In Revelation 1:10 we read that the apostle John ”came to be, in spirit, in the Lord’s day.” The key to understanding what John was revealing here is, I believe, found in the words “in spirit.” Concerning John’s use of this expression, A.E. Knoch has provided the following helpful remarks in his commentary:
The same phrase occurs on three other occasions. These are safe and sure indexes of its meaning here. In each case the apostle is transported in spirit, to a place or time which his body could not occupy. He thus ascended to heaven and beheld the magnificent throne scene (4:2). He is carried away, in spirit, into a wilderness, to behold the woman on the scarlet wild beast (17:3). He is carried away, in spirit, to a mountain on the new earth to behold the holy city (21:10). In every case John is taken out of himself, leaves His body, and sees and hears what belongs to the far future.
Since John was not bodily present where (or when) he experienced what he did while “in spirit,” the implication is that what John experienced while “in spirit” was experienced in a vision. Consider, for example, the following from Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 8:3
He put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.
Ezekiel 11:1
The spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of Yahweh, which faces east. And behold, at the entrance of the gateway there were twenty-five men.
Ezekiel 11:24
And the spirit lifted me up and brought me in the vision by the spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen went up from me.
Ezekiel 37:1
The hand of Yahweh was upon me, and he brought me out in the spirit of Yahweh and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones.
Ezekiel 43:5
The spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of Yahweh filled the temple.
In each of these examples, Ezekiel “travelled” to the various locations referred to by means of “the spirit.” And the locations to which Ezekiel travelled by means of the spirit were experienced in visions that were given to him. Thus, Ezekiel’s body was not actually present in the locations to which he travelled by means of the spirit.
Now, as noted by Knoch in the above quotation, the phrase “in spirit” was used by John a total of four times in Revelation. After its first occurrence in Rev. 1:10, the next occurrence of the phrase is found in Rev. 4:1-2. Immediately after Christ finished telling John what to write to the messengers of the seven ecclesias in the province of Asia (Rev. 2-3; cf. 1:4), we read the following:
“After these things I perceived, and lo! a door is open in heaven, and lo! the first sound which I hear is as a trumpet speaking with me, saying, ‘Come up here! and I will be showing you what must be occurring after these things.’ Now immediately I came to be in spirit, and lo! a throne, located in heaven, and on the throne One sitting.”
In this second occurrence of the phrase “in spirit,” the implication is that, when John “came to be in spirit,” he found himself in the place to which he was being invited (i.e., the heavenly throne room). In other words, as soon as John “came to be in spirit,” he found himself present somewhere that his body was not present, and was able to perceive all the heavenly things and events that he went on to describe. He was not bodily present in the heavenly throne room, but had been transported there in a vision. Thus, in response to the question, “In what location did John immediately come to be in spirit?” the answer would be, “in heaven.”
The next occurrence of the phrase is in Rev. 17:1-3:
“And one from among the seven messengers who have the seven bowls came, and he speaks with me, saying, "Hither! I shall be showing you the sentence of the great prostitute who is sitting on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth commit prostitution, and those dwelling on the earth are made drunk with the wine of her prostitution." And he carries me away, in spirit, into a wilderness. And I perceived a woman sitting on a scarlet wild beast replete with names of blasphemy, and having seven heads and ten horns.”
As with the previous occurrence of his being “in spirit,” John’s being “in spirit” at this time involved his being in a state in which he was able to be carried away to a place and time in which his body was not (and indeed could not be) present. And in response to the question, “Into what was John carried away in spirit at this time?” the answer would be, “a wilderness.”
The last occurrence of the phrase is in Rev. 21:9-10. There, we read:
“And one of the seven messengers who have the seven bowls brimming with the last seven calamities came, and he speaks with me, saying, "Hither! I shall be showing you the bride, the wife of the Lambkin." And he carries me away, in spirit, on a mountain, huge and high, and shows me the holy city, Jerusalem, as it is descending out of heaven from God…”
Here, John’s being “in spirit” involved his being carried away “on a mountain, huge and high” so that he could perceive the “new Jerusalem.” Thus, in response to the question, “On what was John carried away in spirit at this time?” the answer would be, “a mountain, huge and high.”
