THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL
Adults · From the book Every Day a New Beginning
Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth —to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. —Revelation 14:6
Seventh-day Adventists understand the “everlasting gospel” of Revelation 14:6, 7, as a universal message to be preached “to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.” It is still the “gospel of the kingdom” (Matthew 24:14), but it is now proclaimed in the context of the end-time “hour of His judgment” (Revelation 14:7).
In 1858, Sabbath-keeping Adventists began to print their first pamphlets in Dutch, French, and German, some of which were eventually sent to Europe.
But the church was quite reluctant to send missionaries overseas. That changed on September 15, 1874, when J. N. Andrews (a widower) and his two children, Charles and Mary, departed on the Cunard steamship Atlas, traveling from Boston to Liverpool on the way to Switzerland.
Andrews was the first missionary officially sent overseas by the denomination. From then on, thousands of Seventh-day Adventist missionaries have carried the everlasting gospel around the globe. The Adventist missionary spirit was well described by Booton Herndon, a non-Adventist author, in his book The Seventh Day: The Story of the Seventh-day Adventists. He stated, Surely no other twenty-five words [those of Matthew 24:14] have had such a direct impact on so many of the world’s peoples.
For the Seventh-day Adventists accept this message literally.
To them it means this: when every single living person in the world has been told the good news of the coming of Christ, then the world will end, Christ will come again, and the righteous shall live in happiness forever.
No human endeavor could have a more glorious goal, and to hasten that day when the last man on earth shall have been told the gospel, Seventh-day Adventists have gone forth into all the world.45 What a wonderful mission endeavor! Regardless of where you live or what you do, you must have this Adventist missionary passion and be part of this worldwide Adventist missionary movement.
Remember that wherever there are people who do not yet know the everlasting gospel, there is a mission field for you to work in for the Lord.
