The Day of the LORD
Introduction
I invite adherents of the "theological framework" called Covenant Theology, who likely also hold to postmillennial/amillennial eschatology, to carefully and prayerfully read this article. While not a formal rebuttal of these unbiblical frameworks, you will find dozens of Scriptures that demonstrate that post-millennial/amillennial eschatology simply can't be true. If your mind is truly obedient to the Bible, you will renounce these errors once you have seen and obeyed the truth of the Scriptures as herein revealed. If not, then check your heart; you will find that it is not right before the LORD.
For a formal rebuttal of Covenant Theology, please refer to A Biblical Rebuttal of Dr. Richard Belcher's “The Fulfillment of the Promises of God”, this site.
The Day of the LORD is the series of events which detail (greatly simplified):
- The return of the Lord Christ, followed by the Judgment of the Nations to judge only those living at that time;
- to rule national Israel and the earth for a period of 1000 years (typically termed the Millennium);
- to be followed by the Great White Throne Judgment, the eternal judgment of only the lost; and
- the creation of the New Heaven and New Earth wherein will dwell all His true people forever.
These are the premises of this article and are thoroughly demonstrated from the Scriptures.
A very useful distinction to bear in mind is this: the Lord Christ is called the “judge of the living and the dead”. (Act 10.42; 2 Tim 4.1; 1 Pet 4.5).
- He is the judge of the living at the Judgment of the Nations (at the start of the Millennium), and
- the judge of the dead at the Great White Throne Judgment (at the end of the Millennium).
[EDIT Oct 2023:
As I study for the next major article, a thorough rebuttal of the serious eschatological error known as Amillennialism, one issue that I consistently encounter within the major tenets held by the Amillennial proponent is their (willing?) ignorance of the fact that the Lord Christ is revealed to be the Judge of the Living and the Dead.
The LORD declared a long time ago that we should pay close attention to His every Word. (Deu 8.3) If this is the case—and it is—then we should pay close attention to an important distinction in this title of the Lord Christ. As this article demonstrates, this distinction in title is front and center with the fact that the Scriptures detail two major judgments: the Judgment of the Nations (Mat 25.31-46) and the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20.11-15). While the Amillennial proponent consistently conflates these, they are very different in their audiences and times. Any serious Bible student will come to the same conclusion—unless he/she is blinded by an eschatological framework.
It is astonishing to me that the Amiillennial proponent consistently refers to a single, "final" judgment when the Scripture teaches that there are two judgments (as just mentioned): the judgment of the living (only) and the judgment of the dead (only), respectively, matching the Lord Christ's title. The Amiillennial proponent either can't see (or refuses to see!) that these are not the same! (Of course, the Amiillennial proponent must hold to a single judgment; if not, their entire, contrived timeline breaks down and Amillennialism collapses.)]
In both the Old and New Testaments we find repeated warnings of the fact that the LORD will require an accounting of all mankind.
While the phrase the Day of the LORD and its equivalents are found in the OT in ~17 passages, the same term and its equivalents are mentioned in ~49 passages in the NT. Since the OT, by word count, is nearly 3 times the size of the NT this means that the topic of the Day of the LORD occurs about 8 times more often in the NT than the OT! To those ~49 occurrences in the NT the Lord Christ Himself contributed 11, nearly one-quarter of the total mentions in the NT.
This frequency of mention should not surprise us: the topic of the Scriptures is the Lord Christ. The NT, by design, is the revelation of the Lord Christ and therefore should make frequent mention of that day which will be uniquely His.
[The statistic of word counts in the NASB can be found in a helpful article, “How many chapters, verses, and words are in the Bible?”]
