THE DAY OF THE LORD


THE DAY OF THE LORD

                Throughout scripture the phrase “The day of the Lord” is used many times. And though it is used to describe historical times of war, persecution, and captivity brought on by Israel’s disobedience; it most often spoke of one particular event. It spoke of the Day of the Lord at the end of the age.

                The day of the Lord, as far as I can understand, contains the following elements, listed in the order of their progression:

1.       Tribulation

2.       Rapture (Rev 14: 14-16) the sickle harvest.

3.       Wrath (Begins with chapter 14:18-20.) Note that chapter 15 shows the raptured saints on the sea of glass while chapter 16 shows the wrath of God being poured out in the form of vial judgments)

4.       Second Coming

                Now, to break these down into their component parts we would see the following:

1.       THE TRIBULATION… would include the seals and the trumpets (Rev. Ch. 6 through Ch. 14:13)

2.       THE RAPTURE…would include the resurrection of the righteous and our being caught up                                                               together with them to meet our Lord in the air. (Eph. 4:16-18, 1 Cor. 15:51,52,                                    Rev 14:14-16)

3.       THE WRATH… would include:

A.       The bowl or vial judgments including the seven last plagues  (Rev. chapter 16)

B.      The judgment of the great prostitute, now a global composite religion( Chapter 17)

C.      The judgment of the secular global government. (Rev 18)

4.       THE SECOND COMING would include:

A.      The return of Jesus Christ with his saints (Revelation 19)

B.      The casting of the Beast and the False Prophet into the lake of fire ( Rev. 19:20, 21)

C.      The final battle of Armageddon (Rev. 16:16)

D.      Yeshua landing on the Mt. of Olives to begin His millennial reign. (Zech. 14)

5.       There is a fifth element that comes next, but I am not sure if it would be included in the Day of the Lord. It is the 1000 year millennial reign of Christ on the earth with His saints, (both Jews and Gentiles from Jerusalem.) In other words, all who reign with Him at that time will have received Yeshua as Messiah, Lord and King.  (By faith we are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise.) We will reign as one new man in Christ. So this fifth element will include

A.      Satan bound for 1000 years

B.      The millennial reign of 1000 years

C.      The final release of Satan to deceive the nations ( Rev. 20:7,8)

D.      The final judgment and destruction of Satan and the wicked. (Rev. 20:12-15)

E.       The Holy City the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven ( And as we can see from scripture, that eternal city will be made up of both Jews and Gentiles together in one City called the Bride of the Lamb.) (Rev 21:9-27)

F.       A new heaven and a new earth. (Rev 21:1)

G.     Eternity.

                This is a brief sketch of the natural flow of the book of Revelation, which deals with the tribulation, the rapture, the wrath, and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

                Some use the “Come up here” of Revelation chapter 4 to prove  a pre-trib rapture, but when John goes up there, He sees the Lamb, and 24 elders, and lamp stands and living creatures, but the one thing he doesn’t see is the church. In fact, the first time he sees the church is in chapter 7 as a great crowd which no man can number and they have come out of the great tribulation.

                These are things that we must consider if we want to look at what the bible says instead of what we want it to say. Jesus doesn’t want to save just a small group. He wants to save as many as possible and many Christians are not ready for Him to come yet, and many non-Christians have not heard the Gospel yet. The main reason for the tribulation is to bring all of these issues before the world, to force a final choice and to purify the saints.

                I will not make a doctrine that says that there will not be a special resurrection of the wise virgins, or what the bible calls the Bride that will reign with Him. But I do not believe that the general rapture of the church can come before there is a great shaking so that everything that can be shaken will be shaken, so that what remains cannot be shaken. See Hebrews 12:26-29

                Hebrews 12 also says, “Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.” We are in a process. We are being refined and purified as we learn to live by the Spirit rather than by the flesh. We are training to reign and we are overcoming by the blood of eh lamb and by the word of our testimony.

                However large portions of the church are not with the program. Through this hyper grace they are saying it doesn’t matter what we do… God understands, but that is not the message of the Bible. Every theme of the Bible is about repentance, stewardship, preparation, refining, purifying, learning, studying, being transformed into His image, bearing the fruit of the Spirit , operating in the gifts of the Spirit, loving and ministering to others. There is no sign of the hyper grace that is being preached today.


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