There is more than one Day of Christ (or day of the Son of man), but when we gather together the various scriptures that refer to the Day of Christ and the Day of the Lord, it is easy to see that they are very different. The things said of the Day of Christ do not mention the catastrophic things said of the beginning of the Day of the Lord. Rev. C.I. Scofield said, "The 'day of Christ' relates wholly to the reward and blessing of saints at His coming, as 'day of the LORD' is connected with judgment."
The second Day of Christ does seem to be the first 24-hour day of the millennial Day of the Lord. As if that isn't enough to confuse us, there is a Rapture on each of the two Days of Christ. I believe the first is Pre-Trib, the second Pre-Wrath, barely. Rapture II and the Day of God's Wrath take place within the same 24 hours.
This is where we have to rightly divide the word of truth. II Timothy 2:15 says, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Just as the people of 30 A.D. could not see that there were two comings of the Messiah, there are those today that cannot see that there are also two Raptures, etc.
We can see that there is more than one Day of Christ (also called Day of the Lord Jesus, Day of the Son of Man and "his day") from Luke 17:22-24. Jesus said,
The days will come (in the future), when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man (i.e., the first Rapture), and ye shall not see it (like the Laodiceans that get left behind). And they shall say to you (Tribulation saints), See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them (the Beast and False Prophet). For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
This reference to "his day" is, I believe, the second Day of Christ, the day of Rapture II, because that is when the Sign of the Son of Man will be seen.
After saying he must suffer and be rejected of that generation, Jesus described the two Days of Christ. The first is as the days of Noah and represents the first Rapture. The second is as the days of Lot and represents the second Rapture. In Luke 17:26f, Jesus said,
And as it was in the days of Noe (Noah), so shall it be also in the days (plural) of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married...until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot;
This much has to do with the first Day of Christ, the first Rapture, when the Bride of Christ will be caught up to Heaven. Notice that marriage is mentioned, and that all eight people floated upward in the Ark were married. No marriage is mentioned in the account of the days of Lot, which represents the second Day of Christ, Rapture II. Continuing, Jesus said,
But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed (the Sign of the Son of Man). In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away (because he will be Raptured)...Remember Lot's wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his live shall preserve it....Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord (i.e., taken where?): And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body (the Body of Christ) is (the part that is the Bride of Christ is in Heaven), thither will the eagles (high flyers, i.e., the Tribulation saints, the remainder of the Body of Christ) be gathered together.Isaiah 40:31 shows what the eagles represent. It says,
they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
In II Corinthians 1:14, Paul said, "even as ye also are our's in the day of the Lord Jesus." This refers to the first Rapture.
Paul also referred to the Day of Christ as the first Rapture in Philippians 1:6-10. He said that he was
confident...that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ...For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ (i.e., in the Body of Christ). And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment: That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.
The instructions from Paul for the first Day of Christ are:
Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world: Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain" (Philippians 2:14-16).
The Rapture of I Thessalonians 4:16,17 is the first Day of Christ. Paul said,
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Of the two women (religious groups) that will be "grinding at the mill" (i.e., working with the wheat), the one that is left behind will be appointed the Tribulation along with the hypocrites and unbelievers. Matthew 24:50 shows what happens to the evil servant. Remember that he too is serving the Lord. It says,
The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder (cut him off), and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
In Luke 12:46, Jesus said,
The lord of that servant (that says in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming, and begins to beat the servants and to be drunken) will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder (cut him off), and will appoint him his portion WITH THE UNBELIEVERS (i.e., during the shortened Tribulation).
Paul also spoke of the day of the Lord Jesus in I Corinthians 5:5. He was talking about delivering "such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." This day of the Lord Jesus most likely refers to the day of Rapture II for fornication (joining) had just been mentioned. Some ancient authorities omit "Jesus." Either way, the reference seems to be to the second Day of Christ that coincides with the first 24-hour day of the millennial Day of the Lord.
The first Rapture is as the days of Noah--peaceful. The second Rapture is as the days of Lot. Fire falls on that very same day.
The descriptions of the Day of the Lord are very different. By noon on the Day of the Lord, the broom of destruction sweeps through. Joel 2:1,2,11,20 says,
BLOW ye the trumpet (it is the Feast of Trumpets) in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations (an army of united nations is attacking Israel from the north)....The day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?...But I will remove far off from you the northern army.
In the New Testament, I Thessalonians 5:2-6 tells us of the first 24-hour day of the millennial Day of the Lord, and shows that the "brethren" are not part of it. It says,
the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child: and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
This is the day the nation of Israel will be born in a day. Joel 2:22 says, "for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength." Isaiah 66:8 asks, "shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." Too late for the Raptures, these are the remnant that will live on into the Millennium.
As Joel finished up chapter two, the Lord spoke of the deliverance on that day:
I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come (on the day of preparation for the Feast of Trumpets). And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered (i.e., Rapture II): for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
Amos 8:3,9,10 speaks of "that day," which often means the first 24-hour day of the millennial Day of the Lord. He said,
And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day...there shall be many dead bodies in every place...And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day: And I will turn your feasts into mourning...and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
This is all according to the plan written down long ago. In Zephaniah 3:8, the Lord said,
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.
We want to be in Heaven by the time this happens. for "What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD? For, lo, they are gone because of destruction" (Hosea 9:5,6).
Christ will not set his feet on the Earth on the first day of the millennial Day of the Lord, but this is the day he receives his golden crown in Heaven (see my book, Exit: 2007, for details), so he will be seen sitting on his throne. This can be seen in Revelation 6:16, 17, where they said,
to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come.Ezekiel 38:18f describes what will take place that day:
And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face....in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel (the mountain will fall into the Mediterranean Sea); So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things...and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence (or sight, as translated in Ezekiel 36:31), and the mountains (plural) shall be thrown down and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground....I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain (shower, i.e., a tsunami), and great hailstones (a hail of rocks), fire, and brimstone. Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the EYES of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.
This is the Sign of the Son of Man of Matthew 24. Verses 30 and 31 describe the sign and Rapture II.
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Mark 13:27 says "gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven." This is Rapture II. Those gathered in heaven are the Bride of Christ who were caught up in Rapture I. The ones gathered from Earth are the rest of the Body of Christ, the Tribulation saints who are caught up in Rapture II.
This is not the Second Advent. This is the day of thick darkness, and Christ does not return on a dark day. Zechariah speaks of the Second Advent and says it is not a dark day. Zechariah 14:5-7 says:
the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
As the millennial Day of the Lord begins, the catastrophe takes place. The Jews bury the dead for seven months before the Second Advent, when Christ returns in glory. Ezekiel 39:12 says,
And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land. Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified (the day of the Second Advent, when he returns in glory, saith the Lord GOD."He that hath begun a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Christ"
The Two Feet of the Body of Christ
Or Return
Contact me for more information. My e-mail address is: mjagee@pe.net
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© 1997 Marilyn J. Agee
Updated 8-31-97