Study
of the Day of the Lord and Cosmic Disturbance.
It is
important for the student of the Bible who seeks knowledge
about
the Second Coming to note the correlation of the Day of the
Lord,
the Second Coming, and the prominent rearrangement of the
heavenly
bodies (sun, moon, and stars) that will herald the
arrival,
coming and presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. I refer to
the
prominent rearrangement of the heavenly bodies as the "cosmic
disturbance",
as it provides a good overall description of those
events
we are told will take place regarding celestial bodies.
Starting
with Isaiah, there are many passages that refer us to
the
context of the great and terrible Day of the Lord. An
examination
of those passages will reveal related details about
that Day.
For the day of the LORD of hosts [shall be]
upon every [one that
is]
proud and lofty, and upon every [one that is] lifted up; and
he
shall be brought low: (Isaiah 2:12)
We
learn from Isaiah 2:12 that personal pride will be persecuted,
and
those who live by it shall suffer at the hand of the Lord. It
is
interesting to note that so many of the world's leaders
demonstrate
prideful attitudes and personalities, puffiness, and
flaunting
of power, as if invincible. Yet, they will be humbled
as
verses 19-21 illustrate:
19 And they shall go into the holes of the
rocks, and into the
caves
of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of
his
majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. 20 In
that day
a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of
gold,
which they made [each one] for himself to worship, to the
moles
and to the bats; 21 To go into the
clefts of the rocks,
and
into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and
for the
glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly
the
earth. (Isaiah 2:19-21)
This
idea from Isaiah correlates with Rev. 6:15.
15 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; 16 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: (Revelation 6)
Specifically,
the leaders will be humbled:
15 And the mean man shall be brought down, and
the mighty man
shall
be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: 16
But the
LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that
is holy
shall be sanctified in righteousness. (Isaiah 5)
We note
also from many passages that the Day of the Lord will be
a time
of great and terrible judgement upon the peoples of the
earth.
Even the people of Israel will experience this judgement.
24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble,
and the flame
consumeth
the chaff, [so] their root shall be as rottenness, and
their
blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away
the law
of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy
One of
Israel. 25 Therefore is the anger of
the LORD kindled
against
his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against
them,
and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their
carcases
[were] torn in the midst of the streets. For all this
his
anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] stretched out
still.
(Isaiah 5)
We are
provided with more vivid description of the terribleness
of the
Day of the Lord:
Howl ye; for the day of the LORD [is] at
hand; it shall come as
a
destruction from the Almighty. (Isaiah 13:6)
Now we
are told about the great rearrangement of the heavens that
will
coincide with the Day of the Lord. This is the same Cosmic
Disturbance
our Lord spoke of in the Oivet Discourse (which will
be
presented later on):
9* Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel
both with wrath and
fierce
anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the
sinners
thereof out of it. 10* For the stars of
heaven and the
constellations
thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall
be
darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her
light
to shine. (Isaiah 13:9,10)
Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the
earth shall remove
out of
her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the
day of
his fierce anger. (Isaiah 13:13)
And
again we see the Lord's disdain for the proud:
And I will punish the world for [their]
evil, and the
wicked
for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the
proud
to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
(Isaiah
13:11)
Let us review
more descriptions of what the Day of the Lord
will be
like:
For [it is] a day of trouble, and of treading
down, and of
perplexity
by the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision,
breaking
down the walls, and of crying to the mountains. (Isaiah
22:5)
1 Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and
maketh it waste,
and
turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants
thereof....3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and
utterly
spoiled:
for the LORD hath spoken this word..... 5
The earth
also is
defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have
transgressed
the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the
everlasting
covenant. 6 Therefore hath the curse
devoured the
earth,
and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the
inhabitants
of the earth are burned, and few men left. (Isaiah
24)
The earth is utterly broken down, the earth
is clean dissolved,
the
earth is moved exceedingly. (Isaiah 24:19)
21 And it shall come to pass in that day,
[that] the LORD shall
punish
the host of the high ones [that are] on high, and the
kings
of the earth upon the earth. 22 And
they shall be gathered
together,
[as] prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be
shut up
in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
(Isaiah
24)
For [it is] the day of the LORD'S vengeance,
[and] the year of
recompences
for the controversy of Zion. (Isaiah 34:8)
We see
the great Cosmic Disturbance described as a re-
occurring
theme, not to be ignored or forgotten, as Isaiah
repeats
it to emphasize its importance to us all:
Then the moon shall be confounded, and the
sun ashamed, when the
LORD of
hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and
before
his ancients gloriously. (Isaiah 24:23)
Other
prophets speak of the Day of the Lord and its terrible
consequence.
