The Importance of The Great and Awesome Day of the Lord

Because some might not understand why the material in this book is so important, I will do a few articles on knowing why the Bible spends so much time on the subject of the end-time, and why the people who wrote the Bible (Jesus, the prophets, the apostles, and other writers) gave these issues so much ink.

In this first post we will use the “Afterword” from the book because it summarizes one very important fact: that the whole Bible, all sixty-six books, tells one consistent story about the last seven years. Even most evangelical theologians typically treat the end-time passages as bits of data that are important but are not well connected. This “Afterward” summary argues that all these passages are well connected if you understand the proper framework. This book gives the reader this framework, so here is the summary:

In the End: One Story

As we come to the end of what may seem like a very detailed and complicated narrative, we have discovered that God has provided us one story for the end-time—one story that fits all the important end-time texts. One story that adds many variations in the details from the different writers but does not have inconsistencies in the messages and the timing of the major events. One story that demonstrates God’s faithfulness and righteousness when He said, “Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it” (Isa. 46:11).

This one story, when really understood, is not a complicated story. It weaves hundreds of passages, Old and New Testament, into one seven-year (shabua) period that satisfies and completes Daniel’s seventy-weeks prophecy. It ties together all, every one, of the eschatological day of the Lord passages in the scriptures. It also demonstrates that this DOTL is precisely one Hebraic year long and satisfies the proper final shemitah seventh year prescribed by God through Moses. Most importantly, this story helps build a blueprint for the Revelation that explains that book is not so complicated and completely supports this one story.

God’s pattern of seven is very much a part of this one story. As the Lamb (Jesus) opens the seven-sealed scroll, the first six of them belong to humankind, and both God’s people and Satan’s people on this earth are affected in the most dramatic ways until the very end of humankind’s six years. It is at that point that Jesus will reenter this world to rescue the righteous and bring God’s wrath down on the wicked, just like in the days of Noah and Lot.

The seventh year belongs entirely to God (holy to the Lord). It is this seventh year that is the day of the Lord and is also the inside content of the seven-sealed scroll. All God’s end-time wrath is executed in the trumpet and bowl judgments during TDOTL, getting the earth ready for Jesus’s physical return in Revelation 19 and purifying it for His millennial reign.

I believe this book gives the highlights of this one story. Some details are missing, but there is not another story that fits all of scripture and shows how God’s plan, starting in Genesis 1:14 and Genesis 3:15, is fulfilled completely by the end of the age. This story gives the Trinity honor and glory and blessing, as the full word of God supports this one story!

May many use this story to help them fall in love with the future that God has planned, to work for the kingdom, and to be the overcomers they are called to be in those last days.