IS THE TEACHING OF ROMANS 14:5 INIMICAL TO AN UNDERSTANDING THAT THE LORD’S DAY IS THE PROPER DAY FOR CHRISTIAN CORPORATE WORSHIP? (Part 5)

Conclusion

Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 identify the first day of the week as the day upon which the early churches met. The historical evidence immediately following the close of the New Testament also points to the churches meeting on the first day of the week: meeting regularly for worship on a day that they called “the Lord’s Day”— a term found in Revelation 1:10— due to its association with the lordship of Christ, specifically in regards to His resurrection on the first day. It is unthinkable that the early Christian community— including, it seems, the apostle John, as the author of Revelation— was entirely composed of those who were “weak in faith” (to use Paul’s phrase from Romans 14), with no one raising an objection to this prevailing understanding of “the Lord’s Day.” Therefore, John Murray’s conclusion seems inevitable:

The evidence supporting the memorial character of the first day is not to be controverted and, consequently, in this respect also the assumption in question cannot be entertained, namely, that all religious distinction of days is completely abrogated in the Christian economy.[1]

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[1]Murray, Romans, 258-259.