The “great and terrible day of the Lord” is a very misunderstood event. Sometimes called the “the day of Jesus Christ” and usually associated with the Great Tribulation, many believe it will be the end of our current world system because God will judge the wicked with great devastation before Christ reigns for a thousand years. One website in the top three spots on Google’s SERPS states that the day of the Lord will begin with the rapture, continue with a seven-year tribulation and thousand-year reign of Christ, and finally end with a new heaven and a new earth. That pretty much sums up most of the sermons on this subject.
Fortunately, this is not the Biblical meaning of the great and terrible day of the Lord. There is a much better alternative from esoteric literature that not only makes more sense, but has far better consequences. So what is it?
Put simply, the day of the Lord is the death of the lower personality. I use the term “lower” because the personality which we experience in one life-time is not who we really are as a soul. The lower personality is transient. It is a necessary means to an end, and that end is the evolution of the soul.
The Real Purpose of the Lower Personality
People on the spiritual path need to understand the purpose of the lower personality. J. Allan Danelek explains this wonderfully in his book, The Case for Reincarnation: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Soul:
“Without a manifest personality, the soul is unable to interact with the world, for the physical plane of existence is foreign to it. In a way, then, the personality is like a diving suit that permits the swimmer to descend deep beneath the water without being crushed or drowned, a feat that would be impossible without such a device. In effect, the soul simply can’t manifest itself on our plane of existence without an “ego suit” within which to roam about” (p. 62).
One of the problems with Biblical literalists is that they really don’t understand the nature of the soul. Many make the assumption that who they are in this lifetime is who they are going to be throughout eternity. In other words, their current sense of “I” is the real them. They also assume that this same “I” that they currently experience is the same “I” that they will experience in a heavenly type of existence. This has never been Biblical. The soul is much bigger than that. The soul could never express all of its manifest potential in one lifetime. In fact, the soul could never express all of its manifest potential in the linear space-time continuum (our currently physical world reality).
One lifetime is but a glimpse of the soul’s true nature. It is the personality of one lifetime that reflects just a glimpse of the soul. Danelek puts it like this:
“What is important to recognize is that the soul empowers the personality, and the personality then becomes a reflection of the soul that is animating it” (p. 63).
While Danelek explanation hits the spot, it should be remembered that the reflection (personality) is but a small portion of the soul’s overall potential. The higher soul is a much, much bigger conglomeration of who you are than you could ever imagine. In fact if you were suddenly aware of all of it at once in your limited physical brain right now, it would probably overwhelm you, causing more harm than good. That is why we step into the fullness of the soul’s many facets over many lifetimes through personal spiritual and conscious development.
The Lower personality and the higher spiritual ego
The lower personality is the ego manifested right here and now in the physical plane, and, as we have already discussed, it’s the part of us that is the thinking “I.” This “I” that I am speaking exists because of all the memories you have built up in this life. Memories make up who you are. Think about it; if your memory currently disappeared, who would you be? Do you really think an omnipotent and omniscient God determined who you are as a soul based on the memories of one lifetime? Such limited religious thinking is what fueled the ignorance of the Dark Ages!
The current “I” that you think yourself to be right now is transitory. Upon the death of your physical, emotional, and lower mental bodies, that “I” that you were through your life experiences is extinguished. Don’t let that scare you; the spiritual ego, a potential conglomeration of all the soul qualities you have developed over many lifetimes cannot be extinguished. So yes, a part of you will live on after physical death. The part of you that is extinguished is only a very limited aspect of you. It should also comfort you that for most of us, the many experiences that you are having in your present earth-life will be downloaded into the higher aspect of you (causal body) continuing to evolve and grow your spiritual ego for future incarnations. That is what I mean by your spiritual ego. It is spirit-minded man inside all of us keeps evolving over every incarnation.
Both Great and Terrible
You may have noticed that the language of the Bible states the day of the Lord is both great and terrible. The terrible side of it has nothing to do with an eternal punishment. The day is seemingly terrible for the individual soul who has consciously advanced to the point of Christ consciousness, where the lower personality is merged with the higher and therefore it becomes completely extinguished, never to be manifested again. The egoic “I” which has continually manifested for many lifetimes is suddenly expunged. This would seem terrible (like a serious judgment) because the ego, or separate sense of “I,” is afraid of losing itself in the vastness of the soul. The lower ego wants to keep gratifying its own selfish desires, but in the end, it must relinquish its sense of separateness and be joined with the higher nature.
People who often experience a sudden awakening or enlightenment often go through the terrible Day of Judgment that is described in the book of Revelation. They can experience what would seem to be lightning, thunders, and voices of immense proportions inside their heads as a rush of kundalini burst through the crown chakra.
