The day of the Lord is a period of time. Right???
Yes, I believe it is a period of time that began when Christ came to earth a man. The prophets write of this coming period of time as "the day of the LORD" that was to come. This period of time that Christ ushered in with His first coming has an end, and that too in the New Testament is called "the day of the Lord". The apostles write of this last day of the Lord that will be when Christ comes again as the day of the Lord that is coming, just as the Old Covenant Prophets also wrote of a future coming.
What many seem not to understand is that when Christ came to earth in His age/time/day He came with the Kingdom of God that is NOT and will never be a physical kingdom upon THIS earth. The Kingdom of God that Christ came to earth with is the SPIRITUAL Kingdom of God from heaven. Since Christ ushered in not a literal/physical Kingdom, but a spiritual Kingdom that can only be known and entered when man is born again of the Spirit, it is imperative for proper understanding to discern the Prophets of Old through SPIRITUAL and not always literal/physical fulfillment when Christ came to earth in His day.
In reading passages such as Zechariah 14 telling us in the day that the LORD comes, ALL nations, not only the Roman nation, but all nations will gather to battle against Jerusalem: "
Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city." We cannot read this passage rightly without understanding that Zechariah is not only speaking of what shall physically befall the Holy City of Old Jerusalem, but the prophet goes beyond the literal physical destruction and speaks of spiritual fulfillment. Otherwise, Zecharish would not have written that ALL NATIONS would battle against Jerusalem.
What Jerusalem has all nations in spiritual power come against beginning with the first century of the New Covenant that continues to this day? I believe Zechariah is speaking of the Holy City that Christ came with. The city the New Testament writes is Jerusalem from above, the heavenly Jerusalem that believers enter into when we have been born again. Mt Zion, the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem. When we have been born again of Christ's Spirit, we are spirits of just men made perfect, spiritually in heaven in the company of innumerable angels of God.
Hebrews 12:22 (KJV) But ye are come unto
mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
Hebrews 12:23 (KJV) To
the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Zechariah writes the LORD that shall come will and is fighting against those nations for His people. Though the Lord's feet literally stood on the Mount of Olives, the prophecy is to be understood as having been spiritually fulfilled during Christ's first advent. While the Bible does not use the exact phrase “Mountain of God” for the Mount of Olives,
Zechariah 14:4 and related passages identify it as the place where the Lord will stand in glory, making it a “mountain of God” in a prophetic and symbolic sense. I believe the words of Zechariah convey in imagery/shadow the assurance that believers would be provided a way to escape. Jewish Christians after being indwelt with the Spirit of Christ remembered what Christ had said to do when they see/know/understand the abomination of desolation through spiritual idolatry/apostasy had brought the city and temple to spiritual ruin, and that they should flee to the mountains. Which they did after Pentecost. They did not wait around for thirty years to see and experience the Roman Army that physically destroyed the city and temple.
Zechariah 14:4 (KJV) And
his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
We should not still be waiting for Zechariah's prophecy to come when Christ comes again. Clearly, when He comes again Christ will no longer be fighting for every believer. When He comes again it will be to gather us all together to meet with Him in the air when we will be changed from mortal to immortal and then comes the great white throne judgment for the DEAD.
