Reflections on Revelation #251

Day 251

“…worship Him who made the heaven and the earth, and sea and springs of waters.” Rev 14:7 (NASB)

Of the 8 times the word worship occurs in Revelations 13 and 14, this is the only time it refers to God. The fascinating story of Revelation is that God created a universe in which it is possible for beings He created to deny that He created it. In other words, the fact that people are invited to worship the Creator indicates that God does not force anyone to acknowledge His role in creation. God is not only powerful, as nature can teach us (Rom1:18-20), He is infinitely patient with the intellectual limitations of His creatures. 

Does it make sense in today’s world to worship the One who made heaven, earth, sea, and the fountains of waters? The estimated chance that our universe could arise without a Designer is one in 10/229. That’s one chance in 10 followed by 229 zeros, a number too large for me to imagine! These numbers suggest that it is virtually impossible that the universe as we know it could have arisen apart from divine design. 

I cannot prove beyond doubt that God exists or that God’s claims on our lives are what make life meaningful. But do the heavens declare the glory of God? I think so. The universe is so full of such wonderful things that I can hardly think otherwise.  (see my series on The Evidence). God does not compel anyone’s worship. In the last days, He invites all, one last time, to acknowledge that we live and move and have our being because of Him.  
The last phrase of Rev14:7 contains language from the fourth commandment. “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Ex.20:11). Careful research indicates an intentional allusion in Rev14:7 to the fourth commandment of the Decalogue. In the last days of earth’s history, when everything is on the line, God calls people to give attention to the Sabbath command. Does this make any sense? Isn’t that kind of arbitrary on God’s part? Or did God know that evolutionary thought would be prevailing at this time?  

It is evident that the call to worship God as the creator (as part of the last warning message to the world) is a call to acknowledge that very truth as embodied in the fourth commandment. – the Sabbath.

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