14-CHAPTER X THE "DAYS" OF GOD

CHAPTER X THE "DAYS" OF GOD

Golgotha is the crisis of the ages, a world crisis, the dawn of an age in which a completely new world arises. From the victory of Christ on the Cross and His triumph in resurrection there begins a development which, advancing through millenniums, merges at last into the eternal world transfiguration. All these ages are controlled by God as the supreme Lord of history and eternity and are therefore "hours" of God, "days" of God. In essence the New Testament unfolding of salvation on into eternity appears as the course of three great days of God, the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2), the last day (John 6:39-40; etc.), and the day of eternity (2 Peter 3:10-12). But with this, in the Scripture certain sub-sections of the "last day" are also described by the term "day," so that the "last day" is presented as the combination and sum of several shorter days of God, as "day of Christ," "day of the Lord," "that day," "day of judgment." This free usage of the word "day" is a sign of the great range and freedom with which the prophets, when delivering their messages, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, employed their terms. The first of these three chief days is The Day of Salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). This is the age in which we at present live. Through the Word of God and the Spirit of God the message of redemption is offered to mankind, full salvation in the accomplished work of the Savior, the undeserved gift of the free grace of God. There­fore the Lord says:"In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2). This "day" of grace will close when the full number from the nations is brought in and the church completed (Romans 11:25).

Looking backwards this New Testament time is the goal of the Old Testament preparatory development. All pre-Christian revelation was directed to the time of Christ. Therefore Christ is the final goal of the millenniums before the crisis of the ages. Therefore with His appearing the end age, that is, the goal age, had come—an organic united display of prophecy and fulfillment, of preparation and completion, which forthwith led early apos­tolic thought to describe the whole New Testament time of salvation from the first appearing of Christ as "End time," as the "last days." So Peter in his address on Pentecost ascribed the then events in Jerusalem to the "last days" (Acts 2:17). So John said in his epistle, "Little children, it is [the] last hour" (1 John 2:18). So Paul could say that upon us, the church of Christ, the "end points," the "goal points" of the pre-Messianic (pre-Christian) ages are come (1 Corinthians 10:11). According to early Christian conviction the "End time" began with the incarnation of Christ (Hebrews 1:1-2; 1 John 2:18). His first appearing is the beginning of the End, and with His second appearing begins the end of the End. Thus in the sense of the New Testament the history of the End is not simply the history of the ultimate future, but the whole New Testament history of salvation is the history of the End as a progressive perfecting and arriving at the consummation. In Christ the beginning of the completion has appeared. Therefore ever since then everything is already the "End time" (TheTriumphoftheCrucified,pp. 102ff.). But at length the close of this End time will come. This also will be completed in a mighty development embracing a lengthy period of centuries. This whole period from the close of the present age till the arrival of world perfecting the Holy Scripture calls a "day," that is "the last day." The Last Day This expression is found in Scripture especially in the mouth of the Lord Jesus (John 6:39-40; John 6:44; John 6:54; John 12:48), and also of one of His company (John 11:24).

According to the words of the Lord there belongs to "the last day" the resurrection of those whom the Father drew to the Son and had given to Him, who, having believed, have eternal life (John 6:39-40; John 6:44; John 6:54). Also, according to the testimony of the Lord, the judgment of the lost belongs to the "last day" (John 12:48). Now the Revelation of John explains that the "first" resurrection, in which only believers have part (Revelation 20:5-6), does not come together with the general resurrection; indeed, that the whole Millennium and the following "little time" (Gog and Magog) lie between:"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and it was given to them to exercise judgment... and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead lived not till the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection" (Revelation 20:4-6). But if now, according to the words of the Lord Jesus, both resurrections, the first and the general, belong to the "last day" it follows that this "day" is no single event but must be a long period which embraces first the introducing of the Millennial kingdom, then this itself, and finally the "little time" after the Millennium (Revelation 20:3; Revelation 20:7), and the general judgment of the world before the great white throne. Thus the "last day" is a day of God even as the present "day of salvation," which last has already included many centuries. "With God a thousand years are as a day" (2 Peter 3:8).

