The Bible has much to say about the day of the Lord. It is the most anticipated day on the Lord's calendar. Satan is the god of this present evil world (2 Cor. 4:4; Gal. 1:4) and it is still the "times of the Gentiles" (Lk. 21:24). But the times will change drastically when Christ comes again!
(1 Timothy 6:15) Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;
(Isaiah 33:5-6) "The LORD is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness. {6} And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure."
God is allowing man to have his day but it will come to a destructive end when the Lord has His day! Man seeks to abase the LORD and exalt himself but in the day of the LORD the pride of man will be abased and the LORD alone will be exalted in the earth. The first mention of the "day of the LORD" plainly tells us what that day will be all about.
(Isaiah 2:10-12) ¶ Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty. {11} The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. {12} For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
Is the day of the Lord just one 24 hour period? The word "day" when used without any limiting words may refer to a long or prolonged period: as, the "day of visitation", the "day of salvation", the "day of judgment", etc... But when the word "day" is used with a numerical, as one, two, three, etc..., or first, second, third, etc..., "evening and morning" (Gen. 1), it is defined, limited, and restricted to an ordinary day of 24 hours.
I believe that the day of the Lord is over a thousand years long and that it includes the tribulation period, second coming of Christ, millennial kingdom, final battle with Satan, and the renovation of heavens and earth by fire. This explains the seeming contradiction between passages that describe the day of the Lord as a time of great destruction and others which describe it as a time of great blessing.
The day of the Lord begins before the kingdom age because it includes the destruction of the wicked at the end of the great tribulation.
(Isaiah 13:6-11) ¶ Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. {7} Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt: {8} And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. {9} 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. {10} For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. {11} And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
A thousand years is as one day to the Lord (2 Pet. 3:8). The millennial reign of Christ will be the seventh millennium of human history. The Lord pictured this by making the heavens and earth in six days and resting on the seventh. Did you ever notice that the Bible does not say, "And the evening and the morning were the seventh day" (Gen. 2:1-3)? It is like the seventh day has no end. The kingdom age will run a thousand years and then there will be a final battle, the renovation of the heavens and earth with fire, and a new heaven and a new earth. But, "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever." (Isa. 9:6)
(Hebrews 4:4-11) For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. {5} And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. {6} Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: {7} Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. {8} For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. {9} There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. {10} For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. {11} Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
(Isaiah 28:11-12) For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. {12} To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
(Isaiah 11:9-10) They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. {10} ¶ And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
(Psalms 118:22-26) The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. {23} This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. {24} This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. {25} Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. {26} Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.
The final battle with Satan at the end of the millennial reign is also called the day of the LORD.
(Revelation 20:7-11) And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, {8} And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. {9} And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. {10} And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. {11} And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
(2 Peter 3:10) But 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.
But does the day of the LORD include the entire seven year tribulation period? Many believe that it doesn't and they use the following verses as proof.
(Malachi 4:5) Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: [Elijah is one of the two witness in the tribulation, Rev. 11]
(Acts 2:20) The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
Both prophecies are referring to the second coming of Christ in particular. The second coming of Christ is certainly the day of the Lord but the Bible does not limit the day of the Lord to that one glorious event. The wrath of God will reach its climax at the end of the great tribulation ("in them is filled up the wrath of God", Rev. 15:1) but that does not mean that God's wrath was not active until then.
(1 Timothy 6:15) Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;
(Isaiah 33:5-6) "The LORD is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness. {6} And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure."
God is allowing man to have his day but it will come to a destructive end when the Lord has His day! Man seeks to abase the LORD and exalt himself but in the day of the LORD the pride of man will be abased and the LORD alone will be exalted in the earth. The first mention of the "day of the LORD" plainly tells us what that day will be all about.
(Isaiah 2:10-12) ¶ Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty. {11} The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. {12} For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
Is the day of the Lord just one 24 hour period? The word "day" when used without any limiting words may refer to a long or prolonged period: as, the "day of visitation", the "day of salvation", the "day of judgment", etc... But when the word "day" is used with a numerical, as one, two, three, etc..., or first, second, third, etc..., "evening and morning" (Gen. 1), it is defined, limited, and restricted to an ordinary day of 24 hours.
I believe that the day of the Lord is over a thousand years long and that it includes the tribulation period, second coming of Christ, millennial kingdom, final battle with Satan, and the renovation of heavens and earth by fire. This explains the seeming contradiction between passages that describe the day of the Lord as a time of great destruction and others which describe it as a time of great blessing.
The day of the Lord begins before the kingdom age because it includes the destruction of the wicked at the end of the great tribulation.
(Isaiah 13:6-11) ¶ Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. {7} Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt: {8} And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. {9} 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. {10} For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. {11} And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
A thousand years is as one day to the Lord (2 Pet. 3:8). The millennial reign of Christ will be the seventh millennium of human history. The Lord pictured this by making the heavens and earth in six days and resting on the seventh. Did you ever notice that the Bible does not say, "And the evening and the morning were the seventh day" (Gen. 2:1-3)? It is like the seventh day has no end. The kingdom age will run a thousand years and then there will be a final battle, the renovation of the heavens and earth with fire, and a new heaven and a new earth. But, "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever." (Isa. 9:6)
(Hebrews 4:4-11) For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. {5} And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. {6} Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: {7} Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. {8} For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. {9} There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. {10} For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. {11} Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
(Isaiah 28:11-12) For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. {12} To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
(Isaiah 11:9-10) They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. {10} ¶ And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
(Psalms 118:22-26) The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. {23} This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. {24} This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. {25} Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. {26} Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.
