A good place to start when witnessing to Jews is the Old Covenant. While that certainly plays a part in the grand scheme of witnessing to pagan Gentiles, it may not always be the best place to start since they may not know or even care that there is an Old Covenant made with Israel. When witnessing to Gentiles, incorporating the witness of creation is often a better place to start because the witness to God in creation is available to every human. This practice is seen in the New Testament, particularly in Acts and Revelation. In the United States, there was once a shared, basic knowledge of and respect for Scripture, which made speaking from the Old or New Testament more relevant. But in totally pagan countries, and now often in the West, with the pervasive influence of secularism and pagan religions, the wonder of creation can be a good place to start. We can witness from creation and the gospel, knowing that God is revealing himself through both; we are not without a witness of God. The place to begin is God’s declaration that he reveals himself to everyone through creation, rather than on the basis of their appreciation or belief that he does (Rom 1:18–24).[1]
We find this practice in the New Testament. Paul and Barnabas called on people to repent by turning to the creator, saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:15–17). Not only did they refer to God as creator, but also referred to his creation as being a perennial “witness” to himself. The witness of God’s goodness in creation is so evident that one must fight to suppress the obvious witness to the creator through philosophies, science, or one of the countless man-made fabrications.
We find this same reliance upon the testimony of creation when Paul preached to the Athenians:
“The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead'” (Acts 17:24–31).
Similarly, we find the angels declaring the eternal gospel in the book of Revelation. They present the one to believe in as the creator. It says, “And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he said with a loud voice, ‘Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters'” (Rev 14:6–7). They warn of the swiftly coming wrath of God, which is the impetus for all to “fear God and give Him glory.” Verse 6 refers to this as an eternal gospel, and verse 7 seems to explain that eternal gospel.
Based upon this passage, I believe the eternal gospel is the call of God to all people, in all dispensations, to “fear God and give Him glory” and to “worship” the creator and thereby flee the hour of judgment. It is the call to every person, but in the time period of Revelation, there is an even greater urgency “because the hour of His judgment has come.” God’s call to repentance and faith was less specific, as seen in the Old Testament and in these verses, as well as in Romans 1:18–25. But the call to give him glory is consistent, and the only way fallen humans can do that is through repentance and faith.
The eternal gospel is based upon the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the sins of man. Its efficacy in delivering people from their just deserts under the eternal wrath of God preceded the death, burial, and resurrection in time, as undeniably attested by the salvation of those in the Old Testament who repented and placed their faith in God (Hebrews 11). They simply repented and trusted God and his plan over their own to the degree of specificity revealed at that point in the history of progressive revelation, which has been and will forever be true. Since the coming of Christ, the level of specificity is at its zenith. It appears that many in the tribulation will have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, either prior to the onset of the tribulation or from the Jewish evangelists and their converts (Rev 7:4–8; 12:17; 14:1–5) and the two witnesses (Rev 11:1–12).
This gospel is eternal because it warns of eternal judgment upon all sinners and provides the only path of deliverance from eternal death to eternal life. It is eternal because God’s redemptive plan of salvation never changes. It is based upon the work of Christ. The eternal gospel always calls upon every person to recognize he is a hopeless sinner, deserving of eternal damnation, and that God, the creator of everything, has provided the only way to avoid our just deserts, which is by repentance and faith in Jesus. Repentance and faith are always grace-enabled and toward God, but the specificity of the content of our faith increases as God reveals more of his redemptive plan, culminating in the coming of Christ.
Prior to the actual work of Christ, repentance and faith in Jehovah, the one true God, was sufficient. But since the work of Christ, eternal life requires believing in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:10–12). The eternal gospel constantly declares the bad news, which is everyone is a sinner under the wrath of God (John 3:18). The good news is that God has sufficiently provided for everyone to find forgiveness and eternal life and, by repentance and faith, anyone can be delivered from our condign eternal punishment and given eternal life by the creator of all things.
It appears we find a form (the necessary components) of the eternal gospel, even in the Garden of Eden. God created man to enjoy him and his creation, which was good (Gen 1:31; 2:9, 21–25). That is the first good news, if you will. Man was created to relate to God and enjoy the blessings of creation that were conditioned upon trusting what God said, as seen in the one prohibition against eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:17). In creation, the good news preceded the bad; that is to say, God gave what was good but warned that a failure to give him glory by not trusting him would result in judgment, death. The message was to trust in the creator and avoid his wrath against sin.
Adam and Eve chose to distrust God. They chose to trust the deception of the serpent and their own assessment of reality over God’s assessment. In doing so, they both sinned (Gen 3:1–6). They exchanged God’s plan for their own plan of how to relate to him and his creation. They continued on this path as they hid in fear and sought to rectify their situation through their own plan of redemption (Gen 3:7–10). Prior to sin, the eternal gospel conditioned blessing upon faith and placed blessing prior to the warning of judgment.
