Bible Explanations
39. The Day of the Lord
Isaiah
2:12
- "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."
Isaiah 13:6 - "Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at
hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty."
Isaiah 13:9 - "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."
Isaiah 34:8 - "For it is the day of the LORD'S
vengeance,
and the year of recompences for the controversy of
Zion."
Jeremiah 46:10 - "For this is the day of the Lord GOD
of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his
adversaries:
and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk
with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in
the north country by the river Euphrates."
Lamentations 2:22 - "Thou hast called as in a solemn day my
terrors
round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped
nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine
enemy consumed."
Ezekiel 13:5 - "Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither
made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle
in the day of the LORD."
Ezekiel 30:3 - "For the day is near, even the day of
the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the
time of
the heathen."
Joel 1:15 - "Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is
at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come."
Joel 2:1 - "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 the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at
hand;"
Joel 2:11 - "And the LORD shall utter his voice before his
army: for his camp is very great: for he
is strong
that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is
great
and very terrible; and who can abide it?"
Joel 2:31 - "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the
moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the
LORD come."
Joel 3:14 - "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of
decision:
for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of
decision."
Amos 5:18 - "Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD!
to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is
darkness, and not light."
Amos 5:20 - "Shall not the day of the LORD be
darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in
it?"
Obadiah 1:15 - "For the day of the LORD is near upon
all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee:
thy reward shall return upon thine own head."
Zephaniah 1:7 - "Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord
GOD: for 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, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed
with strange apparel."
Zephaniah 1:14 - "The great day of the LORD is near, it
is near, and hasteth greatly, even the
voice of the
day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly."
Zephaniah 1:18 - "Neither their silver nor their gold shall
be
able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole
land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall
make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land."
Zephaniah 2:2,3 - "Before the decree bring forth, before
the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD
come upon you, before the day of the LORD'S anger come upon you.
Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought
his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye
shall be hid in the day of the LORD'S anger."
Zechariah 14:1 - "Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy
spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee."
Malachi 4:5 - "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before
the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD."
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."
1 Corinthians 5:5 - "To deliver such an one unto Satan for
the
destruction
of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord
Jesus."
2 Corinthians 1:14 - "As also ye have acknowledged us in
part, that
we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in
the
day of the Lord Jesus."
1 Thessalonians 5:2 - "For yourselves know perfectly that the
day
of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night."
2 Peter 3:10-13 - "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.
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 hasting unto the coming
of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be
dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless
we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth,
wherein dwelleth righteousness."
"The Day of the Lord"
refers
to the "Last Day," wherein God will judge the
earth. It is a terrible
day for man still in his sins. This phrase is used for the whole
of the last events, from Jesus coming again, the resurrection
of the just, the Millennium, the resurrection of the wicked and
the new heavens and the new earth being set up. All takes place
on the "Last Day".
As soon as Christ returns,
the sun and
moon shall be no more and there will be time no longer. All events
after this take place on the "Last Day":
Matthew 24:29,30 - "Immediately after the tribulation of
those
days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her
light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of
the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of
the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the
earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds
of heaven with power and great glory."
Revelation 10:6,7 - "And sware by him that liveth for ever
and
ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and
the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the
things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall
begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath
declared to his servants the prophets."
Some Biblical passages suggest that
there will
still be death and childbirth in the new heavens and the new earth.
e.g. . Isaiah 11:6; 65:20-25; Zechariah 8; Ezekiel 34:25;
Isaiah
65:17
calls this a "new heavens and new earth," yet
there
shall
still be sinners in it (Isaiah 65:20), so it cannot mean either
a premillennial kingdom on this earth or the final state. So we
must understand these passages to refer to the new life of the
Christian, which
is partially still in this present world, yet at the same time
he has had a new heart put within him and all things are becoming new.
2 Peter
3:10-13 - This passage speaks of the "Day
of the
Lord" as coming as a thief in the night. So it cannot be
at least a thousand years in the future, and neither can it be seen
by immediate signs - it will come suddenly. It is Christ's return
that will come suddenly, this being the first stage of everything
else that will take place on the "Day of the Lord."