I’ve always found it interesting that many of the prevalent terms employed by today’s prophecy wonks are either not found in the Bible at all or appear only once or twice in all of Scripture. On the other hand, a term like the “day of the Lord,” which is strewn throughout the pages of sacred Scripture, is seldom mentioned or penned by prophecy’s most popular present-day pundits. One cannot help but ask the question: “Why?” After all, shouldn’t the study of prophecy be centered around what the Bible actually says and not around terms that are foreign to the Scripture or scarcely found within it? This is not to say that terms concocted and made fashionable by men in their continual commentary on Bible prophecy can never prove to be constructive. It is to say, however, that such man-made terms should never be substituted for or given supremacy over biblical terms themselves, especially those found most frequently in the Scriptures. 

When the Bible speaks of “the day of the Lord,” as it often does, it is talking about a day of approaching judgment. It is normally speaking of an impending judgment of a particular people at a particular time that points to the ultimate judgment of all people at the end of time. Thus, all “days of the Lord” are a foreshadowing of Christ’s climatic and cataclysmic judgment upon the whole earth at His Second Coming, which will prove to be the consummate “day of the Lord.”

Although every reference in the Bible to the “day of the Lord” is not speaking specifically of Christ’s Second Coming, each reference does serve as a harbinger of it. While a particular reference may be speaking of a past judgment of God on a particular people, it also serves as a foreshadowing of the catastrophic judgment awaiting this Christ-rejecting world when Christ returns to pour out His wrath upon it in great power and glory (Revelation 6:12-17).