We are told of great battles in the Holy Land:
For this [is] the day of the Lord GOD of
hosts, a day of
vengeance,
that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the
sword
shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with
their
blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in the
north
country by the river Euphrates. (Jeremiah 46:10)
Thou hast called as in a solemn day my
terrors round about, so
that in
the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained:
those
that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy
consumed.
(Lamentations 2:22)
Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither
made up the hedge for
the
house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the
LORD.
(Ezekiel 13:5)
Ezekiel
tells us the condition of the sky and atmosphere around
us when
the Day of the Lord will come upon the earth. It will be
"cloudy"
and the heavenly bodies will be modified. Their light
will be
taken away. Truly, only the creator of the universe can
do
those things we are told will occur during the Day of the
Lord.
God will demonstrate to all that he IS the creator:
For the day [is] near, even the day of the
LORD [is] near, a
cloudy
day; it shall be the time of the heathen. (Ezekiel 30:3)
And when I shall put thee out, I will cover
the heaven, and make
the
stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and
the
moon shall not give her light. (Ezekiel 32:7)
The
prophet Joel tells us of the destruction that will occur on
the Day
of the Lord. Joel tells us the trumpet(s) that will be
sounded.
Joel also tells us of more heavenly re-arrangement . The
Cosmic
Disturbance is again mentioned several times by Joel:
Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD
[is] at hand, and as a
destruction
from the Almighty shall it come. (Joel 1:15)
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an
alarm in my holy
mountain:
let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the
day of
the LORD cometh, for [it is] nigh at hand; (Joel 2:1)
The earth shall quake before them; the heavens
shall tremble:
the sun
and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw
their
shining: (Joel 2:10)
And the LORD shall utter his voice before his
army: for his camp
[is]
very great: for [he is] strong that executeth his word: for
the day
of the LORD [is] great and very terrible; and who can
abide
it? (Joel 2:11)
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and
the moon into blood,
before
the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. (Joel
2:31)
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision:
for the day
of the
LORD [is] near in the valley of decision. 15
The sun and
the
moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their
shining.
(Joel 3)
The
prophet Amos tells us that the Day of the Lord is DARKNESS.
Darkness
is used in the Bible to represent separation of man from
God.
This coincides with the separation God will make between
those
who have accepted Jesus Christ and those who have not.
Those
in Christ will be taken up to be with Him while those who
have
not accepted Him will be DARKENED, i.e. left here on earth
to be
the subject of his wrath and consequently separated from
Him.
Amos also warns those who seek the Day of the Lord:
Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD!
to what end [is]
it for
you? the day of the LORD [is] darkness, and not light.
(Amos
5:18)
[Shall] not the day of the LORD [be]
darkness, and not light?
even
very dark, and no brightness in it? (Amos 5:20)
Does
not the warning of Darkness about he Day of the Lord from
Amos correlate
with the Cosmic Disturbance, supporting it, spoken
of by
Isaiah and Joel?
Obadiah
tells us that the Day of the Lord will bring about what
men
have reaped upon themselves:
For the day of the LORD [is] near upon all
the heathen: as thou
hast
done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return
upon
thine own head. (Obadiah 1:15)
Zephaniah
tells us again how the rulers of the world and their
families
will not longer be allowed to feel as secure as before.
Their
wealth means nothing to them on that Day. But Zephaniah
shows
us the same loving and forgiving face of God that has never
left
us. God will save those who repent, even in the end, if
their
heart is true and right:
7 Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord
GOD: for the day of
the LORD
[is] at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he
hath
bid his guests. 8 And it shall come to
pass in the day of
the
LORD'S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the
king's
children, and all such as are clothed with strange
apparel.
