The Forgotten Day on the Prophetic Calendar
A young man with trumpet in hand hid in the baptistry while the preacher emphasized to the congregation that Jesus could come at any moment.
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout," the preacher shouted. "With the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God,” he stressed with a trill.
The concealed conspirator was ready, but the preacher didn’t want it to be too obvious. A discreet while after the seed thought of suddenly hearing a trumpet was sufficiently planted, the boy in the baptistry pursed his lips to his brass horn and blew it with all his might.
Some weren’t amused by the preacher’s prank, but others were soberly jarred by the unexpected blast. Well, it was the seventies, a time of rampant speculation that Antichrist was already on the scene, the mark of the beast was in the works, a record number of vultures were congregating in the Middle East, someone had spotted a red heifer, and everybody knew what all of that meant.
Surely the trumpet could sound any second.
Some twenty-plus years after the stunning reestablishment of the state of Israel (1948), it was an unhinged era of end-times frenzy when anything and everything surely meant something, and current events were routinely regarded as prophecy being fulfilled right before our eyes.
Larry Norman had lyrically lamented “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” (1969); the Oak Ridge Boys’ “Jesus is Coming Soon” topped the gospel charts (1970); and everybody was singing the Gaither’s “The King is Coming” (1971). Salem Kirban’s novel “666” (1974) found success on the heels of Hal Lyndsey’s “Late Great Planet Earth” (1970), the best-selling non-fiction book of the entire decade.
It is no exaggeration to say that evangelical Christians were possessed with Rapture-mania.
That was the groundswell. The groundwork was done many years before. From the original ideas of J. N. Darby’s formulation (1800-1882), to the seminal significance of William E. Blackstone’s elaboration (Jesus is Coming, 1878), to the ascendent authority of C. I. Scofield’s notes (his study Bible was first published in 1909), to the graphic impact of Clarence Larkin’s comprehensive charts (The Greatest Book on “Dispensational Truth" in the World, 1920), the “rapture” of the church went from being unknown as any distinctive of Christian eschatology to becoming esteemed as an indispensable fundamental of the faith, right up there with the virgin birth and deity of Christ.
I believe in the Rapture, just not a secret and separate one.
It is a Biblical truth that “we which are alive and remain shall be caught up,” from the Latin rapturo, and from the verse right after the verse the preacher quoted in anticipation of the unsettling trumpet blast (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17).
Bible-believing Christians have always embraced this truth, but did not understand it as a secret event separate from “the coming of the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:15). They did not imagine two distinct comings, or a second second coming.
It wasn’t that Darby, Blackstone, Scofield, and Larkin discovered the “catching up,” but rather that Darby’s idea, expanded in Blackstone’s book, organized in Scofield’s notes, and illustrated in Larkin’s charts, systematized the rapture as a concealed occurrence preceding the final judgment by at least a thousand years, and hyped it as the next great event on God’s prophetic calendar.
Known as Dispensational Premillennialism, proponents insist that “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) means sharply slicing the second coming into multiple ones, the first of which will be a cloud-cloaked stealthy snatching of believers.
This event is not Christ’s appearing on earth, according to this view, but Christians disappearing into heaven. Millions simultaneously missing around the world will create cataclysmic chaos in which planes and cars crash because they are suddenly absent their pilots and drivers; hospital nurseries will be instantaneously emptied of infants; and in an abracadabra moment, people will vanish leaving a crumpled pile of discarded clothing and confused circle of family and friends.
I’m not exaggerating. Such an astonishing scene has been repeatedly pictured in innumerable sermons and books, including a bazillion Chick comics and over 80 million copies sold of Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind serial novel. There’s also the vivid imagery of Chas Anderson’s “Rapture” print (over three million produced) hung in a host of homes and churches, and at least a couple dozen Hollywood and Quasiwood (Hollywood wannabes) apocaflix.
But these striking portrayals are not informed by the language of scripture, but by the imagination of extrapolation. It is all simply supposed- if Christians suddenly vanish, the reasoning goes, then this would obviously follow. But no equivalent description of an invisible vanishment and its bewildering aftermath can be found in any sermons or books predating the relatively recent popularization of the secret rapture. You won’t find any such elucidation in the works of Whitfield or Wesley, the commentaries of Clarke or Henry, or the preaching of Spurgeon or Moody. And no such description can be found in the Bible.
It’s not there. What is there in prominent profusion is a coming "day"- a great and notable day (Acts 2:20), a great and terrible day (Joel 2:31), a great and dreadful day (Malachi 4:5)- on God’s prophetic calendar that remarkably has been forgotten by the evangelical world. It is "the day of the Lord." It is notable and terrible and dreadful. And it’s great! But it’s been replaced. The Bible’s prolific depictions of a visible coming have been supplanted by speculation of a veiled catching; apparent anticipation of a glorious appearing has been discarded for obsession with a mysterious disappearing; and persistent warnings of a fiery judgment have been deposed by conjecture of a cloudy abduction.
Instead of occupying until Christ comes (Luke 19:13), Christians became preoccupied with the coming of Antichrist, the Tribulation, and the mark of the beast. And in the process we discarded the very event in which “the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them who know not God” (2 Thessalonians 1:8) with “fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:27) when “he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12), and “the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall... into smoke… consume away” (Psalm 37:20). It is all the same event; it all happens at the same time; it is a final destruction, not perpetual torture.
