The first of the three angels of Revelation 14 proclaims the everlasting gospel to every nation, language, and people, calling all individuals to “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship the One who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and the springs of waters.”
God’s ten-commandment law flows naturally from God’s creative power. Each of us owes our lives to Him. No one is saved by the keeping of the law, but the keeping of God’s law reveals the object of one’s worship. Jesus asked, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I say?” (Luke 6:26). Worship without submission is ultimately worship in name only.
The danger of the world is not a lack of worship, but counterfeit worship. Satan does not oppose religion; he redirects it. Throughout the Bible, false worship can look like true devotion. Yet when human tradition replaces God’s commandments, authority shifts from God to man. Men create tradition.
Jesus warned of this when He said, “These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men. In vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:8-9).
Revelation presents worship as the final dividing line in the history of the world. Two paths emerge—one rooted in obedience to God, the other shaped by worldly authority and religious power. This is why the first angel proclaims that the judgment has come. False worshipers will be separated from true worshipers in the final events soon to come.
The Remnant Church rejects the false churches of the last day–apostate Protestantism and apostate Catholicism, which are identified as Babylon. The Scripture says of the Remnant, “Here is a call for the perseverance of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus (Rev. 14:12). Faith and obedience are not enemies; they are inseparable expressions of loyalty.
Sunday sacredness and immortality of the soul are held in common by Babylon, and each is a demonic lie designed to mislead the people of God.
Through the first angel’s message, Jesus calls his people to worship the true God of creation, the One who established the seventh-day Sabbath and the non-immortality of the soul.
Babylon’s greatest deception is the claim that one can worship God while ignoring His authority and His law. Babylon offers grace without transformation, and faith without obedience. That is why God calls His people to “come out of her”—apostate Christianity—not to abandon worship, but to focus it on the true God.
Listen to the message of the first angel!