The Lord’s Day

Many Christians call Sunday the Lord’s Day. Often it is refereed to as the Sabbath when clearly Saturday is the Sabbath in the bible. So why call Sunday, The Lord’s Day?

In the very early days of the church the followers of Jesus were all Hebrews. As such they followed the tenants of Jewish worship. For the Hebrew people of Jesus day Sabbath began at sundown on Friday and lasted until sundown on Saturday. Most worship was done in the home or synagogue on Saturday.

For Hebrew Disciples of Jesus they would fulfill their worship as Jews on the Saturday Sabbath. Then at dawn on the first day of the week they would gather to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus and referred to it as “The Lord’s Day. At this worship the Gospel was preached, prayers were said, new believers baptized and communion celebrated. As Sunday was a work day then they would go off to work.

Later when Gentiles, that is non-Jews, joined the growing ranks of the Disciples of Christ they would for go the Hebrew worship and only attend the Sunday gathering at dawn to celebrate the resurrection. As the percentage of gentile Christians increased First Day or “Lord’s Day” worship became the most common form of Christian worship practice. Later Christians would begin calling Sunday the Sabbath even though that was not strictly true. Many Christian governments enacted “Blue Laws” to force complyanance even on non-Christians.

Today most Christians but not all practice Christian Worship on the first day of the week to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus the Christ. I do every Sunday for to me it is indeed The Lord’s Day.