The pre-tribbers view the day of the Lord as overlapping or being one and the same with the great tribulation. But this is simply not true. The two are distinct periods that don’t overlap. The church will go through the entire tribulation period but will be raptured just before the day of the Lord.

In the Old Testament

The day of the Lord is an important end-times event prophesied several times in the Old Testament and is closely linked to God’s wrath and vengeance.

[Isaiah 13:6-13] Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! … Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.

[Jeremiah 46:10] That day is the day of the LORD GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, to avenge himself on his foes. The sword shall devour and be sated and drink its fill of their blood.

[Ezekiel 30:3] The day is near, the day of the LORD is near; it will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations.

[Amos 5:18-20] Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light.

[Obadiah 1:15-16] For the day of the LORD is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head.

[Zephaniah 1:14-18] The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.

[Malachi 4:5] Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.

The day of the Lord is not a literal, 24-hour day, but the final season of judgments. God will pour out His wrath on the earth and destroy the wicked once and for all. This is a new dimension of God’s judgment and wrath.

The prophet Joel has quite a few things to say about it too.

[Joel 2:10-11] The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. he LORD utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the LORD is great and very awesome; who can endure it?

[Joel 2:30-31] I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.

[Joel 3:14-15] Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

For a more comprehensive list of Old Testament verses, see this appendix.

In the New Testament

The same day of the Lord is also mentioned in the New Testament.

[1 Thessalonians 5:2-3] For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

[2 Thessalonians 2:1-4] Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

[2 Peter 3:12-14] But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!

A landmark cosmic event

In both the Old and the New Testament we can see a cosmic event associated with the day of the Lord, an event involving the sun, the moon and the stars. Joel 2:31 clarifies that this event will happen before the day of the Lord. Let’s recap the details:

[Isaiah 13:10] The stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.

[Joel 2:10] The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

[Joel 2:31] The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, BEFORE the day of the LORD comes.

[Joel 3:15] The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

Here is the same event is the New Testament:

[Matthew 24:29] Immediately AFTER the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

[Mark 13:24-25] But in those days, AFTER that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

[Luke 21:25-26] There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Putting it together, we have that this landmark cosmic event happens:

Therefore, the events can only happen in this order: the tribulation ← the cosmic event ← the day of the Lord

Therefore, the day of the Lord is not part of the tribulation.

The sixth seal

The same cosmic event is also found in the Book of Revelation.

[Revelation 6:12-17] When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Here, the great day of their wrath is obviously the day of the Lord.

Therefore, the order is: opening of the sixth seal ← the cosmic event ← the day of the Lord.

Note how similar the above verses are to these:

[Isaiah 34:2-8] For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter. … All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree. … For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

It is therefore quite clear that the day of the Lord immediately follows the landmark cosmic event, which immediately follows the great tribulation (Matt 24:29, Mark 13:24-25).

The Rapture in Revelation

The Book of Revelation contains a clear description of the rapture, followed by the destruction of the wicked.

This is the rapture:

[Revelation 14:15-17] Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.

And this is the day of the Lord, immediately after the rapture:

[Revelation 14:18-20] And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia.

Conclusion

The only conclusion that can be drawn is that the tribulation and the day of the Lord are not the same and don’t overlap.

Putting together the puzzle pieces we have so far, the resulting sequence of end-times events is:

The rapture happens after the great tribulation, but before the day of the Lord. I’s before this final outpouring of wrath that the church will be raptured, not before the tribulation.