THE NATURE OF THE DAY OF THE LORD – THE
WRATH OF GOD
“15Then (that
is, after the sign of the sun, moon and stars that signals the
beginning of the Day of the Lord appears in the sky)
the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders
and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid
themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains;
16and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall
on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits
on the throne (that is,
God the Father), and from
the wrath of the Lamb (that
is, Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God);
17for the great day of their wrath has come
(this verse makes it clear that the
nature of the Day of the Lord is the wrath of God, see supporting
scriptures below), and who
is able to stand?’” (Revelation 6:12-17,
emphasis and notes added)
SUPPORTING SCRIPTURES
“6Wail, for the day
of the LORD is near! It will come as destruction
from the Almighty (this
is the primary purpose of the Day of the Lord – to destroy
the evil and wicked on earth. The secondary purpose of the Day
of the Lord is to refine the third part of Israel who will survive
the Great Tribulation by Antichrist, cf. Jeremiah 30:11, Zechariah
13:9, Malachi 3:2-4, and prepare the remnant of Israel for her
Messiah Jesus Christ). 7Therefore
all hands will fall limp, and every man's heart will melt. 8They
will be terrified, pains and anguish will take hold of them;
they will writhe like a woman in labor, they will look at one
another in astonishment, their faces aflame. 9Behold, the
day of the LORD is coming, cruel, with fury and burning anger
(in other words, with great
wrath), to make the
land a desolation; and He will exterminate its sinners from
it (the two objects of the
Day of the Lord Judgment: the earth and the wicked earth-dwellers).
10For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not
flash forth their light; the sun will be dark when it rises;
and the moon will not shed its light. 11Thus I will
punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud and abase
the haughtiness of the ruthless (in
a word, the Day of the Lord Judgment is destruction, punishment
and humiliation from the Lord Almighty God onto the evil, wicked,
arrogant and ruthless dwellers on earth)”.
(Isaiah 13:6-11, emphasis added, see also Zephaniah
1:14-18)
“5(God) did not spare the
ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher
of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought
a flood upon the world of the ungodly (the
first comparison made by Peter between the Day of the Lord Judgment
and the Flood at Noah’s days that destroyed the whole
world except the family of Noah);
6and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
to destruction by reducing them to ashes (the
second comparison made by Peter between the Day of the Lord
Judgment and the total destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by
God), having made them an
example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; 7and
if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the
sensual conduct of unprincipled men. … 9then the
Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation
(that is, just like God did for Noah
and Lot before the Flood and destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,
the Lord God will also preserve/rescue His people before His
wrath is poured out onto the earth to destroy the evil and wicked.
As we have already seen from the scriptures at the previous
chapter, Christ will accomplish this goal at His return by sealing
the remnant Jews and catching away the living saints on earth
before the seven trumpets are sounded),
and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the
Day of Judgment (that is,
to keep those who are left behind for the Day of the Lord Judgment,
which consists of the seven trumpet and seven bowl judgments.
See below for details)”.
(2 Peter 2:5-7, 9, emphasis and notes added)
THE TIMING OF THE DAY OF THE LORD JUDGMENT
It Starts on the Same Day as the Rapture of
the Saints
“36But of that day and hour
no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but
the Father alone (the exact time
of the Lord’s coming is made unknown by God the Father,
yet the manner of His coming is made clear through the passage
below). 37For the
coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah
(in two ways: first it will come
suddenly in surprise to the wicked; second, the righteous will
be delivered, i.e. raptured or caught away, before the wicked
are destroyed). 38For as in
those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered
the ark, 39and they did not understand until the
flood came and took them all away (they
were totally destroyed on the same day as Noah and his family
entered the ark); so
will the coming of the Son of Man be (in
the same manner, the Day of the Lord Judgment will happen on
the same day as the elect of God are rescued or raptured from
the earth). 40Then there will
be two men in the field; one will be taken
(that is, taken to be with the Lord)
and one will be left (that
is, left for God’s judgment).
41Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken
and one will be left. 42Therefore be on the
alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming”.
(Matthew 24:36-42, emphasis and notes added,
see also Luke 17:26-30)
SUPPORTING SCRIPTURE
“11In the six hundredth year
of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day
of the month, on the same day all the fountains
of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky
were opened. 12The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and
forty nights. 13On the very same day Noah and
Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife
and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the
ark (this key verse clearly
states that the rain fell down from heaven on the same day as
Noah and his family entered the ark. The Day of the Lord Judgment,
as Christ describes in Matthew 24 and Luke 17, will also start
on the same day as Christ returns to earth and after He raptures
His saints), 14they and every
beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and
every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind,
and every bird after its kind, all sorts of birds.” (Genesis
7:11-14, emphasis and notes added)
It Ends on the 7th Bowl Judgment at the Day
of the Battle of Armageddon
“1Then I saw another sign
in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven
plagues (that is, the seven
bowl judgments), which are
the last (or, final),
because in them the wrath of God is finished
(which supports the notion that the
Day of the Lord ends at the seventh bowl judgment, which is
believed to be 30 days after the end of the 70th Week of Daniel,
at the same day of the Battle of Armageddon, cf. Daniel 12:11).
