Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

LORDS DAY

The phrase “the Lord’s day” is found in Scripture only in Rev. 1:10, where John is describing the circumstances in which he received his revelation. The phrase is commonly used to refer to Sunday and is often linked to the OT sabbath. There is little doubt that “the Lord” in this case refers to Jesus rather than the Father. In the early Church Christians met for worship on Sunday in honor of the day of Jesus’ resurrection (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2). In addition, Sunday was the first day of the week in the Jewish calendar, and therefore it reminded people of the first day of creation and of Jesus’ re-creation through redemption. It was also called the eighth day, pointing to the coming day of judgment. Early Christians may have believed that Christ would return on his day, Sunday.

In addition to Sunday, two other possible meanings of the phrase “the Lord’s day” in its context in Revelation have been proposed. Some argue that it may refer to the yearly observance of Easter. However, other early Christian uses of “the Lord’s day” indicate the weekly, rather than yearly, observance. Other scholars have argued that it refers to the judgment day itself, rather than Sunday, as a type of the coming judgment day or eighth day described above. Taken in this way, it would be synonymous with “the great day” mentioned in Rev. 6:17; 16:14; however, this does not make sense in the context of Rev. 1. In order to harmonize Rev. 1 with this theory, some have suggested that John is transported in his vision to the judgment day.

Bibliography. D. A. Carson, ed., From Sabbath to Lord’s Day (Grand Rapids, 1982).

Ann Coble

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

LORDS DAY

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)