CHAPTER VIII.

 

THE DAY OF THE LORD.

 

 

MUCH confusion on certain Bible subjects results from a misunderstanding of certain Bible terms.  For an ex­ample of such terms we mention the expression, “The Day of the Lord.”  This Bible term is so greatly misunderstood by the majority of people that it seems that a few lines explaining it are now necessary.

There are those who believe that “the day of the Lord” is nothing more nor less than the Sabbath.  This is a mistake.  The term now before us, when found in the Word of God, no­where refers to the Sabbath day.  The nearest approach to this is to be found in Mark 2: 28,  “The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.”  Even here the Sabbath is not termed “The Day of the Lord.”  The Sabbath is, indeed, the day of the Lord; and so is every day in the week.  All of our days should be recognized as belonging unto the Lord.  We have no time of our own.  Yet the Bible does single out one “day” from all other days, and call it, “The Day of the Lord.”  This term is used in contrast to the day of the devil.  Since we are to give no day of the week in service to the devil, neither are we to recognize any of our time as belonging to him, “The Day of the Lord” can not refer to any particular day of the week.  It is, therefore, not the Sabbath.

From the time Adam fell until now, this world has been under the dominion of Satan.  Of course, God has had a few people in the world all the while, but the great majority of the earth’s population is controlled by the devil and is obedient unto Satan.  God has not willed it thus, but men, being free agents, deliberately give themselves over to the service of the devil.  Satan holds sway the world over.  However, it shall not always be this way.  The time is coming when God is going to take

 

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vengeance upon the unjust.  The Lord allows men to go on in their wickedness for a while, but the time is coming when the Lord will suffer the evil works of men no longer, for He shall come to execute judgment upon all.  (Jude 15.)  While God permits the world to go as it is now going, and Satan holds the reins of government, it is recognized as the devil’s day; but when the devil is put down, and God comes to judge the world, it will be known as “The Day of the Lord.”  A more correct idea, then, of “The Day of the Lord” is that it refers to the day of judgment.

     “He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained.” —Acts 17: 31.

     From this Scripture we learn that the day of judgment hath been appointed, and that when that day arrives Christ will judge the world in righteousness.  This is the devil’s day, but the day in which Christ shall judge the world will be “The Day of the Lord.”

     Some verses of Scripture referring directly to this subject are as follows: “The day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty.”—Isa. 2: 12.  “Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruc­tion from the Almighty.  Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.”—Isa. 13: 6, 9.  “Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.”—Joel 1: 15. “Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains.  The day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?  And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of

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THE DAY OF THE LORD

 

 

the Lord come.”—Joel 2: 1, 2, 11, 30, 31.  “The day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, He hath bid His guests.  And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes . . . . The great day of the Lord is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.  That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and dis­tress . . . . A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities . . . .And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men. . . . And their blood shall be poured out as dust.”—Zeph. 1: 7‑17.  “The day of the Lord cometh . . . . I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished. . . . . Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations. . . . .And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives. . . . . And the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof.”—Zech. 14: 1‑4.  “Be­hold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”—Mal. 4: 5.  “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.”—Acts 2: 20.  “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.”—1 Thes. 5: 2.  “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.”—Rev. 1: 10.

     You will notice the many things mentioned in the above Scriptures that are to come to pass in “the day of the Lord.”  Many are perplexed, and wonder what to do with such varied assertions.  How can all these things come to pass in one day?  How can all the nations be judged in one day?  If men would only let the Scriptures explain themselves they would avoid many perplexing problems.  Peter in speaking about “the day of the Lord” said, “Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thous­and years as one day.”—2 Peter 3: 8.  This verse causes a great flood of light to break in upon the subject.  Too many are

 

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prone to think of “the day of the Lord” as covering only a period of twenty‑four hours.  The Lord, however, does not count days as we count them.  It takes a thousand of our years to make one day with the Lord.  Yet, I do not understand Peter to speak in an absolute, but in a relative sense.  I mean to say, that I do not understand Peter to mean that a thousand years on earth, just to the minute, measure one day with the Lord; but that in comparison with eternity there is no differ­ence between a thousand years and one day.  By “the day of the Lord,” then, we are to understand a period of a thousand years, more or less.  Looking at the subject in this light, it is easy to see how so many assertions about “the day of the Lord” all harmonize; and how so many things can come to pass in one day.

