The Day of the Lord

PART ONE

TRIBULATION

CHAPTER I

TRIBULATION SAINTS

Revelation 6:12-17: "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondsman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"

Revelation 7:9-14 "After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, Amen; Blessing and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever, Amen.

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

A week after returning from Richmond, John and Ellen Bailey walked out of the house at 8:00 a.m. holding hands, to take a stroll around the front yard. They often did this early in the morning just for the pleasure of quiet time in each other’s company.

Helen asked, John, what’s different? Look at the sky. Look at the billowing white clouds. Look at the sun and the surrounding atmosphere. It’s absolutely beautiful! It’s surreal!

John remarked, Helen, wait right here. I’m going to get the rest of the family out here so they can enjoy the view.

Soon, John had the rest of the family out in the yard to enjoy the scene. Looking to the east, they could see a dove sitting on top of a statue of Jesus Christ in the Breton Memorial cemetery.

The earth began to tremble. The trembling soon became a shake. As the shaking increased, a rumbling noise could be heard and increasing as the shaking increased.

Ruth pointed to the west. The moon is turning red.

Jesse exclaimed. Look at the sun. It is getting dark and it seems twilight is coming back!

As they watched, the moon became more blood red and the sun became darker and darker. The quaking of the earth became more violent. Terror began to steal upon them.

John spoke loudly to be heard above the increasing noise. Let’s all get in a circle and hold hands and pray. John prayed and gave thanks to God for the glory of God, the providence of God, and God’s love for all his family, and for sending Jesus Christ down to be their savior, and for saving them all from the horrors that had come upon the earth in the past few months.

They all stood in a circle, holding hands, with heads bowed. John told them, Look up and watch for Jesus! They all looked up.

Suddenly, Jesus Christ appeared in the billowing clouds in all His glory. The sky lit up in Shekinah Glory. All the surrounding earth stood out in brilliant relief.

The blood red moon and the black sun could still be seen, but had no effect on the surrounding light. The quaking and the noise subsided.

As they stood, holding hands and looking up, they heard the trumpet pealing out. They saw Jesus Christ coming down from the clouds closer to the earth in power and great glory! Looking to the east, they saw hundreds of transformed bodies rising from the graves and ascending into the sky in the twinkling of an eye.

They immediately felt the change as their bodies transformed from corruptible to incorruptible, and they rose in the twinkling of an eye and met Jesus Christ in the air!

Tim had been holding hands with the rest of the family as they stood in a circle. He saw the billowing clouds, the red moon, and the darkened sun. He saw an image of a person in the clouds; he heard mutterings as of someone speaking.

Suddenly, Tim stood alone in his front yard and all of his family had disappeared. He was absolutely terrified. He looked about frantically for his family. They were not to be seen. Trixie, standing at Tim’s side, looked up at him and whimpered. The sky again darkened, and the red moon shone eerily as the sun became darker. The earth began to shake more violently, and cracking and rumbling noises became louder.

Tim suddenly realized what had happened. He had missed the mark. He had not surrendered his heart and life to the Lord; had never been born again, and as a result, had missed heaven. Tim immediately fell to his knees in full repentance, petitioned God for mercy and salvation, and became one of the first of the Tribulation Saints who would occupy the earth during the remainder of the tribulation and beyond, if he survived.

There was great rejoicing in heaven as Tim was born again!

Tim had mixed feelings. He missed his family, but at the same time, he rejoiced, knowing they were in heaven. He also rejoiced that he had surrendered his life to God and would someday join his family in heaven. As all these thoughts and emotions coursed through his mind and body, he also experienced the rising tumult of the earth around him. Tim had no way of knowing it, but the shaking of the earth and the upheaval in the sun, the moon, and the stars, encompassed the entire earth. The terrifying shaking, booming, and cracking noises, darkness, and flashings across the sky, would have been overwhelming if not for the fact that he knew he was now a child of God and totally within His care.

Old fault lines, which had lain dormant for centuries, suddenly began to crack and open up. South of Tim, the fault line that ran from Western Kentucky, through Eastern Kentucky, and into West Virginia, cracked and opened in several places. In Powell County, the fault line opened a gaping slash just north of Furnace, on Furnace Mountain. A significant split continued, passing just south of Natural Bridge State Park, and on across the Red River Gorge, crossing Swift’s Camp Creek just south of Rock Bridge.

The New Madrid fault line affecting Tennessee, Missouri, and six or seven other states including Kentucky, became intensely active resulting in massive upheavals, trembling, and shaking the hills and mountains, all of which directly affected the earth around Tim.

Along the Pacific coast, the San Andreas Fault began mighty upheavals causing a section of the west coast, beginning at San Francisco and moving north, to slide away and disappear into the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Mount Saint Helens exploded and spewed smoke, ashes and lava; more intense than the 1980 eruption.

