Ric
March 3rd 2004, 08:33 PM
The Day of the Lord: Part 2
Last month we began to look at the Day of the Lord - exactly what it is and what sign will announce its coming. This month we will look at 6 precursors which Scripture indicates will occur before the Day of the Lord comes.
1. The Day of the Lord will begin AFTER the apostasy and revealing of the man of lawlessness.
Paul, in his second letter to the Thessalonians, makes it clear that the Day of the Lord and our gathering together to Him would not come until after the revealing of the Antichrist. He wrote:
Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him, that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. (2 Thess. 2:1-4)
It is very clear in the above passage that the Day of the Lord will not come until two things take place first—the apostasy, which is the falling away of professing believers within the church in general at the midpoint of the 70th week of Daniel. This takes place as a result of the second event—the revealing of the man of lawlessness, who we know as the Antichrist. We know from Daniel 9:27 that, at some time in the future, a 7-year covenant will be signed with Israel. But at the midpoint of this 7-year period, which we call the 70th Week of Daniel, the Antichrist will break this covenant and set up the abomination of desolation. This is the exact event that Paul refers to here in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 when speaking of the Antichrist "taking his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God." Revelation 13 gives us more information of this time, telling us that at the midpoint the Antichrist will "open his mouth in blasphemies against God". He will be granted authority for 42 months and will make war with the saints and overcome them (Rev. 13:5-7). Many who will not worship him will be killed (Rev. 13:14-15). This is the beginning of what Christ called the Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:15, 21). And it is after this that the Day of the Lord will begin.
2. The Day of the Lord will begin AFTER the beginning of the persecution of Antichrist (the Great Tribulation).
After Jesus introduces the Great Tribulation in Matthew 24, he goes on to describe His coming. Jesus states that:
But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. (Matt. 24:29-31)
This description of the signs in the heavens matches exactly the Old Testament sign that Joel gave us as preceding the Day of the Lord (Joel 2:31). It is after the tribulation, after the persecution of Antichrist that the Day of the Lord begins.
While the Antichrist has been given authority to act for 42 months (3-1/2 years), the Great Tribulation against the church will not last the entire 42 months. Jesus told His disciples that the time of tribulation will be cut short for the sake of God's elect (believers):
...for then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall. And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short. (Matt. 24:21-22)
The phrase "those days" refers to the days of tribulation of which Jesus was just speaking, and the term "cut short", koloboo in the Greek, means "amputate”. Some pretribulationists teach that the days being cut short refers to God shortening the length of the daylight hours so that the elect are able to hide from the Antichrist and not be exposed by the light of day. John MacArthur represents this view when he writes, "But Since Jesus spoke of "those days" rather than the more general eschatological phrase "that day", it seems that His reference was probably to twenty-four hour days. In this case, God will supernaturally shorten the daylight hours in order to give His fleeing people the added protection of darkness"[i]. This view does not have any support—contextually, grammatically, or exegetically. The phrase "those days" demands an antecedent, and the nearest one is "great tribulation". Others teach that Jesus meant that the length of the Great Tribulation would be cut short to 3-1/2 years, because if it would go on indefinitely no one would survive. However, if the 3-1/2 year period of tribulation was prophesied thousands of years before this event will take place, and it was, and Jesus taught that those days would be amputated, and He did, it means that God will cut that time period short so that it is shorter than 3-1/2 years! You can't cut something short and have it still be the same length. At some point during the Great Tribulation, Christ will cut the persecution short by removing the object of persecution, the Church.
3. The Day of the Lord will begin AFTER the opening of the 6th seal.
In Revelation chapter 5 we are introduced to a scroll sealed with seven seals. Only One in heaven or on earth is found worthy to break the seals and open the scroll—the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. As He breaks the seals, events unfold on the earth that mark the progression of the 70th Week of Daniel. The first seal represents the coming of the Antichrist. The second seal is war. The third seal represents famine. The fourth and fifth seals bring us past the midpoint of the seven-year period and picture death and martyrdom, which will come as the result of Antichrist's persecution. The sixth seal vividly describes the exact same sign of the Day of the Lord as foretold by the prophet Joel and Christ himself:
And I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence 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 is able to stand?” (Rev. 6:12-17)
Once again, we see the sign of the Day of the Lord. Even the wicked men on earth recognize the supernatural events of the great earthquake and the cosmic disturbances as the sign heralding the coming of the wrath of God. And the timing fits exactly with the teaching of Jesus in the Olivet Discourse, that is "after the tribulation of those days", which is represented by the 4th and 5th seals.
