(Isa. 2:12; refer in this text to 2 Ne. 23:6–9)
The phrase “day of the Lord” is used frequently by Isaiah and seems to refer to any day of retribution or reward. For example, the day when Judah fell to the Babylonians was a day of the Lord, as will be the day of his second coming. It is both a great and dreadful day, great for the righteous and dreadful for the wicked (Mal. 4:5).
(Terry B. Ball, Voices of Old Testament Prophets: The 26th Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1997], 59.)
A day of the Lord is a period fixed by him to execute judgment upon the nations of the earth. There have been many such days. Such days are a foretaste of the coming great and dreadful day of the Lord. Before the destruction of Babylon, Isaiah thus prophesied to the people of that wicked city: “Howl ye: for the day of the Lord is at hand.” Babylon’s pride was humbled in utter desolation. It was a day of the Lord unto that corrupt city: His judgments were executed upon her. When the Savior was crucified the Western Hemisphere was visited by terrible tempests, thunder, earthquakes, whirlwinds and fire, resulting in a great and terrible destruction. This awful disaster killed many people. The survivors in one place cried: “Oh, that we had repented before this great and terrible day.” It was a day of the Lord unto the Nephite people.
I believe that the Civil War was a day of the Lord; so also was World War and the epidemic of influenza. This worldwide depression is a day of the Lord, but no one of these days is that great and dreadful day of the Lord which is to come at the end of the world.
(Charles A. Callis, Conference Report, Apr. 1935, 17.)