The Day of the Lord, Matthew 24:29-31
Open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 24, and specifically
today were going to look at two verses we looked at last time, but embedded in
those verses is a an allusion to a really interesting set of circumstances,
most frequently associated with what the Bible refers to as the day of the
Lord. This passage doesn't use the term "the day of the Lord", so
someone may ask: Why are we talking about the day of the Lord? Well, when we
look at verse 29 we see that it talks about the circumstances passages in the
Old Testament use to talk about the day of the Lord. Also, it's important
theologically in the interpretation of this passage. Even among futurists, that
is, those who interpret Matthew 24 and 25 in terms of future events, those who
interpret the Scriptures literally, that these things will specifically and
literally take place in the future, and that literal interpretation basically
means to interpret Scripture in light of the normal use of language, even among
those who are dispensationalists and are consistent traditional dispensational
us in their understanding of Scripture, there are differences of interpretation
on different elements of this section.
Basically, when we look at Matthew 24 we can divide it into two
sections. First section is verses one through 31, which nearly everybody agrees
has to do with the Tribulation period. Now there may be differences in how they
understand and break down verses four through eight and nine through 14, but
everyone agrees that once you get to 15 you're talking about the midpoint of
the Tribulation, and there's a description there of what happens up to its
culmination in the Second Coming. The coming of the Son of Man that's described
in verses 29 to 31 is the Second Coming.
Then there is a break that occurs in verse 32. There is the
parable of the fig tree in verses 32 to 35, and then there's a statement in
verse 36. Now pay attention to this. This is sort of a preview of coming
attractions to understand what is coming up.
We need to step back a minute and just review what the Bible says
about the day of the Lord. This is really germane to some of the distinctions
that are made, or different interpretations that are made by some people you
may have heard. I don't know. "But of that day and hour no one
knows". As I read in Isaiah 2 this morning, several times Isaiah says
"of that day," which is usually a reference to the day of the Lord.
But the day of the Lord needs to be specifically stated within the context.
That's one thing that I think it is important.
There are those such as Dr. Robert Thomas, who spoke here on
hermeneutics several years ago at the Chafer Conference and is a brilliant man,
takes an unusual view connecting this to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and argues
that when it says, "but of that day and hour no one knows", it is
talking about the day of the Lord. Well, if that's talking about the day of the
Lord, then it's talking about, as he concludes, that whole seven-year period of
the Tribulation.
But is the day of the Lord to be understood to be the referent
here? I think not. I've been working my way through this because for years I
have heard a minority of Pre-trib dispensationalists
who take verses 36 down through 44 as talking about the Rapture. And I am bound
and determined to get to the bottom of these arguments: what this distinction
is and why a minority of dispensationalists take that
view.
Of those who take that view that when you have two men in the
field, one taken and the other left, that the one taken is taken in the Rapture
and the one left is left to go through the Tribulation, there is another group
that comes along and says that since the church is now introduced into Matthew
24, into the Olivet discourse, these parables of the faithful and evil servant
at the end of chapter 24, of the wise and foolish virgins at the beginning of
chapter 25, and of the parable of the talents, are all talking about Christians
at the judgment seat of Christ. That has become a dominant view through many
who are associated with the Grace Evangelical society. So if you get their
letter you will notice that they really have taught that a lot. I don't think
they're right. I think they are violating some serious hermeneutical rules, not
to mention the context of Matthew.
But it's also predicated upon this view, as I said they are
influenced by the Dr. Thomas's view, that "of that day and hour"
refers to the day of the Lord. What is interesting is that Thomas does not
believe the raptures in this passage, so they've taken it a step further. But
that's really important, there is a lot of confusion over this and if you've
read any of their writings you will see that. So we have to understand that.
I have addressed the day of the Lord in more much more detail and
some other some of the lessons in Revelation specifically 2:18,19, 2:22 as well
as some other places.
I want to address three questions: What is the connection in
Matthew 24:29-31 with the day of the Lord. How do we establish that? And
secondly, we need to address the question, what is the day of the Lord? Third,
what is learned from these key passages?
