This study is being done because of what is considered to
be a common misnomer. Christians, in general, commonly refer to Sunday, the
first day of each week that rolls around, as the Lord’s Day. We will look at the
scriptures to see if this labeling of Sundays as the Lord’s Day can be
substantiated or is it just another misnomer of our religious community.
The only reference to the Lord’s Day in the Bible is:
Re 1:10 I (John, the Apostle) was in the Spirit on the Lord‘s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of
a trumpet,
We read that John, at the outset of the vision of the Book
of Revelation, was first shown the things which must shortly come to pass:
Re 1:1 ¶
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto
his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by
his angel unto his servant John:
The “Lord’s Day” or “Day of the Lord” or “Day of Christ” (whichever term is used, they are synonymous as we will show below) is one of the “things which must shortly come to pass” and that is what John was being shown at the beginning of the vision:
Rev 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and
they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of
him. Even so, Amen.
The verses below demonstrate that Revelation 1:7 is in the context of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ in His immortal glorified body to this earth some time after the time of the great tribulation and that the Day of the Lord is the same as the Day of Christ:
Mt 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon
shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers
of the heavens shall be shaken: 30 And then
shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the
tribes of the earth mourn, and they
shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory.
Mt 26:64 Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast
said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of
power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Mr 13:26 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great
power and glory.
Mr 14:62 And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting
on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Lu 21:27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a
cloud with power and great glory.
1Th 4:16 For the
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise
first: 17 Then we which are alive and
remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so
shall we ever be with the Lord. 18
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
5:1 But of the times and the
seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. 2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as
a thief in the night.
2Th 2: 1 ¶ Now
we beseech you, brethren, by the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2 That ye be not soon shaken
in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from
us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Having seen this vision of Christ’s return in the clouds, John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, goes on to record this fact by declaring that what he had just witnessed was a scene from the Lord’s Day even as he was in the spiritual realm, the eternal world:
Re
1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and
heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
Again, the language above of “great voice, as of a trumpet” mirrors the time of the Day of the Lord as seen from the following passages which are all in the context of the Day of the Lord, the time of judgment and God’s wrath:
1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Mt 24: 30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in
heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming
in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect
from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Zep 1:14 ¶ The great day of the LORD is
near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD:
the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. 15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of
trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess,
a day of clouds and thick darkness, 16 A day of the trumpet and
alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. 17 And I will bring distress upon men, that they
shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their
blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. 18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be
able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’S wrath; but the whole land shall
be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy
riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
Joe 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in
Zion, and sound an alarm in
my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh,
for it is nigh at hand; 2 A
day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as
the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath
not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the
years of many generations. 3 A fire
devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as
the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and
nothing shall escape them. 4 The
appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so
shall they run. 5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of
mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the
stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. 6 Before their face the people shall be much
pained: all faces shall gather blackness.
The Online Bible further tells us that the tense of the phrase “I was” is in the Aorist tense:
Re 1:10 I was <1096> (5633) in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and
heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
5633
Tense-Second Aorist
The
"second aorist" tense is identical in meaning and translation to the
normal or "first" aorist tense.
The only difference is in the form of spelling the words in Greek, and
there is no effect upon English translation. The aorist tense is characterized
by its emphasis on punctiliar action; that is, the concept of the verb is considered without
regard for past, present, or future time.
So because the verse is in the Aorist tense, then John’s being in the spirit is not considered with regards to time-past, present, or future and further indicates that the Lord’s Day that John was seeing in the vision was also without regards to time-past, present, or future thereby indicating that the Lord’s Day is a duration that cannot be measured in terms of the earthly timekeepers (sun, moon, stars, etc.) as these will be taken out of commission after the great tribulation but before the return of Christ on the Lord’s Day:
Mt 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
On the other hand, God’s usage of the Aorist tense is an indication that the Lord’s Day is definitely not an earthly day of the week such as Sunday because John was in the spirit realm which is an eternal world and without days of the week such as Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc.
When we continue reading the context of Revelation 1 verse 7, we find other evidences of the Lord’s Day being the Day of the Lord, the time of judgment and God’s wrath:
Re 1:12 And
I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven
golden candlesticks; 13 And
in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the
foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 14 His head and his hairs were
white like wool, as white as snow; and his
eyes were as a flame of fire; 15
And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned
in a furnace; and his
voice as the sound of many waters. 16 And
he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and
his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
The verses below that feature the descriptive language of the appearance of Christ above also show that these descriptions of Him are used in the context of the Day of the Lord and God’s judgment and wrath:
Da 7:9 I
beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as
snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery
flame, and his wheels as burning fire. 10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from
before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten
thousand stood before him: the
judgment was set, and the books were opened.
Da 10:6
His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance
of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass,
and the voice of his words like
the voice of a multitude.
Re 19: 11 ¶ And
I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were
many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13 And he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which were in heaven
followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite
the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the
winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And he hath on his vesture and on his
thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS…. 21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him
that sat upon the horse,
which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the
fowls were filled with their flesh.
Lastly, John was given the following instructions:
Re 1:19 Write
the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are (those things pertaining to the
seven churches that existed at the time of writing the Book of Revelations,
etc.,), and the things which shall be hereafter;
What did he see in the vision? He saw the Lord’s Day which is the Day of the Lord and the Day of Christ which are “things which shall be hereafter” and are “things which must shortly come to pass”:
Re 1:1 ¶
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto
his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by
his angel unto his servant John:
So from the beginning and even unto the end of his instructions for writing, John was predominantly seeing in his vision the Lord’s Day, the day of God’s wrath and judgment.
Conclusion:
There is no solid Biblical basis for the common misnomer “the Lord’s Day is Sunday, the first day of every week”.
There is, however, Biblical justification for referring to Sunday as the Sabbath but such discussions are not within the scope of this study.
The End