‘Now we beg you, brothers and sister, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to him, to the end that you be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as from us, as that the day of the Lord is now present.'
Paul now has serious words to say about the second coming (Parousia - royal visit and presence), and the gathering together of His people to Him (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Clearly the Thessalonians had received messages in different ways stating that the Day of the Lord was now present. This possibly means that some had come through men who claimed the Spirit, others through preaching, and yet others through a misleading letter purporting to come from Paul. Alternately we may apply ‘as from us' to all three in which case he is speaking of news that has filtered through professing that Paul in the Spirit, and in his preaching and in some correspondence had claimed these things.
‘That you be not quickly shaken from your mind.' The thoughts that they had had after having received these false messages had shaken them (aorist infinitive - a sudden effect). They were restlessly tossing like a ship loose from its moorings in bad weather. The thought of the day of judgment so close had put them in a turmoil.
‘Nor yet be being troubled.' While not shaken and restless, others were being continually troubled (present infinitive) by the idea.
‘That the day of the Lord is now present.' The day of the Lord' is the final short period when God will have His way at the end of the age. Then it will cease to be ‘man's day' (1 Corinthians 4:3), and God will take over. Its main emphasis is described by Peter in 2 Peter 3:10, ‘the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night in the which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burnt up'. Any interpretation that does not make this central can be disregarded for it is the only actual New Testament description that we have of the day of the Lord.
But prior to this there will be the beginnings of judgment when God's wrath begins to unfold in the final days of the age (nowhere in the New Testament actually described as the day of the Lord). Coming as ‘a thief in the night' is a regular description of those caught out by the coming of the Lord and His judgment. To the Church at Sardis His coming would be like a thief in the night if they did not watch (Revelation 3:3). Again Jesus declares in Revelation 16:15 that His coming will be like a thief. Thus those who watch and keep their lives pure will not be found naked, by being caught in the night ‘undressed', and thus be ashamed (Revelation 16:15). And 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:4 also tells us that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, when sudden destruction will come on unbelievers, but that Christians will not be caught out by it because they are not in darkness.
So the idea of the Day of the Lord is of a ‘day' which will come and catch out unbelievers who are not watching, but will not catch out Christians who are. Because they are watching they will be ready (Luke 12:40). For them it will be the ‘day of Christ', the day when the Son of Man comes. The impression given is that the coming of Christ to His own and the day when He comes like a thief occur at the same time.
‘The day of the Lord.' As we have said, this phrase refers to the day when the Lord has His day, when He acts in judgment. In a sense through the Old Testament period there were many ‘days of the Lord', for it could be used of the days when God brought His judgment both on His faithless people and on the enemies of His people. But all looked forward to a final ‘day of the Lord', a day of the Lord's judgments, to take place at the time when final restoration took place (Joel 2:31; Joel 3:14; Zechariah 14:1). Notice that in Joel it is only said to be ‘near' and has in mind the day of judgment and the last great battle put in Old Testament terms (Joel 3:2; Joel 3:14). In Zechariah 14:1 it is the day when the Lord comes personally to bring about restoration, and the days described in Revelation 21:25; Revelation 22:1 are about to begin (compare Zechariah 14:7-8). In other words it refers to the establishing of the heavenly kingdom.
In the New Testament the phrase appears elsewhere three times (Acts 2:20 quoting Joel 2:31, fulfilled, partially at least, at the resurrection and Pentecost; 2 Peter 3:10 and 1 Thessalonians 5:2). As stated above 2 Peter 3:10 is definitive, it is the time when ‘the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works in it will be discovered' (or in some manuscripts ‘burned up'), that is will be revealed in God's eyes and judged. It thus refers to God's final judgment in the end days, the final Judgment itself. A similar phrase, ‘the Lord's day', occurs in Revelation 1:10 where it possibly refers to a symbolical depiction of Christ ‘at the door' on the point of returning.
But in both 1 Thessalonians and 2 Peter the title ‘the Lord' has primary reference to Jesus Christ. It is He Who is ‘the Lord' all through the letter, so ‘the day of the Lord' has special reference to Him as the one appointed to judge the world (John 5:22; John 5:27). This is confirmed in that it can also be called ‘the day of the Lord Jesus' in 1 Corinthians 5:5 where it refers to deliverance from the judgment, and 2 Corinthians 1:14 where it refers to Christian rejoicing at that day. We can compare also ‘the day of Christ' (Philippians 1:10; Philippians 2:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:2), where there is a slant towards the Christian's part in that day, and the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6) and the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:8) which are similar. All references to the day include the time of judgment, whether of Christians with regard to reward, or of all. Thus in the New Testament it basically means ‘the day of judgment'.
Excursus on ‘the day of the Lord' in the Old Testament.
The term was used in Isaiah 13:9 of God's visitation in judgment. Firstly judgment would come on His faithless people through Babylon, and then through the Medes God would bring judgment on Babylon (Isaiah 13:17). The whole is depicted in apocalyptic language (Isaiah 13:10; Isaiah 2 Isaiah 13:13) and is described as the wrath of the Lord (Isaiah 13:13). It also has a far view for it depicts the final desolation of Babylon (Isaiah 13:19-22). In the judgments of God near and far were part of one whole, especially as regards Babylon, which was the symbol from the beginning of rebellion against God (Genesis 10:9-12; Genesis 11:1-9). The earlier judgment was a foretaste of the later one.