First question. What's the connection? Matthew 24:29-31, not with
the previous context but with the day of the Lord. Let's read them.
Matthew 24:29, 30 NASB ÒBut
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 the
sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
And then the sign of the Son of Man
will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and
they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON
THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with
power and great glory."
We see that the end of verse 30 is
clearly talking about Jesus coming to take His kingdom. We see that title for
Jesus, "Son of Man". That comes out of Daniel chapter seven where the
Son of Man comes before the Ancient of Days [God the Father] to receive
kingdom, and then He will come to the earth and will establish His kingdom.
This happens at the end of Daniel's seventieth week, which we refer to as the
Tribulation. This tells us we are talking about the Second Coming, not the
Rapture.
We're talking about the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven
at the Second Coming. There is a progression here. We see verse 29 says,
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days". We have seen
that in this previous section there is an reference to
the fact that there will be of great tribulation or great adversity. I do not
believe that the technical term for the second half, it's just that we go from
one level of adversity in the first half to a ramped up increased level of
adversity in the second half. The second half of the tribulation is the worst
stage in all of human history, and several places including Daniel chapter 12
and Matthew 24:21 say that there will be great adversity.
I like using that word adversity because it's not really using
this as a technical term. We we've adopted that as the title for Daniel's 70th
week, but Daniel's 70th week or the time of Jacob's wrath are actually better
scriptural titles for that. We have tribulation or adversity all through our
lives but this will be the most intense, such as has "not been since the
beginning of the world until this time, nor shall ever be", verse 21.
Immediately after that that tells us is that in the final, final
days of the of Daniel's 70th week something will happen. There will be specific
cosmic disturbances, astronomical disturbances in the heavens and on the earth,
and the sun will be darkened. That means the sun will go black, the moon will
not give its light. Well, the moon reflects the sun so if the sun's dark, the
moon going to be dark. The stars will fall from heaven. I don't think this is
metaphor. I think this is talking about some sort of the meteor shower or
something of that nature. The stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of
the heavens will be shaken. We will see in other places that the earth is
shaken. There are a number of earthquakes, massive worldwide shaking, that takes
place during the Tribulation. Not like any earthquake we've ever experienced
before. So there's the intensified stage of Daniel's 70th week of this great
Tribulation at the end of the seven years, then immediately after that there's
these disturbances in the heavens and on the earth. Then [progression] the sign
of the Son of Man will appear in heaven.
Then following the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, once they see
him, the tribes of the earth will mourn. That very likely should be translated,
"The tribes of the land". It is specifically referring to the 12
tribes of Israel; they will mourn. Zechariah 12: "they will see him whom
they pierced, and they will mourn when they will see the Son of Man coming on
the clouds of heaven with power and great glory".
So this key phrase is that the sun will be darkened, the moon will
not give its light. Now this is parallel to several other passages in
Scripture, but we have to be careful not to conflate them, not to confuse them.
The first thing we should do is look at the parallel passages in
the other Gospels to see what they say. Mark records it this way. Remember,
Mark is the amanuensis or secretary. He's taking the dictation from Peter and
he writes, "But in those days after the tribulation." So this comes
at the very end. I think that's important; I'm pounding this. This is at the
end, not the beginning. That's really at that the core of interpreting what
comes up later. "In those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be
dark and the moon will not give its light." Luke says, "and there
will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars, and on the earth distress
of nations, with perplexity, the seas and waves É" What you think the
oceans are going to do? Massive waves and storms and all these things are going
to accompany this.
This darkness that comes upon the earth is going to then be
pierced by this incredibly brilliant light as the Son of Man pierces that
darkness and enters into human history. It is beyond anything that that we can
imagine, but He comes just in time to save man, I believe, from total
self-destruction.
This event is going to be preceded by several things. First of all
the seal judgments that are outlined in Matthew 24:4-7, and are also covered in
Revelation chapter 6. That's important because, as will see coming up in
Revelation chapter 6 there are going to be some cosmic disturbances. There is
going to be a partial darkening of the sun and the moon, but that's not a total
darkening of the sun, the moon. So you can confuse the two, and you'll often
find readers who do that.