The fire of this event is the traditionalists’ dilemma. It’s a fire that burns things up, not a fire that burns on and on; a consuming fire, not a tormenting one; a fire that is burning at that very time and place, not at a later time in a different place. It is the devouring fire that burns on “the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7). But the secret rapture has no fire. The secret rapture is no judgment. The surreptitious version of our Lord’s return emphasizes a covert removal of believers and subsequent seven years of tribulation for those “left behind.” The scriptural version of our Lord’s return emphasizes the deliverance of the righteous and destruction of the wicked. There’s a fire. It’s a judgment. But the smoke and mirrors of the endless torment dogma has deceptively moved the fire from then and there to a when and where of after and away. The reason for this sleight of hand is that if the wicked are raised, judged, and consumed on the Day of the Lord, they can’t possibly be endlessly tormented thereafter.
But how could anyone overlook such an obviously prominent day on the prophetic calendar? There are at least over eighty Scriptural references to such a "notable" day. The phrase “day of the Lord” itself is found twenty-nine times in the Bible, two of which say “day of the Lord Jesus.” Once it is “the day of God” (2 Peter 3:12), once “the great day of God Almighty” (Revelation 16:14), and five times “the day of Christ,” one of which is “the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6) and one “the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:8). Eight times it is called “the day of judgment;” five times “the day of wrath,” one of which is “the great day of his wrath” (Revelation 6:17), and one combines wrath and judgment: “the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Romans 2:5). Six times, all in the gospel of John, it is “the last day” (6:39, 40, 44, 54; 11:24; 12:48).
There is “the day of destruction” (Job 21:30), and “the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7). There is “the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ” (Romans 2:16). It is called “the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:12) and “the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). At least a dozen times it is “that day,” five times it is simply “the day,” and once “He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:31). A dozen times it is “the judgment,” one of which is “the judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6). That’s a total of more than fourscore references to a “day” that have these features in common: it is in the future; it includes judgment; the Lord is there.
It is not my intention to overwhelm you with references or bore you with numbers, but to make the case that this forgotten day on the prophetic calendar is indeed the preeminent future event in the Bible. It’s the hurricane on the horizon, the doomsday on the Doppler. It’s not just the elephant in the room- it’s the wooly mammoth in the closet. Some will object that the Old Testament “day of the Lord” was a judgment limited to a past time and specific place. But if those texts do not presage the last judgment (I believe they do), they surely picture it. When passages describing the future punishment use the very same language of a judgment prophesied in the past, that simply provides the reader with definitive reference points. In other words, even if that isn't this, this is like that!
And these eighty plus examples do not include ten times that speak of the Lord's "appearing," or many others that assuredly describe the same event, though they do not use the words "day" or "judgment" (Matthew 3:12; 13:38-43; 24:27-31; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10). It’s BIG! So big, as Deputy Barney Fife might say, that “big” isn’t the word for it. It’s bigger than big. So it is mystifying that assumed accouterments of an imminent rapture and looming tribulation, such as embedded microchips, stockpiled guillotines, gathering vultures, and red heifers, could completely displace the Bible’s dire warnings and sober depictions of the Day of the Lord.
This is not to say there is no validity whatsoever to tribulational theorizing, but to highlight the inexcusable imbalance. Search diligently enough and you’ll find that it’s not that secret rapture preachers don’t acknowledge the Day of the Lord. They do. But they say the “day” spans one thousand and seven years. “This eschatological ‘day’ includes the time of the Great Tribulation, the second coming of Christ, and the Millennium,” Charles Ryrie postulates. Dittos from J. Vernon McGee: “‘Day of the Lord’ is a period of time that begins with the Great Tribulation and continues through the Millennium.” So, according to their calendar, the “day” begins with the seven year tribulation and continues through the end of the thousand year reign of Christ, preceded, of course, by the Rapture.
No doubt in a half century of hearing hundreds of sermons, I’ve heard the secret rapture and the events to follow emphasized at least a thousand and seven times, but I can’t recall even a single mention of the Day of the Lord. Not one. That is a mind boggling disparity.
Our obsession with the one has obscured the other. Here’s an obvious example. One of the most celebrated features of the secret rapture/seven-year tribulation is the infamous “Antichrist.” Yet that term is only found four times in Scripture, all in the epistles of John, none in his Revelation. And the references reveal antichrist (lower case, not capitalized) as “an antichrist” not “the;” as “many antichrists” not one; and as “even now already,” not just in the future:
1 John 2:18. Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
1 John 2:22. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
1 John 4:3. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
2 John 1:7. For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
That’s it. But combining the “little horn” of Daniel, “the man of sin” of Thessalonians, and “the beast” of Revelation into one composite “Antichrist” has produced dozens of candidates, centuries of speculation, hundreds of books, thousands of sermons, and millions of advocates of the idea of an end-time, all-powerful, one-world Potentate. But the term, with its limited parameters of “many” and “now,” is only found four times within a few pages by one writer compared to over eighty descriptive texts saturating scripture concerning the Day of the Lord. Four to over eighty.
