October 30th, 2021

This Sunday is the first of two ‘breaks’ from the Epistle to the Hebrews. We are taking a brief look at the Revelation of John on this Reformation Sunday [Revelation 14:6-7].

To take a BRIEF look at that book of the Bible is almost an impossibility. It is quite a complex book. It is literally filled with references to other parts of scripture, but that is ultimately a good way to understand the text before you.

You can probably imagine the number of books that have been written about this book. Look in almost any library, and the number of books on that topic, compared to other books of the Bible, will be surprising. And many of those books will probably be called ‘commentaries’.
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In our advanced culture, it seems like we are expecting a lot more from the commentaries, that they at least should be able to mention ALL of the important things that have been said about the text throughout the centuries. But if THAT is the expectation, perhaps we should change the word describing those books (from ‘commentaries’) to something like ‘explanatories’ or ‘gigantic perspectival studies’. Commentators make comments; commentaries contain only SOME of all those comments. And as the commentators change over the years, the commentaries will no doubt change as well.

The following is a good example of how commentaries change. The most recent Concordia Commentary on the Book of Revelation certainly has a lot of good things to say about the angel within the text of Revelation 14:6-7. But it nowhere makes a connection between this angel and Doctor Martin Luther.

Another commentary, called Popular Commentary, DOES make that connection. Admittedly this commentary was written about eighty years earlier. And the writer not only wrote about this fascinating book of the Bible, but in that four-volume Popular Commentary he wrote about EVERY OTHER book of the Bible as well—certainly a massive undertaking. The following gives the source details and the writer’s comments about that angel mentioned in Revelation 14:6-7 (at the start of this quote, the two verses to be studied are given). And it may be helpful to remember that Doctor Luther would probably NOT want us to remember him.

Popular Commentary of the Bible: The New Testament, Volume 2 (The Epistles of the Apostle Paul, the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles, the Book of Revelation), by Paul E. Kretzmann (St. Louis, Missouri, USA: Concordia Publishing House, 1923):

Here is a scene full of majesty and power: And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal Gospel to proclaim to those that live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people, saying with a powerful voice, Fear God and give Him glory; for the hour of His Judgment has come; and worship Him that made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of water. This passage has been understood by Lutheran commentators, and undoubtedly correctly, to apply to Doctor Martin Luther and the Reformation. For he, as the angel of the Lord, different from the other angels spoken of in the previous chapters, brought back and preached the eternal Gospel of the justification of a poor sinner through the merits of Jesus Christ alone, by faith. In the very midst of the kingdom of Antichrist he preached this Gospel, and with such divine zeal and power that many thousands of captives were filled with joy over the deliverance here proclaimed. To fear God alone, that was the message which Luther brought back once more, and not to quail before the power of him that usurped the throne of God; to give honor to the Lord only, and not to him that has taken His place with idolatrous ambition. To worship God in Christ alone, that was the content of the proclamation of Luther, to address Him in spirit and in truth, through the merits of Jesus Christ. For, truly, the time was come when the Lord’s hour of Judgment upon the world had appeared, when He wanted to make a selection and distinction between those that belonged to Antichrist and those whom He wanted for Himself. And therefore the true believers should adore, give divine honor, only to the almighty Creator of the world and of all it contains. The very words of the seer contain one of the mottoes of the Reformation: To God alone all glory! Thus Luther, called by God through His Word in a most singular manner, preached publicly, cheerfully, and loudly, in the midst of the dark kingdom of Antichrist, the pure, unadulterated Gospel of the Lord. With great power he testified that the faith of the Christians could and should rest, not on the word of the Pope or of any man, not on the resolutions of church assemblies and councils, but solely and alone on the Word of Christ as it is written in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. With great power he testified that a man is justified and saved in no way and in no part by his own work and merit, but wholly and only through the work of Christ, which is imputed to the believer by faith. And with great power he testified that the works of the Christians that please the Lord are not such as they choose for themselves, but such as are performed by justified children of God, by faith, through the Holy Ghost, for love of God and their neighbor, and to the honor of the Lord. This Gospel, as preached by Luther, was propagated as though the angels themselves were carrying it forth from the little town of Wittenberg to all tongues and peoples; and the Church of the Reformation is still continuing its victorious course through the countries.