Second, this is preceded by the abomination of desolation in
Matthew 24:15. Third, it's the most intense period of the Tribulation, which is
the period of the final bowl judgments of the last half. And then immediately
after that the sun is darkened and the moon will not give its light.
Now if you're thinking you've already related this to the passage
in Joel, one we will come back to. Joel 2:31 is talking about the day of the
Lord, that the sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before
the coming of that great and awesome day of the Lord". So this is
something that is connected with it and immediately precedes the day of the
Lord.
Now look at that verse. You have did these astronomical signs,
these cosmic disturbances—sun turned to darkness, moon to blood. It
happens before the great and awesome day of the Lord. Now the day of the Lord
is usually described as a term that refers to the entire period of Daniel's
70th week, but in some passages like Joel 2:31 and 3:15 it has a very narrow
focus, doesn't it. This sun being turned to darkness and moon into blood,
before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord, is a specific time
that right at the end of the Tribulation. It is not talking about five years
later or six years earlier. It is talking about right at the end, just prior to
the Lord returning. That's when these cosmological disturbances take place.
That means that this term "great and awesome day of the Lord" is referring
to Jesus Christ when He pierces that darkness, enters into human history,
rescues Israel,
and
establishes judgments on the earth. That idea of divine judgment is the core
idea in day of the Lord passages, as we will see. So this takes place at the
end of the seven years of the Tribulation, right here at the very end.
So we look at this question, what's the connection of Matthew
24:29-31 with the day of the Lord? It's describing the same things, the same
kind of cosmological disturbances that Isaiah, Joel and others describe. Now we
need to address the question what exactly is the day the Lord? What does that
mean? I'm going to combine the two. The third question is, what are the main
passages? We will look at those as we come to understand what the day of the
Lord means.
First of all, the phrase day of the Lord occurs in 19 Old
Testament verses in reference to a special time of divine judgment. Everybody
agrees with that. It's the eschatological, that is, the future judgments where
there's going to be some disagreement. You also have in addition to that one
phrase the day of the Lord some synonymous phrases that refer to that same
event. Sometimes you'll have one verse that says, "then comes the great
day of the Lord", and then two or three verses say, "in that day",
and a few verses later "in that day", so they're all taking you back
to a specific reference in the passage. It specifically identifies it as the
day of the Lord.
In addition to this specific phrase you have that day, the day,
the great day of the Lord, in Zephaniah 1:14, the day of God is used in second
Peter 3:12 and Revelation 16:14. Those are all talking about that same event.
The second point in terms of just understanding what it is, the
day of the Lord is a term that has a general meeting related to a special time
of divine judgment in history. So it could be something that happened in the
past. For example, a judgment of God on the northern kingdom of Israel is
described as the day of the Lord. It is not necessarily restricted to a future
event. When Joel describes this plague of locusts that comes into Israel and
destroys all of the crops, that's the day of the Lord. But it is also used as a
type or a picture of a future army that will come into Israel and completely devastate
and destroy the people. It has a general meaning of God's judgment in history,
but it's primarily used for that future climactic time when Satan is judged,
the enemies of God are judged, and the Lord Jesus Christ establishes His
kingdom on the earth.
Third, the day of the Lord refers to God's special interventions
into the course of world events to judge His enemies, to accomplish his purpose
for history and thereby demonstrate who He is, the sovereign God of the
universe.
We will probably look at the Isaiah 2:10-22, but also in Ezekiel
13 and several verses in Ezekiel chapter 30; and the emphasis in the day of the
Lord is God will judge sin and evil.
He has done it sometimes in history, and he will do it in the
future in a final judgment that occurs with what we refer to as battle campaign
of Armageddon when the Lord Jesus Christ returns.
That is focusing on that future day of the Lord, that this will be
a time of universal judgment on the arrogant human race, which has opposed God
and His people Israel. Isaiah 2:11-12 really emphasizes this: "The haughty
will be brought low". God is going to bring the enemies of Israel down; He
is going to bring judgment upon them. Also, Isaiah 34:2 and
Obadiah 15. Those are some of the key passages will see that are part of
understanding the day of the Lord.
