Methinks you make the day of the Lord more complicated than it actually is.
Simply put, man has had his “day,” the Lord (Jesus Christ) is going to have his. But man is not going to turn over power and control to Christ without a fight. The Lord, depicted in a number of places in scripture as a “man of war,” is well up to the task. He comes IN PERSON to defeat the enemies of his reign. He comes as Lord, the “Lord” part of “the day of the LORD.”
Once again, the references from Hebrews. He is in heaven now, and will remain so, until he has his enemies - enemies of his coming reign - just where he wants them, i.e., gathered nicely together in a bunch, Rev. 19:19. At that point, and only at that point, does he leave heaven to take care of his enemies...IN PERSON.
Not until then is power shifted from man to the Lord, not until then does he come as the Lord. On HIS day, the day of the Lord.
That’s when he comes “the second time,” Heb. 9:28. The incarnation marked the first time he came, what we see described in Rev. 19 marks “the second time.”
The first time he came as a Lamb, “once offered to bear the sins of many,” he comes “the second time without sin,” in other words, NOT to bear the sins of many as he did the first time, this time he comes as a lion. (See Heb. 9:28, Rev. 5:5)
When Christ comes again, he comes as Lord or King, the kingdoms of this world become his at that point, Rev. 11:15, he remains in heaven until THEN.
The rapture is our great hope to be sure, but it is but incidental to the greater purpose mentioned above, the emphasis in scripture is always his coming Lordship. That great day is HIS day, the day of the Lord.
I appreciate your feedback. I think you have a very good point about Christ waiting in Heaven until the time His enemies become His footstool. Yet I do not see any specific support from the passages in Hebrews that requires defining Revelation 19 as when this happens. I take it that this conclusion is more generally drawn from the idea that His second coming is a singular event.
Revelation clearly does not specify a particular time or sequence for either a resurrection of all the righteous to eternal life or the translation of living saints. All of the various views are inferred. (Revelation 20 describes the “first resurrection” but only mentions those beheaded during the time of anti-Christ.)
I do agree that Revelation 19 describes Christ and His armies coming to destroy His enemies. But there His armies have already been gathered together. Your position seems to be that these armies include resurrected saints and translated living saints. But when does that occur? Why do you believe it has to happen immediately before this final battle? How would the events from Revelation 8 and onward NOT qualify as Christ putting His enemies under His feet?
As an aside, I am curious as to how you explain Christ being on the Mount of Olives in Revelation 14:1.
“The incarnation marked the first time he came”
In one sense this is true. He became a man and came into the world in one sense at the incarnation. He also entered the world in another sense at His birth. In yet another sense He became a man by maturing and growing into manhood. I am not trying to be argumentative, because I agree with your point. I am just referring back to our earlier discussion that both His first and second coming involve a time period.
2 Peter 1:16
For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
See how Peter includes the transfiguration as part of His first coming?
I believe that Christ’s second coming marks the beginning of the Day of the Lord and continues through the millennial reign. While I appreciate the points you have made regarding Christ waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool, these passages only seem to further reinforce the concept of His return coinciding with the Day of the Lord.
If it can be supported that the Day of the Lord does not begin until Revelation 19, I think that would be an overwhelming argument for a post-trib rapture. The scriptures I read regarding the Day of the Lord seem to indicate otherwise. It appears to me this time period begins after the sixth seal in Revelation 6 and continues until the thousand year reign begins in Revelation 20.