The Great Day of the Lord
The expression "the day of the Lord" or "the day of Jehovah," as given in the American Revised Version, is found in a number of places in the Bible. Some very impressive things are said of "the day of the Lord," and it might be well to raise the question, What does this "great day" signify? What is the day of the Lord, and what takes place in that time? The Scriptures, speaking of the event, are our only source of information, and so a few texts will be presented. One from Isaiah reads thus: "Wail ye; for the day of Jehovah is at hand; as destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Therefore shall all hands be feeble, and every heart of man shall melt; and they shall be dismayed; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman in travail; they shall look in amazement one at another; their faces shall be faces of flame. Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in its going forth, and the moon shall not cause its light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more rare than fine gold, even a man than the pure gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth shall be shaken out of its place, in the wrath of Jehovah of hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger." Isa. 13: 6-13. Iniquity, sin, crime, in all of their multiplied forms, have had their sway in the affairs of this world. Oppression and cruelty have stained the records with untold and indescribable suffering and by the shedding of vast oceans of blood. It has thus been made plain to all the universe what the results of wrong-doing are. And the time comes, according to the foregoing scripture, when the mighty Creator will take things in His own hands to "punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity." He "will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." Then the "day of the Lord" covers the judgment period when wickedness shall meet its doom. In harmony with the foregoing are the following words from the prophet Joel: "Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come." "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of Jehovah cometh, for it is nigh at hand." It is perfectly apparent to all that there are many things in this world that are grossly wrong and wicked, and that they need to be destroyed. This scripture points us to the time when Jehovah shall arise in His majesty to visit "destruction" upon every thing that is out of harmony with the standard of divine righteousness. And note also that our God has ordained the decree that an alarm shall be sounded in regard to that approaching day that will cause "all the inhabitants of the land" to "tremble." Men’s Minds Impressed by the Judgment Decree.
This decree has been blazing out from the word of God in a strikingly strong manner before the men of this generation. And there is a deep impression made by it upon the minds of all. Not merely the ignorant and the naturally superstitious class have been affected, but the most educated and enlightened have an inner consciousness that can not be shaken off that the "great day" is one of the assured events that will certainly occur. Let any unusually great disturbance of nature’s course occur, and immediately is heard the instinctive utterance, "The judgment day is at hand." The God of power has issued the decree, "Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble!" and you may seek to disguise it as you will, yet there is the indisputable fact that this trembling is in the hearts of all men. And, incidentally, this is one of the strongest evidences to you, reader, that God is true, and that His Bible is true, and that He is giving you a message in this very time to prepare for the great judgment day, which is one of the important events in the "day of the Lord." Another scripture upon the subject of the "day of the Lord," giving more of the detail of the events to occur, is the following: "But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness; but is long-suffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? But, according to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 Peter 3: 8-13. In the foregoing text the apostle refers to the "promise" the Lord has made. That this promise is the promise of the "day of the Lord" that will put an end to sin and misery, is made plain by the fact that "the day of the Lord" is immediately referred to as the event that will surely come. Even tho the Lord gave the promise concerning it thousands of years ago, the great day will surely come. The promise of the Lord that is a thousand years old is just as good as the one that is but one day old. The "Lord is not slack concerning His promise." His apparent delay is all for the purpose that men should not perish, but come to repentance. The Earth to Be Dissolved.
In the "day of the Lord," observe that the "heavens shall pass away with a great noise;" observe also that "the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth also," and "the works that are therein shall be burned up." This text from Peter makes it clearly strong that the "earth" and the "heaven" are to "melt," to be "dissolved;" the term "heavens" signifying the atmosphere that surrounds the earth. Such are some of the momentous things that are to take place in the great "day of the Lord." And it is evident upon the face of it, that the term "day" here signifies a period of time. "Abraham rejoiced to see my day," is an expression that the Master used in addressing the people of His time, and any one knows that He had direct reference to the whole period of His life and ministry on earth. The many events to occur in the "day of the Lord" would also show that it covers a period of time. The Earth Not to Be Annihilated.
The earth is to "melt" and to be "dissolved;" "but, according to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." The dissolving of the earth, then, does not mean its annihilation. This melting, dissolving process reduces the earth to a gaseous condition that burns up all the sin connected with it, and, sin and sinners being thus destroyed, the heavenly Father brings forth the new heaven and the new earth for the dwelling place of the righteous. Another very interesting event is connected with the "day of the Lord." This important event is the millennium. And hence we should inquire, What Is the Millennium? Where Does It Fit into the Great Day of the Lord.
A very plain scripture tells us what we may know of the millennium, and it reads: "And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be finished; after this he must be loosed for a little time.6"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshiped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; over these the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. Rev. 20: 1-6. Note especially the following points in the foregoing scripture: - An angel lays hold on Satan, binds him, and casts him into the abyss for a thousand years.