Alaska, which normally felt more than ten thousand earthquakes annually, suddenly quaked and shook almost continually, with several massive upheavals taking place. Dozens of the more than 100 volcanoes became active. The Pavlov volcano which had erupted in 2016, suddenly spewed forth lava and ashes, obscuring the skies for hundreds of square miles.

The opening of old fault lines was occurring all around the world; and in some cases, opened cracks to great depths, allowing lava to spill forth.

The caldera under Yellowstone National Park became active, and spewed forth from several areas besides the existing geysers and pools. A full eruption would be catastrophic.

Volcanic eruptions around the world threatened to pollute the atmosphere to the point of bringing on another artificial winter.

Truly, nothing of this magnitude had occurred since the outpouring of God’s wrath at the time of the flood. Mankind trembled and quaked, as the earth trembled and quaked. Many people died from fear and quaking and failing hearts. Mankind finally acknowledged, Truly, this is the Wrath of God!

Alone, and scared by all the events happening around him, Tim prayed to God for strength and courage to see him through it all.

Night would soon be coming on and Tim was afraid to stay in the house because of the earthquakes and upheavals. He went inside and quickly collected bedding and some food and water. Trixie kept at Tim’s heels as he carried the bedding and other materials to his campsite in the middle of the yard. He was afraid to camp under the trees for some of them were still whipping and swaying in an alarming way. Tim slept little that night.

Throughout the world, entire mountain chains were going through upheaval with rocks breaking away and tumbling down the mountainsides. Mountains and caves were not a good place to hide as caves collapsed and rocks rolled and bounded and crashed against other rocks. After twenty-four hours, the turmoil in the heavenly elements began to subside, and, consequently, the earthquakes, roaring, rumbling, and shaking, became less frequent and less intense.

Although still apprehensive and stressed, Tim began to breathe easier. As a relative degree of calmness returned, he began giving thought to returning to the house. However, waves of tremors and shaking continued on through the day and into the night. Although the activities were less severe, Tim decided to stay outside one more night.

By mid afternoon of the second day, Tim made the decision and moved back into the house. Although still tired and still stressed from all the nerve wracking experiences of the last three days, he first sought out his father’s Bible. He thought, Never again will I be so careless and thoughtless to the teachings of God’s word.

The people of the earth were beginning to figure things out. Perhaps they could explain away all the wars, starvation, pestilence and persecution of Christians as either man-made or nature related, or something else explainable. However, they had to face the reality that what was now happening was the pure, unadulterated wrath of the Almighty God!

All over the world, millions of people who were almost persuaded when the Holy Spirit of God had wooed their spirit in times past, suddenly were again convicted of their rebellion and sins against God and their rejection of Jesus Christ as savior.

During and immediately after the cataclysmic events which occurred after the opening of the sixth seal, millions of those convicted souls surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and to God the Father. Millions joined the growing number of the Tribulation Saints. Sadly, many millions more who came under conviction still rejected the wooing and drawing of the Holy Spirit.

Sadly, millions more, who would have been saved if they had lived through the events of the past two or three years, lost their lives to the nuclear war, starvation, and pestilence, and the upheavals of the past two days. SAD! So many were lost and gone to hell because they waited too long.

Tim, restless, wandered aimlessly around the house, and then went into the shelter and looked around. Finding nothing of great interest, he went back to the house and began working with the radios to see if he could get them to function and find out anything. Finally, he gave up on that and just sat down and stopped.

I need to pull myself together and do some planning, he thought. He dug out a sheet of paper and a pen and began jotting down notes: (1) Try to get some of the radios to work and see what’s happening in the rest of the world. (2) Check on food and water supplies and think about survival needs. (3) Do some long range planning. Stay here? Go to Richmond? Go to Cave City? Go to the Mercers? Go someplace else?

Tim finally got the radios powered up and spent about an hour tuning the receivers to different frequencies but never picked up any meaningful transmissions. Some of them were intelligible but were mostly meaningless chatter. Some of them were in foreign languages and un-intelligible to him.

Tim finally gave up on the radios for the time being and went back outside and started checking the two vehicles in the driveway. Neither had a key left in them. He went back inside the house and searched, but didn’t find them. Tim then went to the vicinity where the family had disappeared. He found the two sets of keys in the trouser pockets of Bob and his dad. Tim gathered up all the family’s clothing and took them in the house.

Tim went back outside and opened the door of his dad’s pickup for Trixie to jump in. He got settled in the driver’s seat, placed the key in the ignition, and then started the truck. It seemed to run just fine. The gas tank registered three fourths full. He drove the truck down the lane, turned onto the road, and drove two miles toward Breton. He turned the truck around and then drove back home. Getting out of the truck, Tim began looking around and finally found six five gallon gas cans. All of them were full.

