W. Robert Godfrey

Revelation, chapter 1, verse 10.

There we read that John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.

There are lots of days, but there's a special day that in a special way belongs to the Lord, just as the Lord's Supper in a special way belongs to the Lord.

If all days are alike, no one day can be a Lord's day.

What positively does the New Testament say that bears on the question of the day of Christian worship and the relationship of Sunday to the fourth commandment?

And obviously, if this were an easy issue, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

I would say perhaps it's a little like the matter of infant baptism.

The New Testament does not say in any single verse, baptize infants, nor does it say in any verse, do not baptize infants, and so we have to look at the totality of the revelation of the Bible to try to answer that question.

And I think it's somewhat similar when we come to the relationship of Sunday to the Sabbath.

We have to take the pieces, since there's no one verse that tells us exactly how to think about these things, we have to take the pieces and put them together.

And the first piece I want us to think about that I think is very important is Revelation chapter 1 verse 10.

I think this is such a crucial verse and is not often sufficiently talked about and thought about.

And there we read that John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.

John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.

Now, being in the Spirit, if we compare that with Revelation 4, verse 2, for example, it's pretty clear he's worshiping.

That's what's going on.

Now, I don't think we want to try to make an argument from the New Testament that Christians can only worship on the Sabbath day or on the Lord's day.

We can worship other days.

So, the fact that John's worshiping by itself doesn't prove anything about the day, but it says he's in the Spirit on the Lord's day.

Now, that formulation in Greek is quite distinctive.