     In former chapters we have shown you that the coming of the Lord as a thief in the night is for the purpose of stealing away the Bride.  He comes as a thief before The Great Tribu­lation begins.  After The Tribulation is over, He binds Satan in the bottomless pit, and sets up His Millennial throne, and reigns for a thousand years.  Just after the Millennium, Satan is loosed for a little season.  He gets an army of men and compasses the camp of the saints about, and fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them. (Rev. 20: 1‑9.)  So you can see that the coming of the Lord as a thief and the coming of the fire out of heaven are two events which take place a thousand years apart; and yet, Peter says that both of these events take place in one day.  “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.  Seeing then that all these things shall be dis­solved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy con­versation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent

 

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heat”—2 Peter 3: 10‑12.  So many get this passage tangled, because they try to crowd all these events into a day of twenty­-four hours.  Before Peter gives the above verses, he would have us to understand that the Lord’s day is a thousand years long in earthly time; hence he could say that the Lord’s coming as a thief and the melting of the heavens with heat take place the same day.

     The word “hour” is sometimes used in the same sense as “day.”  We read in Luke 22: 53, “When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”  So we read in the gospel of John, “Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. . . . But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.”—John 4: 21‑23.  Jesus here stated that the hour had already arrived when men could worship God at any place.  That hour continues until now.  So, many like expressions are to be taken, not in their specific meaning, but in a general sense.

The Lord gives the church at Philadelphia this consoling thought, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world.”—Rev. 3: 10.  “The hour of tempta­tion” mentioned here is The Great Tribulation.  The Tribula­tions will continue for many years, and yet they are mentioned as continuing but one “hour.”  We know that this verse does refer to The Great Tribulation, for we are told that this “hour” of temptation shall come upon all the world.  There never has been, nor never will be any one tribulation to cover the whole earth, except The Great Tribulation.  It will continue many years of earthly time, but only one “hour” in eternity’s count.

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.  The hour is coming, in the which all

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that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” —John 5: 25, 28, 29.  Some take this text to prove that the righteous and the wicked will be resurrected at the same time.  However, let us notice the context.  Jesus said, the “hour” now is; that is, at the time He was speaking, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live.  The “hour” had begun two years before His resurrec­tion, and it will continue for more than a thousand years yet; for we read in Rev. 20: 5, that the resurrection of the bad occurs a thousand years after the resurrection of the good.

     Martha met Jesus and said, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. . . . . Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.  Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”  John 11: 21­-24.  Notice that Martha placed the resurrection “at the last day.”  The just will be raised many earthly days before this dispensation closes; but the “day” mentioned here covers an indefinite period of time.

During The Great Tribulation many will cry out and say, “The great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?”—Rev. 6: 17.

You will notice in the above quotations the several refer­ences to “the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”  This term has direct reference to the battle of Armageddon, the last scene of The Great Tribulation days.  So we read, “They are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.”—Rev. 16: 14.

In Joel 2: 31 we read, “The sun shall be turned into dark­ness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.”  This does not mean that the sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the

 

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THE DAY OF THE LORD.

 

 

Bridehood saints are caught away, but before the battle of Armageddon.

If men would take all the Bible says on one subject, and study the different passages together, they would save them­selves from many mistakes and blunders.

“The day of the Lord” covers an indefinite period of time, and includes many events.  So may God save us from the error, into which so many have fallen, of trying to crowd all the events connected with “the day of the Lord” into a day of twenty‑four hours.