That’s the sheer volume. Here’s the clear vision: the Day of the Lord spells destruction:
Text:
Day of:
Description:
Isaiah 13:6
the LORD
it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty
Isaiah 13:9
the LORD
with wrath and fierce anger… he shall destroy the sinners
Isaiah 34:8-10
The LORD’s vengeance
none shall pass through it for ever and ever
Joel 1:15
the LORD
as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come
Joel 2:1-3
the LORD
a fire devoureth before them… nothing shall escape
Zephaniah 1:18
the LORD’s wrath
he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them
Malachi 4:1-5
the LORD
the.day that cometh shall burn them up
1 Thessalonians 5:2, 3
the Lord
then sudden destruction cometh upon them
2 Thessalonians 1:7-10
that day
In flaming fire… punished with everlasting destruction
2 Peter 3:7
judgment
reserved unto fire… perdition of ungodly men
2 Peter 3:10
the Lord
great noise.... fervent heat... burned up
2 Peter 3:12
God
being on fire… dissolved… melt
Is the Day of the Lord the same event as the coming of the Lord? I believe it most assuredly is. The Day of the Lord will be a day of the Lord! He will be there! As we observed in the previous chapter, “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them who know not God” is precisely when they “shall be punished with everlasting destruction.” It is not away from his presence, but from the very “presence of the Lord and the glory of his power.” It is specifically and unequivocally “when he comes… in that day” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10). “Revealed from heaven with his mighty angels” and reference to “the glory of his power” is the same language Christ used to describe his return. This is that day!
That day is “the day of the Lord” that “so cometh as a thief in the night” when “sudden destruction cometh upon them” (2 Thessalonians 5:2, 3). That day is “the day of Christ” when “the Lord shall consume (that Wicked) with the spirit of his mouth, and (whom the Lord) shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:2-8). That day is “the wrath to come” when Christ “will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:7-12). That day is “the day” that “cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up” (Malachi 4:1). That day is the “day of judgment and perdition (utter destruction) of ungodly men… the day of the Lord… in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up… the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat” (2 Peter 3:7-12).
It’s all the same day, a day of destruction by fire that prompts “a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:27). “Oh, my loving brother, when the world’s on fire,” the old spiritual asks, “don’t you want God’s bosom to be your pillow?” Consider the consistency of these descriptions of this future destruction by fire:
In flaming fire taking vengeance
Punished with everlasting destruction
Sudden destruction cometh upon them
Consume and destroy with the brightness of his coming
Burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire
Day that cometh shall burn them up
Reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men
Pass away with a great noise
Melt with fervent heat
Shall be burned up
Being on fire shall be dissolved
Fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries
This is in accord with the picture in Revelation 20 of the Great White Throne Judgment where “whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire… which is the second death” (Revelation 20:15; 21:8). These same phrases could just as easily describe the complete destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and sensibly so because it is that very event that is invoked on three separate occasions as the illustrative example of the final judgment (Luke 17:29, 30; 2 Peter 2:6; Jude 1:7). As “fire… destroyed them all.... even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:29, 30) is exactly the same as “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven… in flaming fire taking vengeance on them” (2 Thessalonians 1:7). The destruction of Sodom and the return of the Lord both portray a fiery judgment ending in complete destruction: “fire… destroyed them all” and “in flaming fire… shall be punished with everlasting destruction.”
The forgotten Day of the Lord should be restored to its Biblical position as the preeminent day on the prophetic calendar. It is the day of which prophets warn, apostles describe, and Jesus emphasizes- a great, notable, terrible, and dreadful day of judgment that ends in destruction. But what about the rapture? When are believers caught up? Are there two second comings? As we will see in the next chapter, a trumpet holds the key- an abrupt blast not unlike the one from the young man hiding in the baptistry.
Are There Two Second Comings?
Sally observed that the last staple in the stapler never worked, so she had an idea. She decided that when loading a new strip of staples she would go ahead and remove the last one. That should do it. Sally learned, of course, that removing the last one did not solve the problem of having a last one. The next to last one became the last one. And that staple didn’t work either. Silly Sally.
As we learned in the previous chapter, the Bible describes a future day that will be identified by the sound of a trumpet. Three times we are told that a trumpet blast will mark the coming of the Lord. The boy in the baptistry blew his to mimic when “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). This happens “at his coming… in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound” (1 Corinthians 15:23, 52). And Jesus said it is when “they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” that “he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds” (Matthew 24:30, 31).
“A great sound of a trumpet… the trump of God… the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound.” The question is, Do these three trump texts refer to the same event? Sure sounds like it. Or could there be two second comings? The “in a moment” moment and “in the twinkling of an eye” event happens “at the last trump.” That this trump is the last trump is a dilemma for supporters of a secret rapture. But we’ll save that argument for last.
The Bible teaches that the Day of the Lord is both the day of destruction of the wicked and day of deliverance of the righteous. Proof? The day that burns up the wicked as stubble is the same day that spares the righteous as jewels (Malachi 3:17-4:3). The day Christ burns up the chaff is the same day he gathers “his wheat into the garner” (Matthew 3:12). The day that “the tares are gathered and burned” is the same day “the righteous shall shine forth as the sun” (Matthew 13:40-43). The day “they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory” is the same day the angels “gather together his elect from the four winds” (Mark 13:26, 27). The day “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them who know not God” is the same day “when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10). And the day believers are “caught up together with them in the clouds” is the same day “sudden destruction cometh upon” unbelievers who “shall not escape” (1 Thessalonians 4:17-5:3).