There are key passages for understanding the day of the Lord and
here are seen in a chronological order. The earliest reference is Obadiah 15,
then we have Joel 2:12 and following. That's written about the same time as
Obadiah. It could be a century later, we can't be dogmatic
on when Joel was written. Joel 3:1-2 also is important. Then Isaiah wrote about
100 years later in 720 BC, in 2:10-22.
Isaiah 13:1-10 is talking about God's judgment of Babylon, and
many people and many scholars will take Isaiah 13 to refer to the historical
defeat of Babylon. The problem with that is that in the Isaiah 13 passage it
says that that Babylon will be completely wiped out militarily—the city
walls knocked down, the city destroyed and not rebuilt. That didn't happen and
has never happened in history. When the Medes and the Persians came in they
dammed up the river and the river and came in under the walls. They basically
captured the city without firing a shot, you might say. And so you don't have
this massive destruction, and it continued to be a very populated city for
centuries after that. So Babylon and hasn't had this final judgment yet; that's
described here as a day of the Lord. So that relates to the end times.
Isaiah 34:1-8 is another key passage we will reference. Then Amos.
Amos can be dated because of an earthquake that occurs and Dr. Steve Austin has
pinpointed the exact year of that earthquake in 752. Then Zechariah is the only
postexilic, that is, after the exile. After they return around 520 BC, in Zechariah 14:1-9 talks about the day of the
Lord. I'm not going to go through each and every one of these passages, I just
want to summarize a few of the things that we learn here.
Obadiah 15-17. Remember, Obadiah is the first of the minor prophets to emphasize the day of the Lord. "For
the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near É" That's not talking
about an event that occurred historically because it is focused on all the
nations. "É as you have done, it shall be done to
you. Your
dealings will return on your own head. Because
just as you drank on My holy mountain, All the nations
will drink continually. They will drink and swallow and become as if they had
never existed. But on Mount Zion there will be those
who escape, and it will be holy. And the house of Jacob will possess their
possessions."
Now if you work backward you see this is talking about an end times
event when Israel is restored to the land. That's clearly verse 17, so that
tells us that these events of 15 and 16 might immediately preceding
that. So we look at Obadiah 15-18 we see that this describes the judgment on
all of the nations and the restoration of all Israel. It points to the end of
the Tribulation. Not specific, but when we look at that it is immediately prior
to the deliverance of Israel and the establishment of the kingdom. Verse 17
would suggest this is right at the end. So here we have a day of the Lord
reference that's not covering the whole of Daniel's 70th week, but just that end
event. It describes the judgment on all the nations, restoration of Israel, and
second, the day of the Lord ends with the establishment of the kingdom, and
that's in Obadiah 21. That is important for factoring in certain things.
Now other verses that are important are Joel 2:11 and 31.
Joel
2:11 NASB "The LORD utters His voice before His army; Surely His camp is very
great, For strong is he who carries out His word. The
day of the LORD is indeed great and very awesome, and
who can endure it?"—using those
two terms again that he will use in verse 31, "great and awesome who can
endure it?". In other words, it implies it's never happened before. Daniel
specifically states it, and Matthew 2:21 specifically states that.
Joel
2:31 NASB ÒThe sun will be turned into darkness And
the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes". So from
Joel we learn that there's a special usage that puts the cosmic changes at the
end of the Tribulation, calling the period immediately around the arrival of
the Messiah as "the great and awesome", or in some translations "he
great and terrible day of the Lord".
We are reminded that the day of the Lord doctrine is a reminder
that sin and evil will not go unpunished. Look at what happens in courts here and
around the world. People who commit horrible crimes get off. People who
committed atrocities in the Holocaust were never brought to account for their
crimes, for the murders. It never happened. It looks like people get off. But
God is just and righteous and there will be a pay day
someday. And what we see in human history is God will intervene and destroy the
earth dwellers, those who are evil and have rejected Him in the Tribulation
period.
We learn from the passages on the day of the Lord that it will be
a time of unimaginable terror panic beyond anything you can imagine in the
souls of men, such as they flee before God and hide in the caves of the earth
for protection.