It is these experience that are actually giving many preachers all the doom and gloom judgment talk that is supposed to happen in the great tribulation and return of Christ, but these grand religious experiences happen within the consciousness of the individual. It has always been this way and it always will be.
At the same time this day is also great because it is the Lord’s Day, a day when the lower and higher natures of the soul are finally joined in divine union, or the “Divine Marriage” as it is sometimes called. It is a day of rejoicing and salvation through the Logos, the divine that is within us. It is the culmination of many lifetimes of experience that has finally resulted in the egoic “I” realizing its true nature; that it is not alone in this vast cosmos of existence, but rather it is a part and parcel of that which we call God.
Where’s the scriptural proof in all this?
Let’s look at an important scripture to support what we have discussed.
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (Mal. 4:5-6).
The key to truly understanding this verse is knowing what Elijah the prophet and what children symbolize in scripture. Children are emphasized by Jesus as those who are able to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus tells us all:
“…except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3).
In scripture children symbolize the higher emotional nature through which comes the godly principle of wisdom.
Elijah the prophet symbolizes the same thing. The higher emotional nature is the forerunner to Christ consciousness. That is why Malachi 4:-5 states that the Lord will first send Elijah the prophet before the terrible day of the Lord (divine union that takes place wherein the lower personality is extinguished as it merges with the higher).
Elijah isn’t literally going to come back. Like John the Baptist, he is symbol and forerunner of Christ consciousness. That is why both Elijah and John must come back and prepare the way for Christ. It all happens within the individual.
Closing thoughts
The great and terrible day of the Lord isn’t about the physical doom and gloom we hear preached about from pulpits on Sunday. It is about something that happens within you.
As I often point out on this website, Jesus said the kingdom of God is within you. If the kingdom of God is not an external event, then why would the great and terrible day of the Lord be?
Blessings!
Hi Joshua,
Terrible is only one of the translations of the Hebrew word nora; the other one is awesome. You can see the link with terrible: awful, which however also can be seen as full of awe. Both fit completely with the word great, much better than terrible. In the same way is often the word fear used where awe might be more applicable. Somehow I remember that as a child I still understood (I do not know how) that awe was meant where fear of God was mentioned.
People should never forget that when they read the Bible in translation, they always get the interpretation of the person(s) who translated the text and as someone who has worked on translations of the Bible myself, I know how difficult it is to give exactly the same meaning as in the original text. So often you tend to include your own views/doctrine into the text, which might or might not be what the original text says at all.
Nora contains the word nur, which means fire, and that of course also points to enthusiasm and the rising of the kundalini but also to purification. From the opposite perspective this word can also be frightening of course.
The original Greek as written by Paul under the Holy Ghost was not of private interpretation!!! The literal Word is not understood by those who have not experienced its power unto salvation. So they like to create doctrines and theories. This site appears New Age. You can’t take anything of repute from it.
Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an very long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t show
up. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Regardless,
just wanted to say excellent blog!
I just accidentally got on your site a few days ago and I pray you will humbly pray to the spirit for guidance on truth. For most of my life I did not believe in the literal interpretation of the bible because my human intellect couldn’t make sense of it. I always loved jesus and knew he was my savior but I could not believe fundamental Christianity. I am only commenting because I feel urged to. I still believe in the esoteric interpretations also but they were not lining up what my common sense and understanding of human nature was showing me. I got tired of my own intellect I thought I had because it still didn’tanswer what I saw transpiring in the world. So I prayed for truth again and the literal story of the bible in 2006 became alive for me. You are all in a body , on a computer, going to a job, etc, The story God created for us is thte world we live in now and it has a 6000 year time span from the first adam to the return of Christ. God’s thoughts are above our thoughts. Yes, he created this manifestation and the spiritual backstory that also exists, the one you identify with.. But the physical, like a movie or video game, you are in it. You are a character. God has a great plan and purpose for it. As I understood the bible and realized the literal history I was reading I also realized history is still being made and Jesus said if you truly know him you will recognize the signs of his coming. Bible prophecy is literally being fulfilled quickly. Only the holy spirit can reveal this to someone or lead them to a place that can fill in the gaps. Then a person must understand world events and have a teachable attitude that helps. For many the lifting of the veil isn’t meant to happen till God calls. We don’t choose, the father does. But for anyone interested the Philadelphia church of God has a book called Mystery of the ages by Herbert Armstrong written 20 years ago and many other booklets about prophecy, etc. Big things are getting ready to happen, it is between the individual and the holy spirit though. God Bless. Love is always the answer so I pray for everyone. I know the Lord will guide and advise as you each pursue the truth in a humble open minded way.