4. The Day of the Lord will begin AFTER the rapture of the Church.
How do we know that the Day of the Lord comes subsequent to the rapture of the Church? We have seen previously that the Day of the Lord consists of the eschatological wrath of God poured out on the wicked of the earth. The Church, however, is promised deliverance from this wrath. In the book of First Thessalonians Paul makes it very clear that we are not subject to the wrath of God. He states:
... and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come... For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ..." (1 Thess. 1:10, 5:9).
That word, salvation, in the Greek is soterias, and can mean either spiritual salvation or physical deliverance.[ii] God has made it very clear that the true Church will not experience His eschatological Day-of-the-Lord wrath. We will be delivered by rapture before it falls upon the wicked on earth.
5. The Day of the Lord will begin AFTER the "last trump", the "trump of God" is blown.
The rapture of the Church is intricately tied to the blowing of a trumpet. Our Lord Jesus, in the Olivet Discourse, mentions a trumpet associated with His coming:
But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. (Matt. 24:29-31)
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, writes:
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
Speaking of the same event, Paul also taught the Thessalonian believers that
... the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thess. 4:16-17)
By comparing these verses, we can conclude that "last trumpet" and the "trumpet of God" are synonymous.
The only other passage in the Bible that mentions God's trumpet is Zechariah 9:
...and the Lord GOD will blow the trumpet, and will march in the storm winds of the south. The LORD of hosts will defend them. And they will devour, and trample on the sling stones; and they will drink, and be boisterous as with wine; and they will be filled like a sacrificial basin, drenched like the corners of the altar. And the LORD their God will save them in that day... (Zech. 9:14-16)
In context, we can see that this passage speaks of God blowing the trumpet, announcing the deliverance of Israel from the oppression of the Greek ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes. This happened under the leadership of the Maccabbees around the year 165 BC. In much the same way, at Christ's coming, God will blow the trumpet, announcing the deliverance of His people, the Church, and the coming of God's judgment, the Day of the Lord
6. The Day of the Lord will begin AFTER the coming of Elijah.
The last book of the Old Testament gives a promise to the nation of Israel: “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD" (Mal. 4:5). It is clear from this verse that the Day of the Lord cannot begin until after God has sent Elijah the prophet. Some will say, "Didn't Jesus say that John the Baptist fulfilled the role of Elijah?" The answer is yes and no. Speaking of John, Jesus did say, "And if you care to accept it, he himself is Elijah, who was to come" (Matt. 11:14). But, we must compare all relevant Scriptures before we come to a conclusion about John. Speaking of John, the angel Gabriel told John's father, Zacharias, "And it is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17). And in another place Jesus clearly stated that John was not the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy in Malachi. After John's death and after the vision of Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus' disciples asked Him, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" Jesus answered them, "Elijah is coming and will restore all things; but I say to you, that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him..." (Matt. 17:10-12). John was a type of Elijah and came in the power and spirit of Elijah, and fulfilled a similar ministry as Elijah, but Jesus said that we should expect a future fulfillment of this prophecy—a future coming of the prophet Elijah.
Exactly when does this future coming of Elijah take place? Most evangelical scholars believe that one of the two witnesses of Revelation 11 will be Elijah. This belief comes from several sources. First of all, the witnesses "shut up the sky, in order that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying", which is exactly what Elijah did in 1 Kings 17. Secondly, Elijah is one of the two people who appeared with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, which Christ said was a preview of His coming in His kingdom (Matt. 16:28-17:3). And finally, since we are still looking for the coming of Elijah before the Day of the Lord, one of the two witnesses is a great candidate for the fulfillment of this prophecy.
So, assuming one of these witnesses is Elijah, exactly when do the witnesses begin their days of prophesying? Revelation 11 tells us that they prophesy for 1,260 days. This is three and one-half years. The question is, is this the first 3-1/2 years of Daniel's 70th Week, or the last 3-1/2 years? Looking at this passage in context, we can answer that this it is clearly referring to the second 3-1/2 years. There are two lines of reasoning that support this conclusion. One is scriptural and the other logical.
