The Day of the Lord

The wicked, living on earth at that time, will all be slain. It will be as it was in Noah's time, the saints will be gathered up and all the wicked will be swept from the whole earth. Said our Saviour, "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24:37-39. Noah and his family were gathered up; but all the wicked were slain. The flood came and took them all away. It will be so at the coming of Christ. As we have seen, the saints will be gathered up to "Jerusalem which is above;" but all the wicked will be cut off. Thus the earth will be left desolate—without a human inhabitant.

The ancient prophets clearly foretold this. Said Isaiah, "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." Chap. 13:9. The sinners are to be destroyed out of the land without exception. It may be objected that this applies to some particular land, and not to the whole world. But verse 11 says, "I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity." This includes all the wicked of the world. He continues: "I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." The arrogancy of the proud has not yet ceased, and will not till they are laid low. "I will make a man more precious [i. e. scarce] than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir." When will this be? In the day when the Lord shall shake the heavens, and the earth; a day yet in the future, of which Paul wrote to the Hebrews. See Heb. 12:26, 27. The prophet continues: "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."

In Isa. 24:1, we read, "Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof." In verse 3, he assures us that "The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled; for the Lord hath spoken this word." It is objected that at this time, when "the curse hath devoured the earth," there are a "few men left," verse 6, that there shall be a few that escape, "as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done." Verse 13. I reply, these are the righteous—those who are taken up to the sea of glass mingled with fire, which is before the throne of God. Says the prophet, "They shall lift up the voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord [compare Rev. 15:2, 3], they shall cry aloud from the sea." Verse 14. "These are the righteous that sing and glorify the Lord." But of the wicked it is said, "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. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in prison, and after many days shall they be visited." Verses 21, 22. As prisoners are shut up, to await the execution of their final punishment, so the wicked, at the second advent, will be gathered into the prisonhouse of death. And "after many days—after a thousand years—"shall they be visited." They are to be brought forth from their prison, at the second resurrection, to receive their final doom, the second death.

"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. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation," etc. Zeph. 1:14, 15. "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." Verse 18. When that "great day of his wrath is come," none of the wicked shall be "able to stand." A "speedy riddance" will be made of "all that dwell in the land." Does not this relate to the whole earth? We will read again. "I have cut off the nations: [none are excepted] their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant." Chap. 3:6. "Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy." Verse 8.

This gathering of the nations will take place while the seven last plagues are being poured out, which will take place immediately after the close of probation. The spirits of devils, under the sixth vial, "go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." This battle is described in Rev. 19, where the King of kings and Lord of lords is represented as coming from Heaven, seated upon a white horse, and followed by the armies of Heaven, the angels; and the result of the battle is thus described: "And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh." This is symbolic prophecy, but the meaning is clear. The horses from Heaven are not real, the beast and his image are symbols, as is the sword that proceeds from the mouth of the King of kings. In this place, the lake of fire may also be a symbol, like the wine press of Chap. 14, though there will be as we have seen, a literal conflagration of the earth, after the thousand years, when the ungodly meet their doom, the second death. 2 Pet. 3; Rev. 20. But, as a symbol, it clearly indicates the slaughter of those who in in their symbolic character are cast in there; and that there be no room for a hope of escape, to any of the wicked, from this general overthrow,—no hope of surviving this unmingled wrath and living in the coming age—we are expressly told "the remnant were slain" and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. They will be literally slain, and the fowls and the beasts of the earth will literally feed upon their unburied carcasses.

If the reader will turn to Jer. 25, he will find a vivid description of the desolation of the earth, in the beginning of the day of the Lord. Commencing at verse 15, the wine cup of fury is introduced, which is sent, first to Jerusalem, then to other specified nations, and lastly to "all the kingdoms of the world; which are upon the face of the earth." This wine cup is to cause them all to be drunken, and to "fall and rise no more"—it is to destroy them as nations. And none are to escape; he says, "Ye shall certainly drink." The Lord positively declares, "I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth." And again, the Lord shall "give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked [no exceptions] to the sword, saith the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried." None left alive, or they would be lamented, though there should be too few to gather and bury them. Here follows a description of the howling of the false shepherds and of the principal of the flock, which answers to the special judgments upon Babylon, recorded in the book of Revelation. And the Lord represents himself as a lion, which suddenly leaves his covert and seizes upon his unsuspecting victim, and the land is declared to be desolate or a desolation.

Much more testimony might be adduced to prove that the earth will be wholly desolated by the seven last plagues and the battle in the day of the Lord—the battle which precedes the thousand years, commonly called the Millennium. But enough has been given, if its full force is appreciated. The people of God will be taken to Heaven, the wicked of earth will be slain, and that period of fabled glory to earth, when the world should be converted, and Christ should reign here spiritually, as some have taught, or personally, according to others, will, in fact, be a period of utter desolation to earth, not a human inhabitant remaining, and the earth with the dust of the wicked will lie under the curse, till the second resurrection. Then the wicked will be destroyed, earth renovated, and the meek shall inherit it and dwell therein forever. Oh! what terrible scenes are before us! but the eternal glory will certainly follow.