THE END TIMES (part 5)

Another important topic regarding end times is the "Day of the Lord", mentioned many times in the OT, and often in the NT as "the day of our Lord Jesus Christ". The only place in the NT it is called the day of the Lord, is in (1 Thess 5:2, and 2 Thess 2:2) where Paul is explaining the rapture to the Thessalonians who had received some wrong teaching on this subject. So both in the OT and in the NT it would seem that this special day on God's calendar is one and the same day! This seems to our natural mind as being impossible, because how could the same day be one of blessing for God's elect, and yet one of judgement on the enemies of God? Yet if you check these scriptures out in Strong's Concordance, or Vine's Expository Dictionary, this is the conclusion you will come to!

How can a day be two things at the same time? Yet in every 24 hour day on planet earth we know it is daylight for some and at the same time darkness of night for others. It should therefore not be too difficult to understand that the day of the Lord can be something entirely different for God's elect people than it will be for the ungodly. Paul states clearly that we are not in darkness once we come to the light of salvation in Christ, we are then part of His "forever family", and will be treated much differently from those who choose to follow the Antichrist. If we consider the rapture from this perspective, it should make sense to us. The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to rapture His "elect" from the persecution of the Antichrist when He "shortens the time for the sake of God's chosen ones" (Matt 24:22) could happen early in the morning of that great day for believers, and later the same day God could give His angels orders to begin pouring out the vials of His wrath on the unrighteous followers of Antichrist.

Is that too much of a stretch for your minds, that probably have been steeped in Pretribulation doctrine? It has not come easily to me I know, but once I had it explained to me, and I checked the scriptures for myself, it made perfect sense. I would encourage you to take your Bible and a good concordance, and spend some time checking out this whole end times thing, like the Bereans in (Acts 17:11) When this end time scenario starts to play out with the signing of this so-called "covenant of peace" between Israel and the Antichrist, which marks the start of Daniel's 70th week, you will then know what to expect next and have time to make the right choices!!

Sincerely submitted.

Gramp