Some expositors use the term “gospel” to include all the
revelation God has given in Christ and hence conclude that
there is only one gospel with various phases of truth
belonging to this gospel, others prefer to distinguish
various messages in the Bible as gospel or “good news” even
though they contain only one aspect of divine revelation.
Therefore, the expression “gospel of grace,” refers to the
goodness of grace, or to the gospel of the kingdom, dealing
with the good news of the kingdom of God. The eternal gospel
seems to be neither the gospel of grace nor the gospel of
the kingdom, but rather the good news that God at last is
about to deal with the world in righteousness and establish
His sovereignty over the world. This is an ageless gospel in
the sense that God’s righteousness is ageless.
The gospel the angel proclaims in Revelation 14:6 is not a
prediction of what the church will accomplish, the church is
commanded to go to the uttermost part of the earth, to all
nations, into all the world and to preach the gospel to
every creature within those nations (Matthew 28:19; Mark
16:15; Acts 1:8). However, the actual accomplishment of the
proclamation of the good news to every tongue, tribe and
nation with the end following, the visible return of the
Lord Jesus Christ, is accomplished by the 144,000, their
converts, and the two witnesses.
The angel with the eternal gospel, which includes the
announcement of judgment, will be a strong motive for the
world to respond to the gospel of grace.
Here we have an angelic being probably in some recognizable
form preaching the gospel. This should not surprise us;
angels are messengers and servants of God. In the Old
Testament, God often used angels to communicate doctrine and
warn men of doom. In Genesis 19:1-15 they warned Lot and
rescued him. In Daniel 10:10f an angel revealed the meaning
of the vision to Daniel, and the Law on Mount Sinai was
ministered by angels (Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19; Hebrews
2:2). During this age, God has not used angels to preach the
gospel, though in the first century he did use angels to
reveal certain things as with Peter in Acts 10. In the
Tribulation, however, God will use angels, because of the
wickedness and deceit of these days. In our passage there is
an angel flying in the midst of heaven and speaking with a
loud voice. Flying in the midst of heaven stresses the
constant movement of the angel.