First of all, we are introduced to three Woes in Revelation 8:13, which are identified as the final 3 blasts of the trumpets—numbers 5, 6 and 7. The fifth trumpet is called the First Woe in Rev. 9:12. The rest of chapter 9 details the contents of the 6th trumpet judgment. Chapter 10 of Revelation tells us about the "little scroll" and the salvation of Israel, which we have shown elsewhere to occur at the end of the 70th Week of Daniel, between the blowing of the 6th and 7th trumpets. Revelation 11 tells us of the ministry of the two witnesses. We are told that after 1,260 days they will be killed by Antichrist and raised back to life after 3-1/2 days. Immediately after their resurrection and ascension, we are told that the Second Woe is past and then the seventh trumpet sounds. Thus, the death and resurrection of the two witnesses takes place after the blowing of the 6th trumpet, and just before the blowing of the seventh trumpet. This places their death at the end of the 70th Week, which means their ministry must be the last half of the seven years.
Secondly, the nature of the ministry of the two witnesses would support the view that they minister during the second half of the seven-year period. Their two-fold purpose is to prophesy and to smite the earth with plagues. Part of their ministry would be warning the Jews to not accept Antichrist as their savior in light of the coming judgment of God on all who worship him. Since the Antichrist is not revealed until the midpoint of the 70th Week (Dan. 9:27; 2 Thess. 2:3-4), there would be no reason for them to minister during the first half. So, our conclusion is that the Day of the Lord will not begin until after the midpoint of the 70th Week of Daniel, after the appearance of Elijah, as prophesied by Malachi.
Next month we will conclude our look at the Day of the Lord and see how a proper understanding of the nature and chronology of events surrounding the Day of the Lord helps us pinpoint when in the sequence of events the rapture of the Church occurs.
[i] MacArthur, John. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Matthew 24-28. Chicago: Moody, 1989. p. 45
[ii] See Acts 7:25, Philippians 1:19 and Hebrews 11:7
Sola Scriptura
PO Box 617677
Orlando, FL 32861
800-844-9930
parousia@solagroup.org
http://www.solagroup.org
Last month we began to look at the Day of the Lord - exactly what it is and what sign will announce its coming. This month we will look at 6 precursors which Scripture indicates will occur before the Day of the Lord comes.
1. The Day of the Lord will begin AFTER the apostasy and revealing of the man of lawlessness.
Paul, in his second letter to the Thessalonians, makes it clear that the Day of the Lord and our gathering together to Him would not come until after the revealing of the Antichrist. He wrote:
Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him, that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. (2 Thess. 2:1-4)
It is very clear in the above passage that the Day of the Lord will not come until two things take place first—the apostasy, which is the falling away of professing believers within the church in general at the midpoint of the 70th week of Daniel. This takes place as a result of the second event—the revealing of the man of lawlessness, who we know as the Antichrist. We know from Daniel 9:27 that, at some time in the future, a 7-year covenant will be signed with Israel. But at the midpoint of this 7-year period, which we call the 70th Week of Daniel, the Antichrist will break this covenant and set up the abomination of desolation. This is the exact event that Paul refers to here in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 when speaking of the Antichrist "taking his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God." Revelation 13 gives us more information of this time, telling us that at the midpoint the Antichrist will "open his mouth in blasphemies against God". He will be granted authority for 42 months and will make war with the saints and overcome them (Rev. 13:5-7). Many who will not worship him will be killed (Rev. 13:14-15). This is the beginning of what Christ called the Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:15, 21). And it is after this that the Day of the Lord will begin.
2. The Day of the Lord will begin AFTER the beginning of the persecution of Antichrist (the Great Tribulation).
After Jesus introduces the Great Tribulation in Matthew 24, he goes on to describe His coming. Jesus states that:
But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. (Matt. 24:29-31)
This description of the signs in the heavens matches exactly the Old Testament sign that Joel gave us as preceding the Day of the Lord (Joel 2:31). It is after the tribulation, after the persecution of Antichrist that the Day of the Lord begins.