Dee,
I appreciate your sincerity. However, for me, the opposite experience unfolded. I began believing in the literal history, but the older I got I realized it didn’t line up with the world or reality around me. Not just my intellect, but my soul yearned for something deeper and more true. It’s ironic, but the truth for me was found in realizing the myth. Of course that truth is still a journey of discovery, and I admit that I have a looong way to go.
The greatest problem with mankind is the tendency for people to think they have God and his Kingdom all figured out.
Nothing about God, his faithful Son Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or anything about the Kingdom of God can be figured out by the human mind. It is by revelation of God only. God’s assurance is this. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” James 1:5
But no one in this life will ever know what Heaven is going to be like. What could state it more profoundly that this? “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” I Corinthians, in referring to Isaiah 64:4
I imagine there have been uncountable books written by people as to what Heaven will be like, and isn’t it all foolishness? Our concerns are to be with the things of this world, where there are people dying every day who have never repented and been saved! How can anyone grasp the words “great and fearful day of the Lord meaning anythings other than what their literal interpretation suggest? Jesus Christ’s return is going to be a great day for the redeemed, but for those who have refused Christ what word could better describe such day than “fearful”? Matthew 13:41-43 allows no other interpretation.
“41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
I used to believe as you do, until I had an encounter with the Living God and the truth of hell (where I was headed), and it was terrifying. I learned what it meant to fear God.
“But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,”
— 1 Timothy 4:1-2
“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”
— 2 Timothy 4:1-4
I urge you to repent. God’s words lead to repentance. Our words are vanity. May you encounter the Living God, and receive His correction unto repentance and salvation. May He deliver you from this rebellion and the lies it propagates. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and leads to witchcraft (Kundalini spirit – demons). What you are teaching is from the pits of hell. Repent (turn). (Re)turn to God, and He will turn to you.
“As for the prophets:
My heart is broken within me,
All my bones tremble;
I have become like a drunken man,
Even like a man overcome with wine,
Because of the Lord
And because of His holy words.
For the land is full of adulterers;
For the land mourns because of the curse.
The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.
Their course also is evil
And their might is not right.
“For both prophet and priest are polluted;
Even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the Lord.
“Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them,
They will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it;
For I will bring calamity upon them,
The year of their punishment,” declares the Lord.”
— Jeremiah 23:9-12
“Thus says the Lord of hosts,
“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you.
They are leading you into futility;
They speak a vision of their own imagination,
Not from the mouth of the Lord.
“They keep saying to those who despise Me,
‘The Lord has said, “You will have peace”’;
And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart,
They say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’
“But who has stood in the council of the Lord,
That he should see and hear His word?
Who has given heed to His word and listened?
“Behold, the storm of the Lord has gone forth in wrath,
Even a whirling tempest;
It will swirl down on the head of the wicked.
“The anger of the Lord will not turn back
Until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart;
In the last days you will clearly understand it.
“I did not send these prophets,
But they ran.
I did not speak to them,
But they prophesied.
“But if they had stood in My council,
Then they would have announced My words to My people,
And would have turned them back from their evil way
And from the evil of their deeds.”
— Jeremiah 23:16-22
“I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’ How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart, who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?”
— Jeremiah 23:25-27
“Is not My word like fire?” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock? Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who steal My words from each other. Behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who use their tongues and declare, ‘The Lord declares.’ Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams,” declares the Lord, “and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit,” declares the Lord.”
— Jeremiah 23:29-32
Thank you for presenting the Word of God. The Lord God has made His plans plain.
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” – 2 Timothy 4:3
belokurs…
Thanks for your comment. Refer to my reply to Lisa. Blessings.
Josh
Lisa…
I sincerely thank you for taking the time to comment. Sorry for the late reply.
I understand your heart is in completely the right place, and in this reply I mean nothing against you and am glad that you feel the need to step up to what you feel is right. But I am going to have to comment on this one and do the same. I hope we can see the mutual respect in each of us.
The word of God, as you used in your reply above, is not the words in the pages we call the Bible. Let me repeat. The Bible is not the word of God. The Word / Logos is Christ. The same Christ who as the divine sacrifice was crucified since the foundation of the world, meaning literally that Christ involved himself in manifested creation, including you. That’s why the Bible says man is without excuse as His word it written in the heavens, nature. There is not anything made, that was not made through Christ, including what you consider to be hell itself. There is good reason why God created both evil and good, which the length of this reply limits getting into. But…
We are told that the Bible is a parable, dark saying, allegory (psalm 78:2, gal. 4:24). In other words, the Bible is a book of coded symbols (dark sayings) that lead us to the truth or the kingdom of heaven, and that kingdom is within you! What does it mean to be within you? Think.
