PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE “DAY OF CHRIST" AND THE “DAY OF JEHOVAH"

(We are indebted to The Advent Witness for the following splendid summary of Bible statements as to the distinction between the “Day of Christ' and the “Day of Jehovah.”)

Through a mistranslation of 2 Thess. 2:2 a serious mistake has been made by interpreters, who confuse the Day of Jesus Christ with the Day of the Lord. They are two quite different things. The revised version correctly renders 2 Thess. 2:2 “The Day of the Lord is now present” instead of the A.V. “The Day of Christ is at hand.”

The Thessalonians had been falsely told that the Day of the Lord (that great and dreadful Day foretold in the O. T.) was then present. But the apostle warned them that that day could not come till the revelation of the anti-christ. Adopting the error in translation, some present-day teachers have concluded that the Rapture of the Saints cannot take place till after the great tribulation, when anti-christ will be destroyed. This would be true if the Day of the Lord were the same as the Day of Jesus Christ.

But that these days are different will be seen by a reference to the passages where they are mentioned.

The Day of our Lord Jesus Christ (l Cor. 1:8) is also called the “Day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Cor. 5:5; 2 Cor. 1:14)— “The Day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6)— “The Day of Christ” (Phil. 1:10 and 2:

From the first of these Scriptures it will be seen that the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ begins at His Coming.

“Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall confirm you unto the end that ye may be blameless in the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

It will be a Day in which the saints will be presented blameless and the spirit of the backslider is saved (1 Cor. 5:5), and when the apostle will rejoice over his converts and they in him (2 Cor. 1:14). In Phil. 1:6 Paul assures the saints that He which began a good work in them will finish it until the Day of Jesus Christ, and in verse 10 he urges them to be sincere and without offence till the Day of Christ. Finally he expresses the hope that their testimony will be such that he will rejoice in the Day of Christ that he has not laboured in vain (Phil. 2:16).

From these references it is evident that the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ is the day when He comes to gather His saints unto Himself “in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye.” There is nothing here of what is foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures about the Day of the Lord, nor of the tribulation and the anti-christ. And it should be noted that Paul alone, the apostle to whom was revealed the mystery of the Rapture, and no other N. T. writer mentions the Day of Christ, the reason being that it is that Day, and not the Day of the Lord, that the Saviour will come for His saints, will right the wrongs, give approval of our service, and, when there will be much rejoicing over souls won for His glory.

Nothing of the foregoing could be in greater contrast to all that is said about the Day of the Lord (or the Day of Jehovah) un both the Old and New Testaments.

A DAY OF FIERCE JUDGMENTS

There are too many references in the prophets to the day of the Lord for quotation but briefly it will be a day begun with fierce judgments and continued till and through the Millennium. The Day is first mentioned by Joel in his second chapter:

“The Day of the Lord is at hand; a day of darkness and gloominess.” And so on, till the remnant are delivered and the Spirit of God poured out upon all flesh.”

As in so many other cases there was a preliminary fulfillment, of the judgment under the Chaldeans and of the pouring out of the Spirit, at Pentecost, but the whole chapter will be completely fulfilled in the future. Isaiah and other of the prophets enlarge upon the predictions of Joel, speaking scores of times of the Day of the Lord, without any reference to the mystery of the Church at the completion of which the Day of Christ will ensue.

Turning now to the New Testament we find in the first epistle written by Paul, that to the Thessalonians, after revealing the mystery of the Rapture, he says—“But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the Day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety: sudden destruction cometh upon them” (1 Thess. 5:1-3).

WHEN ANTI-CHRIST IS IN POWER

The Lord Jesus does not come to the Church as a thief in the night, and He will not bring sudden destruction at the Rapture when the Day of Christ begins, but at some time after that, the Day of the Lord with “darkness and gloominess” will break upon the world, when the apostasy is at the full and the anti-christ in power. Then He will be revealed from heaven with all His mighty angels taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel. All that is foretold concerning the times and seasons and the Day of Jehovah by the Old Testament prophets will come to pass.

Peter in 2 Pet. 3:10 carries the subject further. He says: “The Day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night”—that will be before the Millennium; but at the end of the Millennium—still in the Day of the Lord, which is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day—“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.

Peter then pauses to give a word of exhortation: “Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting the Coming of the Day of God.”

Looking beyond the Day of Christ, and the Day of the Lord, to the end of the Millennium, when the seven thousand years of man's probation are ended and the final state, the day of God, dawns “wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” This is the eternal state more fully described in Rev. 21:1-8. Then time shall be no more, and there will be no Jew or Gentile but only men and God in the midst of them. Man's Day will close at the Rapture. Then follows the Day of the Lord Jesus. After that the Day of Jehovah and finally, eternity, the Day of God. Prophecy is exact and interpretation should be exact.