… 17Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the
air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne,
saying, ‘It is done.’ (which
means, the total wrath of God is complete. From this point on,
there is a 45-day restoration period during which God will restore
the earth and prepare it for the Millennium Kingdom of Christ,
cf. Daniel 12:12) 18And there
were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and
there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since
man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it,
and so mighty.” (Revelation 15:1 and
16:17-18, emphasis and notes added)
THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS DURING THE DAY OF THE LORD
1. The Seven Trumpet Judgments
“1When the Lamb broke
the seventh seal (which
then makes the whole book open, thus revealing the content of
the book: the initial wrath of God – the seven trumpet
judgments, which cumulate to the end of the 70th Week of Daniel),
there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2And I saw
the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets
were given to them. 3Another angel came and stood at the altar,
holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him,
so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on
the golden altar which was before the throne. 4And the smoke
of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before
God out of the angel's hand. 5Then the angel took the censer
and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the
earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes
of lightning and an earthquake. 6And the seven angels who had
the seven trumpets (see
Revelation 8-9 for descriptions of the first six trumpet judgments,
and Revelation 10:7-8 for the sounding of the seventh trumpet,
which initiates the final wrath of God – the seven bowl
judgments. See below for an explanation of the seventh trumpet),
prepared themselves to sound them.” (Revelation
8:1-6, emphasis and notes added)
“7but in the days of the
voice of the seventh angel (Just
like the seventh seal initiates the seven trumpet judgments,
the seventh trumpet initiates the seven bowl judgments, which
cumulate to the climactic battle of Armageddon),
when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished,
as He preached to His servants the prophets. 8Then the voice
which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and
saying, ‘Go, take the book (that
is, ‘the little book’ in Revelation 10:2. After
eating it, John was given a new series of visions about the
ministry of the two witnesses during the second half the 70th
Week of Daniel, the final wrath of God – the seven bowl
judgments in the extended 30-day period, and the establishment
of the Millennium Kingdom of Christ on earth)
which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea
and on the land.’" (Revelation 10:7-8,
emphasis and notes added)
2. The Seven Bowl Judgments
“6and the seven angels who
had the seven plagues (that
is, the seven bowl judgments)
came out of the temple, clothed in linen, clean and bright,
and girded around their chests with golden sashes. 7Then one
of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven
golden bowls full of the wrath of God (the
bowl judgments are different than the trumpet judgments in that
they are quick to pour out and accomplished in a short time
manner [in 30 days]. Moreover, they are the wrath of God to
the fullest extent. While the trumpet judgments only affect
a third of the earth and living beings, the bowl judgments intend
for the whole earth and every living being on earth, see Revelation
16 for details about the bowl judgments),
who lives forever and ever. 8And the temple was filled with
smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no one was
able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven
angels were finished.’” (Revelation 15:6-8,
emphasis and notes added)
3. The Marriage of the Lamb
“6Then I heard something like
the voice of a great multitude (that
is, the raptured saints of all ages, see Revelation 7:9)
and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty
peals of thunder, saying, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our
God, the Almighty, reigns. 7Let us rejoice and be glad and give
the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb
(that is, the heavenly ceremony of
Christ formally receiving His own to Himself)
has come and His bride (that
is, the elect of Christ, ‘those whose names are written
in the Lamb’s book of life’, cf. Revelation 21:27)
has made herself ready. 8It was given to her to clothe herself
in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous
acts of the saints." (Revelation 19:6-8,
emphasis and notes added)
4. The Battle of Armageddon
“11And I saw heaven opened,
and behold, a white horse (which
compares to the white horse in the 1st seal in Revelation 6:2),
and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True
(this rider is the Faithful and True
Christ, compared to the false Christ in Revelation 6:2),
and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12His eyes are
a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems
(which are eternal heavenly diadems,
compared to the temporary earthly diadems on the heads of Satan
[Revelation 12:3] and the beast [Revelation 13:1]);
and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself.
13He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is
called The Word of God (which
makes the rider’s identity crystal clear: He is the Lord
Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, cf. John 1:1, 14).
14And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen,
white and clean, were following Him on white horses. …
19And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies
assembled (at the
battlefield of Armageddon, cf. Revelation 16:16)
to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His
army.” (Revelation 19:11-14, 19, emphasis
and notes added)
5. The Final Destruction of Antichrist and the
False Prophet
“20And the beast
(that is, the beast from the sea,
the Antichrist, cf. Revelation 13:1-4)
was seized, and with him the false prophet
(that is, the beast from the earth,
the Enforcer of Antichrist, cf. Revelation 13:11-12)
who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived
those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped
his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake
of fire (the final destruction
of Antichrist and the False Prophet)
which burns with brimstone. 21And the rest were killed with
the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse,
and all the birds were filled with their flesh.” (Revelation
19:20-21, emphasis and notes added)
A FINAL EXHORTATION OF PAUL
“1Now as to the times
and the epochs (of the second
coming of Lord Jesus Christ, see context in chapter 4 of 2 Thessalonians),
brethren, you have no need of anything
to be written to you. 2For you yourselves know full well that
the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the
night (just like a thief
comes in the night suddenly to steal, kill and destroy [John
10:10], the day of the Lord will come in sudden surprise to
the unbelieving world and destroy them all, see also 2 Peter
3:10-13). 3While they are
saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will
come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon
a woman with child, and they will not escape
(from the wrath and punishment of
the day of the Lord). 4But
you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day (the
day of the Lord) would
overtake you like a thief; 5for you are all sons of light and
sons of day (yet to faithful
obedient believers of Christ ‘who hear the words of the
prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it’
[Revelation 1:3] and thus fully prepared, the Lord Jesus Christ
is not coming as a thief in the night, but rather as the Lord
of glory). We are not of night
nor of darkness; 6so then let us not sleep as others do, but
let us be alert and sober. 7For those who sleep do their sleeping
at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. 8But since
we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate
of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. 9For
God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation
through our Lord Jesus Christ (true
believers of Jesus Christ are promised to be physically delivered
from the wrath to come by the second coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ, Amen!)”. (2
Thessalonians 5:1-9, emphasis and notes added)