Here it is in a nutshell: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9). God hath not appointed us to wrath: the sudden and everlasting destruction of the flaming fire that takes vengeance and burns up the stubble and chaff; the fiery indignation that devours the adversaries. But God hath appointed us to obtain salvation: the sparing of his jewels; gathering of his wheat; rapture of his own. The catching up is deliverance from burning up.
In case you skipped the last chapter, I will repeat, there is a catching up. I believe in the Rapture, just not a secret or separate one. It happens at the same time of the destruction of the wicked. Again, the Rapture is deliverance from that destruction. It’s the same day. It’s the same event. It’s one coming.
But Dr. David Jeremiah, representative of the Scofield/Larkin paradigm, believes there are two second comings (italics mine): “The Rapture and the Second Coming are often confused, but they are two distinct events on God’s prophecy timeline. First, the Rapture is when Christ comes back and takes every Christian that is still on this earth and resurrects all of those who have died and takes them to heaven with Him…The Rapture is God’s protection of His saints from the Tribulation—the seven years of judgment that will then be poured out on earth... Finally, at the end of the seven years, the Bible says Jesus comes back. This is His Second Coming.” No wonder the two “are often confused;” even Dr. Jeremiah says “First… Christ comes back” and “Finally… Jesus comes back.” That is confusing. But only the second second coming is the “Second Coming.” Fascinating!
Moody Bible Institute concurs (italics mine): “Before He establishes His kingdom on earth, Jesus will come for His Church, an event commonly referred to as the ‘Rapture’.... At the end of the Tribulation, Jesus Christ will return with the hosts of heaven as well as the Church to establish the Messianic Kingdom on earth. His Kingdom will last for a thousand years. At this Second Coming, the Antichrist will be cast into the Lake of Fire and Satan will be bound for a thousand years.” There you have it: “Jesus will come” and “Jesus Christ will return.” Two comings. Notice the wording “at this Second Coming.” Not at that Second Coming when “Jesus will come,” but at this second Second Coming when “Jesus Christ will return.”
Not to gnat-strain their semantics, but it is the secret rapturists who have oddly adopted the term “Second Coming” to distinguish Christ’s coming (the Revelation at the end of the Tribulation) from his coming (the Rapture before the Tribulation), though they readily acknowledge that both are called “the coming.” Googling “Second Coming vs. Rapture” reveals numerous articles with this in common: the authors say they’re two different events but never say where the Bible says it. The uniformity of the descriptive features in scripture of the Lord’s return should surely cause the thoughtful reader to wonder how “the coming of the Lord” could be divided into two separate events:
Text:
Coming
Clouds/Heaven
Power/Glory
Angels
Trumpet
Matthew 16:27
the Son of man shall come
In the glory of his Father
with his angels
Matthew 24:27, 30, 31
the coming of the Son of man
in the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory
he shall send his angels
with a great sound of a trumpet
Matthew 25:31
The Son of man shall come
in his glory
all the holy angels with him
Matthew 26:64
the Son of man… coming
in the clouds of heaven
sitting on the right hand of power
Mark 8:38
when he cometh
in the glory of his Father
with the holy angels
Mark 13:26, 27
the Son of man coming
in the clouds
with great power and glory
then shall he send his angels
Mark 14:62, 63
the Son of man… coming
In the clouds of heaven
sitting on the right hand of power
Luke 9:26
when he shall come
in his own glory, and in his Father’s
and of the holy angels
Acts 1:9-11
Shall so come in like manner
a cloud received him
1 Corinthians 15:23, 43, 47, 52
Christ’s at his coming
the Lord from heaven
raised in glory… raised in power
the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound
1 Thessalonians
4:13-18
the coming of the Lord
from heaven... with them in the clouds
with the voice of the Archangel
with the trump of God
2 Thessalonians 1:7-10
when he shall come
revealed from heaven
the glory of his power
With his mighty angels
Revelation 1:7
Behold, he cometh
with clouds
It seems incredible that anyone could insist that these passages with so much in common concerning “his coming” are speaking of two different events. Especially note the similarity of these four:
Matthew 24:30, 31
the Son of man coming
in the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory
he shall send his angels
with a great sound of a trumpet
1 Corinthians 15:23, 43, 47, 52
Christ’s at his coming
the Lord from heaven
raised in glory… raised in power
the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound
1 Thessalonians
4:13-18
the coming of the Lord
from heaven... with them in the clouds
with the voice of the Archangel
with the trump of God
2 Thessalonians 1:7-10
when he shall come
revealed from heaven
the glory of his power
With his mighty angels
All four have at least four of the five distinctive descriptions in common. Multiple-coming apologists maintain, however, that two of them refer to the secret rapture before the tribulation, and the other two to the revelation of Christ at the end of the tribulation. “Shall be caught up together with them in the clouds” (1 Thessalonians 4:17) and “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:52) are by far the two most popular phrases in the Premillennial parlance. Why do they see only these two as a secret rapture? It’s because of what they presume cannot be seen.
In the other two passages, Christ is undeniably visible. In the first, Jesus actually warns against claims of a secret return: “Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:26, 27. Christ’s coming will be noisily noticeable and noticeably noisy! The sun and moon will go dark, stars will fall, and “the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds” (Matthew 24:29-31).
