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When does the Day of the Lord begin?
July 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment
When does the Day of the Lord begin? The pretribbers teach “the Day of the Lord” starts at the time Israel makes a covenant with the antichrist at the beginning of the seventieth week of Daniel. They teach that the Day of the Lord is the seven years of the Tribulation Period and continues through the millennium. Hal Lindsey, a pretribber, writes:”In 2 Thessalonians, Paul primarily writes to reassure the Thessalonian believers that they are not already in ‘the day of the Lord’ and/or the Tribulation or the Seventieth Week of Daniel. (The first seven years of ‘the day of the Lord’ coincide with the Tribulation period.)” (Hal Lindsey, Vanished Into Thin Air The Hope of Every Believer, page 236.) “The Roman Dictator must be unveiled a short while before the actual beginning of Daniel’s Week, which also begins the Day of the Lord.” (Hal Lindsey, Vanished Into Thin Air The Hope of Every Believer, pages 257-258.)
Although this is what the pretribbers teach, it is not true. The Day of the Lord has a definite starting place and it is only when the Lord comes publicly at the end of the seven year Tribulation Period. Here is the proof. In Joel 2:29-31, three prophetic events have to take place before the Day of the Lord can take place.
And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. JOEL 2:29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. JOEL 2:30 I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. JOEL 2:31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. JOEL 2:32 And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the survivors whom the LORD calls. (NIV)
These three prophetic events that have to take place before the Day of the Lord are: (1) The Lord has to pour out His Spirit. “Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:29; NIV). Peter quotes this passage out of Joel when the New Covenant began on the day of Pentecost. “These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: AC 2:17 ” `In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people” (Acts 2:15-17; NIV).
Since the New Covenant is eternal, the Holy Spirit will be poured out through the Tribulation Period which we will discuss later in more detail. However, we have a contradiction already with the pretribbers teachings. They teach the Holy Spirit is taken out during the Tribulation Period with the church. Hal Lindsey writes,
“Since the Tribulation is the final seven years of Daniel’s prophecy of 70 weeks of years, and since the first 69 weeks of years were under the conditions of the Mosaic Law economy, it stands to reason that the same conditions must return for the final week. Thus the present ministries of the [Holy] Spirit must be removed.” (Hal Lindsey, Vanished Into Thin Air The Hope of Every Believer, page 383.
But that contradicts what Joel said to the Jewish people, `In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people” (Acts 2:17; NIV). The last days deal specifically with the Tribulation Period. God says it is a time when He will pour out His spirit on His people and “I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke” (Joel 2:30; NIV). The Holy Spirit will be poured out right through the Tribulation Period because the New Covenant is eternal and because that is the only way a man or woman can be saved. Jesus said to a Jew in John 3:3 & 5, “…I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again…I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (NIV). “And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9; NIV Pradis CD-ROM).
Therefore, the Holy Spirit will be poured out on the Jewish people and the world during the Tribulation Period before the Day of the Lord because the New Covenant is eternal. How are you going to stop an eternal New Covenant? You can’t. Some pretribbers have seen this truth. For example, Tim LaHaye writes this about the Holy Spirit during the Tribulation Period:
Although widely accepted, this erroneous idea (caused largely by footnotes in the Scofield Reference Bible interpreting the “restrainer” of 2 Thessalonians 2:3-8) creates more problems than it solves. First, it is not a good translation of the Greek text…Second, the Holy Spirit is omnipresent and thus will not leave the world. Third, no man can be saved without the Holy Spirit… (Tim LaHaye, Revelation Illustrated and Made Plain, page 116.)
(2) “I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke” (Joel 2:30; NIV). These things take place during or at the end Tribulation Period. Luke writes about this time in 21:11 and 26, “There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven…. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken” (NIV). We know from the plagues in the Book of Revelation the water is turned to blood and fire burns up the grass and trees. “The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up” (Rev. 8:7; NIV). With all this burning, it will give off “billows of smoke” (Joel 2:30). All these things have to happen before the Day of the Lord.
(3) “The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD” (Joel 2:31; NIV). There is a very important key word in this verse. It is the word “before.” These things have to happen before the Day of the Lord can take place or start. (1) The out pouring of the Holy Spirit during the Tribulation Period. “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14; NIV). It’s only the Blood of the New Covenant that can save people. (2) Signs in the heaven, blood, and fire. (3) Sun turned to darkness and moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.
Jesus says the same thing when He pin points the Day of the Lord:
Immediately after the distress of those days” `the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ MT 24:30 “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. (Matt. 24:29-31; NIV)
Immediately after the Tribulation Period the cosmic signs take place and Jesus comes in the Day of the Lord. When Jesus appears, that is when the nations mourn because it will be a day of wrath and vengeance. Jesus is actually quoting some words from the Day of the Lord in Isaiah 13:10:
See, the day of the LORD is coming–a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger–to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. ISA 13:10 The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. ISA 13:11 I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless. ISA 13:12 I will make man scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir. ISA 13:13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the LORD Almighty, in the day of his burning anger. (Isaiah 13:9-13; NIV)
Notice the Day of the Lord begins “with wrath and fierce anger,” not peace and safety like the pretribbers teach. Peter writes that the Day of the Lord, is a day of fire and destruction. “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens…and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10; NASB). “Wail, for the day of the LORD is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty” (Isaiah 13:6; NASB).
Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD? That day will be darkness, not light. AM 5:19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. AM 5:20 Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light–pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? (Amos 5:18-20; NIV)
When the Day of the Lord starts, there is sudden doom for the whole earth and Armageddon is just one part of it. Here is another verse pin pointing when the Day of the Lord begins at the end of the Tribulation Period. “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. JOEL 3:15 The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine” (Joel 3:14-15: NIV). In this Armageddon passage, the armies of Armageddon have assembled, but the Day of the Lord has not yet started. It’s near, but the sun and moon have to be darken first and then Jesus will come in the sky to destroy the armies who have gathered for Armageddon. So the Day of the Lord begins when Jesus appears at the end of the Tribulation Period, not at the beginning of the seventieth week of Daniel like the pretribbers teach. It starts when Jesus steps into our atmosphere at His public coming–right after the tribulation of those days.
Here is another reason why the pretribbers make a terrible mistake when they say the Day of the Lord starts at the beginning of the Tribulation Period. Isaiah writes that no one will be exalted in the Day of the Lord. Isaiah 2:12 says, “For the day of the Lord of host shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low” (KJV). And verse 17 says, “And the pride of man will be humbled, And the loftiness of men will be abased, And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day“ (NASB). And verse 19 says, “And men will go into caves of the rocks, And into holes of the ground, Before the terror of the Lord, And before the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble” (NASB). This is the Day of the Lord, “And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day” (NASB). The pretribbers have the antichrist being exalted in their Day of the Lord. That contradicts these verses! The antichrist even claims that he is God. You can’t get more proud and lofty than that. However, when the Day of the Lord starts, he will be humbled and thrown in a pit and the Lord alone will be exalted just like these holy scripture verses predict.
Now who are you going to believe? God or the pretribbers! The Day of the Lord is a worldwide event with billions upon billions of people being killed throughout the whole earth by the Lord. The Lord will use the words from His mouth–which is the sword to start the devastation against man. By His word, the greatest earthquake ever will start. Then fire, hail, blood, pestilence, meteorites, and ocean waves will wipe out the people on the earth. God will speak a word and confusion will cause armies to turn on each other on the battle field of Armageddon. The battle of Armageddon will be just a part of this destruction and it may be just a small part. Look at this passage in Jeremiah about the Day of the Lord.
The tumult will resound to the ends of the earth, for the LORD will bring charges against the nations; he will bring judgment on all mankind and put the wicked to the sword,’ ” declares the LORD. JER 25:32 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Look! Disaster is spreading from nation to nation; a mighty storm is rising from the ends of the earth.” JER 25:33 At that time those slain by the LORD will be everywhere–from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned or gathered up or buried, but will be like refuse lying on the ground. (Jeremiah 25:31-33; NIV)
Once we see the nations gathering for Armageddon, then and only then will the Day of the Lord be near. Throughout the Old Testament, the prophets prophesied many times about this day. They gave us a clear picture of when it starts and it starts at the end of the Tribulation Period. Some of the pretribbers are seeing these truths and some are converting. Some are breaking rank from the others. Richard L. Mayhue, a pretribber, writing about Joel 2:31, writes:
Most significant in [Joel] 2:31 (NKJV) is the statement that the great cosmic signs will be a prelude “before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.” This seems to limit the day of the Lord to the very end of the Tribulation if Joel 3:15, Matthew 24:29, and Revelation 6:12 refers to the same event. The day of the Lord at the end of the Tribulation will contain unmistakable manifestations of God’s greatness. It will include both physical disturbances (see 2 Peter 3:10) and spiritual revival. (Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson general editors, Wayne A. Brindle managing editor, The Popular Encyclopedia of Bible Prophecy, article written by Richard L. Mayhue, page 74.)
As you can see, some of the pretribbers are coming around to the truth. The Apostle Paul taught that the Day of the Lord would not start until after the antichrist is revealed.
Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God…8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. (2 Thess. 2:1-4; 8; NIV)
Two things have to happen first according to Paul before the Day of the Lord can start. There has to be a rebellion and the antichrist has to be revealed. (1) The rebellion takes place during the Tribulation Period with the mark of the beast. Angels preach the gospel and announce to the world not to take the mark of the beast (Rev. 14:9-12), but the rebellious people of the world take it anyway. (2) The people of the world are deceived by the antichrist until he is revealed. He is not revealed to the world as the antichrist until Jesus comes in the air. On the Day of the Lord, the real Christ (in great glory) will come in the air to reveal and destroy the antichrist. The world will continue to believe in the antichrist until the Day of the Lord, then “…the Lord Jesus will overthrow [the antichrist] with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming” (2 Thess. 2:8; NIV).
Here is another passage from Paul describing the Day of the Lord. “Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (1 Thess. 5:1-3; NIV). The world will be saying “peace and safety,” but sudden destruction from the Day of the Lord will come on them.
The Day of the Lord does not start at the beginning or the middle of the Tribulation Period like most pretribbers teach, it starts when Jesus steps into the earth’s atmosphere at His public coming and not a day sooner. It’s His day, not the antichrist’s day, like the pretribbers teach. If you want more on this subject read: Jacob’s Trouble, by Gene Stone at 1-866-909-2665.
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