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Ankerberg: Ron, you’ve mentioned the day of the Lord.
What is the day of the Lord?
Rhodes: Well, the day of the Lord is a term used in both the Old and New Testament.
And in the Old Testament sometimes it was used of a near-term event; but it was often
used of an eschatological end times period, more specifically the tribulation period.
And in the New Testament I think the tribulation period is zeroed in on by the New Testament
writers.
It is a time when God is not working so much through secondary causes, but God is working
directly among human beings on earth.
And He’s working in terms of judgment.
And so, when you’re thinking about the day of the Lord, think of a time of judgment that
leads right up to the second coming of Christ.
Hitchcock: Yes.
The term day of the Lord’s found 19 times in the Old Testament, four times in the New
Testament.
And the best description I’ve heard of it, or definition, is, the day of the Lord is
any time that the Lord intervenes directly and dramatically either to judge or to bless.
And at least one of the references in the Old Testament the day of the Lord is this
time of blessing.
So the day of the Lord, the eschatological or end time day of the Lord, seems to include
the tribulation period, that time of judgment, but also the millennial kingdom, because God
is going to be intervening directly then to bless.
But most of the references in the Bible, the future references, are to this great time
of trouble that we call the tribulation.