Red Moon Rising—The Rapture and the Timeline of the Apocalypse

 

 

Chapter Five:
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The Day of the Lord

 

        “The Day of the Lord” is a term used throughout the Old and New Testaments of the period of God’s judgment upon the earth at the very end of the age. When all of these prophecies are studied together it is possible to create a vivid picture of what the Day of the Lord will include, how it will begin, and when it will begin in relation to the seventieth week of Daniel and the Seals, Trumpets and Bowls of Revelation.

Everyone on the face of the earth will know when the Day of the Lord has begun. It will involve a cataclysmic planetary catastrophe, it will include an amazing cosmic display and it will also bring about a powerful spiritual awareness within every individual on the face of the earth. Every person will be touched with the knowledge that God has intervened and nothing will ever be the same again.

However, in the wake of the extraordinary events that mark the beginning of the Day of the Lord the world will witness the rise of the Antichrist who will offer satisfying explanations and soothing words to deceive mankind away from the truth of what is happening and away from the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Day of the Lord is a controversial subject within the study of prophecy and there are disagreements regarding when it begins in relation to the seventieth week and the Seals, Trumpets and Bowls, as well as how it begins and how long it lasts. This chapter will begin to provide these answers which will support the chronology that has been developed so far and help push our study forward.

To begin with, there are four major signs or events that are each predicted numerous times in both the Old and New Testaments to take place during the Day of the Lord. The usual pattern of these “Day of the Lord” prophecies is a statement such as “the Day of the Lord is near...” or “the Day of the Lord is coming...” followed by the description of what will happen within, during, or as a result of, the Day of the Lord.

One of these four major events is a blackout of the sun, moon and stars. As the last chapter explained, there are three such blackouts within the Seals, Trumpets and Bowls of Revelation and the last two of these occur during the Day of the Lord. The final fifth Bowl blackout is a total blackout and it is the same as the one predicted by Jesus in Matthew 24:29 and in Isaiah 13:9-10. The prophet Joel also refers to blackouts three times, again with two of them predicted to occur during the Day of the Lord (Joel 2:10 and 3:15).

Another major event to occur during the Day of the Lord is a great shaking of the heavens and of the entire earth. Jesus refers to a shaking of the heavens in connection with the great blackout at the end of the Day of the Lord in Matthew 24:29. Isaiah 2:19-21 and 24:19-20 both predict a shaking of the earth, while Isaiah 13:13 predicts a shaking of the heavens and the earth. Joel 3:16 also predicts a great shaking of the heavens and the earth.

In Revelation there are two major shakings of the heavens and the earth. The first occurs in connection with the sixth Seal (Revelation 6:14) and the last occurs at the very end when the seventh Bowl is poured out (16:18-20). These two distinct cosmic/global catastrophes are very important to keep in mind as we continue to piece together our chronology of prophetic events. Another shaking of the earth that must be mentioned is the one described in Ezekiel 38:19-20, which we will inspect in the next chapter.

A third major event, which is perhaps better termed a purpose or result of the Day of the Lord, is the destruction of the wicked. It is described in numerous Old Testament passages including Isaiah 13:9 and 34:2, Obadiah 1:15-16, and Zephaniah 1:17. The wicked will be destroyed during the Day of the Lord, which is also predicted numerous times near the end of the book of Revelation.

The fourth major event involving the Day of the Lord is the complete destruction of the earth that will allow for its complete renovation. This is predicted in several Old Testament texts including Zephaniah 1:2-18, Zechariah 14:8-9 and in Isaiah chapters 24-27. In the New Testament the destruction and renovation of the earth is predicted in 2 Peter 3:10-13, and in Revelation 21.

In addition to the many prophecies that describe events that will take place during the Day of the Lord, there are three prophecies that describe signs or events that will take place before the Day of the Lord.
 

“Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3)

 

“See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6)

 

“The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.” (Joel 2:31)
 

The events that must precede the Day of the Lord are the revealing of the Antichrist, the appearance of Elijah to Jewish families, and the cosmic sign of the sun turning dark and the moon turning the color of blood.