In the second passage, Christ is “revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire” (2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8). That’s also noticeably dramatic and very visible. And it’s “when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe... in that day” (2:10). There’s that day again. In Matthew 24 he comes “with power and great glory” and in 2 Thessalonians 1 he is present with “the glory of his power” (v. 9). No one seems to question that these two texts describe the same event, nor doubt that it is the one presented in Revelation 1:7: “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.”
He is revealed, seen, and admired. Visibility is what Premillennialists insist distinguishes the second coming (or “Revelation”) at the end of the tribulation from the secret rapture before it. “The Rapture, according to Scripture, will be an instantaneous, hidden event,” Mary Fairchild contends, “The Second Coming, according to Scripture, will be seen by everyone.” So even if clouds and angels, shouts and trumpets, power and glory, accompany both comings, only the second is seen. No doubt the Rapture is loud- “with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God”- but though it may be heard, it’s still unseen. Or so say champions of the rapture as a “hidden event.”
My challenge to those who believe in more than one second coming is to read the two short letters to the Thessalonians in one sitting, and ask yourself if Paul was not speaking of one and the same event. And if he were writing of two distinct ones, how would his readers know the difference? They didn’t have the “advantage” of Scofield’s notes and Larkin’s charts. And why would he give details and urge watchfulness (“let us watch and be sober” - 1 Thessalonians 5:6) of an event that would be seven years removed from their removal? They wouldn’t be there to watch for it.
Here are phrases relevant to Christ’s coming in order of their appearance in 1 and 2 Thessalonians. According to proponents of two comings, the ones on the left presumably refer to the secret rapture and the ones on the right to the visible return. Notice how this means Paul would so quickly flit back and forth between the two (no less than eight times).
1 Thes. 1:10
Wait for his Son from heaven
1:10
The wrath to come
2:19
Our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming
3:13
At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints
4:15
The coming of the Lord
4:16
The Lord himself shall descend from heaven
5:2
The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night
5:3
Sudden destruction cometh upon them
5:4
That that day should overtake you as a thief
5:9
For God hath not appointed us to wrath
5:9
But to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ
5:23
The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
2 Thess. 1:7, 8
When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them who know not God
1:9
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
1:9
The presence of the Lord, and... glory of his power
1:10
When he shall come to be glorified in his saints
and admired in all them that believe... in that day
2:1
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him
2:2
as that the day of Christ is at hand
2:3
that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first
2:8
Shall destroy with the brightness of his coming
3:5
The patient waiting for Christ
What distinguishes the event on the left from the one on the right, in the understanding of the secret rapturists, is the absence of wrath and destruction. But that is a template imposed on Paul, not a difference expressed by Paul. You’ll search in vain for any explanation from the author that informs his readers on how to distinguish the two. And this from the apostle who began his elucidation of the Lord’s coming with “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Avoiding ignorance was so often his express intent (Romans 1:13; 11:25; 1 Corinthians 10:1; 12:1; 2 Corinthians 1:8). But now we’re expected to believe that this gifted communicator who loathed ignorance and sought comprehension nonetheless hopscotched from one coming to the other coming without any clarification. That would indeed explain why no one figured out about a secret rapture until Darby’s eureka moment, but it wouldn’t account for why an articulate inspired writer would be so ambiguously slapdash.
And it wouldn’t resolve why “a hidden event” (Mary Fairchild’s words) would so often in Scripture be labeled an “appearing.” Wouldn’t hidden and appear be opposites? If you're hidden, you don't appear. And if you appear, you're not hidden.
On five separate occasions Paul speaks of the Lord’s coming as his “appearing” with plenty of particulars as to what that means. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). “That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:14, 15). “The Lord Jesus Christ… shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:4). “There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8). His appearing is at that day. And believers should not only love his appearing, but should be “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). Hardly a hidden event!
There’s more. In the context of “the judgment” after the universal appointment of “men once to die,” the writer of Hebrews affirms that “unto them that look for him (Christ) shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:27, 28). Peter and John both reference “the appearing of Jesus Christ” as a time of reward (1 Peter 1:7; 5:4; 1 John 2:28; 3:2, 3).
Are these ten announcements of an appearance talking about the same event? Without doubt, except to those who separate the secret rapture from the visible return based on the supposition that the first is unseen and only the second involves judgment of the wicked. And it’s a supposition based on other eschatological notions, not on the actual scriptural expressions that use the same language and give identical details for the alleged distinct comings. And the expressions in question are devoid of any explanation that would compel an interpretation in which the Lord’s coming from heaven in clouds with angels and power and glory happens twice and years apart.
Especially since we know Christ’s coming is accompanied “with a great sound of a trumpet” and it is “the last trump” at that. If the trumpet in Matthew 24 had been termed the last trump, I’m certain the secret rapture enthusiasts would celebrate that detail as proof positive of separate events, of two comings, with the last trump being sounded at the visible return, after the next to last trump that sounded at the rapture. But it’s not. The last trump is specified in a passage promoted as clearly descriptive of the secret rapture: “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51, 52).
