Before the Day of the Lord: Christ's Return and the Trumpet Judgments

One of the most important distinctions in all of biblical prophecy is the difference between the return of Christ and the Day of the Lord. These are not the same event, and confusing them has led to enormous misunderstanding about the sequence of end-time events and the Church's role within them. Let me lay this out as clearly as I possibly can, because your understanding of this timeline will directly affect how you live your life in the days ahead.

When Christ returns, He does not initially come to the earth. Let that sink in for a moment. His first appearance is not a landing on the Mount of Olives. His first appearance is in the sky. He stops in the clouds, and every eye shall see Him. Revelation 1:7 (KJV) declares: '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.' This is a global, visible, undeniable event. No one will miss it. No one will be able to explain it away. The glorified Christ will appear in the heavens, and the Church, those who are alive and remain, will be caught up to meet Him in the air.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (KJV) describes it this way: 'For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.' Notice that the meeting place is the air, not the earth. Christ comes to the sky, the Church is caught up to meet Him there, and then the Day of the Lord begins.

The Day of the Lord is the period of God's wrath being poured out upon an unrepentant world. It includes the plagues, the judgments, and the catastrophic events that will shake the foundations of human civilization. It culminates in Christ mounting a white horse, as described in Revelation 19, with the armies of heaven following Him, and coming to take final possession of the earth and establish His Kingdom. And here is something that should stir your heart: the armies of heaven that follow Him include His Church. The saints who were caught up will return with Him as He takes dominion over the earth.

But now we come to the central argument that I want you to hold onto carefully: the seven trumpet judgments occur before the Day of the Lord. They are not part of the wrath of God poured out after the Church is removed. They are events that precede the great and notable Day of the Lord, which means the Church will be present for them. This is precisely what Peter's quotation of Joel establishes. The signs described in Acts 2:19-20, blood, fire, vapour of smoke, the sun turned to darkness, the moon turned to blood, these are signs that occur 'before that great and notable day of the Lord come.'

The word 'before' is critical. These events are not during the Day of the Lord. They are before it. They precede it. And if the Church is taken up at the moment of the Day of the Lord's commencement, then the Church is present for the events that precede it. This is not a theology designed to frighten believers. It is a theology designed to prepare them. A Church that understands what is coming will not be caught off guard. A Church that has been told 'you will be gone before anything difficult happens' is a Church that is completely unprepared for the hour it is entering.

The seven trumpet judgments, as described in the book of Revelation, represent an escalating series of catastrophic events that will affect the earth, the seas, the rivers, the heavens, and human civilization. These are not minor inconveniences. They are earth-shaking, civilization-altering events. And the Church of Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Ghost, filled with the Spirit, and walking in the gifts and power described in Acts 2, will be present through them. Not as victims, but as witnesses. Not as the defeated, but as the overcoming.