Advancing the Revelation of Truth
The Day of The Lord
“I was in The Spirit on The Day of The Lord.”[Rev 1:10]
Thus does the apostle John begin the record that The Lord Jesus Christ commanded him to write, that which we know as the Book of Revelation, or to give its true title: The Book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
The subject of this wonderful and mysterious book is The Day of The Lord, which is referred to many times in both the Old and New Testaments The Bible reveals many details of both God’s and man’s activities during this ‘Day’ of which there have been many interpretations.
This article is concerned with the context of this ‘Day’ when correctly relating it to the events which lead to its beginning. and its end.
· Both its beginning and its end can only be understood by taking account of the apostle Paul’s revelations of the two mysteries, that of the present Administration of God’s Grace and the Administration of the Fullness of Times.
· The Apocalypse of Weeks recorded in the God inspired prophecy of Enoch, the seventh from Adam, limits the span of time occupied by The Day of The Lord. [See By Grace No:11. Introduction to The Book of Enoch] and describes a number of events within that period.
· The interpretation of Gabriel’s prophecy concerning the Seventy Weeks of years and a correct understanding of the period of The Last Days are essential when attempting to define the year in which The Day of The Lord begins.
In the nineteenth chapter of the book of The Revealing of Jesus Christ there is a description of His Second Advent when He descends from heaven with His saints:
This event takes place about seven years after the end of Daniel’s seventy weeks of years, at the end of the last traumatic week of seven years. A series of events, described in The Scripture as a ’Tribulation’, results in the armies of heaven defeating the armies of the world. When this happens, the beast and the false prophet are taken and cast into the lake of fire.
The description of these events relate directly to the end of those described by Messiah when asked by His disciples. [See Mat ch.25 and Mark ch.13] Tell us when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled
The Messiah described ‘the sign’ as follows:
Immediately after the Tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. The shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in the heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see The Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory
The apostle John describes this event in the 19th chapter of The Revelation as follows:
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
Since The Book of Revelation describes the events which take place in The Day of The Lord, we are able to define the point at which that great Day begins. At the beginning of the last week of Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy, in the 283rd year. The time when the anointed one, King David is ‘cut off’ in the year 2470ad.
At the end of the seventy weeks, in the year 2477ad a very important event occurs:
The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. [Rev 11:15]
This was the final event which was shown symbolically to King Nebuchadnezzar during a dream. In The Last Days a stone cut out without hands destroyed the multi-metal image of gold, silver, bronze and iron [Dan 2:34]. According to Daniel, the interpreter, at the end of The Last Days, the metals representing the kingdoms of the earth were destroyed by the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom [Dan 2:44]
The Lord Jesus Christ descends from heaven and by His personal presence assumes His World throne to rule with a rod of Iron at the beginning of The Thousand Years [Rev 19:11]. During the seven years before that The seven vials are poured out upon the earth [Rev 16:1] God will have gathered the nations at ‘the Mount of Slaughter’ i.e. Armageddon. [Rev 16:16], The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken [Mark 13:24] Thrown down with violence is the Great City Babylon to be found no more. [Rev 18:21] And finally before the Second Advent, the marriage supper of The Lamb [Rev 19:7]
After these things is the Thousand Year reign, followed by the Judgement of all mankind and then The Judgement of The Angels, before God unites those in Heaven with those on Earth. [Eph 1:10] The Day of The Lord then comes to an end when The Lord Jesus Christ hands back to His Father all authority and power.[1Cor 15:24-28]
The New Heavens and the New Earth are then established with The New Jerusalem into which can enter only those whose names are written in The Lamb’s Book of Life
THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST
The structure of the book is shown over the page. The following introductory notes are taken from The Companion Bible:
1. TITLE OF THE BOOK. Man calls it ‘The revelation of St.John The Divine’, but its God given title is concerned with the Unveiling, Revealing. and Presentation to earth and heaven of The Lord Jesus Christ as ‘KING of kings and LORD of lords’.
It is spoken of as:
(a) ‘The Word of God’ [1:2] in the sense in which the term occurs in the Old Testament. [Cp. 1Chron 17:3, Jer 1:4 & 13, Ezek 1:3, Joel 1:1]
(b) ‘This Prophecy’ [1:3] Therefore a prophetic message. The ‘blessing’ here promised makes it clear that from this verse [and not 4:1 as many suppose] to the end of the book concerns things yet future.
© ‘The Testimony of Jesus Christ’ [1:2 & 9] Either as testimony to Him as The Coming One [Genitive of the object]: or, the testimony He bore on earth; probably both.
2. AUTHORSHIP. The testimony of Melito bishop of Sardis [c. 170], quoted by Eusebius; Irenœus [c.180]; the Muratorian Canon fragment [c.200]; Clement of Alexandria [c.200]; Tertullian [c.220]; Origen [c.233]; Hippolytus bishop of Pontus [c.240]; &c., may fairly be accepted as the writer being John the ‘beloved disciple’ and apostle, as against the claims of a supposed John, ‘an Elder [cp. Peter’s eldership, 1Pet 5:1] resident in Asia’, who is hailed by ‘the majority of modern critics’ as being the author of the Johannine letters.
3. DATE OF WRITING This by almost unanimous consent of the early Church writers is ascribed to the close of the reign of the Emperor Domitian, about 96ad. At the time of the so called ’Second Generation Persecution’ of the ‘Christians’.
4. TO WHOM it was originally sent is unknown. We have no clue and therefore all speculations on the subject are valueless
THE STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK OF THE REVEALION OF JESUS CHRIST
The Chart above shows the structure of The Book of The Revelation. It can be seen that the actions alternate between heaven and earth. The most important question asked of the disciples of Christ at the time of His ascension was: ’ Will you at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel ?’ This would not happen until their Messiah takes His Kingship of the World as stated in Rev 11:15 at the time of The Seventh Trumpet.
REFERENCES
Joel 1:15 Joel 2:1 2:11 Joel 2:31 Joel 3:14 Amos 5:18 Amos 5:20 Obadiah 1:15
Zephaniah 1:7 Zephaniah 1:8 Zephaniah 1:14 Zephaniah 1:18 Zephaniah 2:2
Zechariah 14:1 Malachi 4:5
————
1Cor 1:8 5:5 2Cor 1:14 1Thes 5:2 2Peter 3:10 Rev 1:10
DETAILED EXPLANATION OF THE TIME PERIODS
· Paul’s revelation of the two mysteries, that of The Christ and that of The Present Administration of God’s Grace. [By Grace 16ML]
· The Administration of the Fullness of Times [Eph 1:10]
· The Apocalypse of Weeks in The Book of Enoch Introduction to The Book of Enoch [By Grace Nos: 11, 22, 23, 24, 56]
· The Seventy Weeks of Years. An improved translation of Gabriel’s prophecy removing grammatical errors. [See By Grace No: 70]
· The Last Days. One period of time [See By Grace Nos: 5 and 39]
IMPORTANT DATES
The Day of The Lord from 2471ad to 4747ad.…….…..2499 years [3 x 17 x 49]
The ‘thousand year’ period of righteousness……......1000 years [10 x 10 x 10]
Righteous Judgement from 3487.5ad to 4729.5ad…..1242 [6 x 9 x 23]
The Kingdom of God from 2036ad to 4829ad…………2793 years [3 x 19 x 49]
The Little Season 3484ad [Rev 20:3]… ..………..……..3.5 years