The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

V. “Day of the Lord”—Fulfills in Historical Actualities of Apocalypse

We will restate briefly the over-all prophetic portrayal of the day of the Lord, of the Old and New Testaments, and then proceed to note the identity of the terms of fulfillment majestically spread before us in the Apocalypse that seals off the Book of God, and its parting message to mankind. Then we will note certain supplemental variant phraseology, which now appears in the detailed application in the Revelation recital, which enforces and establishes the fundamental truth that had been cumulatively unfolded over the centuries. Observe particularly the additional features. CFF1 396.5

1. NEW NOTE HAS INCREASING VOLUME AND TEMPO

Beginning with the eighth-century B.C. prophet Isaiah, a new note was introduced, and a new term (with its variants) was injected into Holy Writ. This motif persisted and grew in significance throughout the remainder of the Old Testament canon, and swept on through the New Testament with increasing volume and tempo. In the Old Testament, it was employed by Isaiah, Joel, Amos, Zephaniah, Zechariah, and Malachi. And in the New Testament it was enforced and amplified by Jesus, Peter, Paul, and John. CFF1 400.1

That momentous term was the day of the Lord, and its cognate expressions. God was beginning to prepare mankind for the great day of reckoning, the mighty consummation, and God’s determinate settlement of the sin problem that had plagued the race and given boldness to the enemies of God. CFF1 400.2

Back in chapter eight of the Old Testament discussion, mention was made of eight similar terms of increasing intensity—“The day,” “latter day,” “day of the Lord,” “day of his coming,” “great day of the Lord,” “great and terrible day of the Lord,” “great and dreadful day of the Lord,” and “day of the Lord’s wrath.” But its climax was also called the “end,” to be preceded by the “time of the end,” or “latter days.” CFF1 400.3

As we have seen, it is variously depicted as a day of wrath, anger, vengeance, trouble, distress, destruction, wasteness, desolation, darkness, gloominess, trumpet, alarm, trouble, terror, and dread—for the wicked. It forms a swelling crescendo of developments climaxing with the “end of the world,” or age—and consequent developments—comprehended in the one all-inclusive term, “day of the Lord.” CFF1 400.4

And in the New Testament it is similarly called a day of wrath, judgment, and harvest for the wicked, but of recompense, reward, and eternal life and habitations for the saints. But the dominant note is retribution, punishment, perdition, and judgments, terminating with total destruction of sin and sinners, and especially of Satan and his minions, then followed by a clean universe forevermore. CFF1 400.5

2. DETAILED BILL OF PARTICULARS IN APOCALYPSE

As the day of the Lord is prophetically pictured in the Apocalypse, other intensified terms are employed in the portrayal: Torment, sorrow, wrath poured out without mixture, and tormented with fire and brimstone. Specifically, spread over the various prophecies of the Revelation, the day of the Lord is declared to include the time of reaping (Revelation 14:15, 16), of crushing in the wine press of the wrath of God (Revelation 14:19), of judgment made manifest (Revelation 15:4), of the pouring out of the vials of the wrath of God (Revelation 16:1), of the consummating fiat, “It is done” (Revelation 16:17), of judgment (Revelation 17:1), of going into perdition (Revelation 17:8, 11), of burning with fire (Revelation 17:16; Revelation 18:9, 10), of torment and sorrow (Revelation 18:7), of weeping and wailing (Revelation 18:15), and of the smoke of burning (Revelation 18:18). CFF1 401.1

It is the time when iniquity is thrown down and found no more at all (Revelation 18:21), of further allusion to the smoke of her torment (Revelation 19:3), of righteous judgment and making war on iniquity (Revelation 19:11), of smiting the nations (Revelation 19:15), of treading the wine press of the wrath of “Almighty God” (Revelation 19:15), of casting alive into lake of fire burning with brimstone (Revelation 19:20), of slaying with the sword (Revelation 19:21). And finally fire comes down from God out of Heaven and devours them (Revelation 20:9), and they are tormented “day and night” (Revelation 20:10). It is the execution of a just judgment, for they have been judged out of the infallible record of the books of Heaven. CFF1 401.2

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works” (Revelation 20:12). CFF1 401.3

“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). CFF1 401.4

3. “OLD” PASSES FOREVER; “NEW” ESTABLISHED FOREVER

Such is the galaxy of terms and descriptions necessary to portray the actual day of the Lord and God’s righteous disposal of the sin problem. Then comes the “new heaven and a new earth,” the former having passed away forever (Revelation 21:1). Thenceforth there is forever no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain, and no more curse, “for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4). “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5). CFF1 401.5

Picture 4: The Role of Holy Angels:
Holy Angels Special Order of Celestial Beings Dwelling in the Presence of God and Constituting His Messengers Are Major Actors in the Plan of Salvation.
Page 402

And the two—the new earth, and the utter passing of the present earth, and its sin, sorrow, injustice, and rebellion—were both predicted in Isaiah 65:17, by the very prophet who initiated the term and launched the intent of the day of the Lord. Such is the profound unity of the Old and New Testaments. They both had one inspired Author, impelling the inspired penmen—the prophets and the apostles. And this is a prime exhibit. CFF1 402.1

4. CONSUMMATING TESTIMONY SEALS AGE-OLD WITNESS

Another feature must be stressed ere this section is closed. It is this: “And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie” (Revelation 21:27). CFF1 403.1

Satan, the original rebel and ruthless deceiver and father of lies, will not be there—having then been totally destroyed—and his catastrophic lie in Eden will have been utterly discredited, disproved, and brought to an end. Sin, with its lethal train of woe, will not rise up again. In the “second death” all sinners will have utterly perished and passed from being—thus disproving Satan’s lying claim announced in Eden, “Ye [our first parents, and all mankind] shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). Six thousand years of unremitting death confute it. CFF1 403.2

So the saved all know by actual experience the verity of God’s word and the falsehood and fraud and deception of Satan’s first lie. They have seen its falsehood fulfilled before their eyes. The controversy is thus ended. The day of the Lord is over, fulfilled, past. The truth of God as to the nature and destiny of man is vindicated and established forever. The cruel experiment of sin is ended. CFF1 403.3

That is the triumph of God in the day of the Lord. A sinless universe and a redeemed humanity will then have entered upon the aeons of eternity. That is the primary message of God’s last book of the canon—the Revelation. And it is in complete harmony with the over-all witness of all the inspired messages across the centuries that preceded it. CFF1 403.4