Now the members of the church belong to those whom the Father drew and gave to the Son, who stand in living organic fellowship with Him who for them died and rose again, who believe on Him and therefore possess eternal life. And concerning these Christ says plainly that He will raise them "in the last day" (John 6:39-40; John 6:44; John 6:54). Therefore the resurrection and rapture of the church must belong to the events of the "last day," with the contemporaneous manifestation before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10). The point of time of this manifestation of believers before the returning Lord Paul names the "day of Christ," "day of the Lord Jesus," "day of our Lord Jesus Christ," where, in all the six places in which he uses these expressions,¹ he speaks without exception of that which the final End time will bring judicially solely for believers of the New Testament church.² Never in this connection does he employ the term "day of the Lord." The reason is as follows. The term "day of the Lord" answers to the prophetic term "day of Jehovah." Thus it is rooted in Old Testament prophecy, and from this, since the time of Joel (2:1, 2; 3:14), had a fixed and firmly impressed meaning. It denoted the time and manner of the coming of the kingdom of God and the kingdom itself. But because, on account of the sins of Israel and of the nations, the visible kingdom of glory could only be introduced by severest catastrophies and displays of judgment, in Old Testament prophecy the term "day of Jehovah" (the Lord) signified the same as "the last tribulation," which breaks in as "great trouble" (Daniel 12:1) for Israel ("time of Jacob’s trouble," Jeremiah 30:7) and for the nations. In the New Testament, Christ in His discourse on Olivet (Matthew 24:16; Matthew 24:21; Matthew 24:29), and the apostle John in the Revelation further spoke of this. Occasionally Paul also wrote upon it (esp. 2 Thessalonians 1:10; 2 Thessalonians 2:2-12). But when at the end of his prophecy Joel cries:"Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for near is the dayofJehovah . . .; sun and moon are darkened" (Joel 3:14-15); and when he then, in the same connection, continues:"And it will come to ( pass inthatday that the mountains shall drop with new wine . . . and all the brooks of Judah shall flow with water" (Joel 3:18), then it is clear that he connects the term "day of the Lord" not with the gloomy time of judgment only, but also, and as concerns the length of the period, even chiefly with the glorious time of the visible kingdom of God. This is the reason why, in our Chart, we have not placed the expression "day of the Lord" simply in the section which represents the time of final (Antichristian) judgment, but have so set it that it reaches into the section of the Millennium. In numerous places in the prophets the kingdom of glory is described simply with the expression "those days" (plural), because thereby this period is at once and in especial manner denoted as the desired goal to which all expectation is directed, and which is so much the object of all waiting and the chief theme, of all prophecy that it simply did not need any closer description. There was only one series of blessed days which would bring true prosperity out of eternity into time, namely "those days" (Jeremiah 3:16; Joel 3:1; Joel 2:29; Zechariah 8:23). The close, then, is the last judgment, the "day of judgment,"³ in which all have to appear before God who did not have part in the rapture and the first resurrection. It is the ultimate event of the "last day," the final recompense of men and angels (Jude 1:6), the last settlement of accounts, at the great white throne.⁴ Thus is the final goal reached and eternity breaks in. In the ¹ Scripture this is described as The Day of Eternity (2 Peter 3:18),the Day of God (2 Peter 3:12) To introduce this the heaven must burst into flames and be 1 dissolved, and the elements melt in fervent heat (2 Peter 3:12). Then every sphere of sin is gone, and a new world stands forth in glory and holiness, with God Himself as its centre (Revelation 22:3), so that "God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28). And because this, God’s day of perfection and completion, will never end, but will continue in all ages of the ages, the Holy Scripture names this "day of God" also "day of eternity." This is the goal toward which we advance. Therefore it behoves us to press forward, to expect and to hasten the coming 1 of the day of God, to " grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).

Notes ¹Php 2:16; Php 1:6; Php 1:10; 1 Corinthians 1:8; 2 Corinthians 1:14.

²2 Cor. 5:10; Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 3:13-15; 1 Corinthians 4:2—5; etc.

³Matthew 10:15; Matthew 11:22; Matthew 11:24; Matthew 12:36.

⁴Revelation 20:11-15; 2 Peter 2:9; 2 Peter 3:7; Romans 2:5.