02.11. The Day of the Lord - When it Comes and What it Means
XI THE DAY OF THE LORD--WHEN IT COMES AND WHAT IT MEANS
I
EVEN the cursory reader of the Bible will have observed the frequent phrase, "the day of the Lord," or "that day," or "in that day." It is found in the Old Testament prophets chiefly, notably Isaiah and Joel, but also in the New Testament.
Some illustrations follow: "The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day" (Isaiah 2:11) ; "And it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel . . . shall stay upon the Lord" (Isaiah 10:20); “Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand" (Isaiah 13:6); "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come" (Joel 2:31); "His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives" (Zechariah 14:4); "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord" (Matthew 7:22); "When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that day" (2 Thessalonians 1:10) ; "The day of the Lord will come as a thief" (2 Peter 3:10) ; "The battle of that great day of God Almighty" (Revelation 16:14).
II
It is natural to ask what this phrase means, and when the time will come to which it refers. There appear to be contradictions in the allusions to it. It contains blessings for the earth, and yet it also contains judgments. What relation does it bear to what is called the "Millennium"? This last-named period has not been dealt with in these studies, but it has been assumed that our readers had some knowledge of it. "Millennium" means a thousand years, and is commonly used with reference to the thousand years named in Revelation 20:1-6, when Satan shall be shut up in the bottomless pit. It is the time of "the first resurrection," when Christ and His saints shall reign over the earth. The question is, will the day of the Lord come before, or during, or after the Millennium’ As a matter of fact, it willcover all these three phases of time.It begins just prior to the Millennium, it continues throughout that period, and extends somewhat beyond it. But before it begins, there are certain preliminary events which must take place. One of these is the translation of the Church to meet the Lord in the air, as foretold by Paul (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18). Another is the regathering of Israel to Palestine, on which we dwelt in a previous study. And a third is the federation of the Gentile nations (that is, the former nations of the Roman Empire) under a single head, as we saw in a study preceding this. This person the Scriptures sometimes describe as "the beast," sometimes as "the man of sin," “the son of perdition," or“the Antichrist." Our previous studies have made us more or less familiar with all these things.
III On the supposition that these events have taken place, then the day of the Lord begins with the return of the Lord Himself in glory. When He comes for His Church (according to John 14:1-3, Php 3:20-21, and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18), He comes into the air and the Church is caught up to meet Him. But when, after a brief interval (possibly the seven years spoken of in Daniel 9:1-27), He comes in judgment on the nations, it will be to the earth that He descends. This is what is meant by "the return of the Lord himself in glory." See for this Zechariah 14:4; Matthew 24:29-30; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10. The judgment of the nations follows, and Psalms 50:1-23, Zechariah 14:1-9, Matthew 25:31-46 and Revelation 19:11-21 find their fulfillment. Be sure to read these Scriptures, which are very full and graphic.
It is in the course of this judgment on the nations that there takes place the destruction of "the beast" and the "false prophet," with their followers, as referred to in the study preceding this. See in this instance Daniel 9:27, 2 Thessalonians 2:8, Revelation 19:20 and corresponding places. The binding of Satan is next in order (Revelation 20:1-3), and then we have the Millennium. The binding of Satan, it should be borne in mind, is a necessary preliminary to the Millennium, or to Christ’s reign in righteousness. Necessary because he must be kept in restraint.
It is during the Millennium that the Kingdom of God is established in the earth. This is the kingdom promised to David, as we have seen in our third study, and over which His son Jesus Christ shall reign. It is the kingdom of which Daniel prophesied, as brought out in our study on "The Times of the Gentiles." It is the kingdom that Christ "Came to set up at His first advent, and for which Israel and indeed the whole world has been looking, in a more or less darkened way, in all the centuries,
Revelation 20:4-6 refers to this kingdom very briefly, but for descriptions of its physical blessings one must turn to the Old Testament. The reason for this is that the nation of Israel shall then be dominant, to which people the promises were made in the Old Testament days.
Read Psalms 72:1-20, or look at Isaiah 2:1-22 for one of the pictures of the Millennium. There, at last, the poor are being judged with righteousness, the wild beasts are tamed, there is nothing to destroy in all God’s holy mountain, and the earth is "full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." It is the time when "he shall show who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords" (1 Timothy 6:15). But it must not be imagined that because Satan is bound all this time, therefore there will be no sin in the earth. Isaiah 65:20 says of that time: "There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die an hundred years old;but the sinner beinganhundred years old shall be accursed."It is the period when Christreigns,but as another aptly says: "the fundamental idea of a reign, according to God, is the repression of evil. When all evil is suppressed, that is, in the eternal age, righteousness will dwell" in the earth, but it will not "reign."
IV The Millennium lasts for a thousand years, but still "the day of the Lord" continues, and includes in its history another resurrection. This is the resurrection of the rest of the dead that did not rise when Christ came for His Church, because they were not part of it. In other words, these are the wicked dead who, in all the centuries from Adam, have died without faith, have died rejecting the testimony of God. Revelation 20:5 refers to this.