The Pharisees did the same thing. They berated Jesus because Jesus wasn’t repenting in the way they thought lined up with the literal words of the Torah. Jesus then tried to explain to them that the very word they read literally each and every day, that they thought they found life in, was actually that which pointed to the inner Chris that is the foundation of every manifested aspect of creation. The problem is their minds were blinded by the very word that they read in which they thought they had the truth in. The letter of the law (literal interpretation) kills, but the spirit beneath the literal word, gives life. Paul is expressing the wisdom he received in the conscious revelation experienced on the road to Damascus. And he turned from a pharisee mindset to a spiritual mindset. The Pharisees cried out for Jesus to repent because they stated he broke the law, but they refused to acknowledge (like the literal mindset trapped in it’s own blinders) that the law is a spiritual roadmap that reveals Christ underneath it all.
The temple of the Holy Ghost is you. God does not, and has not, ever dwelt in a temple made with hands – so what does it mean that God’s glory filled the literal temples. These are symbols for the temple that is your body, and Christ must be realized in the flesh. Great is he that is IN YOU. The fact that anyone can read the literal words on a page and think that the literal interpretations somehow impart life because of a particular way of believing or thinking is called dogmatism, which leads to strife and division when someone else has a different dogmatism or belief. However, when one seeks the Kingdom of God first, which is within you, the truth of Christ far supercedes any belief or mindset of dogmas and doctrines your mind imprisons you in. Paul stated the mind must be renewed (of it’s dogmatism and doctrine, pharisee mindset) and be transformed into the spiritual mind. Every story, place, and character in the Bible speaks to an aspect of that which is within you. There is nothing wrong with a literal mindset unless you stop there, and even refuse to accept where the literal words present a contradiction: such as God’s mercy endures forever but he will stick you in an eternal hell. People are being robed of life because of the doctrine and dogmatism they are stuck in through a literal interpretation of the Bible only.
You admitted yourself in the beginning of your comment that you came to God because of the terrifying nature of hell. So your decision to turn to God was out of fear of torment. The scripture you are probably thinking of now, to fear God is the beginning of wisdom, has nothing to do with fear, because God does not give us the spirit of fear, but of a sound mind and peace. Fear is the opposite of God. Fearing God means respect and awe, curiosity and longing of something greater than our lower natures, which is at enmity with God, which is found by going within to the still small voice that produces peace of mind.
I am not trying to change your beliefs. But I do encourage you to question the literal interpretation of a spiritual book. The natural mind cannot understand the things of God, because they are foolishness to him. I am going to leave you with something to think about:
The same Hebrew word for serpent, (nachash) that tempted Eve to sin in the garden is the same serpent (nachash) that God told Moses to make of brass and put atop a pole. And all the Israelites who gazed upon the lifted up serpent were healed. Now don’t you find that a bit odd? Strange? Foolish? Of course, literally it is. But when you understand the coded symbols, the spiritual meaning, the meaning becomes plain and imparts an understanding leading to spiritual life. The Hebrew word for messiah also has the same numerical value of serpent. These are things you can verify for yourself.
Jesus was crucified at Golgotha (place of the skull) because everything happens inside your skull, the mind. Doctrines of demons happen there, too.
I mean all this to you in love, not for the sake of argument or strife. I appreciate you even to take the time to comment, and as I said before, stand up for what you believe in. That’s a start. And listen…I don’t claim to know everything, and I also make mistakes in my interpretations. Everyone will. I humbly admit that to you. And I hope my reply here doesn’t agitate negative emotion, but rather something greater.
Blessings,
Josh
The natural man is spiritually discerned. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the WORD OF GOD. The Word is indeed literal. You can with the intelligence that God gives you through his grace and Holy Spirit understand the literal, as well as take the spiritual that comes with it. Without the literal, you will never have the spiritual. Did Adam exist literally? Did Christ exist on earth literally? Man spiritualizes what they don’t understand literally, because the Word is foolishness to him. That is why the Church spiritualized things from the early centries to modern times, because they could not in their natural mind understand how the promises of God could now come to be witout a literal nation of Israel in their homeland (by way of one example). Since 1948 that has changed. But most of fake Christendom still holds to the spiritualization of the Word. The Church to them now replaces Israel in their foolish minds, the imaginations they have built up. You can tell what scripture is to be taken spiritually, and indeed much can be take both literally and spiritually, or with typology or multiple prophetic events. It is so deep and no man will ever master it. The beginning of wisdom is indeed fear of the Lord…………….. You are unsaved at this time (so you miss the point). Once saved, then you should no longer have the spirit of fear. But before that, you should fear and fear greatly once you recognize the sinner that you are.
Sir with all due respect you are deceived. The Day of the Lord is a Day of doom as the Wrath of God is unleashed on an unbelieving world that has rejected the Gospel Of Jesus Christ. No where in all of Scripture is your interpretation “Lower Personality” found there is no greater Low then the sin we are already in.