Facts of Faith

The Lord’s Day

Some claim that “the Lord’s day” of Revelation 1:10, refers to Sunday, but this text does not say which day is meant, and Sunday is not called the Lord’s day in any other place in the New Testament. There is therefore no evidence that Sunday is meant here. It is generally agreed that John wrote his Gospel two years after he wrote Revelation. If the term “Lord’s day” had become the designation for Sunday, when John wrote Revelation, then he would have used that name for it two years later when he wrote the Gospel, but he simply calls it “the first day of the week.” John 20:1. The only day which the Lord has designated as His day, is the seventh. (Exodus 20:10; Isaiah 58:13; Mark 2:28.) FAFA 91.3

Dr. Summerbell says: FAFA 92.1

“Many suppose that they must denominate the first day of the week the ‘Lord’s day’; but we have no certain Scripture for this. The phrase ‘Lord’s day,’ occurs but once in the Bible: ‘I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day,’ and there probably refers to the day of which Christ said: ‘The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day,’ as the whole book of Revelation has a strong Jewish bearing.” — “History of the Christian Church,” p. 152. Cincinnati: 1873.

W. B. Taylor says: FAFA 92.2

“If a current day was intended, the only day bearing this definition, in either the Old or New Testaments, is Saturday, the seventh day of the week.” — “Obligation of the Sabbath,” p. 296.

Dr. Peter Heylyn remarks: FAFA 92.3

“Take which you will, either of the Fathers, or the Modernes, and we shall find no Lord’s day instituted by any Apostolic Mandate, no Sabbath set on foot by them upon the first day of the weeke, as some would have it: much lesse than any such Ordinance should be hence collected, out of the words of the apostle.” — “History of the Sabbath,” (original spelling), Part 2, p. 27. London: 1686.