While the Antichrist has been given authority to act for 42 months (3-1/2 years), the Great Tribulation against the church will not last the entire 42 months. Jesus told His disciples that the time of tribulation will be cut short for the sake of God's elect (believers):
...for then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall. And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short. (Matt. 24:21-22)
The phrase "those days" refers to the days of tribulation of which Jesus was just speaking, and the term "cut short", koloboo in the Greek, means "amputate”. Some pretribulationists teach that the days being cut short refers to God shortening the length of the daylight hours so that the elect are able to hide from the Antichrist and not be exposed by the light of day. John MacArthur represents this view when he writes, "But Since Jesus spoke of "those days" rather than the more general eschatological phrase "that day", it seems that His reference was probably to twenty-four hour days. In this case, God will supernaturally shorten the daylight hours in order to give His fleeing people the added protection of darkness"[i]. This view does not have any support—contextually, grammatically, or exegetically. The phrase "those days" demands an antecedent, and the nearest one is "great tribulation". Others teach that Jesus meant that the length of the Great Tribulation would be cut short to 3-1/2 years, because if it would go on indefinitely no one would survive. However, if the 3-1/2 year period of tribulation was prophesied thousands of years before this event will take place, and it was, and Jesus taught that those days would be amputated, and He did, it means that God will cut that time period short so that it is shorter than 3-1/2 years! You can't cut something short and have it still be the same length. At some point during the Great Tribulation, Christ will cut the persecution short by removing the object of persecution, the Church.
3. The Day of the Lord will begin AFTER the opening of the 6th seal.
In Revelation chapter 5 we are introduced to a scroll sealed with seven seals. Only One in heaven or on earth is found worthy to break the seals and open the scroll—the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. As He breaks the seals, events unfold on the earth that mark the progression of the 70th Week of Daniel. The first seal represents the coming of the Antichrist. The second seal is war. The third seal represents famine. The fourth and fifth seals bring us past the midpoint of the seven-year period and picture death and martyrdom, which will come as the result of Antichrist's persecution. The sixth seal vividly describes the exact same sign of the Day of the Lord as foretold by the prophet Joel and Christ himself:
And I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence 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 is able to stand?” (Rev. 6:12-17)
Once again, we see the sign of the Day of the Lord. Even the wicked men on earth recognize the supernatural events of the great earthquake and the cosmic disturbances as the sign heralding the coming of the wrath of God. And the timing fits exactly with the teaching of Jesus in the Olivet Discourse, that is "after the tribulation of those days", which is represented by the 4th and 5th seals.
4. The Day of the Lord will begin AFTER the rapture of the Church.
How do we know that the Day of the Lord comes subsequent to the rapture of the Church? We have seen previously that the Day of the Lord consists of the eschatological wrath of God poured out on the wicked of the earth. The Church, however, is promised deliverance from this wrath. In the book of First Thessalonians Paul makes it very clear that we are not subject to the wrath of God. He states:
... and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come... For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ..." (1 Thess. 1:10, 5:9).
That word, salvation, in the Greek is soterias, and can mean either spiritual salvation or physical deliverance.[ii] God has made it very clear that the true Church will not experience His eschatological Day-of-the-Lord wrath. We will be delivered by rapture before it falls upon the wicked on earth.
5. The Day of the Lord will begin AFTER the "last trump", the "trump of God" is blown.
The rapture of the Church is intricately tied to the blowing of a trumpet. Our Lord Jesus, in the Olivet Discourse, mentions a trumpet associated with His coming:
But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. (Matt. 24:29-31)
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, writes:
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
Speaking of the same event, Paul also taught the Thessalonian believers that
... the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thess. 4:16-17)
By comparing these verses, we can conclude that "last trumpet" and the "trumpet of God" are synonymous.
The only other passage in the Bible that mentions God's trumpet is Zechariah 9:
...and the Lord GOD will blow the trumpet, and will march in the storm winds of the south. The LORD of hosts will defend them. And they will devour, and trample on the sling stones; and they will drink, and be boisterous as with wine; and they will be filled like a sacrificial basin, drenched like the corners of the altar. And the LORD their God will save them in that day... (Zech. 9:14-16)
In context, we can see that this passage speaks of God blowing the trumpet, announcing the deliverance of Israel from the oppression of the Greek ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes. This happened under the leadership of the Maccabbees around the year 165 BC. In much the same way, at Christ's coming, God will blow the trumpet, announcing the deliverance of His people, the Church, and the coming of God's judgment, the Day of the Lord
