Timeline of the Five Angels – part 1

Introduction

In Revelation chapter 14:6-20, there are five declarations made by five angels which covers major events during the entire seven years of the tribulation period. The declarations are a recapitulation of the 70th week in another way. The story of the last seven years is getting told in different ways. The Book of Revelation has a heptactic structure meaning we see lots of sevens and John’s vision gives us loads of views of the same things happening throughout. An important point is that the Revelation vision is not sequential from beginning to end but there are many sequences within that whole timeline. Furthermore the Hebrews tend to teach in blocks, which means ideas and themes and pictures so we have to take off our Greek thinking hats and put on our Hebrew hats if we are going to understand the Book of Revelation. That is why it so hard for us because it is not what we are used to.

The first angel (Rev. 14:6-7)

The main thing to note about the five angels with their declarations is that they cover the significant events of the entire period starting with the beginning of the tribulation and ending at Armageddon. So, the first angel begins at the start of the seven years with the eternal gospel flying in mid-air and proclaiming it throughout the whole earth.

Why the eternal gospel? It is because the message of the gospel is valid forever—it refers to an eternal truth about God and His will for mankind. God created mankind for His pleasure, man sinned wanting to be like God on his own terms, God rescues mankind by providing a way back and He gives all men everywhere the opportunity to repent and come into the fold. And repentance is one of the themes of the tribulation. God’s desire throughout this time is to judge the earth but to give the earth one last chance to repent and turn back to Him. Grace and mercy are running out and the tares and the wheat are being sifted.

You’ll notice in v. 7 that the angel gives the first warning saying to fear God and give him glory because His judgments are coming. These are the judgments that will be unleashed during the first half of the 70^th week, as indicated in the first four Trumpets, corresponding to the 1260-day preaching of the two Witnesses who call down these judgments.¹ These are limited judgments only affecting ⅓ of the earth. Notice that the sky, land, sea, and springs are mentioned here because this refers to the first four Trumpet judgments which are upon these four aspects of man’s environment. Remember the purpose of the trumpets was to bring about repentance which will be working in conjunction with the worldwide gospel being preached by the two witnesses and the 144,000 Israelite evangelists.

The second angel (Rev. 14:8)

The second angel comes in the middle of the 70^th week, when the two prophets are killed. This angel also gives a warning by saying, “Come out of her my people”, because Babylon is about to be destroyed.² Immediately upon the two witnesses being killed by the beast, the beast will rid itself of the prostitute (Babylon the Great).

Who is the prostitute? It is the NWO, the Babylonian system but it is also a city. In Rev. 17 it is clearly Rome but in Rev. 18 it appears, in my opinion, to be New York.³ Rome was known as the “eternal city” and New York is known as the “city that never sleeps”. Clearly chapters 17 and 18 refer to different cities. See the article “Who is Mystery Babylon?” for a deeper look at this.

One of the first items on the beast’s agenda is to morph the NWO system into the beast’s system.⁴ The beast takes charge and he implements his boss’ agenda which is to kill the two witnesses, get rid of three kings and install his own ten kings and give them authority (putting crowns on their heads). At this time New York will still be the centre of power in the world financially and politically with Rome being the centre of apostate Christianity as it has been for millennia. New York is the modern centre of hegemonic power. It is the “new Rome”, so said former Treasurer Joe Hockey and certainly that is true. The US emerged from the second world war more powerful than ever establishing its hegemony over the world with its finance and politics. The US President is the most powerful leader in the world. The US reigns over the world in much the same way as the Roman Empire did two thousand years ago. However its time will come to an end and it will be destroyed within one hour.

"The Pax Americana prevails in much the same way as the Pax Romana had done 2000 years ago."
Ten Cities that led the world," Paul Strathern, p. 175.

But I’m also beginning to think that if new York is destroyed at the midpoint as our “Five Angels timeline” suggests then where will the beast’s headquarters be located next? Many Bible scholars believe that the beast’s headquarters will be the revived ancient city of Babylon in Iraq.⁵ Partly this is because of an end times prophecy in Jer. 50:45 ESV which talks about a future annihilation of Babylon in the land of the Chaldeans. Clearly the land of Chaldeans refers to ancient Babylon and not New York. Yet Rome is referred to as Babylon in the Bible.⁶ Babylon is a metaphor for idolatry in the Bible and the ancient Babylon where the tower of Babel was built provides the prototype for cities and systems that are against God.

So it could well be that the beast’s headquarters, once New York is destroyed, is moved to the newly rebuilt Babylon in Iraq once again. This is the sequence pertaining to the devil’s earthly HQ: Babylon → Rome → New York → Babylon. The devil’s headquarters began in ancient Babylon, then Rome the eternal city in the first century was the centre of the world, now New York rules the world with Wall Street as the world’s financial capital and political capital (United Nations). Rome is still the world’s religious capital (the harlot). But at the halfway point I am postulating that the Antichrist’s HQ will be moved to ancient Babylon once again because of the destruction of New York. There have even been moves afoot to try and relocate the U.N. from New York with a proposed bill to congress in 2017.⁷ Ancient Babylon was declared a UNESCO world heritage cite in 2019 perhaps laying the groundwork for a new international city for the coming beast.⁸

The third angel (Rev. 14:9-13)

The third angel describes the beast system, its mark, and the worship of the image described in chapter 13. This occurs throughout the last half of the 70^th week and as such we are moving along in the five angels timeline. The 1^st angel began in the first half, the 2^nd angel at the midpoint and now the 3^rd angel’s warning is relevant to the second half so you can see that they cover the entire timeline of the 70^th week.

The wine of God’s fury which is poured out into the cup of His wrath is a reference to the bowls of wrath which are to be poured out just before the Day of the Lord at Armageddon. But the angel gives that warning in the mid-air probably for the last 1290 days or 3 ½ years. It is a severe warning not to take the mark or worship the beast and his image.

If you examine the passage carefully it says there are two things needed: worship and taking the mark. I had a Bible teacher friend many years ago who said that both conditions need to be met: worship and taking the mark. In other words, you could take the mark as long as you don’t worship the beast because both conditions need to be met to be tormented forever with burning sulphur. How about it? Would you take that risk? Also note that there is no rest for someone who is in hell—i.e. no sleep. “No rest for the wicked!” There will be no peace for the wicked in hell.⁹

This calls for patient endurance for those who believe in Jesus at this time. This tells me a couple of things: there will be those who are challenged by the mark of the beast. Who are they? They are the elect described in Matthew’s Olivet Discourse in Matt. 24. They are left behind because they refuse to have oil in their lamps and escape to the mountains and they will have to endure for 1290 days. This will mean refusing the mark of the beast during this time and listening to the warning given by the third angel. In fact v. 13 says that those who die during this second half are actually blessed if they die from now on because they are saved. For a fuller look and reasoning behind the “elect” being the ones left behind see the article “Who are the elect in the Olivet Discourse?“

Conclusion

The first three angels are warnings directed at those on the earth and they cover the entire seven year period. In the next article, “Timeline of the Five Angels – part 2” we will examine the last two angels and how it fits into the very last ten days including the major events, the rapture and the Day of the Lord and the Battle of Armageddon.

You can listen to the “Now is the time series” in Revelation, sermons number 24 and 25 when I preached about this.