This means that the trumpet in Matthew 24 comes later than the last. Say what? No worries, say advocates of the clandestine catching. “Even the trumpet that will be blown at the Second Coming of Christ (at the end of the tribulation) will not be the absolute last trumpet blown here on planet Earth,” Renald Showers explains on the John Ankerberg Show. “You will have the blowing of trumpets every year (during the Feast of Tabernacles) throughout the Thousand Year Reign of Christ.” So says Showers. Surely that settles it. The last trump is not the last, at least not “the absolute last.”
Sally removed the last staple; Showers moves the last trump. Typical of traditional apologists, the “last trump” text is excised from its context. There’s more than just the last trump in 1 Corinthians 15 to indicate this is one last event:
1 Corinthians 15:22-26. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
“At his coming… then cometh the end… the last enemy… the last trump” (1 Corinthians 15:23, 24, 26, 52). There’s definitely a sense of finality in this language, and there’s nothing at all about any events to follow. But in Scofield’s notes and Larkin’s charts, there is 1007 years packed in that single period of punctuation between “his coming” and “the end… when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power” and destroyed death, the last enemy. Look at it again: “...his coming. Then cometh the end…”
Peculiar to John’s gospel is that this coming day of the coming of the Lord is “the last day”: “And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:39,40). Twice more Christ emphasizes “I will raise him up at the last day” (6:44, 54). En route to the tomb of Lazarus, sister Martha expressed her confidence: “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (John 11:24). So this last day is certainly the resurrection of the righteous. But it’s also the judgment of the wicked: “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:49). If we believe in one Author inspiring all the authors, surely we believe the last day and the last trump are, well, the last.
My intent is not to squabble over prophetic interpretations. Other than believing the one second coming of the Lord is also the day of the Lord, I don’t have a dogmatic view on how it will all play out in “the last days” before that event. And one can be both a Premillennialist and a Conditionalist, accepting that destruction is ultimately the final fate of the wicked. So why does this even matter in a debate about endless torment? It matters because so many passages that speak of destruction as the final fate of the wicked are relegated by so many traditionalists to a scene at the end of the seven year tribulation, or ignored altogether. They can’t accept that there could be one end-time event in which Christ comes to judge the world, deliver believers, and destroy the wicked. But that’s exactly what the Bible teaches. And this “end” happens on “that day,” the forgotten Day of the Lord. It’s the same day. It’s the last day. It’s the same event. It’s one coming. And it’s signaled by the sound of the trumpet. The last trump.
I said I was saving this argument about the last trump until last. If I make another one after this one, this one wasn’t the last. Same with the last trump. Silly Sally, removing the last staple or last trump doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
The Forgotten Day on the Prophetic Calendar
A young man with trumpet in hand hid in the baptistry while the preacher emphasized to the congregation that Jesus could come at any moment.
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout," the preacher shouted. "With the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God,” he stressed with a trill.
The concealed conspirator was ready, but the preacher didn’t want it to be too obvious. A discreet while after the seed thought of suddenly hearing a trumpet was sufficiently planted, the boy in the baptistry pursed his lips to his brass horn and blew it with all his might.
Some weren’t amused by the preacher’s prank, but others were soberly jarred by the unexpected blast. Well, it was the seventies, a time of rampant speculation that Antichrist was already on the scene, the mark of the beast was in the works, a record number of vultures were congregating in the Middle East, someone had spotted a red heifer, and everybody knew what all of that meant.
Surely the trumpet could sound any second.
Some twenty-plus years after the stunning reestablishment of the state of Israel (1948), it was an unhinged era of end-times frenzy when anything and everything surely meant something, and current events were routinely regarded as prophecy being fulfilled right before our eyes.
Larry Norman had lyrically lamented “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” (1969); the Oak Ridge Boys’ “Jesus is Coming Soon” topped the gospel charts (1970); and everybody was singing the Gaither’s “The King is Coming” (1971). Salem Kirban’s novel “666” (1974) found success on the heels of Hal Lyndsey’s “Late Great Planet Earth” (1970), the best-selling non-fiction book of the entire decade.
It is no exaggeration to say that evangelical Christians were possessed with Rapture-mania.
That was the groundswell. The groundwork was done many years before. From the original ideas of J. N. Darby’s formulation (1800-1882), to the seminal significance of William E. Blackstone’s elaboration (Jesus is Coming, 1878), to the ascendent authority of C. I. Scofield’s notes (his study Bible was first published in 1909), to the graphic impact of Clarence Larkin’s comprehensive charts (The Greatest Book on “Dispensational Truth" in the World, 1920), the “rapture” of the church went from being unknown as any distinctive of Christian eschatology to becoming esteemed as an indispensable fundamental of the faith, right up there with the virgin birth and deity of Christ.
I believe in the Rapture, just not a secret and separate one. It is a Biblical truth that “we which are alive and remain shall be caught up,” from the Latin rapturo, and from the verse right after the verse the preacher quoted in anticipation of the unsettling trumpet blast (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17).
Bible-believing Christians have always embraced this truth, but did not understand it as a secret event separate from “the coming of the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:15). They did not imagine two distinct comings, or a second second coming.
