The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1
II. “Day of the Lord”—God’s Great Day of Reckoning With Man
As intimated, the key that unlocks the understanding of the book of Revelation is to be found back in Isaiah: CFF1 395.1
“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). CFF1 395.2
This may properly be referred to as the inception, because it is the first of twenty Old Testament occurrences of this epochal expression, “day of the Lord.” In fourteen instances 3 it is simply yom Yahweh. In four (Isaiah 2:12; Ezekiel 30:3; Zechariah 14:1, 7) it appears with the Lamed prefix “for” or “to,” that is, a day known to Jehovah. In all other places it is combined with such momentous words as “wrath” and “vengeance,” the inescapable accompaniments of the day. CFF1 395.3
In the New Testament the same significant term occurs four times (1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:2; 2 Peter 3:10, 12). The “day of the Lord” is the “day” when sinful man will be judged and abased, and Jehovah exalted. CFF1 395.4
This is now “man’s day,” when man exalts himself and attempts to crowd God out of the control of the very world He has created. The Lord’s “day,” or “day of the Lord,” will bring the great reversal—when man shall be “brought low,” and the just and righteous sovereignty of God established forevermore. CFF1 395.5
In order to grasp the far-reaching implications and significance of this tremendous time of reversal—of rectification of all inequities and of justification of God and His punishment of sin and sin’s proponents, both demonic and human—we must follow the development of this tremendous motif throughout the Book of God. This involves the consecutive tracing of the pertinent passages across the pages of Holy Writ. CFF1 395.6