Not necessarily. Observe...
"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief..."
"a 24 hour period" is only 1 of 4 ways to translate the word. Sometimes it means an indefinite scope of time.
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We have to look at the context of how the Bible describes the day of the Lord. Here are a few examples:
““I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the LORD. “For behold, I am commanding, And I will shake the house of Israel among all nations As grain is shaken in a sieve, But not a kernel will fall to the ground. “All the sinners of My people will die by the sword, Those who say, ‘The calamity will not overtake or confront us.’ “In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David, And wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins And rebuild it as in the days of old; That they may possess the remnant of Edom And all the nations who are called by My name,” Declares the LORD who does this. “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “When the plowman will overtake the reaper And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; When the mountains will drip sweet wine And all the hills will be dissolved. “Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, And they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, And make gardens and eat their fruit. “I will also plant them on their land, And they will not again be rooted out from their land Which I have given them,” Says the LORD your God.” (Amos 9:8–15)
““For the day is near, Even the day of the LORD is near; It will be a day of clouds, A time of doom for the nations. “A sword will come upon Egypt, And anguish will be in Ethiopia; When the slain fall in Egypt, They take away her wealth, And her foundations are torn down. “Ethiopia, Put, Lud, all Arabia, Libya and the people of the land that is in league will fall with them by the sword.” ‘Thus says the LORD, “Indeed, those who support Egypt will fall And the pride of her power will come down; From Migdol to Syene They will fall within her by the sword,” Declares the Lord GOD. “They will be desolate In the midst of the desolated lands; And her cities will be In the midst of the devastated cities. “And they will know that I am the LORD, When I set a fire in Egypt And all her helpers are broken. “On that day messengers will go forth from Me in ships to frighten secure Ethiopia; and anguish will be on them as on the day of Egypt; for behold, it comes!”” (Ezekiel 30:3–9)
“And in that day The mountains will drip with sweet wine, And the hills will flow with milk, And all the brooks of Judah will flow with water; And a spring will go out from the house of the LORD To water the valley of Shittim. Egypt will become a waste, And Edom will become a desolate wilderness, Because of the violence done to the sons of Judah, In whose land they have shed innocent blood. But Judah will be inhabited forever And Jerusalem for all generations.” (Joel 3:18–20)
““In that day,” declares the LORD, “I will assemble the lame And gather the outcasts, Even those whom I have afflicted. “I will make the lame a remnant And the outcasts a strong nation, And the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion From now on and forever.” (Micah 4:6–7)
“It will be a day for building your walls. On that day will your boundary be extended. It will be a day when they will come to you From Assyria and the cities of Egypt, From Egypt even to the Euphrates, Even from sea to sea and mountain to mountain. And the earth will become desolate because of her inhabitants, On account of the fruit of their deeds.” (Micah 7:11–13)
““Many nations will join themselves to the LORD in that day and will become My people. Then I will dwell in your midst, and you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you. “The LORD will possess Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.” (Zechariah 2:11–12)
““It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it. “In that day,” declares the LORD, “I will strike every horse with bewilderment and his rider with madness. But I will watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. “Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘A strong support for us are the inhabitants of Jerusalem through the LORD of hosts, their God.’ “In that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot among pieces of wood and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right hand and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while the inhabitants of Jerusalem again dwell on their own sites in Jerusalem. “The LORD also will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not be magnified above Judah. “In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD before them. “And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. “In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo.” (Zechariah 12:3–11)
“Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him! In that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. For it will be a unique day which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light. And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter. And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one. All the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will rise and remain on its site from Benjamin’s Gate as far as the place of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses. People will live in it, and there will no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will dwell in security.” (Zechariah 14:3–11)
(and more: (Obadiah 17–21, Isaiah 30:15–26, Joel 2:18–20, Isaiah 29:17–23, Hosea 2:14–23, Micah 2:12–13, Zephaniah 2:3–7, etc)
I checked
all of these contexts, and they are in fact describing
the day of the Lord. The exact phrase is either mentioned explicitly in the quote, or in near surrounding verses, or in a parallel passage with the same events mentioned.
There are other passages about the day of the Lord that described the very end of it, which involves the total destruction of the universe with fire. That part is what Peter emphasized in his 2nd epistle. He states that total universal destruction happens
within the day of the Lord, but certainly not the only event. These Scriptures (above) bear witness.
It is
impossible for all of this to happen in a 24-hour day. These events span longs lengths of time, involving judgment, military conquest, the expansion of the Jewish claim on their promised land, the rise of the man of lawlessness, the desolation of Jerusalem, the doom of Babylon, the return of Jesus. These events will be fulfilled in the prophecies written in
Revelation 6-19.