It wasn’t that Darby, Blackstone, Scofield, and Larkin discovered the “catching up,” but rather that Darby’s idea, expanded in Blackstone’s book, organized in Scofield’s notes, and illustrated in Larkin’s charts, systematized the rapture as a concealed occurrence preceding the final judgment by at least a thousand years, and hyped it as the next great event on God’s prophetic calendar. Known as Dispensational Premillennialism, proponents insist that “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) means sharply slicing the second coming into multiple ones, the first of which will be a cloud-cloaked stealthy snatching of believers. This event is not Christ’s appearing on earth, according to this view, but Christians disappearing into heaven. Millions simultaneously missing around the world will create cataclysmic chaos in which planes and cars crash because they are suddenly absent their pilots and drivers; hospital nurseries will be instantaneously emptied of infants; and in an abracadabra moment, people will vanish leaving a crumpled pile of discarded clothing and confused circle of family and friends.
I’m not exaggerating. Such an astonishing scene has been repeatedly pictured in innumerable sermons and books, including a bazillion Chick comics and over 80 million copies sold of Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind serial novel. There’s also the vivid imagery of Chas Anderson’s “Rapture” print (over three million produced) hung in a host of homes and churches, and at least a couple dozen Hollywood and Quasiwood (Hollywood wannabes) apocaflix. But these striking portrayals are not informed by the language of scripture, but by the imagination of extrapolation. It is all simply supposed- if Christians suddenly vanish, the reasoning goes, then this would obviously follow. But no equivalent description of an invisible vanishment and its bewildering aftermath can be found in any sermons or books predating the relatively recent popularization of the secret rapture. You won’t find any such elucidation in the works of Whitfield or Wesley, the commentaries of Clarke or Henry, or the preaching of Spurgeon or Moody. And no such description can be found in the Bible.
It’s not there. What is there in prominent profusion is a coming "day"- a great and notable day (Acts 2:20), a great and terrible day (Joel 2:31), a great and dreadful day (Malachi 4:5)- on God’s prophetic calendar that remarkably has been forgotten by the evangelical world. It is "the day of the Lord." It is notable and terrible and dreadful. And it’s great! But it’s been replaced. The Bible’s prolific depictions of a visible coming have been supplanted by speculation of a veiled catching; apparent anticipation of a glorious appearing has been discarded for obsession with a mysterious disappearing; and persistent warnings of a fiery judgment have been deposed by conjecture of a cloudy abduction.
Instead of occupying until Christ comes (Luke 19:13), Christians became preoccupied with the coming of Antichrist, the Tribulation, and the mark of the beast. And in the process we discarded the very event in which “the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them who know not God” (2 Thessalonians 1:8) with “fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:27) when “he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12), and “the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall... into smoke… consume away” (Psalm 37:20). It is all the same event; it all happens at the same time; it is a final destruction, not perpetual torture.
The fire of this event is the traditionalists’ dilemma. It’s a fire that burns things up, not a fire that burns on and on; a consuming fire, not a tormenting one; a fire that is burning at that very time and place, not at a later time in a different place. It is the devouring fire that burns on “the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7). But the secret rapture has no fire. The secret rapture is no judgment. The surreptitious version of our Lord’s return emphasizes a covert removal of believers and subsequent seven years of tribulation for those “left behind.” The scriptural version of our Lord’s return emphasizes the deliverance of the righteous and destruction of the wicked. There’s a fire. It’s a judgment. But the smoke and mirrors of the endless torment dogma has deceptively moved the fire from then and there to a when and where of after and away. The reason for this sleight of hand is that if the wicked are raised, judged, and consumed on the Day of the Lord, they can’t possibly be endlessly tormented thereafter.
But how could anyone overlook such an obviously prominent day on the prophetic calendar? There are at least over eighty Scriptural references to such a "notable" day. The phrase “day of the Lord” itself is found twenty-nine times in the Bible, two of which say “day of the Lord Jesus.” Once it is “the day of God” (2 Peter 3:12), once “the great day of God Almighty” (Revelation 16:14), and five times “the day of Christ,” one of which is “the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6) and one “the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:8). Eight times it is called “the day of judgment;” five times “the day of wrath,” one of which is “the great day of his wrath” (Revelation 6:17), and one combines wrath and judgment: “the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Romans 2:5). Six times, all in the gospel of John, it is “the last day” (6:39, 40, 44, 54; 11:24; 12:48).
There is “the day of destruction” (Job 21:30), and “the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7). There is “the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ” (Romans 2:16). It is called “the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:12) and “the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). At least a dozen times it is “that day,” five times it is simply “the day,” and once “He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:31). A dozen times it is “the judgment,” one of which is “the judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6). That’s a total of more than fourscore references to a “day” that have these features in common: it is in the future; it includes judgment; the Lord is there.
It is not my intention to overwhelm you with references or bore you with numbers, but to make the case that this forgotten day on the prophetic calendar is indeed the preeminent future event in the Bible. It’s the hurricane on the horizon, the doomsday on the Doppler. It’s not just the elephant in the room- it’s the wooly mammoth in the closet. Some will object that the Old Testament “day of the Lord” was a judgment limited to a past time and specific place. But if those texts do not presage the last judgment (I believe they do), they surely picture it. When passages describing the future punishment use the very same language of a judgment prophesied in the past, that simply provides the reader with definitive reference points. In other words, even if that isn't this, this is like that!