The final battle with Satan at the end of the millennial reign is also called the day of the LORD.
(Revelation 20:7-11) And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, {8} And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. {9} And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. {10} And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. {11} And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
(2 Peter 3:10) But 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.
But does the day of the LORD include the entire seven year tribulation period? Many believe that it doesn't and they use the following verses as proof.
(Malachi 4:5) Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: [Elijah is one of the two witness in the tribulation, Rev. 11]
(Acts 2:20) The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
Both prophecies are referring to the second coming of Christ in particular. The second coming of Christ is certainly the day of the Lord but the Bible does not limit the day of the Lord to that one glorious event. The wrath of God will reach its climax at the end of the great tribulation ("in them is filled up the wrath of God", Rev. 15:1) but that does not mean that God's wrath was not active until then.
Those who believe in a mid-trib or pre-wrath rapture of the Body of Christ claim that the wrath of God does not come until the end of the great tribulation. Therefore, they claim that when Paul says we are delivered from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:10) and not appointed to wrath (1 Thess. 5:9), he is not teaching that the Body of Christ will be raptured before the tribulation period. But I know that the Body of Christ is not going through any of the seven years of tribulation because that whole week is the subject of prophecy concerning Israel (Dan. 9:24-27) and we are the mystery that was hid from the prophets (Eph. 3:1-12). The Body of Christ was revealed through Paul and so was our rapture (1 Cor. 15:51). He exhorted the Body of Christ to look for Christ from heaven (Phil. 3:20-21), not the anti-Christ from earth (for more reasons why I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture of the Body of Christ see this post: the pre-tribulation rapture).
We are saved from the wrath to come (Rom. 5:9) and all seven years of the tribulation period is a result of God's wrath. The six seals that are opened in Rev. 6 provide an overview of the entire tribulation period (see this post: overview of Daniel's 70th week). The first seal produces the antichrist (Rev. 6:1-2) and the sixth seal shows us the second coming of Christ (Rev. 6:12-17). Who opens the seals? The Lamb of God! Some teachers claim that the tribulation will be the result of the wrath of man and Satan but not God. We are well aware that Satan will be wroth with the godly remnant of Israel and seek to destroy them (Rev. 12:17) but it is THE LORD who has Michael and his angels kick Satan and his angels out of heaven and down to the earth (Rev. 12:7-12). Before that takes place it is THE LORD who sends the strong delusion causing the Christ-rejecting world to believe the lie of the antichrist that they all might be damned (2 Thess. 2:11-12). The antichrist will be able to deceive the world as a result of God's wrath on those who rejected Him. Throughout the tribulation God's wrath is active to a limited extent (millions die during that period) but at the end it is FILLED UP and fully poured out.
The entire tribulation period is the Lord's day.
(Revelation 1:10) I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
Many teachers claim that the “Lord’s day” in this verse is not referring to the day of the Lord. They actually think this verse means that John got happy on Sunday! Nowhere does the Bible refer to the first day of the week as the Lord's day! So, why "Lord's day" instead of "day of the Lord" as its always written in the OT? There is no adjective for “Lord’s” in the Hebrew language and therefore it is always expressed by two nouns. In Greek and English it can be said either way. When translating the phrase from the Hebrew the translators consistently translated it with two nouns in English.
Revelation is a book of prophecy (Rev. 1:3) and therefore John writes as a prophet. We must compare scripture with scripture (1 Cor. 2:13) to understand what it means for a prophet to be “in the Spirit”. Every believer is in the Spirit (Rom. 8:9) but that is not what is being referred to here. John was in the Spirit in the same sense that this phrase is used throughout the book of Revelation (4:2; 17:3; 21:10). John was not the only prophet to be moved "in the spirit" to different locations and time periods.
(Ezekiel 37:1-2) The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, {2} And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.
This reference confirms that the Spirit can literally move a prophet to another location (for other examples see: Ezek. 3:14; Acts 8:39). Since the Spirit is eternal and omnipresent, is it not possible that the Spirit moved John into the future day of the Lord to be an eyewitness of the things he wrote? This is not speculation or far-fetched because the scripture records that others had a similar experience! Ezekiel saw and described the future millennial temple (Ezek. 40-48). Isaiah saw Christ in the millennial temple when “the whole earth is full of his glory”(Isa. 6). Peter, James, and John were “eyewitnesses” of the majesty of Christ in His kingdom glory (2 Pet. 1:16-18).
When we simply compare the references to "the day of the LORD" with the contents of the book of Revelation it is obvious that “the Lord’s day” refers to this same prophetic day. John was in the day of the Lord when as an eyewitness he wrote about the events of all seven years of the tribulation period, the second coming, the millennial reign, the final battle with Satan, and the renovation of the heavens and earth with fire. Therefore I conclude that the day of the Lord includes the entire tribulation period which will be the time of Jacob's trouble.
(Jeremiah 30:4-11) ¶ And these are the words that the LORD spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah. {5} For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. {6} Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? {7} Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. {8} For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him: {9} But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them. {10} ¶ Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. {11} For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.
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