Many people wonder what Revelation 1:10 means when it says John was in the spirit on “The Lord’s Day.” Some say that it was Sunday. Some say Saturday. Others say that the verse is referring to the Second Coming of Christ.
The second coming of Christ has not happened yet so we can safely dismiss that idea. Also, John has a vision of Jesus in the sanctuary in heaven (notice the seven golden candlesticks and the priestly garments). It was not a vision of the last days. The Bible is its own interpreter so let us take a look at some similar verses to see if we can determine what the Bible means by “The Lord’s Day” in this verse.
The first verse I find in the Bible referring to a Lord’s Day is Genesis 2:2-3 where God blessed a specific day:
And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
After His six days of creation God blessed and sanctified (made holy) a certain day, the seventh day, which we know today as Saturday. This intimates that the “Lord’s Day” referred to in Rev. 1:10 could be this one mentioned in Gen. 2 but we need to dig deeper to find out if this is so.
The second passage that talks specifically about a “Lord’s Day” is the fourth commandment in Exodus 20:8-11:
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
This verse clearly states that the “seventh day of the sabbath of the LORD thy God.” It isn’t hard to see that God has a day, the seventh day, the sabbath day. If verse 10 were stated differently it would say “The Lord’s Day is the seventh day sabbath.” But some will say, This is the Old Testament. In the New Testament God changed His day to Sunday. Let’s take a look at that assertion.
Here are the words of Jesus:
For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day. Matthew 12:8.
In this verse Jesus plainly states that He is “Lord of the sabbath day.” There we have it. Jesus said that The Lord’s Day is the sabbath day. Since He was being accused by the Jews because He healed on the sabbath day we can be sure that it was the seventh day of the week, now called Saturday. There are no verses in the Bible that even hint at Sunday being called the Lord’s day. There is only one day of the week called the Lord’s day in the Bible: the seventh day of the week.