p. 16 | What Day Is the Lord's Day?

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 7, 1900

What Day Is the Lord's Day?

“Our seventh-day brethren tell us we have no authority for calling Sunday the Lord’s day, for it is not once called so in the Bible. Now hear what John, the Revelator, says when he was on the Isle of Patmos, ‘I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.’ Rev. 1:10. Now what day did John refer to? It could not have been the Jewish Sabbath, for it is nowhere called the Lord’s day in the Bible.”

Now it is certainly true, whether admitted or not, that nowhere in all the Bible is the first day clearly called by any sacred name whatsoever. It is sheer assumption to say that the “Lord’s day” of Rev. 1:10 refers to the first day; for that text gives us no information. From the Bible, then, what day is the Lord’s day? (1) The Lord rested upon, hallowed, and set apart the seventh day in the very beginning. Gen. 2:2, 3. It is therefore God’s Sabbath, or rest day. (2) His law declares, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” It is hallowed; “keep it holy.” Ex. 20:8-11. Through the prophet Isaiah Christ calls the Sabbath “My holy day.” Isa. 58:13, compare with 1 Peter 1:10, 11. (3) Finally, Jesus says, “The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath day.” Mark 2:28. The day, therefore, which the Lord calls His day must be “the Lord’s day.” In the light of the Scriptures, what day is the Lord’s day?