Thus, following its initial occurrence in Rev. 1:10, every subsequent passage in which the expression “in spirit” is found involves John’s having been spiritually (and, it would seem, instantaneously) transported to a place where his body was not present. In light of this, let’s again consider John’s words in Rev. 1:10: “I came to be, in spirit, in the Lord’s day…” According to John, it was “in the Lord’s day” that he “came to be in spirit.” Since “the Lord’s day” refers to a time (rather than a place), we can reasonably conclude that the first recorded event in which John states that he came to be “in spirit” involved his being spiritually transported (i.e., carried away by the spirit in a vision) to a time when his body was not actually present (i.e., the future time when Christ begins opening the seven-sealed scroll, and when the events associated with the opening of this scroll begin to take place on the earth). Thus, in response to the question, “in what time period did John come to be ‘in spirit’ while he was on Patmos?” the answer would be, “the Lord’s day.” But what time period did John have in mind by his use of this expression?
Most Christians assume that the “Lord’s day” is a reference to Sunday. However, nowhere else in Scripture is Sunday referred to as the “Lord’s day.” Instead, the day that many English-speakers refer to as “Sunday” is referred to in Scripture as the “first day of the week” (just as the seventh day is regularly referred to in Scripture as “the Sabbath”). Had John intended to inform his readers that it was Sunday when he wrote, he would’ve written, “on the first day of the week.” Similarly, had John wished to inform us that it was on the Sabbath, there’s no reason to think that he would’ve referred to this day of the week as anything other than “the Sabbath” (as this is how he consistently referred to the seventh day in his Gospel Account).
Moreover, if John had been at all concerned about informing his readers of the date on which his supernatural experience occurred, why would he have mentioned only the day of the week (and not more specific information)? Consider, for example, how Ezekiel began his prophetic work:
“In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin), the word of Yahweh came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of Yahweh was upon him there.”
It would’ve made little sense for Ezekiel to have simply remarked that it was “on the fifth day” that he received his visions. And yet, that’s how many Christians understand John’s reference to “the Lord’s day” in Rev. 1:10. But aside from the fact that it would’ve been rather odd for John to have made it a point to inform his readers of what day of the week it was when his supernatural experience took place (without providing any other helpful chronological information), one would think that if this had been John’s intention, he would’ve simply used the standard, straight-forward way of designating the days of the week (as he did in his own Gospel Account). The fact that John didn’t do this strongly suggests that it wasn’t John intention to inform his readers of what day of the week it was in Rev. 1:10. But what, then, was John revealing here?
I believe that the expression “the Lord’s day” should best be understood as an alternate form of the expression “the day of the Lord.” Concerning this future time period, we read the following in Amos 5:18-20 and Zephaniah 1:14-18:
Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why would you have the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light, as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of Yahweh darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?
The great day of Yahweh is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of Yahweh is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against Yahweh; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of Yahweh. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.
It should be noted that, in Scripture, the term “day” is not always used to refer to a literal 12-hour period lasting from sunrise to sunset (or a 24-hour period lasting from sunset to sunset). In some verses and passages – such as, I believe, the passages quoted above – the term is being used in a figurative sense to denote a time period of unspecified length having a distinctive feature or characteristic. And based on what we read in these passages, the distinguishing characteristic of this future time period will be the “wrath” of Yahweh being manifested through the judgment of earth’s inhabitants (which will stand in contrast with the present era of world-conciliation in which we’re living today [Rom. 11:15], and which Paul referred to in 2 Cor. 6:2 as “a day of salvation”). Moreover, what we read in Revelation 6-19 makes it clear that this future time of divine wrath will involve increasingly more severe and cataclysmic judgments on the earth that will lead up to, and climax with, the return of Christ to the earth.