Subsequent to the choice of Adam and Eve to go their own way, after they distrusted God’s Word and plan, we find the order of blessing and judgment reversed throughout both the Old Testament and New Testament. We find God pronouncing man under judgment for his sin (Gen 3:14–19, 22–24). Notice God does this even after man has implemented his own redemption plan (Gen 3:7). The eternal gospel always contains the components of faith in God, which gives him glory as creator, and the warning that he will judge sin.[2] The only path to avoid judgment by God was for Adam and Eve to walk in trust of his Word. The only way back from sin is to trust God’s promise of restoration by faith in his salvation plan. This plan was given to Adam and Eve with sufficient specificity to call on them to repent and believe in God (Gen 3:15).
We see this same message throughout the Old Testament. In the New Testament, we see it in the preaching of John the Baptist when he said to the Pharisees, “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come” (Matt 3:7), and his message was to repent (Matt 3:2). Jesus gave the same message to Chorazin and Bethsaida (Matt 11:20–24). It is seen when he denounced the Pharisees for their stubbornness, which far exceeded that of pagan Nineveh (Matt 12:38–42). He gave the same warning when he referred to sinful Galileans and those upon whom the tower of Siloam fell (Luke 13:1–5). The components of judgment and giving God glory are seen in John 3:18 and the most well-known verse in Scripture, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
The eternal gospel is eternal in that it is the only plan that grants man eternal life, and the essential elements of God’s plan have never changed. Man is to “fear God and give Him glory” by repenting and trusting the creator of everything and by so doing, receive eternal life, or he may reject the call of the creator and suffer his eternal wrath against sin. Every offer of receiving eternal life since the fall has been based upon the salvific work of Christ, and in this age, one’s faith must be in Jesus specifically (Acts 4:10-12).
Paige Patterson notes, “Men are called upon to worship him who is the Creator God. There is a sense in which Gen 1:1 is the most important verse in the Bible. The simple statement, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,’ establishes not merely the origin of all things but as such establishes both the ownership and the purposes of him who is the Creator . . . . If . . . God is the Creator and owner of all that exists, then the only appropriate response of any human is to worship God, fear him, and give him glory.”[3] Regarding the urgency in the call to give God glory, Patterson says, “Judgment is at hand, but even in judgment God is merciful and loving; and this fact is poignantly portrayed in the angel’s crossing the heavens once again with the eternal gospel for all who live on the earth.”[4] The call of the eternal gospel is always to repent, believe, and worship the creator. Judgment upon sin is certain, but the time of such judgment is uncertain with man (Matt 24:38–39).
MacArthur poignantly comments, “God’s natural revelation of Himself is not obscure or selective, observable only by a few perceptive souls who are specially gifted. His revelation of Himself through creation can be clearly seen.”[5] Some commentators say the eternal gospel is just a message of judgment.[6] But that seems to require minimizing or ignoring the call of the angel for people to “fear God and give Him glory.” The urgency of the message and the coupling of the call to “give God glory” is the same essential call given to all throughout time. Each time and in each revelatory season, the call gives every indication of being one that can and should be obeyed. Subsequent to the death of Christ, one can only give God glory by repentance and faith in Christ; therefore, this is a call to repent and believe in Jesus Christ, the gospel.
The time of this declaration by the angel reminds us that even in the worst of times, God declares his message of deliverance for any and all who will repent and believe. R.C.H. Lenski says “The gospel is for all men. ‘This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations’ (Matt. 24:14) despite all that the devil can do.”[7] Even though Lenski and others believe the angel to be Martin Luther, which I do not, they agree it is the gospel unto salvation.[8] As Calvinist Simon Kistemaker says:
“The angel proclaims the gospel not necessarily as good news but as a reminder of God’s abiding truth; the angel calls men and women to respond to God’s message before the judgment comes. The expression “every nation, tribe, language, and people” occurs repeatedly in Revelation and alludes to unrepentant residents on this earth who are inimical to God (compare 11:9; 13:7; 17:15) . . . and to people everywhere who are being called to repent (10:11). Here the angel addresses a message of repentance to all sinners who have been indifferent to God and his Word, as is evident from the angel’s message.”[9]
I disagree that the call to respond to God’s message prior to his judgment is “not necessarily as good news.” The call to give God glory is a call to salvation by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ because only then can a sinner give God glory. It is a warning of impending wrath, which can be escaped only by repentance and faith; this is the eternal gospel found throughout Scripture. It is the good news that will one day cease to be proclaimed. As long as it echoes through the heavens and pathways upon the earth, it is good news that one can heed. Bow before the creator and give him his deserved glory; this is precisely what Adam and Eve failed to do in sin and prayerfully did do in accepting God’s provisionary plan of redemption (Gen 3:15, 21). MacArthur states what I have sought to demonstrate.
