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Study to
show thy self approved - Bible Course
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.
- Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His Judgement is
come.
- And worship Him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the fountains
of water.
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.
- Are you meeting this requirement?
- Do you respect the Most High?
- Do you stand in reverential awe of His love, holiness and mighty power?
- Or do you secretly doubt that He even exists?
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 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 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:
- Fear God and give glory to Him,
- Respect the Almighty, put your faith in Him and accept His offer of
salvation through His Son,
- 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?
- To respect Yahweh and accept salvation through His only begotten Son
Jesus?
- And to keep the Almighty's commandments? especially the commandment
to:
remember the seventh day Sabbath which commemorates the creation of
the heavens, the earth, the sea and the fountains of water?
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:
- The Truth
The Everlasting Gospel which calls for worship of the Creator and the
keeping of the true Sabbath day, the memorial of creation; and
- The Lie
The Temporal Gospel which calls for the worship of the Antichrist and
the keeping of the bogus sabbath day.
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. Study Revelation 13
and 14 to read the 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:
- 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.
- 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:
- Fear God, stand in awe of Him, have faith in Him
- 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!
Course
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