Now I read that in Isaiah chapter 2 this morning and want to go
back and just highlight a couple of those verses. They run and they hide. Now
Isaiah doesn't quite give us enough information to pinpoint this. It sounds,
and I often related to the sixth seal judgment described in Revelation chapter
6:14, but it might even be something that occurs at the end of the Tribulation
period. It sounds like it could be both. It says in verse 19 NASB "{Men} will go into caves of the rocks And into holes of the ground Before the terror of the LORD And the splendor of His majesty, When
He arises to make the earth tremble".
You have that same kind of scenario in the sixth seal judgment
described in Revelation 6:14 and following. There is this asteroid shower that
covers the whole earth, and it says that the Kings and the military leaders of
the earth go into the caves and they shake their fists at God and at
Jesus—at the Lord in His Messiah. Why? Because they're angry with God and
no amount of convincing will change them. They suppress the truth in
unrighteousness. They rejected God and they hate God, nothing will change their
mind. So it's a horrible time and they do not respond to the judgment of God.
The Isaiah 2:10-12 passage, as well as verse 19, seems to correlate
with the sixth seal judgment. But there are additional cosmic disturbances,
asteroid showers and earthquakes, and this could fit that scenario that come
later and come immediately before the return of Jesus. Since there is no
specific relationship here in chapter 2 of Isaiah, no specific time pointer
there, it could be at the very end; we just can't say for sure.
Thus, there appears to be several distinct times in that end time
scenario in Daniel's 70th week when there will be the signs in the heavens.
That is important because I pointed out when we did to the blood moon and
distractions special a couple of years ago, before all of that nonsense started
in reference to John Hagees book and some others, is
that that people have a tendency to come in and just take all these passages
and blend them together. They just take out their food processor and put all
that in there and blend it all up as if it's all talking about the same thing,
when it's clearly talking about different and distinct events.
So Isaiah 2:10-20 may correlate with the six seal where there will
be a great earthquake, the sun will be darkened, and the moon turned to blood.
But that's not the one that comes at the end of the Tribulation, that's one
that comes at the end of the sixth seal judgment, which is about a year and 1/2
into the seven years, about halfway through the first half of the Tribulation
period. This is also accompanied at that time by stars falling from heaven and
the sky splitting apart like a scroll. Revelation 6:12 says, NASB
"I looked
when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun
became black as sackcloth {made} of hair, and the whole moon became like blood;
[13] and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe
figs when shaken by a great wind. [14] The sky was split apart like a scroll
when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their
places."
Now that's at the end of the six seal judgment. The seventh seal
judgment opens and reveals seven more judgments that are trumpet judgments, and
then the seventh trumpet judgment reveals seven bowl judgments. So this sixth
seal judgment cannot be confused with what happens at the end, with the seventh
bowl judgments; this is early on in the tribulation.
The Isaiah 34:4 reference is something very similar NASB
"And all
the host of heaven will wear away, And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll;
All their hosts will also wither away As a leaf withers from the vine, Or as
{one} withers from the fig tree".
It is very similar terminology and may be just generally
describing some of these events, or it could be specifically connected to that
sixth seal judgment.
Isaiah
34:5 NASB "For My sword is satiated in heaven, Behold it shall
descend for judgment upon Edom And upon the people whom I have devoted to
destruction." So this is a pronouncement of a judgment on
Edom.
Incidentally, when I look at Isaiah and Obadiah 15, the first 14
verses in Obadiah are announcing this judgment on Eden: that none will be left;
they're annihilated.
Edom figures heavily in this. Edom is over there in modern Jordan
where Petra and Bozrah are located. This is mentioned
in this passage. Isaiah
34:6 NASB "The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, It is sated with
fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, With the fat
of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah And a great slaughter in the land of Edom." That is
locating the day of the Lord more specifically and tightly, right at the end of
the Tribulation. I'm not saying it never would include the whole period, but in
these passages it is limiting its meaning to those
events immediately surrounding the Second Coming of Christ.