The eternal gospel preached by the angel is the same one proclaimed throughout all history. It is the good news of forgiveness and eternal life. He will declare that people are sinners, facing eternal judgment in hell, but that God has provided atonement for sins through the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That message of forgiveness was given even in Old Testament times based on new covenant terms (Jer. 31:31–34; Ezek. 36:25–27). Its benefits were applied to all who truly repented and sought forgiveness and grace from God, even though the Savior had not yet died. In the purpose of God, the merits of the Lamb slain at Calvary have been granted to all true repenters in all ages.[10]
Creation serves not only as a witness to the lost but also to strengthen the saved. Ard Lewis is a theoretical physicist at Oxford University. When I was on sabbatical in Oxford during the summer of 2015, I heard him interviewed by Eric Metaxas. He spoke freely of his Christian faith and how his experience as a scientist increased his faith in God. He said about twenty of his colleagues in the physics department were strong Christians. After the interview, he told me the head of the physics department at Oxford was a strong Christian as well.[11] John C. Lennox, a mathematics professor at Oxford, states, “The beauty of the scientific laws reinforces my faith in an intelligent, divine creator.”[12] David declared, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands” (Ps 19:1).
The heavens, creation, and the glory of the universe declare there is one outside of the universe more glorious. The power of nature declares that one more powerful gave nature its power. This message rings out to every nation, every person, every day, and it is a declaration by God: worship the creator, not creation. The message is so loud and clear that it affords every person an opportunity to know him personally, an opportunity so compelling it leaves every person without excuse (Rom 1:20). It is a declaration so powerful that to resist it requires relentless suppression in a mental and spiritual sea of ungodliness (Rom 1:18–19). Men continually develop new plans and revive old schemes and false ideas in order to intellectually and spiritually suppress the truth. Even though it is true that David was a believer, Romans 1:18–25 expands the accessibility of this knowledge far beyond believers to include every single person so that none has an excuse.
That Satan blinds people to the gospel and sin imprisons man in spiritual darkness does not thwart God’s work of general and special revelation. God’s light cannot be overcome by darkness (John 1:5). God reaches into the darkness with the light of the knowledge of himself through the witness of his creation; if men accept that light, which they can do, God will get the light of the gospel to them, which penetrates the blinders of Satan and the darkness of sin (John 12:35–36).[13]
As the light of the world, Christ enlightens all men (John 1:9), Christ prayed for all (John 17:20–21), and the Holy Spirit convicts all (John 16:8–11). Ezekiel reminds us, “‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezek 33:11). God does not desire “for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). God can, by grace, be found. The Lord promised through Jeremiah, “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer 29:13). Truly, salvation has indeed appeared to all men (Titus 2:11).
[1] Some contend the arguments between Creationists and Darwinists are unimportant to our responsibility to evangelize and advance the kingdom. Such a belief does not seem to be consistent with the New Testament (Rom 1:18–24; Acts 14:15–17; 17:24–31; Rev 14 6–7).
[2] Gives him glory means we recognize his glory; to believe and live so that we give all praise to him alone.
[3] Paige Patterson, Revelation, The New American Commentary, vol 39 (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2012), 290-91.
[4] Patterson, Revelation, 291.
[5] John F. MacArthur, Romans 1–8, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody, 1991), 79.
[6] John Walvoord says, “Because of the word ‘gospel: some have felt that this was a message of salvation or the good news of the coming kingdom. The context, however, seems to indicate otherwise, for the message is one of judgment and condemnation. The angel announced, Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. So the ‘eternal’ message seems to be a message of God’s righteousness and judgment rather than a message of salvation.” John F. Walvoord, “Revelation” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures edited by J. F. Walvoord, and R. B. Zuck (Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1985), 2:964, Logos edition.
[7] R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Johns’ Revelation (Columbus, OH: Lutheran Book Concern, 1935), 428.
[8] Lenski says, “The angel has an εὐαγγέλιον αἰώνιον εὐαγγελισαι; the noun and the infinitive repeat and thus emphasize the gospel and the idea of good news. We need not ask what this gospel is, for its content is stated in v. 7. The older Protestants regarded this first angel flying in midheaven as a prophecy of Luther and his gospel, and to this day Rev. 14:6, 7 is the regular pericope for Reformation Day. Sometimes it was thought that Luther was prefigured by the third angel. The other two were thought to be Wycliff and Huss. When commentators reject this interpretation they do so without sufficient reason.” R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Johns’ Revelation (Columbus, OH: Lutheran Book Concern, 1935), 428.
[9] Simon J. Kistemaker and William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Book of Revelation, New Testament Commentary, vol. 20 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1953–2001), 407–8.
[10] John F. MacArthur, Revelation 12–22,, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody, 2000), 86.
[11] The live event, called Socrates in the City, was hosted by Eric Metaxas in Oxford July 22, 2015.
[12] John C. Lennox, God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design Is It Anyway? (Oxford: Lion, 2011), 73.
[13] This is not to say a person must wrestle with general revelation before he can be saved by the gospel. It is to say that if one accepts God’s general revelation, which everyone can do because it is so compelling that it leaves everyone “without excuse” (Rom 1:20), God who desires all to be saved will get the gospel to him.
