Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The vision of the Lamb and the first of the redeemed

14 ^1-5 Then I looked again and before my eyes the Lamb was standing on Mount Sion, and with him were a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written upon their foreheads. Then I heard a sound coming from Heaven like the roar of a great waterfall and the heavy rolling of thunder. Yet the sound which I heard was also like the music of harpists sweeping their strings. And now they are singing a new song of praise before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn that song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. These are the men who have never defiled themselves with women, for they are celibate. These are the men who follow the Lamb wherever he may go; these men have been redeemed from among mankind as first-fruits to God and to the Lamb. They have never been guilty of any falsehood; they are beyond reproach.

The angel with the gospel

^6-7 Then I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, holding the everlasting Gospel to proclaim to the inhabitants of the earth—to every nation and tribe and language and people. He was crying in a loud voice, “Reverence God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment has come! Worship him who made Heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

The angel of doom

⁸ Then another, a second angel, followed him crying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She who made all nations drink the wine of her passionate unfaithfulness!”

The angel of judgment

^9-11 Then a third angel followed these two, crying in a loud voice, “If any man worships the animal and its statue and bears its mark upon his forehead or upon his hand, then that man shall drink the wine of God’s passion, poured undiluted into the cup of his wrath. He shall be tortured by fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. The smoke of such men’s torture ascends for timeless ages, and there is no respite from it day or night. Such are the worshippers of the animal and its statue and among their number are all who bear the mark of its name.”