In Acts 17:30-31, Paul declared to the Athenians that a certain “day” has been assigned by God, in which God will be “judging the inhabited earth in righteousness by the Man Whom he specifies...” And in Rom. 2:3-5, Paul referred to this time period of judgment as “the day of indignation and revelation of the just judgment of God.”[1] Other expressions used to refer to this future time of judgment include “the day of Yahweh’s sacrifice” (Zeph. 1:8), “the day of Yahweh’s rage” (Zeph. 1:18), “that day” (Isa. 2:11), “in those days” (Joel 3:1), “the day of visitation” (Isa. 10:3), “the day of [Yahweh’s] hot anger” (Isa. 13:13), “the day of vengeance” (Isa. 34:8), a “day coming for Yahweh” (Zech. 14:1), “the day of judging” (2 Pet. 2:9; 3:7), “the great day” (Jude 6) and simply “the day” (Heb. 10:25).
The most common way of referring to this time period in the Hebrew Scriptures, however, is “the day of Yahweh.” And this expression can be translated into Greek as either “the day of the Lord” (as in 1 Thess. 5:3[2] and 2 Pet. 3:4) or “the Lord’s day” (as in Rev. 1:10). In both forms of the translated expression “the day of Yahweh,” the divine name “Yahweh” is translated “Lord.” This is in accord with the ancient customary practice of translating Yahweh with “Lord,” which we find reflected in the LXX (from which the inspired writers often quoted) as well as in the Greek Scriptures (where any quotation of a verse from the Hebrew Scriptures in which the name Yahweh occurs is replaced with “Lord”). However, the only way to write or say “the Lord’s day” in the language of the Hebrew Scriptures would’ve been “the day of the Lord.”[3]
Thus, although John used the adjective form of the word “Lord” in Rev. 1:10 rather than the noun, the meaning is essentially the same in both expressions. The only difference is one of emphasis. Another example of the adjective form of a noun being used in the Greek Scriptures instead of the noun itself is found in 1 Corinthians 4:3, where Paul referred to “man’s day” (which likely refers to the time of human history transpiring prior to the day of the Lord, or “the Lord’s day”). Here, the adjective form of “man” is used rather than the noun. However, in the Hebrew it would be written as “the day of man.” Although the emphasis is slightly different in the two expressions, the essential meaning is the same. The reason John wrote “the Lord’s day” (using the adjective form of Lord) rather than “the day of the Lord” is probably due to the fact that he wanted to put the emphasis on the word “day” (thereby emphasizing the time period in which he had, in spirit, come to be present).
Since the expressions “the day of the Lord” and “the Lord’s day” are both translations of the original Hebrew expression “the day of Yahweh,” we can therefore conclude that, in Rev. 1:10, John had in mind that future period of time during which God, through Christ, will begin intervening in world affairs to judge the inhabitants of the earth and prepare Israel (and the entire earth itself) for the coming of Christ and the establishing of the kingdom of God on the earth. The implication of this is that all of the prophesied events and judgments that John subsequently described as leading up to Christ’s return (as well as the events taking place afterword, until the passing away of the present heaven and earth) will be occurring during the Lord’s day/day of the Lord. And this, of course, will include the earliest calamities associated with the opening of the seven-sealed scroll. In other words, the coming day of the Lord (or “Lord’s day”) will include the judgments associated with the “four horsemen” unleashed by the opening of the first four seals (and which, as I argued in my two-part study, ”Before the Pangs Begin,” Christ referred to in Matthew 24 as “the beginning of pangs”).
