THE DAY OF THE LORD

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 9, 1869

THE DAY OF THE LORD.

Most graphically are the events of that day delineated in the concluding chapter of the second epistle of Peter. Writing to stir up their pure minds to give special attention to the words of the holy prophets and the commandments of the apostles of the Lord and Saviour, he bids them to know this first,—as a primary element of prophetic truth, and one which, if forgotten or ignored, will vitally affect every theory from which it is omitted,—"that in the last days there shall come scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." Carrying back these scoffers on the track of time, the apostle rebukes the ignorance of their assumptions, and the impiety of their conclusions. He cites the example of the antediluvian world, and teaches them that the same God who condemned that world to an overthrow by water, has condemned this present world to be overwhelmed by a deluge of fire. Notwithstanding the longsuffering of a patient and compassionate God;—notwithstanding he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance; notwithstanding his mercy provides an ark of refuge, and his love entreats the lost to enter in;—yet, at last, "the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." Ungodliness must find a shore to its foaming surge, impiety must be smitten on its bra zen front, oppression must be punished, blasphemy silenced, and the wickedness of the wicked come to an end. And in that day the ascending fires of wrath shall scale the very heavens; awful thunderings shall proclaim the dissolution of the elements by fervent heat; the earth shall melt like wax beneath the furnace's glow, and roll an orb of fire within a sky of flame, while "the works that are therein shall be burned up;" and all the pride and pomp and glory of a godless world shall perish with the enemies of God, amid the fierceness of those all-devouring flames.

But this is not the end. Beyond all this, a vision of purity and peace rises to cheer the prophet's eye. God's curse has devoured the earth, but his blessing shall restore it. No longer groaning beneath the burden of sin, or charred and molten by the fires of wrath,—its desolate wastes are robed with Eden's verdure; its barrenness is changed to fruitfulness; Carmel and Lebanon but faintly typify its blushing beauty and unfading green; the glory of the Lord baptizes it with floods of radiant splendor; and the olive branch of peace is waved from shore to shore. Righteousness too, is there, not as a transient visitant in a world of sin; not as a contrasting spot in a mass of surrounding corruption; not as the peculiar characteristic of a single man of sorrows,—but as the prevailing principle, the constant disposition, the controlling impulse of an innumerable, peaceful, and adoring throng.

There on a throne "established in righteousness" "a King shall reign in righteousness" "over all the earth" "In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth;" for "the people also shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land forever." There "the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever." There the pilgrim shall find his home, the Christian his rest, the martyr his crown, and the mourner his joy, in a "new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."

This then is a brief and imperfect sketch of the tremendous events that make, and fill, and characterize "the great and terrible day of the Lord." It is "that day" concerning which the watching church "are not in darkness;" it is "that day" which shall not overtake them "as a thief." It is "that day" which shall be put far off by a dreaming world. It is "that day" which, coming upon them suddenly, shall overwhelm them with consternation and despair. It is "that day" for which the children of this world will neither look, nor wait, nor prepare. "That day" will bring salvation and glory and honor and immortality to the saint; and "that day" will bring indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, despair and perdition, to those who know not God. O READER, WHAT WILL IT BRING TO YOU?—The Christian.