NOTES ON THE RAPIDLY APPROACHING DAY OF THE LORD: SONS OF THE NIGHT VS. SONS OF THE DAY – (WITH VIDEO)

I.  THE THEOLOGY

SCRIPTURE. “Now as to the times and dates, brothers and sisters, you have no need for anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know perfectly well that ‘the day of the [return of the] Lord is coming just as a thief [comes unexpectedly and suddenly] in the night.’ While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety [all is well and secure!]’ then [in a moment unforeseen] destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains on a woman with child, and they will absolutely not escape [for there will be no way to escape the judgment of the Lord].

‘But you, believers, [all you who believe in Christ as Savior and acknowledge Him as God’s Son] are not in spiritual darkness [nor held by its power], that the day [of judgment] would overtake you [by surprise] like a thief;for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We do not belong to the night nor to darkness.’ So then let us not sleep [in spiritual indifference] as the rest [of the world does], but let us keep wide awake [alert and cautious] and let us be sober [self-controlled, calm, and wise]. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we [believers] belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope and confident assurance of salvation.

‘For God has not destined us to [incur His] wrath [that is, He did not select us to condemn us],’ but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,who died [willingly] for us, so that whether we are awake (alive) or asleep (dead) [at Christ’s appearing], we will live together with Him [sharing eternal life].’Therefore encourage and comfort one another and build up one another, just as you are doing.’” – 1 THESSALONIANS 5:1-11, AMP

KEY TERMS:

• “NIGHT.” ‘Nux’ [νυκτὸς]; “A primary word as a reference to ‘Darkest Night, as in Midnight.’ Metaphorically, the time when work ceases, i.e., the time of death, John 9:4; the time for deeds of sin and shame, the time of moral stupidity and darkness, Romans 13:12; the time when the weary and also the drunken give themselves up to slumber, put for torpor and sluggishness, 1 Thessalonians 5:5.”

• “DAY.” ‘Hémera’ [ἡμέραις]: “From primary terms meaning, ‘Gentle, tame, the hours of sunrise;’however, it is also a reference to ‘the Age or Time of Christ’s Return for Judgment of the wicked and to establish His Kingdom; i.e., The Day of Redemption for His true Church; it is quite literally, ‘The Day of God!’ it will conclude as the Great  Sunset upon the Age of Grace forever.”

QUOTATION. “Fear not them which destroy the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28 KJV). We should all truly love God, fear God, and be prepared to meet Him when our time comes to leave this Earth and stand before Him to give an account.We never really know when our time will come to leave this life. Let’s make sure we’re ready!” ― DAVID JONES, They Thought They Had More Time: I Saw the Day of the Lord,2014;edited

COMMENTARY. “When Paul speaks about Eschatology — How everything will happen at the End of Time — he does so in order ‘to bring comfort’ to his congregations. In 1 Thessalonians 4:18 and 5:1, at the bookends of this passage, he says so explicitly: comfort one another with these words. ‘These teachings are meant to be a comfort and an encouragement for believers who are already doing the right thing, eagerly waiting for Jesus’ Return’ (1:10).

‘This eager anticipation translates into another reason that calls forth Paul’s praise: The Thessalonians correctly discern the Times and Seasons.’ They know that the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, as other early believers did (2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 3:32). They had not forgotten Jesus’ Instructions preserved in both Matthew 24 and Luke 21.

Although Paul does not explicitly reproduce the material in the Gospels frequently, this section of Thessalonians provides clear indication that Jesus’ Teaching was part of Paul’s own. Labor pains, being surprised, destruction following pronouncements of peace and safety, and the charge to stay alert all figure in JESUS’ OLIVET DISCOURSE. ‘The Thessalonians knew what to look for because they knew what Jesus and then Paul had said about The End!

Consequently, for them, Jesus’ coming wouldn’t be like the surprise attack of a thief in the night at all. Because for them it is not Night; it is Day. Even more powerfully, Paul says that they are children of the Light and of the Day. They aren’t just walking around in the Daylight; it is part of their identity. They are Light People and Day People free from the fear, uncertainty, and insecurity of Night and Darkness.

‘So Paul, as he so often does in his ethical sections, encourages them to “be who they are.’” Since they are Children of the Daylight, it only makes sense that they would not sleep. He has been discussing those who had ‘fallen asleep’ in their community (4:13–17), as a euphemism for death, but ‘now he employs a different word that carries the connotations of moral dullness. Instead of this kind of sleepiness they should be alert and sober.’

Sobriety is exactly what Paul is aiming at because in the next verse, he makes a connection between sleeping at night and getting drunk at night. In the first century world, many of the religious options of the day included nocturnal celebrations that included alcohol and sexual promiscuity.

