospel. He constantly keeps the concluding events of salvation’s history before the reader by recycling the judgment motif; accordingly, emphasis is properly placed on God’s coming triumph over an already defeated foe.

The vision of three additional angels begins when John again sees one “like a son of man,” whom he earlier identified as the exalted Christ (cf. 1:13; Dan. 7:13). This identification is confirmed by the additional metaphors of cloud (cf. Acts 1:9–11) and crown, both of which refer of Christ’s exalted status in heaven (cf. Rev. 5:13). In context, the presence of the exalted Christ confirms the truth of the eternal gospel and the importance of the triad of messages brought by the angels. John does sound a harsher note by placing a sharp sickle in Christ’s hand—an OT image that symbolizes God’s judgment of the unrighteous (cf. Isa. 63:3). According to Revelation, the “good news” of God’s salvation includes two interrelated messages: one of the prospects for God’s glorious transformation of creation, which follows God’s abolition of evil and death from creation.

14:15–16 / If the one who was sitting on the cloud is the exalted Christ, it may strike some as strange, even presumptuous, that an angel should make a demand of him: take your sickle and reap. Yet, this angel came out of the temple where God dwells (cf. 7:15; Dan. 7:14b) with a message that the time to reap has come. It is God and not God’s angel who makes the demand. Moreover, the message it carries from God seems fitting since the Risen Jesus had taught his apostles that knowledge about the timing of salvation’s history belongs only to God (cf. Acts 1:7).

We are not told about the people who are ready for harvesting. On the one hand, the image of a sickle commends the interpretation that John has God’s judgment of unbelievers in view; on the other hand, the image of the harvest is used by Jesus of gathering believers into God’s kingdom (cf. John 4:35–38). Both in the OT and in rabbinical teaching, however, the harvest also refers to the gathering of unbelievers for judgment.

We have little doubt that John understood his vision of the eschatological harvest in terms of Joel 3:13, where the images depict God’s eschatological war against the nations. When this war is coupled with the identification of the one who was seated on the cloud as a kingly “son of man” from Daniel’s dream, the interpreter understands the intent of the angel’s demand of the exalted Christ is to clarify God’s ultimate verdict against those who have rejected the gospel—a verdict disclosed at the “coming of the Son of Man” of Gospel tradition. Also, the brevity of verse 16 has the rhetorical effect of underscoring the certainty of this conclusion to the cosmic struggle between God and the Evil One.

14:17 / There appears another angel, who also came out of the temple in heaven … with a sharp sickle (cf. 14:14). Its harvest, presumably ordained by God since it came from God’s presence, will be the grapes from earth’s vine, ripe for the “winepress of God’s wrath.” These are metaphors for God’s crushing defeat of the anti-Christian kingdom. Because they repeat the images of the previous vision, they emphasize the imminence of God’s coming victory over evil, which can only engender hope among the suffering saints. For them, this vision is good news because it implies the conclusion of suffering and the beginning of shalom.

14:18–20 / The final angelic messenger, who … came from the altar of God (cf. 8:3–5; 6:9), issues God’s instructions to its angelic colleague to “gather the clusters of grapes” from the earth’s vine. Although we do not know why John adds that this angel had charge of the fire, he perhaps uses yet another symbol for divine judgment for emphasis (cf. 2 Thess. 1:7; John 15:6). Or John may be alluding to the Gospel tradition where unbelievers on the earth’s vine who are gathered for judgment are contrasted with faithful disciples on Christ’s “vine” who are gathered for eternal life (John 15:5–8; cf. Matt. 13:24–30). Another purpose of this contrast is to interpret divine judgment as the vindication of the exalted Lamb (who is the “true vine,” John 15:1) and the vilification of Satan and his Babylon.

The vision ends with a blood bath, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia. As a multiple of the number four, which is symbolic of the whole (i.e., four corners) world, this hyperbole symbolizes the global scope of God’s judgment (cf. 7:1; 8:1). Beasley-Murray suggests that it should rather be understood as a multiple of forty, which symbolizes a traditional period of punishment for Jews (e.g., the wilderness, Num. 14:33; or Jesus’ post-Easter sojourn, Acts 1:3; Beasley-Murray, Revelation, p. 230). This would be a more plausible explanation of the 1,600 if God’s judgment were against the unfaithful within the believing community.

The location of the winepress outside the city is curious. John does not identify the city by name, whether Babylon or Jerusalem. The surrounding context makes it clear, however, that Babylon itself is not excluded from God’s judgment. Thus, the consensus of scholarship recommends Jerusalem. Mounce suggests that the phrase alludes to Christ’s death “outside the city gate” (Heb. 13:12) and envisions a theology of the cross by which every person is measured by God (Revelation, p. 282). But surely the focal point of the vision is the blood that flowed out of the press and not the Lamb. This blood is the “death-blood” of God’s judgment and not the “life-blood” of God’s Lamb. In fact, because the notion of “life-blood” is linked by tradition and scripture to Jerusalem’s temple and specifically to its altar, the kind of blood that is shed outside the city of Jerusalem indicates death and judgment rather than life and salvation.