In fact, we have good reason to believe that, when John came to be in the Lord’s day, he was transported to the earliest part of this future time period (e.g., the first 24-hour day of this future time period). For when John was spiritually transported to the heavenly throne room to witness the opening of the seven-sealed scroll, this likely took place on the same literal, 24-hour day on which he saw and heard the things which we’re told he saw and heard in the first three chapters of Revelation (and which occurred “in the Lord’s day”). In Rev. 4:1 we read that “after these things” John came to be in the heavenly throne room to be shown “what must be occurring after these things.” To what “things” was John referring (and after which he came to be in the heavenly throne room)? Answer: the “things” to which John was referring are the events of which we read in Rev. 1:11 through Rev. 3:22. But these things simply consisted of what John saw and heard in the first three chapters of Revelation (i.e., John’s vision of Jesus, and the things John was told by Jesus to write to the messengers of the seven ecclesias). And these events could’ve easily transpired within the span of a few hours (and certainly within the span of a single, 24-hour-day). And the next events leading up to the opening of the first seal could’ve easily happened on the same day (or even within the same hour) as the previous “things” that John saw.
Moreover, even before John sees the seals begin to be opened by Christ (and the resulting judgments begin to occur), we have reason to believe that the day of the Lord had already commenced. For prior to his description of the events associated with the opening of the scroll, we read in Rev. 4:5 that John perceived the following phenomena: “And out of the throne [of God] are issuing lightening and voices and thunders.” Elsewhere in Revelation, the phenomena described in this verse are associated with, and can be understood as a manifestation of, God’s indignation (cf. Rev. 8:5; 11:19; 16:18). We therefore have good reason to believe that, when John came to be “in the Lord’s day,” he was spiritually transported to the very start of this future time period of judgment. And if John was transported to the earliest part of the future day of the Lord (e.g., the first 24-hour day of this future time period), then it follows that the day of the Lord will begin around the same time that the events associated with the opening of the first seal begin to occur on the earth.
For part two, click here: http://thathappyexpectation.blogspot.com/2021/05/why-snatching-away-will-occur-before_20.html
[1] Although some students of Scripture do not believe that the “day” referred to by Paul in Rom. 2:3-5 is the same as the “day of the Lord,” there’s no good reason to believe that Paul – just like the inspired Hebrew prophets before him – wouldn’t have used slightly different terminology to refer to the same general time period that will be characterized by various expressions of God’s indignation. Paul’s use of the expression “the day of indignation” is in accord with Zephaniah’s description of this time period as “the day of the wrath of Yahweh” (as well as a number of other prophecies in which this “day” is described as a time in which divine judgment will be manifested against the inhabitants of the earth). In Scripture – as in everyday language and writing – the same person, thing or time period can be referred to or described in more than one way.
[2] Some have questioned the validity of the translation “the day of the Lord” (with the article “the” used) here, since the article is not present in the Greek (which is indicated by the use of lightface type for “the” in the CLNT translation). However, in accord with the grammatical rule known as Apollonius’ Canon, the nouns “day” and “Lord” can both be understood as definite. According to this rule, when one noun governs another noun (i.e., when a noun is qualified by a genitive noun), both are either definite or indefinite (and can thus both be translated with either the definite article “the” or the indefinite article “a”). In the expression translated “the day of the Lord” in 1 Thess. 5:2, the noun “Lord” (Κυρίου) is in the genitive case. Since it qualifies the noun “day,” both “day” and “Lord” can be understood as definite (and thus translated with the use of the definite article “the”). Similarly, in 1 Thess. 4:16 we read of “the voice of the Chief Messenger” (1 Thess. 4:16). Although the article is not present in the Greek, the noun translated “Chief Messenger” (ἀρχαγγέλου) is in the genitive case. Thus, both the noun “voice” and the noun “Chief Messenger” can, in accord with Apollonius’ Canon, be understood as definite.
[3]
Consider also the frequent use of the Greek adjective
“eonian” rather than the expression “of the eon.” Again, in the ancient Hebrew
language in which the Hebrew Scriptures were written, an expression like “eonian
life” would have to be written as “the life of the eon” (using the Hebrew
noun, olam). But in the Greek, the meaning can be expressed in two
different ways (using either the noun aión or
the adjective form of the noun, aiónios).
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