The Day of the Lord – Part One
Throughout history certain men and women have acquired fame, or notoriety, by claiming to be able to predict future events. This has especially been true within religious faiths, where certain individuals have been regarded as divinely inspired, and their predictions have been accepted as the ordained will of God.
And throughout the ages, men and women of every generation have sought to know the future in the hope that, by so doing, they might gain some temporal advantage over others. As it was in the past, so is this true of the times in which we live today.
But does prophecy matter? Is it wise, or even possible, to know the path of future events? There are those who believe that life unfolds according to forces which can never be understood, and that any attempt to do so is sheer folly. They are content to take each day as it comes.
But prophecy is not simple prediction, and those who claim to be moved by prophetic impulse do not do so merely to inform. All true prophecy stands as a warning. And those who study and learn from these warnings may not only become guardians of wisdom – they may in time become beacons for the transformation of society.
Perhaps nowhere has this prophetic impulse been more evident than in Judaism. Of all the major religions of the world, the unique feature of the Jewish religion has been the extraordinary sequence of prophets that have illuminated the early history of the Jews.
This sequence can be considered to have begun with the prophet Elijah (also called Elias), who lived during the reign of Ahab in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, in the 9th century before the birth of Christ.
It continued in the Northern Kingdom with such prophets as Elisha, Amos and Jonah, and ended with the prophet Hosea who lived during the reign of Jereboam II, who ruled the ancient kingdom of Israel from 793 BC to 753 BC.
In the Southern Kingdom of Judah, this lineage began with the prophets Obadiah, Joel and Isaiah in the 9th century BC, and continued with Micah, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Huldah, Nahum and Habakkuk in the 8th century BC.
Following their conquest by Nebuchadnezzar and subsequent exile in Babylon during the 6th century BC, the prophet Ezekiel rose to prominence, as well as Daniel, who lives on through the Biblical story of his imprisonment in a den of lions.
Even after the decree by Cyrus the Great in 538 BC that allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem, this sequence of prophetic figures continued through men like Haggai and Zechariah, before culminating with Malachi, who prophesied around the year 420 BC.
The role of these prophets within Judaism was to act as guardians of the Jewish faith, and monitors of the Torah, or the laws of God as revealed to Moses, and recorded in the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures.
However, they also became famous for their ability to interpret omens and dreams, and to predict future events. And it is in this area of prediction that the Old Testament prophets have assumed such prominence in the modern world, because what they predicted directly affects every person alive today.
One of the most striking features of the prophecies recorded in the Old Testament, is their repeated references to events that were predicted to occur at the end of the present age. They referred to these times as the “Latter Days” or “End of Days”, leading up to the return of the Messiah.
In referring to these “Latter Days”, these prophets wrote about one event in particular. They called this event “The Day of the Lord”, or even “The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord”. And this became a recurring theme of prophecy down the centuries, as we can see from the following examples:
In the Book of Joel:
“The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.” (Joel 2:10)
“And 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 terrible day of the Lord come.” (Joel 2: 30-31)
In the Book of Amos:
“Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth. Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth.” (Amos 5: 7-8)
In the Book of Nahum:
“He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.”
“Who can stand before his indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.” (Nahum 1: 4-6)
In the Book of Habakkuk:
“And the Lord answered me, and said, write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” (Habakkuk 2: 2-3)
“Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.” (Habakkuk 3: 5-6)
In the Book of Ezekiel:
“Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.”
“And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God: every man’s sword shall be against his brother. And 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, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.” (Ezekiel 38: 19-22)
In the Book of Haggai:
“For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come.” (Haggai 2: 6-7)
In the book of Malachi:
“For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” (Malachi 4: 1)
This theme of blood, hailstones, brimstone and fire raining down upon the earth from the skies can be found in the New Testament as well. When the disciples asked Jesus about the signs that would precede his return to earth, Jesus said:
“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” (Luke 21:25-26)
It is clear that this “Day of the Lord” will be a day unlike any that those who are alive today will ever have experienced. While hundreds of millions of people have been afflicted by local or regional disasters, none of us have ever had to deal with a global catastrophe of the kind described by Jesus and the prophets.
The obvious question that arises from these Biblical passages is what sort of event would cause the heavens to shake, as well as the earth, the sea and the dry land? And what type of event would cause men’s hearts to fail them with fear?
