A Literal Historical and Future Day of the Lord

Now I'm remembering why I never got very far into studying eschatalogical/end times systems. I pay attention for a while, listen to sermons and lectures from different points of view, read a few books, take some notes, ponder various diagrams and charts, learn some scripture, in fact I learn quite a bit, but eventually I nevertheless get confused, mystified, overwhelmed and give up.

Of course I absorb some of the ideas, I do read the scripture -- I've even read Revelation a number of times -- so it's far from a total loss; in fact I'm much the better off for the studying I've done. It's just that I never felt any of the different systems was completely trustworthy, which means I always end up with objections I can't resolve and that the answer from any particular system just doesn't dispel.

Although there's always been quite a bit of fringey excess in the Pre-trib Rapture camp (mostly interpreting every eruption of violence in the Middle East as a major sign of the End) I never completely gave up on them because much of their thinking makes sense to me, and maybe more important, their critics just never do a fair job on them.

At the same time I pretty much rejected the pre-trib Rapture itself in favor of a post-tribulation rapture because I never could see how the last generation should be allowed to escape tribulation that the rest of the church has gone through for millennia. That's a conclusion based more on reason than on any specific scripture, of course, but most of the scriptures used to buttress the pre-trib Rapture are also never fully convincing, usually seem open to alternate interpretations. NONE of the arguments from ANY camp are FULLY convincing, so although I was predominantly post-trib I had to keep all lines open, and I never settled on any particular system.

So I've been getting discouraged again -- largely a result of spending too much time recently listening to amillennialist arguments perhaps --, but if I step back and assess my current understanding objectively I have to acknowledge that I am a step ahead of the stalemate I've usually fallen into. I did pick up some support for the Pre-trib Rapture after all -- really a pretty big boost for it if I think about it: That is, I HAVE become convinced that the Lord promised to protect His church from His wrath and that the "great tribulation" of Revelation is God's wrath (or most of it is -- there's little I can state with certainty in all this).

The Book of Revelation is about The Day of the Lord, after all, that is prophesied throughout the Old Testament and discussed as well in other books of the New Testament.

The Day of the Lord is undeniably God's wrath against rebellious humanity, or the "heathen" and "sinners" in the King James, and there are at least two clear statements that this certainly doesn't include His own faithful people:

1 Thessalonians 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

Revelation 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

If His church is "not appointed" to wrath, the implication is that He will protect us from it one way or another. This COULD be by removing us from the scene altogether before the wrath begins, as the Pre-trib people argue, or it could be by other means, such as miraculous sustenance and protection during the period of wrath (as He provided for Elijah during the period of the famine). The passage in Revelation does convey a somewhat alarming note of conditionality -- that is, those who have "kept the word of [His] patience" will be kept from it, but SOME of the church will nevertheless not escape it. That's one way to read it anyway.

So I am now this much closer to the Pre-Trib Rapture position. It's a lot closer than I was before I embarked on this exploration a couple weeks ago. So that has to be acknowledged.

I also have to add that this includes the recognition that the Day of the Lord is a specific event in history. God's wrath has certainly come against this world in many ways over the millennia, and scripture tells us that God's wrath "abides on" those who reject Him, that all human beings are "children of wrath" in our fallen nature, until we repent and submit to Him, but the Day of the Lord is something quite above and beyond this "normal" wrath.

Ephesians 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Clearly this doesn't just imply that in our fallen condition we are destined for the final wrath of Hell, as I've sometimes read these verses, but also experience wrath in this world, as we inherit all kinds of suffering for sin through our fallen nature.

The Day of the Lord is presented as an intensification of extreme suffering beyond most of what is normally encountered in this world. And it is indisputably WITHIN this world that it is to be encountered, indisputably within history, and indisputably therefore MUST be yet future.*

=============================================
*I don't know how this is explained by the post-tribulationists and post-millennialists (who say the church is going through the events of God's wrath as laid out in Revelation), and the amillennialists (I'm trying to grapple off and on these days with the amillennialists' peculiarly mystifying ways of thinking and haven't yet come across any systematic treatment of the Day of the Lord) but it seems to me that if they recognize the historicity and future expectation of the Day they would also have to reckon with God's promises to protect His church from it and therefore recognize a major claim for the pre-trib Rapture. Let me guess: They DON'T recognize the historicity and future expectation of the Day of the Lord -- they manage to spread it out over the last 2000 years or spiritualize it in some way.

FOR REFERENCE: SCRIPTURE pertaining to the "DAY OF THE LORD"

Isaiah 2:12 For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:

Isaiah 13:6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

Isaiah 13:9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

Jeremiah 46:10 For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.

Ezekiel 13:5 Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD.

[What does this say? That it will be possible for some of the "house of Israel" to stand IN the Day of the Lord -- and that more might if they were supported rightly. The point is that the Day of the Lord is going to be survivable by some. Those who repent. Want to include here the commentary from Jamieson Fausset and Brown as it shows clearly the reason why God's own people may come under judgment]: 5. not gone up into . . . gaps--metaphor from breaches made in a wall, to which the defenders ought to betake themselves in order to repel the entrance of the foe. The breach is that made in the theocracy through the nation's sin; and, unless it be made up, the vengeance of God will break in through it. Those who would advise the people to repentance are the restorers of the breach (Eze 22:30; Ps 106:23,30).

hedge--the law of God (Ps 80:12; Isa 5:2,5); by violating it, the people stripped themselves of the fence of God's protection and lay exposed to the foe. The false prophets did not try to repair the evil by bringing back the people to the law with good counsels, or by checking the bad with reproofs. These two duties answer to the double office of defenders in case of a breach made in a wall: (1) To repair the breach from within; (2) To oppose the foe from without.

to stand--that is, that the city may "stand."

in . . . day of . . . Lord--In the day of the battle which God wages against Israel for their sins, ye do not try to stay God's vengeance by prayers, and by leading the nation to repentance.

Ezekiel 30:3 For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.

Joel 1:15 Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

Joel 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

Joel 2:11 And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

Joel 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Joel 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

Amos 5:18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.

Amos 5:20 Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

Obadiah 1:15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

Zephaniah 1:7 Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.

Zephaniah 1:14 The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.

Zechariah 14:1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.

Malachi 4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:

1Corinthians 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

2Corinthians 1:14 As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.

1Thessalonians 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

2Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

NOTE: The Day of the Lord is closely associated with the coming of Christ, both first and second coming, and sometimes the characteristics of the two events get confused because of their close association. I haven't yet sorted all this out myself, but I want to note it here that they need to be kept conceptually separated.