- Satan will deceive the nations no more till the thousand years are finished.
- At the close of the thousand years, Satan is loosed for a little season.
- Those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Christ, and who had refused to obey the powers of darkness that sought to lead them into rebellion against God, are seen on judgment thrones, and they live and reign with Christ in this capacity during the thousand years that Satan is bound.
- "The rest of the dead," or those who are not thus reigning with Christ, and who did not have a part in the first resurrection, live not again till the thousand years are finished.
The word rendered "abyss," and that is rendered "bottomless pit" in the Common Version, is the same one that the Septuagint translators chose to give the Greek version of the expression "waste and void," in Gen. 1: 2. The expression in Genesis refers to the earth when it was first spoken into existence; when it was still an unorganized mass of matter, and before God formed it into the thing of beauty that it was when He pronounced His work completed. Hence it would seem that the earth will be shaken back to chaos by the upheavals predicted as signs of the last days and by the further mighty manifestation of power at the coming of Christ that will shake not only earth, but heaven also; and into this chaotic "abyss" Satan will be cast for a thousand years. And there will not be a soul for him to visit or tempt in all that time, for the wicked have all been destroyed by the brightness of His coming (see 2 Thess. 2: 8), and the righteous dead have been raised and the living translated and taken to the New Jerusalem. "The rest of the dead," or those who were wicked, and who were not fit to live and reign with Christ, "lived not till the thousand years should be finished." Satan is also released from his prison at the end of the thousand years, showing that the resurrection of the wicked dead is what releases Satan by giving him back his subjects that served him during their lives; he at once takes charge of them, and, as shown in verses seven to ten of this same chapter from Revelation, he arouses their instincts for war that he had so prominently implanted in their minds during the period of their probationary lives, and proceeds to march against the "camp of the saints." The saints of God, as the Scripture teaches, return to earth along with the New Jerusalem when the wicked dead are raised to life, and thus it is rendered possible for Satan to march his forces against their camp. During this thousand years, the saved of Christ are sitting with Him on thrones of judgment. It would be absurd to say they are judging themselves; and, besides, they have already passed the judgment and are safe with their Lord in glory. Hence the only persons left for them to judge during this period are the wicked who are locked in death, awaiting the second resurrection, and Satan and his evil angels who are aimlessly roving in the abyss of this chaotic earth. If it seems strange to you that the saints of God should be engaged in this sort of judgment work, read the following from the Bible, and think upon the reasonableness of it: "I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom." Dan. 7: 21, 22. The Scriptural interpretation of the foregoing prophecy has been frequently set forth in the pages of this journal, and it will suffice for the present to call attention to the fact that the text directs us to a time when judgment is given to the "saints of the Most High," and this at a time when they are about to take their eternal kingdom. Another text reads: "Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more, things that pertain to this life." 1 Cor. 6: 2, 3. The saints shall judge both the world and angels, as this text plainly states. And the text already quoted from Revelation shows that they will sit on these thrones of judgment during the thousand years of the millennium, and while the wicked are all in their graves awaiting their call to life in the second resurrection. The Confidential Plan of the Judgment
How reasonable and how considerate is this plan of our divine Father! The wicked people with whom His children in all the ages have come in contact are not called to their eternal doom until the righteous are allowed to examine their judgment record. The true and accurate account of all the inner life of each has been kept under the direction of the Lord Himself, and His saints, or righteous ones, are called to examine this record, and to see for themselves just why the Lord has judged as He has in not calling any of the wicked to the honors and joys of the "first resurrection." And even farther than this does our Father take His people into His judgment counsels, Satan and his fallen angels are made to pass before this court review, and the intricate depths of his rebellion and plottings of evil are all exposed before the open tribunal of the redeemed and immortal host. And it will be with the earnest thrill of intelligent enthusiasm that all the redeemed throng will finally in united voice acclaim, "Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints." Rev. 15: 3. The "day of the Lord" is ushered in by the second coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven. The righteous dead are brought out of their graves in the thrilling joys of the "first resurrection,"—the resurrection to immortality and eternal life,—and the righteous living are immortalized and translated without having to taste death. The wicked, living at the second advent, are slain by the brightness of Christ's coming, and, along with all the wicked who have died before, they remain in the tomb till the second resurrection. And during the thousand years that intervene between these two resurrections, the saints of God sit on thrones of judgment to learn from the records of the court of heaven why the sentence of death is passed upon wicked men and fallen angels. And when this vast tribunal arises from its completed work, and when the wicked dead are brought forth to meet the judgment that has been passed upon them, then are we brought to the grand finale, the kingdom of Christ, upon which the following article briefly treats. T.