(Zephaniah 1)
The great day of the LORD [is] near, [it is]
near, and hasteth
greatly,
[even] the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man
shall
cry there bitterly. (Zephaniah 1:14)
Neither their silver nor their gold shall be
able to deliver
them in
the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be
devoured
by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a
speedy
riddance of all them that dwell in the land. (Zephaniah
1:18)
2 Before the decree bring forth, [before] the
day pass as the
chaff,
before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before
the day
of the LORD'S anger come upon you. 3
Seek ye the LORD,
all ye
meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek
righteousness,
seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the
day of
the LORD'S anger. (Zephaniah 2)
Zachariah
tells us that our wealth will be taken from us on that
Day":
Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy
spoil shall be
divided
in the midst of thee. (Zechariah 14:1)
Now
finally, our Lord Himself speaks of the very same events the
prophets
before Him referred to: the great Cosmic Disturbance.
The
Lord tells us in the Olivet Discourse recorded in Matt 24,
Mark
13, and Luke 21 that this event will coincide with His
return
again. He describes it in the very same way the prophets
described
the events of the Day of the Lord as you have just read
above.
Note that Luke records the Lord's description of those
times
as "signs". The Lord truly did want us to know and
recognize
the signs of His return:
Immediately after the tribulation of those
days shall the sun be
darkened,
and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars
shall
fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be
shaken:
(Matthew 24:29)
But in those days, after that tribulation, the
sun shall be
darkened,
and the moon shall not give her light, (Mark 13:24)
And there shall be >signs< in the sun,
and in the moon, and in
the
stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with
perplexity;
the sea and the waves roaring; (Luke 21:25)
Luke
reminds us again of the significance of the Cosmic
Disturbance
in Acts:
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and
the moon into blood,
before
that great and notable day of the Lord come: (Acts 2:20)
Paul,
in clarifying the events of the return of the Lord for the
Thessalonians,
wants to be SURE they understand that the Lord
will
return to coincide with the Day of the Lord. His description
is
plain language for all to easily understand. It will come
unexpectedly
for those who are not in Christ, i.e the rest of the
world.
They will not recognize the signs the Lord has sent to His
people:
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of
the Lord so cometh
as a
thief in the night. (1 Thessalonians 5:2)
An
Peter makes the same point (as Paul) of the element of
surprise
on the unrepentant world as well. Peter also stresses
the
Cosmic Disturbance. The great "noise" he refers to will
undoubtedly
be the "trumpet" mentioned by Joel (2:1):
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief
in the night; in
the
which 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. (2 Peter 3:10)
Even
John, in his vision of the Revelation of Jesus Christ,
describes
the Cosmic Disturbance at the opening of the sixth
seal.
This event is just PRIOR to, or herald, the start of the
Day of
the Lord which begins upon the opening of the seventh
seal.
It is the return of the Lord Himself at the opening of the
sixth
seal that will be heralded by the great Cosmic Disturbance:
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth
seal, and, lo, there
was a
great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of
hair,
and the moon became as blood; (Revelation 6:12)
In
conclusion, a proper review of the scriptures referring to the
Day of
the Lord, the great Cosmic Disturbance, and the return of
the
Lord Himself can only lead to one logical conclusion: the
correlation
of these verses. The same theme is being portrayed
and
interwoven between and amongst them. They "point" to each
other.
The return of Jesus Christ will be at the time of THE
great
cosmic disturbance, which is the removal of light from the
sun and
the moon, the shaking of the universe to "rearrange" the
stars.
It will be a cloudy day. It will be heralded by the
"trump."
This very same cosmic disturbance is also described as
being
at the start of the Day of the Lord. It stands to reason
that
Jesus would have to return PRIOR to the Day of the Lord to
rapture
His church from the earth in order to preclude them from
experiencing
the great fire-like rearrangement of the earth that
will be
part of God's wrath on the unrepentant world. Scripture
also
teaches that the cosmic disturbance event (and hence
Christ's
return) will occur at the opening of the sixth seal.