Seeing that his immediate need for transportation was available, Tim decided to see if he could locate the Mercers. He had no way of knowing if they had been raptured or not. However, in thinking back, he didn’t recall any conversations pertaining to church or any other subjects related to Christianity when they had visited the Mercers a few months ago. Tim’s impression of the family was that they were very nice people, but he had no way of knowing if they had been Christian or not. He pondered the rest of that day on just what to do next.

As Tim spent more time reflecting on the trip he and his brothers had made, he began to get more excited as he recalled his interaction with Pamela, Alvin and Paula Mercer’s daughter. The decision then became easy. He would visit the Mercers!

Over the next few hours, he collected food, cans of gasoline, clothing, a rifle, a pistol, extra ammunition, and everything else he thought he might need for the trip. He also took the Geiger counter. Tim was limited in what he could take, and knew that if he decided to move permanently, he would need to come back and salvage what he could. He took his father’s Bible, a few pictures and other family items, that were precious to his memories, in the event he never came back.

Finally, with everything packed, he secured the shelter, disguised the entrance, and then went to spend the night in the house. Trixie had followed Tim faithfully throughout the day sensing something unusual was about to happen. Trixie had been an outside dog, but tonight she was invited in and curled up on the carpet at the foot of Tim’s bed.

The trip from home to the top of Morris Mountain was uneventful, although somewhat spooky. The lack of human or animal life except for insects, occasional segments of broken pavement, accumulations of trash along roadways, and occasional animal skeletons was enough to give a person the creeps. The loneliness was overwhelming.

Tim stopped off in Stanton and looked around. The town was deathly still and silent. He drove around the court house square and then up Maple street. At one place to the left, there was an abandoned pizza place. Across the street from it was a bare lot where a house and old garage once sat. It formerly had a nice looking paw paw tree on the corner, which was now missing.

Trixie stood on the seat with forepaws on the dash most of the trip. Tim was glad to have Trixie with him on the otherwise dismal journey.

Finally, after wending and winding, and sometimes backtracking to get around obstacles, they arrived at the top of Morris Mountain. After parking in the most secluded place he could find, Tim dismounted and began collecting food, water, the rifle, and other items, needed for the trip to the cave. Come on Trixie, let’s go.

Trixie trotted on ahead, seeming to know the way. They weren’t challenged until they were quite close to the cave system. Halt!

Tim replied, It’s me, Tim Bailey. Are you one of the Mercers?

Yes it is, James replied. Come on over.

Tim walked down the trail until he met up with James. He laid the rifle down and then shook his hand.

James asked, What brings you up here Tim?

Tim replied, My family all disappeared at the time of all the earthquakes and the other things going on in the sky with the moon and the sun. I’m sure that they were taken up to heaven by the Lord and I was left down here all by myself.

We lost two of our family the same way, James replied. I’m sure it was what they called the rapture, where Jesus came down from the sky to take all Christians to heaven. Some of us just weren’t ready at the time.

James continued, Come on and let’s go on down to our home and meet the rest of the family. I’m sure they’ll all like to see you and get some information from the rest of the world.

They wended their way down the trail and shortly arrived at the entrance to the cave system. Tim spoke up, James, Trixie is an outside dog and I wonder if there’s somewhere she can stay?

James replied, Sure thing, Tim. We’ll fix her a bed in our wood shed for the time being. They took Trixie over to the shed and got her settled in.

James led Tim over to the cave entrance. They worked their way on back through the different passages and entered the living area.

Tim, things have changed quite a bit since you were here last. Alvin, Rhonda and their family don’t live here anymore. They moved into a farm house about a mile from here down close to a creek. My family is staying here in the caves so we can protect it and also have it available if we need to take shelter again. I have a detection system set up so we can monitor all the trails coming in and we don’t have to stay out there on guard all the time.

James continued, We had a pretty scary time during all the earthquakes. Part of our cave system collapsed. Fortunately, it wasn’t in the living area.

James asked Tim, What can you tell us about what’s going on in the rest of the world?

Tim replied, Practically nothing. I had absolutely no contact except with family and with the few people at Cave City and Richmond. After the family left, I tried to get information from the radios but really didn’t learn anything. Whatever you can tell will be that much more than I know.

I’ll fill you in as much as I can, James replied. "We still have radio contact with several sources in this country and around the world. There’s a station in Switzerland that seems to have some pretty reliable sources. They give out what seems to be the most accurate and believable information. We’re also able to pick up broadcasts from a few news stations in this country. How much of the information is factual and true is anybody’s guess.

"From sorting through all the reports, it seems the United States suffered by far, the greatest damage from the nuclear war than any other nation on earth. When push came to shove, all the hype and bluster from our government about rebuilding our military, renovating and increasing our nuclear capability, and becoming again the most fearsome nation on the face of the earth was just that, hype and bluster. Although we had one president who really tried and had significant success, he couldn’t overcome the decades of decline and decay of the nation militarily, morally and materially, since Reagan.

"We have had reports of