The Day of the Lord is a period of time in which God will deal with wicked men directly and dramatically in fearful judgment. The Scriptures picture that after this day of grace has come to its close, which may be simultaneous with the translation of the church, the Day of the Lord will begin. Grace speaks of God’s unmerited favor to us through Christ who loved us and who died for us. But God in this present age has especially singled out the doctrine of grace for display, revealing grace as a basis for salvation and for our Christian life. Obviously, many of God’s dealings with man from the Garden of Eden down to the present day have manifested the grace of God. We do not mean that there was no grace shown by God in the previous dispensations. We say that the present age is the day of grace. Before examining the Scriptural revelation, it is necessary to determine precisely what this expression, “the day of the Lord” means. In considering the Day of the Lord, we at once are plunged into a tremendous Old Testament doctrine, a doctrine that covers many pages in the Old Testament. There are many references to Christ coming back to the earth and of resurrection from the dead, but no rapture, no translation in the Old Testament, except by way of illustration in the cases of Elijah and Enoch.
There is no reference in the Old Testament to saints being raptured, taken from earth to heaven without dying. The subject of the translation of the church revealed in Chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians, however, is never mentioned in the Old Testament. Gathered under the expression “the day of the Lord” is a large group of prophetic events predicted in both the Old and the New Testaments. The Bible indicates that tremendous events are ahead for the world. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 deals with the subject of the Day of the Lord.
0 kommentar(er)
