The Day of the Lord

“So then, we should not be sleeping like the others; we should be awake and sober.” (1Thessalonians 5:6)

Paul wrote this book. This is a section in which he writes to the church in Thessalonica about the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is an extended period of time. It will begin with the seven-year Tribulation or judgement. After that, the thousand-year reign of Christ will follow. Then there will be the creation of the new heavens and the new earth. Sometime in that span of time the Rapture of the church will occur. Some believe before the tribulation. Others believe it will occur in the middle of the tribulation. And still others believe it will occur after the tribulation. We will get to all this in a while.

Paul warns the Thessalonians and us that we need to be alert and diligent in our Christian walk. We should keep up our commitment to the Lord and keep obeying His commandments. We should keep ourselves from being slack in our diligence in communion with the Lord, seeking His face, seeking His Word, trusting and relying on Him. We must keep from getting weary in doing good works. “So let us not become tired of doing good; for if we do not give up, the time will come when we will reap the harvest.” (Galatians 6:9)

What is the Rapture? It’s the time the trumpet will sound and believers will meet Jesus in the sky. What this means is that we will leave our earthly bodies here on earth as we will be changed into our glorified bodies, the Bible says in a twinkling of an eye. “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the blink of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (1Corinthians 15:51-53 KJV) We don’t know the exact time. And as I wrote above there’s a disagreement as to when this will happen.

After the seven-year Tribulation or judgement of the enemies of God, the thousand-year reign of Christ will happen. This is what the Jews are talking about how it will be when the Messiah will come. But they missed His first coming as the suffering Messiah Who died for our sins. One thing that will happen is that the devil will not be around to harass people. There will not be any evil thing happening. “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.” (Revelation 20:1-3) In this thousand-year reign, the prophesies and promises to Israel, Jesus, nations and creation will be fulfilled. “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” (Revelation 20:4-6)

When the thousand-year reign of Christ is over there will be the creation of the new heavens and the new earth. Peter warns us that we don’t know when the Day of the Lord will come. We cannot be slack nor lazy in our faith, even if it gets difficult. “But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that Day the heavens will disappear with a shrill noise, the heavenly bodies will burn up and be destroyed, and the earth with everything in it will vanish. Since all these things will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people should you be? Your lives should be holy and dedicated to God, as you wait for the Day of God and do your best to make it come soon—the Day when the heavens will burn up and be destroyed, and the heavenly bodies will be melted by the heat. But we wait for what God has promised: new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will be at home.” (2Peter 3:10-13)