And these eighty plus examples do not include ten times that speak of the Lord's "appearing," or many others that assuredly describe the same event, though they do not use the words "day" or "judgment" (Matthew 3:12; 13:38-43; 24:27-31; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10). It’s BIG! So big, as Deputy Barney Fife might say, that “big” isn’t the word for it. It’s bigger than big. So it is mystifying that assumed accouterments of an imminent rapture and looming tribulation, such as embedded microchips, stockpiled guillotines, gathering vultures, and red heifers, could completely displace the Bible’s dire warnings and sober depictions of the Day of the Lord.
This is not to say there is no validity whatsoever to tribulational theorizing, but to highlight the inexcusable imbalance. Search diligently enough and you’ll find that it’s not that secret rapture preachers don’t acknowledge the Day of the Lord. They do. But they say the “day” spans one thousand and seven years. “This eschatological ‘day’ includes the time of the Great Tribulation, the second coming of Christ, and the Millennium,” Charles Ryrie postulates. Dittos from J. Vernon McGee: “‘Day of the Lord’ is a period of time that begins with the Great Tribulation and continues through the Millennium.” So, according to their calendar, the “day” begins with the seven year tribulation and continues through the end of the thousand year reign of Christ, preceded, of course, by the Rapture.
No doubt in a half century of hearing hundreds of sermons, I’ve heard the secret rapture and the events to follow emphasized at least a thousand and seven times, but I can’t recall even a single mention of the Day of the Lord. Not one. That is a mind boggling disparity.
Our obsession with the one has obscured the other. Here’s an obvious example. One of the most celebrated features of the secret rapture/seven-year tribulation is the infamous “Antichrist.” Yet that term is only found four times in Scripture, all in the epistles of John, none in his Revelation. And the references reveal antichrist (lower case, not capitalized) as “an antichrist” not “the;” as “many antichrists” not one; and as “even now already,” not just in the future:
1 John 2:18. Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
1 John 2:22. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
1 John 4:3. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
2 John 1:7. For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
That’s it. But combining the “little horn” of Daniel, “the man of sin” of Thessalonians, and “the beast” of Revelation into one composite “Antichrist” has produced dozens of candidates, centuries of speculation, hundreds of books, thousands of sermons, and millions of advocates of the idea of an end-time, all-powerful, one-world Potentate. But the term, with its limited parameters of “many” and “now,” is only found four times within a few pages by one writer compared to over eighty descriptive texts saturating scripture concerning the Day of the Lord. Four to over eighty.
That’s the sheer volume. Here’s the clear vision: the Day of the Lord spells destruction:
Is the Day of the Lord the same event as the coming of the Lord? I believe it most assuredly is. The Day of the Lord will be a day of the Lord! He will be there! As we observed in the previous chapter, “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them who know not God” is precisely when they “shall be punished with everlasting destruction.” It is not away from his presence, but from the very “presence of the Lord and the glory of his power.” It is specifically and unequivocally “when he comes… in that day” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10). “Revealed from heaven with his mighty angels” and reference to “the glory of his power” is the same language Christ used to describe his return. This is that day!
That day is “the day of the Lord” that “so cometh as a thief in the night” when “sudden destruction cometh upon them” (2 Thessalonians 5:2, 3). That day is “the day of Christ” when “the Lord shall consume (that Wicked) with the spirit of his mouth, and (whom the Lord) shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:2-8). That day is “the wrath to come” when Christ “will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:7-12). That day is “the day” that “cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up” (Malachi 4:1). That day is the “day of judgment and perdition (utter destruction) of ungodly men… the day of the Lord… in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up… the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat” (2 Peter 3:7-12).
It’s all the same day, a day of destruction by fire that prompts “a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:27). “Oh, my loving brother, when the world’s on fire,” the old spiritual asks, “don’t you want God’s bosom to be your pillow?” Consider the consistency of these descriptions of this future destruction by fire:
In flaming fire taking vengeance
Punished with everlasting destruction
Sudden destruction cometh upon them
Consume and destroy with the brightness of his coming
Burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire
Day that cometh shall burn them up
Reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men
Pass away with a great noise
Melt with fervent heat
Shall be burned up
Being on fire shall be dissolved
Fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries
This is in accord with the picture in Revelation 20 of the Great White Throne Judgment where “whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire… which is the second death” (Revelation 20:15; 21:8). These same phrases could just as easily describe the complete destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and sensibly so because it is that very event that is invoked on three separate occasions as the illustrative example of the final judgment (Luke 17:29, 30; 2 Peter 2:6; Jude 1:7). As “fire… destroyed them all.... even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:29, 30) is exactly the same as “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven… in flaming fire taking vengeance on them” (2 Thessalonians 1:7). The destruction of Sodom and the return of the Lord both portray a fiery judgment ending in complete destruction: “fire… destroyed them all” and “in flaming fire… shall be punished with everlasting destruction.”
The forgotten Day of the Lord should be restored to its Biblical position as the preeminent day on the prophetic calendar. It is the day of which prophets warn, apostles describe, and Jesus emphasizes- a great, notable, terrible, and dreadful day of judgment that ends in destruction. But what about the rapture? When are believers caught up? Are there two second comings?
As we will see in the next chapter, a trumpet holds the key- an abrupt blast not unlike the one from the young man hiding in the baptistry.
You need to spend some time with a Messianic Rabbi to understand the humor in some of your claims. Your western mind leads you astray here. May God grant you understanding.
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