NOTE: This document is for personal use only. It is not to be distributed in either print or electronic format.
John T. Baldwin
SDA Theological Seminary,
Andrews University
FOR: Faith and Science Conference, Glacier View Ranch, CO — August 2003
Some of the words inscribed on the window over the
entrance of the new Seminary Building, Andrews University, read: "Worship Him
who made the heaven and the earth and sea and the fountains of waters" (Rev
14:7). Have you ever wondered why the message of the first angel ends with a
reference to fountains of waters? In keeping with the tradition admonished by
our pioneers for considering new concepts, I invite your evaluation of the
following research to help determine whether the results might contain some
sound, fresh insights relevant to our conference.
From a systematic theological perspective, this essay assumes
the Adventist understanding that the text of Revelation 14:6-12 was written not
only for John's day, but purposefully, as worded, for a prophetic
time-of-the-end period as God's final message to a post-Huttonian audience
increasingly committed to an evolutionary worldview. Thus, the essay also
assumes that already in the first century A.D. God anticipated the modern
geological discoveries regarding the ordered fossiliferous geologic column like
the findings announced in James Hutton's bombshell, Theory of the Earth,
1785. When interpreted by evolutionary science, the discoveries in the book
cancel the six-day creation, and thus undermine the messages in Revelation
14:6-12.
This paper seeks to discover whether God, in the first
century, intentionally placed concepts into His last message to humanity which
would respond to the evolutionary challenges that threaten the integrity of the
message.
The possible post-Huttonian significance of the phrase
"fountains of waters" emerges first in light of its connection to Exodus 20:11,
and second in its relation to the judgment context in which the phrase is
embedded textually, as in "Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His
judgment has come" (Rev 14:7 NASB). Building upon Jon Paulien's important
conclusion that Revelation 14:7c is a clear allusion to Exodus 20:11—thus
endorsing the commandment account of a six-day creation1—one wonders
why the allusion ends with the words "fountains of waters"? This ending is
unexpected because it forms part of an allusion to Exodus 20:11 which does not
end with "fountains of waters," but with, "and all that is in them." Moreover,
this surprising ending departs from the biblical pattern of using "and all that
is in them" when referring back to Exodus 20:11 (see: David, Ps 146:5-9; N.T.
believers, Acts 4:4,14; and Barnabas and Paul, Acts: 14:8,15). Why does the
angel of Revelation 14 do this? Is God, through the messenger, perhaps
suggesting something significant by means of the striking specificity of the
words "fountains of waters"? Could it be, as implied above, that the use of this
phrase can indicate that God was providing a geological response to the future
challenge which the nineteenth-century discovery and evolutionary interpretation
of the fossiliferous geologic column would present to the integrity of the
messages of the three angels of Revelation 14? The research of six individuals
points to a possible significant conclusion regarding this question.
First, biblical scholar David Aune shows that the term
"fountain" in Revelation 14 (Greek, πηγή) refers to natural water sources which
flow from below ground and not to artificial sources. This means that the
expression "fountains of waters" would include the fountains of the deep
mentioned in the Old Testament.2 The same Greek word for "fountain"
used in Revelation 14:7 is also used for "fountains of the deep in the LXX
version of Genesis 7:11 and Proverbs 8:24, 30.
Second, in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament,
Wilhelm Michaelis thinks that the best explanation for the words "fountains of
waters" of Revelation 14:7 might be that the phrase refers to the fountains of
the deep of Genesis 7:11 and 8:23 (i.e., to the judgment flood
story).
Third, in a 1999 essay entitled, "Significance of the
'Fountains of Waters' in Revelation 14:7c," seminary doctoral student Oleg
Zhigankov suggests that the real existence of the present judgment mentioned in
Revelation 14:7 is emphasized and "confirmed by the reference to another global
historical event [judgment]—flood—alluded to by the angel's use of the phrase
'fountains of waters.'" The implication is that the phrase "fountains of waters"
spotlights God as a God of judgment, thereby encouraging the reader to take
seriously the present divine judgment mentioned in Revelation 14:7.
Fourth, in response to Zhigankov's paper, Jon Paulien
proposed that the possible reference to the Genesis flood in the phrase
"fountains of waters" in Revelation 14:7 might also be an implied, merciful
forward look of warning about another global undoing of creation, this time not
by water (Gen 7:11), but by fire, as the book of Revelation subsequently
describes.
Fifth, writing in The Revelation Record, Henry Morris
suggests that the angel used the words "fountains of waters" most probably
"because of their association with the earlier judgment of the great deluge,
when 'all the fountains of the great deep [were] broken up' (Genesis 7:11)."4
Morris adds that these words of the angel also "reminded men that as God had
created all these things and then had destroyed them once before because of
man's sin, so He was still able to control all things and that another great
divine judgment was imminent."5
Sixth, David Fouts, professor of biblical studies, Bryan
College, draws a parallel between Jesus' use of the flood and the angel's use of
the Flood. In Matthew 24:39-40 and Revelation 14:7c the parallel connections of
the Flood to end-time judgments illustrate how seriously the earthly Jesus, and
the ascended Jesus regard the historical reality of the biblical flood.
Together, the reflections of Aune, Michaelis, Zhigankov,
Paulien, Morris, and Fouts, strongly suggest that the expression "fountains of
waters" of Revelation 14:7 can serve to bring to the mind of the reader God's
biblical judgment flood, thereby emphasizing the truth that God is a God of
judgment and mercy.
Discussion
For us today, important earth history implications follow
from the above conclusion. That the resurrected Lord would place language into
His last message to humanity recalling the historical realty of the biblical
flood constitutes an important prophetic time-of-the-end divine endorsement of a
historical global flood.
Along the following lines, the above conclusion serves as a
cogent response to the Huttonian challenge to the integrity of God's last
message to humanity. For some Christians the actuality of a global flood removes
the challenge against a six-day creation posed by the global geologic column as
interpreted conventionally. By faith, such Christians suggest that some portions
of the geologic column could have been deposited after the fall but before the
flood. Other portions of the column could have, in ways not yet fully understood
scientifically, be deposited during and subsequent to the global flood, rather
than over millions of years. Thus, the animal forms in the geologic column do
not predate the creation week—which means that the geologic column does not
conflict with a historical six-day creation. This shows how a global flood plays
a vital role in helping to remove the supposed impossibility of a historical
creation week, and thereby supports the continuing truth of the three messages
of Revelation 14. This is why we should not be surprised to find language
referring to God's global flood in His last message to our planet. This also
indicates why it is important to the global mission of the Adventist church to
preserve the important twin earth history concepts of a historical six-day
creation and a global flood.
In sum, the possible earth history implications of Revelation
14:7 can render it God's North Star, deftly guiding believers safely through
theological, biological, and geological challenges to the Word of God. The
possible geological North Star light of Revelation 14:7 can encourage us at
Glacier View to continue, by faith, to be seriously invested in good,
scientifically-responsible flood geology which should not be scorned, but deeply
respected as an important part of a worldview having profound geological and
theological significance. It can inspire us to interpret Genesis 1-11 not only
theologically, but also literally and historically, thus bringing the highest
honor to the Creator. The North Star light of Revelation 14:7 seems to be
far-reaching indeed.
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