Dionysus, the god of wine, was worshipped in Thessalonica, and his nighttime celebrations had the reputation of being frenzied, ecstatic, orgiastic events. The Thessalonians, being called from the worship of dead idols to serve the living God (1:9), no longer should participate in such events. ‘Instead of being unclothed they are to put on the specific clothing readying them for battle.’” – DR. AMY L.B.  PEELER, Associate Professor of New Testament, Wheaton College, Working Preacher, ret. July 27, 2024; edited

II.  THE TEACHING

THREE PROMPTS. Three things have occurred to me in somewhat dramatic fashion that I must introduce here in order to underscore what I believe may well be A QUICKENING from the Lord about how short time is before He Returns.

• THE VISION. The Article by David Jones quoted earlier was based on a Vision he had some 10 years ago in the year 2014. Here is the report of that Vision I found online. “David Jones received a Vision that changed his life forever. It was as if someone gripped him by the arm and shook him awake. In an instant, he was hovering above the earth. Beautiful clear skies. Mountains and hills adorning the landscape below. People were continuing with business as usual, until...Thick clouds consumed the sky. Darkness fell. Silence covered the earth. Then, a deafening sound broke through the heavens and pierced every ear that heard it. ‘Terror gripped the people, as they realized the Day of the Lord was not a fable. It had come and they had run out of time.’”

• THE SCREENSAVER. On Friday June 28, 2024, I drafted a Commentary titled: “Précis on the Church, Nation and World at the Precipice: Bracing for the Great Storm Ahead.” As it turned out, I posted that essay on Monday August 5, 2024, 40 days after it was drafted. I am convinced that the Lord sovereignly ‘changed my Screensaver’s Graphic Image’ from an original chosen for that Commentary to the one labeled, “Storm Rising.”

• THE WORD. Then just two days after I posted that essay, the evening of Wednesday August 7, 2024, as clear as a bell as I was exiting my car at home after a long day at work I heard a Word in Spanish: “¡Aprisa!” Though as you know I speak some Spanish, but I am not fluent. So, when I heard this term it was not a word I normally use or am familiar with. I looked it up just now on Google Translate. It literally translates as: “Quickly now!”

TRUMP’S PREDICTION. On Tuesday August 6, 2024, this was reported: “Donald Trump warned of a 1920s-style economic Depression and a World War III in the opening moments of a Tuesday press conference from Mar-a-Lago” (Zachary Leeman, Mediaite, Aug. 8, 2024). His base is already claiming that he did not say what he clearly said.

We used to call that sort of thing “A Freudian Slip.” JESUS says this about it: “For there is nothing hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come out into the open” (LUKE 8:17, AMP).

This is precisely why those who are in The Light of Christ have no illusions about Trump being the Antichrist. But those who are of The Night are blind, deaf and mute by their own free will, and they shall be judged for it more severely than they will allow themselves to imagine.

We have been taught a hundred times that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (PROVERBS 1:7) but you would never know it by listening to our Sunday Sermons or by the way Christians vote in the presidential election. PAUL WASHER recently decried in a passionate outcry that: “There is no fear of God in our Church! How could there be?”

‘THE QUICKENING.’ My reflection of these preceding signatures from the Spirit of God, if you will, leads me toward a sense of Great Urgency about our present hour. The brilliant Christian lexicographer, NOAH WEBSTER, defined this sense as: “Primarily, to make alive; to vivify; to revive or resuscitate, as from death or an inanimate state” (American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828).

This of course describes perfectly what needs to take place in the current, nearly Catatonic American Church, a term used by psychiatrists to describe “an acute state of immobility or unresponsive stupor.” Since after eight years of the Lord’s banging the heavenly Drums and blasting the Trumpets of Warning with little effect, we members of His Remnant are left with the urgent task indeed of Awakening those who are still even minimally watchful.

Because, beloved, I am now convinced that “THE DAY OF THE LORD” is all but upon us. That shall be the meat of the next section so that we understand just what it is that we are all about to face – ‘With Christ, or Against Christ.’

III.  THE DAY OF GOD’S WRATH

Scriptures show that the “Day of the Lord” largely consists of the Time of God’s Judgment that commences at a certain point and continues from that Moment through the entirety of the Seven Years of Great Tribulation, just prior to the One Thousand Year Millennial Reign of Christ from Jerusalem.

Significantly from the view of systematic theology, one Scripture from the Old Testament comports nearly identically with a passage from the New Testament.

• DAY OF THE LORD. “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on My holy Mount [Zion]. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of [the judgment of] the Lord is coming; it is close at hand—A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and of thick mists and darkness, like the morning dawn spread upon the mountains; so there comes a [heathen, hostile] people numerous and mighty, the like of which has never been before and shall not be again even to the years of many generations … And I will show signs and wonders in the heavens, and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.  And whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered and saved, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem ‘there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the remnant [of survivors] shall be those whom the Lord calls.’” – JOEL 2:1-2, 30-32, AMPC

• DAY OF TERROR. “I looked when He (the Lamb) broke open the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth [made] of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, like a fig tree shedding its late [summer] figs when shaken by a strong wind. The sky was split [separated from the land] and rolled up like a scroll, and every mountain and island were dislodged and moved out of their places. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the military commanders and the wealthy and the strong and everyone, [whether] slave or free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the [righteous] wrath and indignation of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath and vengeance and retribution has come, and who is able to [face God and] stand [before the wrath of the Lamb]?’” – REVELATION 6:12-17, AMP

THE PRE-WRATH VIEW. After some 40 years of study, I have come to the conclusion that the True Remnant Church will not be required to face God’s Wrath, but shall not escape the perils of the Birth Pangs of Satan’s Wrath. This means that the Body of Christ shall face the FIRST FIVE SEAL JUDGMENTS consisting of Antichrist, War, Famine, Pestilence, and Martyrdom (Revelation 6:1-11), but not God’s Vengeance.