In his Book of Revelation, St. John described a series of visions which appeared to him while he was in exile on the island of Patmos. And these visions portrayed events which would definitely be guaranteed to make even the sturdiest heart quake. As he wrote:
“And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.” (Revelation 8:2)
John went on to describe what would happen when the first angel sounded his trumpet.
“The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all the green grass was burnt up.” (Revelation 8:7)
Let us suppose, for example, that a large comet was to emerge from deep space and enter our solar system. It would then be drawn toward the sun by the force of gravity. As it did so, it would develop a trail of dust particles that would travel behind the nucleus of the comet.
However, once it had reached its perihelion or closest approach to the sun, the tail of the comet would now travel in front of the nucleus of the comet, due to the pressure of the solar wind generated by the sun. As any astronomer will confirm, comet tails always point away from the sun.
And if by chance, as it passed around the sun and began its journey back into space, the path of this comet should happen to cross the orbit of the earth, then the earth would first be exposed to the dust particles in the tail of the comet.
And if this comet happened to have a nucleus composed of significant amounts of iron, then the dust particles in the tail of the comet would be coloured red. And then as this comet drew closer, it would shower the surface of the earth with enormous quantities of red dust.
If these red dust particles should happen to fall upon bodies of water, such as lakes or seas, they would become discoloured, causing the water to look like blood. This contaminated water would not only become thick and muddy, but would prove toxic to anyone who tried to drink it.
As the comet drew closer to the earth, the fine dust particles in its tail would give way to larger particles. When these gravel-sized particles reached the outer atmosphere of the earth, they would become white hot with friction, and become fiery meteorites that would look like “hail and fire mingled with blood”.
This fiery hail would devastate the entire surface of the planet. It would not only set fire to the grassy plains, but would burn up entire forests as well. The damage caused by this shower of incandescent meteorites could easily cause “a third part of them to be burnt up”.
Then, according to St. John, the second trumpet of the Book of Revelation will sound.
“And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.” (Revelation: 8:8-9)
If a large rock emanating from the tail of the comet entered the atmosphere of the earth and plunged into the sea, the destruction caused by this impact would be catastrophic.
The impact of this collision would not only vaporize the asteroid itself, it would also penetrate the ocean floor causing huge amounts of superheated water, molten rock and other matter to rise high into the upper atmosphere.
This superheated material would then fall back down to earth in the form of blazing missiles that would set fire to buildings, forests and crops around the entire planet.
Volcanoes would suddenly roar back to life, spewing vast clouds of debris into the atmosphere, adding to the hellish conditions. Forest fires would also create enormous noxious fumes that would stain the sky and cause the moon to appear “blood-red” in colour.
In addition to setting off a series of gigantic earthquakes around the world, the impact of this asteroid would also cause a rupture of undersea fault lines that would generate colossal tidal waves that would travel around the world, causing immense destruction to coastal cities everywhere.
The death toll caused by a disaster of this magnitude would be beyond count, as would the damage to cities, ships and cargo. This devastation could easily kill “a third part of the creatures in the sea”, as well as destroy “a third part” of all the ships in the sea.
Then, according to St. John, the third angel would sound his trumpet.
“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
“And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.” (Revelation 8: 10-11)
St. John describes this comet as a “star” that appears in the skies of earth “burning as it were a lamp”. And because of its bitter nature and poisonous contamination of rivers, lakes and reservoirs, just like the wormwood plant, he refers to the asteroid as “Wormwood”.
“And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.” (Revelation 8: 12)
As the nucleus or head of the comet makes its closest approach to the earth the enormous dust cloud that surrounds it will blot out the sun, the moon and the stars for a period of three days and three nights. There is an interesting parallel here with the plagues at the time of Moses and the three days of darkness that descended upon Egypt.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven: and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.” (Exodus 10:20-22)
If the visions described by St. John should happen to come to pass, then the cataclysmic events that would occur when this comet appears in the skies of earth will truly cause men’s hearts to quake with fear.
The continents themselves would be changed, as new lands rose out of the ocean, while others were swallowed up by the sea. New mountain ranges would be created. It would be like the time of Moses when “the sea fled”, “the mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs”.
“When Israel went out of Egypt,
The house of Jacob from a people of strange language;
Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion.
The sea saw it and fled: Jordan was driven back.
The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.”
(Psalm 114: 1-4)
In short, the day this comet makes its closest approach to the earth will be “The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord” predicted by the prophet Joel, and described by Zephaniah in the 7th century BC in following words:
“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, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.” (Zephaniah 1: 14-16)
