The "Day of the Lord"

And so here is the very keynote verse, sounding the theme of the whole Revelation! And it is here that most people begin to stumble, and to misunderstand!

The theme is the Day of the Lord. Let us read it: "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet" (verse 10).

As this is not understood, endless controversy and strife and confusion have come from arguing as to whether the day of the week on which John wrote this message was Saturday or Sunday. John was not referring to any day of the week.

The day of the week on which this happened to be written - if it could have been all written within one day - is not important, and that is not what this verse means at all. It does not refer to any day of the week - but to that prophetic period referred to in more than 30 prophecies as "The great and terrible Day of the Lord."

The original Greek word here translated "on," - "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day," - is en. In other places where this same Greek word en is used in the New Testament, it is translated "in" or "into," or "during the time of."

In Spirit - in vision - John was carried forward some 1900 years - projected into the day of the Lord - during the time which is now just ahead of us, to occur in this present generation!

The "Day of the Lord" is described by the prophet Joel as a time when God will send destruction upon the unrighteous and sinning nations of the world. It is described by Zephaniah as the day of God's wrath. It is described all through the Revelation as the time when God Almighty will soon, now, step in and supernaturally intervene in this hellish strife and friction and destruction among men, and send plagues upon the sinners of the earth! It is the time which follows the Great Tribulation, and leads up to and climaxes in the glorious second coming of Christ!

The House of John is John's House. The Day of the Lord is the Lord's Day. Listen to the translations of the ablest Greek scholars and translators:

In the Weymouth translation, which you can find in public libraries, this verse reads: "In the Spirit, I found myself present on the Day of the Lord."

Rotherham's translation: "I came to be, in Spirit, in the Lord's Day." The Concordant version: "I came to be, in Spirit, in the Lord's Day." The Bullinger translation: "I came to be, by the Spirit, on the Day of the Lord."
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Now turn again to Revelation 6. Those of the former great martyrdom of saints are told that the judgments of God - the plagues which lead up to, and occur at the time of Christ's return to earth - cannot come until their fellow-servants and their brethren - other Spirit-begotten Christians - should be killed as they were! Here is the Great Tribulation - another coming martyrdom of God's people! And what follows? The sixth seal, we have seen, will mark the beginning of the intervention of God in world affairs - the terrifying signs in the heavens - and then men shall cry out, "The terrible day of God's wrath is come!"

"And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" (Rev. 6:14-17.)

This is the Day of the Eternal, bringing us, at last, the return of Christ to earth in all power and glory, to rule the peoples of earth, and to bring us peace!

You need not fear or worry over the things coming on the earth in the meantime. In this same prophecy of Jesus as reported by Luke, regarding the world disturbances now ahead - regarding the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord - Jesus ended His Olivet prophecy with these assuring words: "Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:36).

May God help you to be one of those studying the prophecies, watching world events as they fulfill them, and praying always that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things, and to stand before Christ at His coming!

WHY These Plagues? Notice! For 6,000 years God has sent His loving messages to mankind. In love God revealed His law - His way of life that would lead to everything good and desirable - to our first parents, Adam and Eve. God has sent all His prophets with His message of peace, revealing to mankind the way to peace and happiness - but men have rejected the message, and killed the prophets.

They crucified God's son, who brought the good news of the Kingdom of God - which is the world tomorrow - they martyred Jesus' apostles who went out into the world with the message of God's way of life, and God's rule over our lives.

All these men of God have pleaded with this rebellious world in love. They have brought a message of peace, of love, of mercy and compassion. Through them God has pleaded with this stiff-necked and self-willed world for 6,000 years. God has warned the world of where its own ways and devices will finally lead - to the total annihilation of human life from off this planet!

In love and in tender mercy, God has given this stubborn, misguided human race every chance for 6,000 long years, to save itself from a self-imposed destruction. But men would not heed. They will not heed today. They continue, even now, to devise forces of destruction that will result in the suicide of the human race, unless God does intervene.

But God is about to step in and speak to this rebellious and hell-bent world in the only language the world will heed - God will now punish this world for its evil! As any loving parent punishes his child who will not listen to kind and loving admonition, so now God is going to punish this world with just judgments - with plagues so terrible that the world will at last be forced to turn from its wicked ways and to seek God and His ways that lead to peace and everything good. God will prevent the suicide of humanity. He will save this evil world from itself. And that is the period coming, described in more than 30 different prophecies scattered through both Old and New Testaments, as the Day of the Lord, which shall lead directly into the second coming of Christ, to bring us, at last, world peace!
- excerpt from The Book of Revelation Unveiled at last! by Herbert W. Armstrong