The Day of the LORD is expressed in various ways throughout the Bible:
Isa 2.17,20; 4.2; 11.10-11; 19.16; 24.21; 25.9; 26.1; 27.1; 29.18; 30.23; 52.6; Jer 30.7-8; Joe 3.18; Amo 8.3,9; 9.11; Zep 1.15; Hag 2.23; Zec 14.4,6, 8-9,13; Mat 7.22; 24.36; Luk 17.31; 1 The 1.10; 2 Tim 1.12,18; 4.8
Isa 13.6,9,13; Joe 1.15; 2.1, 2.11, 2.31-32; 3.14; Amo 5.18, 5.20; Oba 1.15; Zep 1.7, 1.14; 1 The 5.2; 2 The 2.2; 2 Pet 3.10
Mal 4.5
Jud 1.6
Rev 6.17
Psa 110.3
Psa 110.5
Joe 2.2
Zep 1.15
Zep 1.15
Zep 1.15
Zep 1.16
Zep 1.15
Zec 14.7
Zep 1.18
Luk 17.24
Luk 17.30
Luk 17.26
Rom 2.16
Rom 2.5
1 Cor 1.8
Phi 1.6
2 Pet 3.12
2 Pet 3.7
Eze 36.33
Rev 16.14
Act 2.20
Luk 17.24
1 Cor 1.7
Isa 13.13
When the Lord Christ returns, He will judge and punish sinful mankind and reward His saints at the Judgment of the Nations (Mat 25.31-46, Rev 11.18). He will establish and rule the kingdom given to Him by the Father (Psa 110.1-3, 1 Cor 15.23-25) on the earth for a period of 1000 years (typically known as the Millennium, Rev 20.1-7). Immediately following the Millennium is the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20.11-15), the creation of the new heaven and new earth, the entrance of the saints into the eternal kingdom and the casting of the lost dead into the Lake of Fire (Gehenna).
While it is true that all living people will be judged as individuals by the Lord Christ at His return, the judgment of Mat 25 is referred to as the Judgment of the Nations because the Scripture refers to it as such:
Mat 25.31-32a
But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him;
As will be shown in this article, the Day of the LORD is a series of events:
[EDIT Oct 2023:
The following bullet points have been slightly rearranged and corrected as I realized that I had some events out-of-order and mis-referenced.]
- The beginning and continuation of tribulation and punishments upon mankind throughout the entire earth for its sins.
- The Lord Christ returns as the sovereign of the earth. (Rev 19.11-16 )
- The "kings of the earth and their armies" attempt to wage war against the Lord Christ. (Rev 19.19 ) They are completely routed and killed. (Rev 19.20-21 )
- The Serpent (a.k.a., the devil, Satan, Apollyon, Abaddon) is arrested and thrown into the Abyss for 1000 years (known as the Millennium) in order that he not be able to deceive the nations. (Rev 20.1-3)
- The Lord Christ will sit as judge at Judgment of the Nations (the “judge of the living”, Act 10.42; 2 Tim 4.1; 1 Pet 4.5).
- The Lord Christ establishes His earthly kingdom (upon the Throne of David) over which He and His saints will rule with a “rod of iron” (Psa 2, Rev 2.27; 12.5; 19.15) for a period of 1000 years (Rev 20.2,3,4,5,6,7).
[If you want to see an excellent examples of unbiblical and humanistic drivel, read the typical eschatological gaslighting by amil proponents regarding Rev 20. It is as meaningless as it is stupid. It would be comical if it wasn't heresy.] - The Lord Christ fulfills the LORD’s promise to Abram to give his descendants (national Israel) the broad swath of land comprised of most of Syria, the western half of Iraq, Jordan, the northern end of Saudi Arabia, and the northeast corner of Egypt (Gen 15.17-21; Exo 23.31; Deu 1.6-8; 11.22-25), possibly a portion of the southeast corner of Turkey (depending on the northern extent of the Euphrates River), along with the land Israel currently has. In other words, Israel will possess most of what we now call the "Middle East". The nations which occupy that land will be defeated in battle; those left alive will be expelled from those lands. (Note that in some cases, such as Edom, there will be no survivors. Isa 63)
- Reestablishing the system of Law and sacrifices for Israel (Jer 33.17-22).
[A full explanation for this assertion is beyond the scope of this article. (It will be part of the rebuttal of Amillennial eschatology planned for a future article). Let it suffice to say here that the Millennium is not a time of grace, it is a time of Law which is designed to fulfill the promised Day of Rest (Heb 4.6-7). There are several OT texts which clearly show that evil will still exist and will be punished directly and quickly. (Refer to the large section of Isaiah chapters 1-27.) Remember, the Lord Christ rules "with a rod of iron"; this manner of rule would be completely unnecessary if evil was not present (contrary to the unbiblical meandering of amillennialists and liberal Protestants). This point also causes a great deal of consternation and anti-biblical double-speak with at least some forms of dispensational eschatology who recognize this text but try to dismiss it.] - After the 1000 years (that is, the Millennium) lost mankind will finally rebel against the Lord Christ (led by Satan after he has been released from the abyss) (Rev 20.7-9 ).
- Satan and the rebels are destroyed, and the beast and false prophet are thrown into the Lake of Fire (Rev 20.10).
- The Lord Christ sits on the Great White Throne to judge the lost dead (the “judge of the dead”, Act 10.42; 2 Tim 4.1; 1 Pet 4.5).