I base this on an extensive review of the Old and New Testament doctrines enumerated in my book, The Sixth Seal II (2023), but cite TWO KEY SCRIPTURES here to use as theological platform for this view. All rendered in the Amplified Bible translation.

• LUKE 21:36. “But be on guard, so that your hearts are not weighed down and depressed with the giddiness of debauchery and the nausea of self-indulgence and the worldly worries of life, and then that day [when the Messiah returns] will not come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who live on the face of all the earth. ‘But keep alert at all times [be attentive and ready], praying that you may have the strength and ability [to be found worthy and] to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand in the presence of the Son of Man [at His coming].’”

• REVELATION 3:7-13. “And to the angel (divine messenger) of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘These are the words of the Holy One, the True One, He who has the key [to the house] of David, He who opens and no one will [be able to] shut, and He who shuts and no one opens: ‘I know your deeds. See, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut, for you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not renounced or  denied My name. Take note, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—I will make them come and bow down at your feet and make them know [without any doubt] that I have loved you.Because you have kept the word of My endurance [My command to persevere], I will keep you [safe] from the hour of trial, that hour which is about to come on the whole [inhabited] world, to test those who live on the earth. I am coming quickly. Hold tight what you have, so that no one will take your crown [by leading you to renounce the faith]. He who overcomes [the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God], I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God; he will most certainly never be put out of it, and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from My God, and My [own] new name. He who has an ear, let him hear and heed what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

THE REMNANT. From the Days of Noah to the Days of Sodom to the Era of the Diaspora to the Present Hour, beloved, God has always, always preserved a ‘Holy Remnant of Survivors’ from every single Judgment of His Wrath. It is precisely this and this alone by which PAUL THE APOSTLE encourages the flock of his day to “Therefore encourage and comfort one another and build up one another, just as you are doing.’”

IV.  LAST THOUGHTS

THE CHOICE. Beloved, it is long past time when we shall have decided to serve the King of the Universe as a Child of Light or Child of Darkness. To make that crucial Last Days Distinction crystal clear, I turn to American theologian, fierce abolitionist, and temperance advocate, ALBERT BARNES.

“‘Ye are all the children of light’ – All who are [true] Christians. The phrase ‘children of light’ is a Hebraism, meaning that they were the enlightened children of God.

‘And the children of the day’ – Who live as if light always shone round about them. The meaning is, that in reference to the Coming of the Lord they are as people would be in reference to the coming of a thief, if there were no night and no necessity of slumber. They would always be wakeful and active, and it would be impossible to come upon them by surprise. Christians are always to be wakeful and vigilant; they are so to expect the Coming of the Redeemer, that He will not find them off their guard, and will not come upon them by surprise.” – Notes on the Old and New Testament, 1834; edited

This, in stunning, shameful contrast to the Sons and Daughters of Night who among other things slumber and shun the Things of Day. They live for the Right Now, and their treasure therefore is what they possess in the Here and Now. Thus Mammon, thus Power, thus Pleasure are their demigods. Consequently, they do have little interest in the Return of Messiah, and the Kingdom of God.

‘Thereby is Donald Trump become their Champion, the Son of Darkness, and not Jesus, who is Morning Sun, the very Light of Day.’

CODA. The Past 10 Days has been a period of alarm, quickening, and prodding us to: “Make Ready for His Arrival!” I do not believe for one moment that the several “Signatures” shared with us are mere happenstance or coincidence. I do believe that God is, true to His promises and character, getting us ready for the ‘Final Miles of the Race,’ however brief or extended that Race is that is left to us to run.

I will conclude this thorough Eschatological Review with what it took me decades to figure out – if in fact I have figured it out! It is taken from a much more detailed analysis form The Sixth Seal II (2023, pp. 190-196). What follows is a Theological Summary of: “TEN STAGES TO THE END OF THE AGE.”

1. Birth Pangs.
2. Apostasy.
3. Antichrist.
4. RESCUE.
5. Tribulation.
6. Great Tribulation.
7. RETURN.
8. Millennium.
9. Rebellion.

10.Infinity.

2025-2030. Without daring to set a date for Christ’s Return, responsible analysis and Biblical caution strongly suggests that these Five Years shall prove decisive in determining the Final Course for America, for the World and, beloved, for each of us.

YESHUA INSTRUCTS: “We must work the works of Him Who sent Me and be busy with His business while it is daylight; night is coming on, when no man can work.” – JOHN 9:4, AMPC

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/tlh_m2RllW8