6. The Day of the Lord will begin AFTER the coming of Elijah.
The last book of the Old Testament gives a promise to the nation of Israel: “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD" (Mal. 4:5). It is clear from this verse that the Day of the Lord cannot begin until after God has sent Elijah the prophet. Some will say, "Didn't Jesus say that John the Baptist fulfilled the role of Elijah?" The answer is yes and no. Speaking of John, Jesus did say, "And if you care to accept it, he himself is Elijah, who was to come" (Matt. 11:14). But, we must compare all relevant Scriptures before we come to a conclusion about John. Speaking of John, the angel Gabriel told John's father, Zacharias, "And it is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17). And in another place Jesus clearly stated that John was not the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy in Malachi. After John's death and after the vision of Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus' disciples asked Him, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" Jesus answered them, "Elijah is coming and will restore all things; but I say to you, that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him..." (Matt. 17:10-12). John was a type of Elijah and came in the power and spirit of Elijah, and fulfilled a similar ministry as Elijah, but Jesus said that we should expect a future fulfillment of this prophecy—a future coming of the prophet Elijah.
Exactly when does this future coming of Elijah take place? Most evangelical scholars believe that one of the two witnesses of Revelation 11 will be Elijah. This belief comes from several sources. First of all, the witnesses "shut up the sky, in order that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying", which is exactly what Elijah did in 1 Kings 17. Secondly, Elijah is one of the two people who appeared with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, which Christ said was a preview of His coming in His kingdom (Matt. 16:28-17:3). And finally, since we are still looking for the coming of Elijah before the Day of the Lord, one of the two witnesses is a great candidate for the fulfillment of this prophecy.
So, assuming one of these witnesses is Elijah, exactly when do the witnesses begin their days of prophesying? Revelation 11 tells us that they prophesy for 1,260 days. This is three and one-half years. The question is, is this the first 3-1/2 years of Daniel's 70th Week, or the last 3-1/2 years? Looking at this passage in context, we can answer that this it is clearly referring to the second 3-1/2 years. There are two lines of reasoning that support this conclusion. One is scriptural and the other logical.
First of all, we are introduced to three Woes in Revelation 8:13, which are identified as the final 3 blasts of the trumpets—numbers 5, 6 and 7. The fifth trumpet is called the First Woe in Rev. 9:12. The rest of chapter 9 details the contents of the 6th trumpet judgment. Chapter 10 of Revelation tells us about the "little scroll" and the salvation of Israel, which we have shown elsewhere to occur at the end of the 70th Week of Daniel, between the blowing of the 6th and 7th trumpets. Revelation 11 tells us of the ministry of the two witnesses. We are told that after 1,260 days they will be killed by Antichrist and raised back to life after 3-1/2 days. Immediately after their resurrection and ascension, we are told that the Second Woe is past and then the seventh trumpet sounds. Thus, the death and resurrection of the two witnesses takes place after the blowing of the 6th trumpet, and just before the blowing of the seventh trumpet. This places their death at the end of the 70th Week, which means their ministry must be the last half of the seven years.
Secondly, the nature of the ministry of the two witnesses would support the view that they minister during the second half of the seven-year period. Their two-fold purpose is to prophesy and to smite the earth with plagues. Part of their ministry would be warning the Jews to not accept Antichrist as their savior in light of the coming judgment of God on all who worship him. Since the Antichrist is not revealed until the midpoint of the 70th Week (Dan. 9:27; 2 Thess. 2:3-4), there would be no reason for them to minister during the first half. So, our conclusion is that the Day of the Lord will not begin until after the midpoint of the 70th Week of Daniel, after the appearance of Elijah, as prophesied by Malachi.
Next month we will conclude our look at the Day of the Lord and see how a proper understanding of the nature and chronology of events surrounding the Day of the Lord helps us pinpoint when in the sequence of events the rapture of the Church occurs.
[i] MacArthur, John. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Matthew 24-28. Chicago: Moody, 1989. p. 45
[ii] See Acts 7:25, Philippians 1:19 and Hebrews 11:7
Sola Scriptura
PO Box 617677
Orlando, FL 32861
800-844-9930
parousia@solagroup.org
http://www.solagroup.org