The revealing of the Antichrist should not be mistaken with the setting up of his image in the Temple. The takeover of Jerusalem and the Temple is his highest achievement, but he must first make his rise to power before he can achieve that goal, and he must first be revealed before he can begin his rise to power.

The appearance of Elijah concerns the fathers and children of the nation of Israel. Elijah will make a supernatural appearance prior to the Day of the Lord and it will be made for the purpose of strengthening Jewish families in order for them to deal with the many challenges that the Day of the Lord will bring. Perhaps Elijah will appear during the traditional Sedar meal that every Jewish family celebrates once each year in the spring, when a place is always made at the table for Elijah.

The third event that is predicted to occur before the “great and dreadful day of the Lord” is the darkening of the sun and the moon turning the color of blood. This is the sign that allows us to pinpoint the beginning of the Day of the Lord within the book of Revelation, because this sign is very clearly shown at the opening of the sixth Seal:

“I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’” (Revelation 6:12-17)

There are a number of elements in addition to the blood red moon that prove that this is the point at which the Day of the Lord begins. But first, here is a breakdown of the events that take place at the opening of the sixth seal:

1- A local earthquake at an ungiven location

2- A darkening of the sun

3- A blood red moon

4- A brilliant meteor shower of falling stars

5- A great shaking of the earth

The first four events all precede the “great and dreadful day of the Lord,” which begins with the fifth event when the earth is shaken in a way never before felt by modern man. When it occurs the earth will be in darkness and the stars (at least those not falling) will be visible in the sky. As the earth rolls on its axis the sky will appear to recede, just like the letters are rolled up as a scroll is being read. At the same time mountains and islands will move from their set places (perhaps in modern terms meaning their latitude and longitude coordinates) which, when combined with the movement of the sky, is suggestive of a massive “polar shift” type of event. Perhaps during or after this event the North Star will be seen in the west, or the Southern Cross in the north.

Whatever the precise nature of this earth-shaking event, the reaction to it by the people on the earth is the same: absolute fear and sheer terror! The verbal response that humanity makes to this event proves that it is indeed the beginning of the Day of the Lord:

“Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

The prophet Isaiah gives his own prediction of this catastrophic event, and his description confirms that it is indeed a great shaking of the earth and indeed a “Day of the Lord” event:

    “Go into the rocks, hide in the ground from dread of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty! The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. The LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled)...

    Men will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from dread of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth... They will flee to caverns in the rocks and to the overhanging crags from dread of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth. Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?” (Isaiah 2:10-22)

In both of the accounts, in Revelation and in Isaiah, the Day of the Lord is mentioned, the earth is shaken, humanity responds in terror by fleeing to the caves and mountains, and humanity acknowledges that God has acted. In Isaiah they flee from the “splendor of God’s majesty” and in Revelation they flee so that they can be hidden from the face of God and from the wrath of Jesus. This is not to say that God or Jesus become visible, but only that mankind is overcome by fear of that possibility because they know that God alone is responsible for what has just happened.
 

Conclusion

The beginning of the Day of the Lord is clearly fixed within the sixth Seal of Revelation, as the fifth of five events, which is a massive shaking of the entire earth by God Himself. This is proven by the fact that this shaking of the earth comes after the sign of the darkened sun and blood red moon, which is the sign predicted by Joel to precede the Day of the Lord, and proven as well as by the response from the people on the earth afterwards who say, “The great day of God’s wrath has come and who can stand?!”

When this catastrophic earth-shaking event is placed on our timeline of the seventieth week, we find that it comes far prior to the midpoint of the seventieth week, which occurs near the end of the sixth Trumpet judgment of Revelation as explained in the previous chapter.

The next chapter will compare the events in Revelation and Isaiah that describe the beginning of the Day of the Lord with a well known prophecy from Ezekiel, and from there we will finally nail down the beginning of the seventieth week to its proper place in relation to the Day of the Lord and within the sequence of the Seals, Trumpets and Bowls of Revelation.

 

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