But Revelation 6 isn't the only place mentioning these cosmic
disturbances. The fourth trumpet judgment describes such phenomena. You'll have
liberals and people don't take the text literally and they'll try to conflate
all these and say it is just talking about the same thing in different words,
in different events, and just kind of put them all in the in the food processor
and mix them up together.
Revelation 8:12 NASB "The fourth angel sounded, and a third
of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so
that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third
of it, and the night in the same way." That's not all the sun and not all of the moon; it is just one third. So you
can't confuse this with the description in Matthew chapter 24:29.
Isaiah 13 focuses on the future destruction of Babylon and
describes similar astro-geophysical phenomena. But
this seems closer to the events of Revelation 17 and 18, the final destruction
of Babylon just prior to the final campaign of Armageddon. That again would
locate day of the Lord specifically to the final part of the Tribulation.
Isaiah
13:10 NASB "For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not flash forth their light; The sun will be dark when it rises And the
moon will not shed its light".
This indicates that this complete darkening comes at the end of
the Tribulation, which is what we have seen and these other passages in Joel 2:31;
Matthew 24:29. Isaiah 13:8 compares this to the labor
pains that precede birth. We see that this beginning of the labor pains, according
to Matthew 24, is the first half, but then it intensifies during the second
half. The first is the birth of the kingdom.
So what do we learn from these passages? Why is this important? First
of all, chronologically we have to put these passages together. You can have a
one-shot 20-minute message on this is going to leave everybody asking a lot of
questions. Or we can take time to try to synthesize all these details. We have
to do it to understand what Jesus is saying. He clearly talks chronologically
with these terms, like "immediately" and then this and then that, so
we have to understand that.
This complete darkening comes at the end of the Tribulation. And
in these Old Testament passages, in several of them, they identified that as
the day of the Lord. It's right at the end of the Tribulation; it is not at the
beginning. The reason I say that is if (and I don't think it's true) Dr. Thomas
is correct in verse 36, "that of that day and
hour no one knows", it's got to be talking about the end of the Tribulation
and not the beginning. There is no way you can get the Rapture into that. There
are a lot more reasons but just looking at it from this perspective on that
particular point, this doesn't fit.
Just a reference to these passages in Joel 3:15, 16 NASB "The sun and moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness. The LORD roars from Zion And utters His voice
from Jerusalem, And the heavens and the earth tremble. But the LORD is a refuge for His people And a stronghold to the sons of Israel."
So it is very clear what is going on here. God is rescuing Israel
just at the end time there.
Joel
3:17 NASB "Then you will know that I am the LORD your God,
Dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. So Jerusalem will be holy, And strangers will pass through it no more." Undocumented workers maybe? No, foreigners. That's what it means, those who don't have a
right to be there.
So the second thing that we learn is that God will eventually
judge all sin and evil. God is just; nobody's going to get away with anything.
They may think they do; other people may think they do, but God plays the long
game, not the short game.
Zephaniah 1:14, 15 NASB "Near is the great day of the LORD, Near and coming very quickly; Listen, the day of the LORD! In it the warrior cries out bitterly. A day of wrath is that day, A day of trouble and distress, A
day of destruction and desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds
and thick darkness É [17] I will bring distress on men So that they will walk
like the blind, Because they have sinned against the LORD; And their blood will be poured out
like dust And their flesh like dung."
The third thing we should learn is that the end times will be
horrific and just take us to the edge of total human self-destruction.
The fourth point is we learn is that only the miraculous
intervention of Christ saves us. But it's not an eschatological salvation,
future salvation. The same is true for us personally. Our lives can be headed
to up on a path of complete and total self-destruction because of
rebelliousness against God. It can be a rebelliousness
because we rejected God and we rejected the gospel, or it can be as a believer
because we turned our back on the God who saved us, and we are living our lives
totally in rebellion and autonomy from God. But the solution is the same in
both cases. The only thing that delivers us is the intervention of Christ. We at salvation because he died for our sins and we trust in him in
history. He will save the human race from their from their own
self-destructive plans and He will save Israel and rescue them from the Antichrist
and from Satan. He will at the last minute rescue them and establish His
kingdom which will last for a thousand years on the earth and then go into
stage II for eternity