The first angel's coming with the restoration of the everlasting gospel to preach to all the earth is a significant sign of the time. The Lord always warns His people and gives them opportunity to repent and to come unto Him first; then, if they don't do so, He withdraws His spirit and allows them to suffer the consequences of their choices. As I mentioned yesterday, I believe this has already happened and is continuing to happen as the gospel goes to all of the continents of the world save Antarctica.
The second angel will follow the first, "saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." (Revelation 14:8) This, I believe, is yet to come. Ancient Babylon was a reminder to the Jews of their defeat and captivity and has come to symbolize all that is evil in the world. Babylon has not yet fallen for the world is still saturated with evil. But I do believe that men eventually reap what they sow and the day will come when Babylon will fall.
The third angel is an angel of warning to those in spiritual Babylon: any who follow Satan will "drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation." (Revelation 14: 10, 12) God then praises His saints for their patience and obedience as they await these signs of His coming, but the wicked are warned: they are treading on thin ice.
John then sees Jesus Christ on a white cloud and carrying a sharp sickle. He commands that the earth be harvested. All of the angels who follow are those who have stewardship over the harvesting. I always saw them as destroying angels, but as I have studied in more depth, I no longer think that is the case. The first of these final angels is there to harvest the wheat of the earth. (See Matthew chapter 13.) I believe this part of the harvest has begun. In modern revelation we read:
When the wheat has been gathered, then the destroying angels are loosed. In this chapter of Revelation, the angels gather the grapes which represent the wicked and they are trodden in "the great winepress of the wrath of God." (See Revelation 14: 18-20.) This is an apt description, not only because it depicts the shedding of blood, but it hearkens back to the Savior being pressed down by the burden of our sins in Gethsemane, which in Hebrew means the large vats with heavy, crushing stones that grind the olives to a pulp and then press out the oil. The oil that runs out of the vat at the first pressing is a deep red that looks like blood. In the Garden, the Savior sweat as it were great drops of blood. The wine served at the Last Supper - the juice of grapes crushed in the winepress - represented His blood on the cross. Jesus has said of this experience:
For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit -(Doctrine and Covenants 19: 16-18, emphasis added) The mental picture of the wicked in the winepress of God's wrath is appropriate; the wicked who do not repent are suffering as Jesus suffered.
I believe that the wheat that will be harvested will be those who acknowledge Jesus as Christ and live as He would have them live, regardless of creed. The grapes of wrath are the truly wicked, the proud and arrogant who refuse to bend their knees or bow their heads. Where do I want to be when the harvest is over? The choice is mine. Where do you want to be? The choice is yours.
Text copyright Gebara Education March 2013
Picture from www.gospelbondservant.com
Picture of Christ harvesting the wheat from www.providencecpc.org
Picture of winepress of God from www.davidmiles.com
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