Again the day of the Lord was to come on Edom and its allies, its surrounding nations (Isaiah 34:4; Isaiah 34:8). ‘All the nations' refers to these for other nations are called on to witness the event (2 Thessalonians 2:1 compare Obadiah 1:15). But it is on Edom that the main judgment comes (2 Thessalonians 2:6). Again it is represented in apocalyptic language (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10), and such judgment did finally come upon them.
Jeremiah also prophesied a day of the Lord on Egypt and Pharaoh Neco (Jeremiah 46:2, repeated in Jeremiah 46:13), this time at the hands of Babylon (Jeremiah 46:10; Jeremiah 46:26). Thus ‘the day of the Lord' began to indicate the day of the Lord's judgments whenever they were.
It could be called ‘the day of the Lord of hosts' (Isaiah 2:12), ‘the day of the Lord's vengeance' (Isaiah 34:8 - on Edom), ‘the day of the Lord, the Lord of hosts, a day of vengeance' (on Egypt - Jeremiah 46:10), ‘the day of the Lord's anger' (on Judah - Lamentations 2:22; on Judah and surrounding nations - Zephaniah 1:18; Zephaniah 2:2-3), ‘the day of the Lord's sacrifice' (on Judah - Zephaniah 1:8), ‘the great day of the Lord' (on Judah - Zephaniah 1:14), ‘the great and terrible day of the Lord' (Malachi 4:5), which referred to the first coming of Jesus as the beginning of ‘the end days' (Matthew 11:14 with Acts 2:17; 1 Corinthians 10:11; Hebrews 1:2; 1 Peter 1:20; 1 Peter 4:7).
But the basic term was ‘the day of the Lord' found in Isaiah 13:6; Isaiah 13:9 - about Babylon through the Medes; Ezekiel 13:5 - about Judah through Nebuchadnezzar; Ezekiel 30:3 - about Egypt through Nebuchadnezzar; Joel 1:15 - about Judah through Nebuchadnezzar; Joel 2:1; Joel 2:11 - about Judah through Nebuchadnezzar; Joel 2:31; Joel 3:14 - about the end days at the time of restoration; Amos 5:18; Amos 5:20 - about Israel through Assyria; Obadiah 1:15 - about Edom and their allies (for ‘all the nations' compare Isaiah 34:1); Zephaniah 1:7 - about Judah; Zechariah 14:1 - about the end days at the time of restoration, and as the prophets began to look forward to the day when God would set all things right, establish His people and deal with their enemies, it began to be applied especially to that ‘day' (Joel 2:31; Joel 3:14; Zechariah 14:1).
End of Excursus.
Some have tried to make this ‘Day of the Lord' apply to a period after the rapture. But it would be passing strange if Paul's preaching was seen by people who believed that he taught the pre-tribulation rapture as saying that such a day of the Lord was now present, for it would mean he had missed the Rapture! The fact that he was saying it, would be evidence enough that the Rapture did not have to take place before the day of the Lord. Thus they did believe that Christians would be alive in the New Testament day of the Lord. So it must be concluded that the fact that they thought that Paul had preached that ‘the Day of the Lord is present' is evidence that they did not consider that that would mean that the Rapture had taken place.
But, it may be asked, if the day of the Lord is the day of judgment how could they think if it as now come and present? We can compare how a man may say ‘the day of my death has come' when he is shortly to die and does not know exactly when. Or, with a sense of foreboding, ‘the end has come' when he means it is almost in sight. So the Thessalonians meant that the day of the Lord was threatening. The depiction of this is found in Revelation 6:15-17 as a result of the heavenly portents.
Many a catastrophe in the past has made people think that ‘the judgment day is here', and possibly the heavy persecution they were going through, added to some portents observed, had given them the same impression, fortified by the false messages. It made them say ‘the day of the Lord is here', the time of the Lord's final judgment, and they were panicking.
God's wrath may continually be revealed on this earth (Romans 1:18) but in the end it reaches its climax at the Judgment. And that Judgment is revealed in many ways. It is like a great king summoning the world to judgment (Matthew 25:31-46) but the issues are eternal (Matthew 25:46). It is like a lord or king calling his servants to account (Matthew 22:1-14; Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 12:41-48 and often). Note that the rewards to the righteous and the condemnation of the unrighteous occur at around the same time. It is described as coming in ‘flaming fire' (2 Thessalonians 1:8 compare Hebrews 10:27). It is described in terms of the heavens passing away and the earth being burned up, which is the day of the Lord (2 Peter 3:10). It is described as a time of devastating earthly tumult (Revelation 6:12-17), which is the great day of His wrath. It is described as great hail (Revelation 11:19; Revelation 16:21). It is described as a reaper reaping a deadly harvest accompanied by devastation (Revelation 14:14-20). It is described as a last great battle in which there is no fighting. Everyone is killed with the Judge's one sword (Revelation 19:11-21). It is described as being called before a great white throne of justice (Revelation 20:11-15).
These pictures all point to the one great truth. Noble attempts have been made to fit them into a pattern so as to literalise them, but none have succeeded. Each of them has had to avoid the clear meaning of the words in order to do so. But they do not need to be reconciled. They are earthly pictures of an indescribable heavenly activity, each of which conveys a part of the horror of the whole.
Thus the Thessalonian conception of the final judgment and the day of the Lord was not necessarily limited to a twenty-four hour day. They did not quite know, any more than we do, how it would be carried out. But they would certainly see it as short and swift. We must not confuse ‘the day of the Lord' with all mentions of the wrath of God, although it will of course be the final revelation of that wrath.
(In all its uses ‘the day of the Lord' is a final climactic event with a particular judgment in view. There are no grounds therefore for seeing it as an extended period of over a thousand years).