- The Lord Christ creates the new heaven and the new earth, then moves His true people into them where they will remain forever with their LORD.
- The lost dead are thrown into the Lake of Fire where they will remain forever with no hope.
This series is presented in 9 chapters:
- The Day of the LORD is the Revelation of the Lord Christ.
- The Day of the LORD in the OT.
- The Day of the LORD in the NT.
- The Destruction and Restoration of Israel: Introduction.
- The Destruction and Restoration of Israel: The Promised Land Fulfilled.
- The Destruction and Restoration of Israel: The Sovereign Rule of the Lord Christ.
- Addendum: The Extended Region of the Middle East the LORD Promised to Give Israel.
- Addendum: The Day of the LORD was Sometimes Used to Describe Local/Limited Judgments.
- Addendum: The Day of the LORD and the Signs in the Cosmos.
As the Scripture says:
Heb 4.12-13 (lit.)
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and have been laid bare before the eyes of Him before whom we give account.
This great text will be fulfilled completely when the series of events of the Day of the LORD have run their planned course.
True Christians today are undermined by the very common notion that Bible prophecy is, and must be, "interpretive" and therefore impossible with understand with any confidence. Pick up any reference on amillennialism or postmillennialism and you'll find a typically lengthy and convolved chapter on "how to interpret prophecy".
[Those caught in trap of this theological abyss (amillennialism) would do well to read The Problem with Biblical Frameworks on this site.
EDIT Oct 2022:
I posted a new article about the spectacular errors of Covenant Theology,
A Biblical Rebuttal of
"The Fulfillment of the Promises of God"
An Explanation of Covenant Theology"
by Richard Belcher.
The article above deals with some errors of Amillennialism. Please read from that article "Appendix: The Current and Future Kingdom of the Lord Christ".]
While some Bible prophecy is difficult to understand, the vast majority of it is very straightforward, as you'll see in this article. The fact is, the LORD tells us what He is going to do and what is going to happen. If we foolishly presume to believe that His words are incomprehensible without an "eschatological framework", to that same extent His Word is useless and the Almighty could justly be accused of deceit. After all, He wrote a book of truth that is, according to this popular error, incomprehensible without a man-made scaffold to support it!
If you believe such frameworks are necessary, why do you bother with the Bible at all? You already have set it aside; why maintain the façade of using it? Then, when the trials that are associated with the final breaking forth of the Last Days—and they do not proceed as you expect because you believed wrongly—you'll find that your textbooks on amil eschatology are useless. You'll FINALLY open the pages of your Bible and begin to read it obediently. Your reaction at that point will be: "How could I have been so blind?!"
I challenge any of the adherents of amillennial and/or postmillennial eschatology to read carefully and prayerfully the scores of Bible texts cited within this article—with one vital stipulation: for a few hours, set aside your foolish and preconceived "interpretive" notion of what you think the texts should say and simply read what the texts do say. If the Holy Spirit truly dwells within you, and your heart is finished with its obstinance, you will see the simplicity and beauty of the eschatological truths expounded in this article. You will, perhaps for the first time, realize just how elegant, beautiful and powerful the LORD's words are as He tells us what to expect when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to the current earth to judge and rule all things. Once you understand this, it will be as when a blind man is given sight.
During the study and writing of this article, I became convinced that the only way someone could come to the preposterous notions of amillennial or postmillennial eschatology would be that he/she had first become convinced of these ideologies from a source other than the Bible.
[This appears to occur, in no small part, due to the influence of the Reformers and Puritans. That is, the relatively immature and/or careless Christian is impressed by this group (many times for the right reasons) and therefore tends to "absorb" their defective eschatology without first checking their claims against the Scripture. I've noticed something akin to idol worship regarding the Reformers and Puritans; nevertheless, it does not change the fact that so many of them were very unbiblical concerning eschatology.]
[EDIT Oct 2023:
I wanted to ensure that my readers understand that this article proceeded from a biblical point of view, not a dispensational one. The disdain that I have for Amillennial eschatology is essentially the same as I have for Dispensational eschatology. Both are useless (though the latter "gets more right" than the former).
You will not find even a single point in this lengthy article which argues from dispensationalism. Every point is established only from the Scripture.]
An obedient, faithful and simple reading of the texts I cite in this article are incapable of any understanding other than the fact that the Day of the LORD is that sequence of events leading up to and including the return of the Lord Christ to rule Israel and the earth for a period of 1000 years. It will then be followed by the Resurrection of the Dead and the Great White Throne Judgment.
If you truly read and obey these texts you will come to believe the same thing, because it is the simple, direct truth of the Scripture.