But, it may be asked, what about the righteous and regenerate who die during the Millennium? As to this we are unable to speak with clearness, unless we interpret Isaiah 65:20-22, mentioned above, as indicating that none but wicked and unbelieving people shall die during that period. If this be true, then at its close "death will have none to surrender except those who will stand before the Great White Throne, and who alas! will be cast into hell." In this connection think of that beautiful millennial promise in Isaiah 65:22 : "For as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall wear out the work of their hands" (Margin).
Quoting William Lincoln, "How solemn it isthatthe first resurrection, that of the righteous, is not contrasted by the Holy Spirit with the second resurrection, that of the wicked; but instead we read of thefirstresurrection and of the seconddeath.The summoning of the wicked from their graves is termed a resurrection in judgment in John 5:1-47, but here the language is changed to ’the second death.’" Several times in this chapter the wicked are still termed dead, even after their resurrection. And dead indeed they are, not in the sense of non-existence, but in that of separation from God. But the second resurrection seems to synchronize with the unbinding of Satan, who goes out again "to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, and to gather them to battle" (Revelation 20:8). This is one of the strangest and most startling facts associated with the whole teaching of the Millennium. It thus appears that while during that period Christ will be obeyed and served by the nations, yet to no small extent it will be on their part a feigned obedience and an unwilling service. See Zechariah 14:16-19. Men will need, in that day as well as in this, to be "born again" in order to "enter into the kingdom of heaven" (John 3:3-7). The nations will be ready to be again deceived, when Satan comes back into his power "for a little season," and the battle to which he shall gather them will be another attack upon Jerusalem, "the camp of the saints about and the beloved city" (Revelation 20:9). It is at this time that God has His last and most awful conflict with man in the flesh. "And fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." The destruction of Satan follows. He is "cast into the lake of fire and brimstone," where the beast and the false prophet were cast at the beginning of the Millennium (Revelation 19:20), and he is there "tormented day and night forever and ever" (Revelation 20:10).
Revelation 20:3 teaches that Satan “must be loosed a little season." Why the "must"? Is it not that man may be tested or tried again Y He had been tried in the garden of Eden, when he possessed the knowledge of good only; he had been tried again, when he possessed the knowledge of "good and evil," amid evil only. But now finally, at the close of the Millennium, he must be tried when he possesses the knowledge of good and evil, amid only good. Then it will be evident that, let the circumstances be what they may, man himself is not good (Lincoln).
Thus the millennial day that had dawned so brightly on earth ends as all the preceding ones ended-in disaster, so far as man is concerned. Man without Christ can only fail.
V The next great event divinely scheduled in the day of the Lord is the Last Judgment. Not the “general" judgment, as it is often erroneously called, for there is no such judgment; but only the judgment of the dead, the wicked dead already spoken of. And they were" judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." They had an opportunity to be judged in Christ by faith in His blessed Name, but this they wickedly rejected. They chose rather to stand upon their own record, and not His. Their" works" were that in which they gloried, and God kept an accurate record of them. But their value was nil, for "whatsoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
"This is the second death" relatively to their preceding physical death in unbelief, but it is not annihilation, as shown by Revelation 19:20 and Revelation 20:10. As the Scofield Reference Bible reminds us, "after one thousand years in the lake of fire the beast and the false prophet are still there and undestroyed.” “Forever and ever" or "to the ages of the ages" are the words, and that they carry the awful thought of unendingness is evidenced by the fact that they are used in Hebrews 1:8 of the very Throne of God itself. May the unbelieving and unsaved reader take warning from this solemn fact, and before it is too late fly for refuge to the hope set before us in the Gospel. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
QUESTIONS ON THE LESSON
1. Give some illustrations of the Scriptural use of the phrase, "The Day of the Lord," or its equivalent.
2. What seeming contradictions are observed in the use of it?
3. What does “Millennium" mean and with what time is it identified?
4. Will "The Day of the Lord" come before, during, or after the Millennium?
5. What three events precede “The Day of the Lord"?
6. When does that “Day" begin?
7. What is meant by “the return of the Lord Himself in glory"?
8. What follows this return?
9. Have you read the Scriptures indicated?
10. What events take place in the course of the judgments on the nations?
11. What is a necessary preliminary to the Millennium, and why?
12. What parallel is suggested here?
13. What is established in the earth during the Millennium?
14. Identify this "kingdom" in other Scriptures.
15. Where are its physical blessings more particularly revealed, and why?
16. Have you read Psalms 72:1-20 and Isaiah 11:1-16?
17. Will there be sin in the earth during the Millennium?
18. What distinction do you see between righteousness “reigning" and righteousness “dwelling" in the earth?
19. Who are the persons in the second resurrection?
20. How do some interpret Isaiah 65:20-22?
21. How is the word “dead" in Revelation 20:1-15 to be understood?
22. With what does the "second resurrection" or rather the "second death," synchronize?
23. What startling fact does this bring forward?
24. When does God have His final conflict with man in the flesh?
25. What event follows?
26. Why the word “must" in Revelation 20:3?
27. What is the next great event in “The Day of the Lord"?
28. Who are judged here and on what basis are they judged?
29. What name is given to that which follows this judgment?
30. What proves that the second death is not annihilation?
31. What is the warning for the unsaved?