p. 7 | THE LORD'S DAY

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 11, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 19.

"THE LORD'S DAY."

IF the "Lord's day" in Rev. 1:10 means the first day of the week, why does not John, in chapter 20: 1, 19 of his gospel, which he wrote two years after writing the Revelation, give some hint of it? This is the substance of a pertinent question asked by a minister of one of his denominational editors. The reply given is:—

We do not know. Perhaps John meant by "the Lord's day" the same thing as Paul did by "the day of the Lord."

But Paul says of "the day of the Lord" that it "so cometh as a thief in the night." Is that true of the first day of the week? Do not all classes of men know when the first day of the week is to come, just as they know the definite approach of other days? Peter gives the same testimony, and adds that in that day "the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." And this is to be immediately followed by the new heavens and new earth. 2 Peter 3:10-13. Then it could not have been "the day of the Lord" to which John refers in Rev. 1:10, when the Lord appeared to him, eighteen hundred years ago.

The "day of the Lord" to which Paul and Peter allude is the day of the Lord's coming to execute judgment upon the wicked, as is also shown by the prophet: "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. 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. . . . I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord. . . . 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." Zeph. 1:14-18.

It is still a pertinent question why John, if he meant the first day of the week when he wrote of being "in the Spirit on the Lord's day" in Rev. 1:10, should not have identified the Lord's day with "the first day of the week" when he wrote His gospel two years later. The evident solution is that by the Lord's day the apostle meant the Sabbath day—the day that God has recognized as His day from the beginning. Gen. 2:2, 3; Ex. 16:22-30; 20:8-11; 31:12-17; 35:2; Lev. 23:3; Deut. 5:14; Isa. 56:2, 6; 58:13, 14; Jer. 17:24, 25; Eze. 20:12, 20; Matt. 12:8; Mark 2:28; Luke 23:56.