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Jtree
Posted on Tuesday, November 27, 2001 - 3:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The only mention of the Lord's Day in the New Testament is by John the apostle in Revelation 1:10: "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day." John did not specify which day of the week is the Lord's Day. Its identity was evidently well-known to his readers.

Strict Sabbatarians (most notably, our present day Seventh-Day Adventists Friends), who believe the Old Covenant commandment hallowing Saturday as the weekly Sabbath (Exod 20:8-12) is yet in effect, insist Saturday is the Lord's Day. They furthermore teach that faithful Christians taught so until the time of Constantine, the emperor of Rome who sanctioned Sunday as a holy day early in the fifth century.

However, Strict Sabbatarians are proven wrong by the writings of contemporaries of the apostles and early-church fathers centuries prior to the time of Constantine.

Ignatius (died 98 or 117), contemporary of John the apostle and bishop of Antioch, wrote of those who have "obtained new hope, no longer keeping the sabbath [lit. "sabbathing"], but living according to the Lord's [Day] on which our life dawned through him and his death" (Epistle to the Magnesians 9:1).

"Justin Martyr [circa 100-165], in controversy with a Jew, says that ... Christianity requires not one particular Sabbath, but a perpetual Sabbath. He assigns as a reason for the selection of the first day for the purposes of Christian worship, because on that day ... Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to his assembled disciples, but makes no mention of the fourth commandment" (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol.II, p.203).

"Barnabas [thought by many to be the companion of Paul the apostle] ... calls this day the eighth day, in distinction from the seventh-day sabbath of the Jews, and which he says is the beginning of another world; and therefore we keep the eighth day, adds he, joyfully, in which Jesus rose from the dead, and being manifested, ascended unto heaven" (John Gill's Commentary, Rev 1:10).

Chrysostom (345[?]-407), the greatest preacher of the Eastern or Greek Church, said of the first day of the week, "It was called the Lord's Day because the Lord rose from the dead on that day" (commentary on Psalm 119).

The Lord's Day is therefore undoubtedly not the Old Covenant Sabbath-day, Saturday. Rather:

1. The Lord's Day is the first day of the week. This is confirmed without dissent by the contemporaries of the apostles and early-church fathers (as cited above).

2. The Lord's Day is the day established by God for commemorating His resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ. It fulfills the prophecy of Psalm 118:22-24: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."


This prophecy is repeatedly declared in the New Testament to have been fulfilled in the rejection and resurrection of Jesus Christ: by Christ Himself (Matt 21:42) and by Peter (Acts 4:10; 1 Peter 2:7). The rejection of Jesus Christ reached its climax when His own countrymen ó ardent in sabbath-keeping yet steeped in unbelief ó murdered Him on the cross of Calvary. The resurrection of Jesus Christ occurred when God raised Him from the dead. His resurrection was God's response to the finished work of salvation by Jesus Christ. Christ shouted in victory as He died, "It is finished!" (John 19:30), declaring that He had in His death redeemed and justified His people. Therefore, He was by God "raised because of our justification" (Rom 4:24). "This was the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes."

This resurrection of Jesus Christ occurred on the first day of the week (John 20:1). God Himself has therefore honored this day: "This is the day which the LORD has made." And it has become the beginning of a new gospel day or era.

Christians therefore commemorate the first day of the week as the Lord's Day: "we will rejoice and be glad in it."

Do you?


Joshua of the Rock!

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