Sabbath and the Lord's day?

[Curiousaboutchrist26]

Hello,

I read on the link below that this particular OO church keep the sabbath day as well as the Lord's day Sunday and somewhere else that the OO in general recognise that sabbath is on Saturday but worship on Sunday.
About Us
Firstly if sabbath is recognis;ded as Saturday why not worship on Saturday? (curious)
If it is true that you keep both days the Saturday for rest and the Sunday for Worship then how does it work how do you keep sabbath in your tradition?
what exactly are your beliefs on the hypostatic union? - if your beliefs are that the nature of christ was both human and divine in one on not two sperate natures but both combined is that not the true meaning of hypostatic union.

I come from a Sabbatarian (don't know how to spell) tradition in the first place I see the value in it when it is not take as a hard and fast rule that you must do or be condemned to hell. (Exaggeration of course but some people in my life are that zealous about about sabbath keeping).

i've been researching orthodoxy for almost 5 years now just trying to build up some courage to actually go to a church.

thank you for any answers.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. His ministry turned the OC on it's head, including the traditional Sabbath of Israel still being kept in Judea, which included commanded assemblies. The Sabbath is a day of rest, after which one is refreshed and better prepared to hear and study God's word...on Sunday. I was in a Sabbath-keeping church for many years, and trust me, it wasn't a restful day, especially for families with small children.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Hello,

I read on the link below that this particular OO church keep the sabbath day as well as the Lord's day Sunday and somewhere else that the OO in general recognise that sabbath is on Saturday but worship on Sunday.
About Us
Firstly if sabbath is recognis;ded as Saturday why not worship on Saturday? (curious)
If it is true that you keep both days the Saturday for rest and the Sunday for Worship then how does it work how do you keep sabbath in your tradition?
what exactly are your beliefs on the hypostatic union? - if your beliefs are that the nature of christ was both human and divine in one on not two sperate natures but both combined is that not the true meaning of hypostatic union.

I come from a Sabbatarian (don't know how to spell) tradition in the first place I see the value in it when it is not take as a hard and fast rule that you must do or be condemned to hell. (Exaggeration of course but some people in my life are that zealous about about sabbath keeping).

i've been researching orthodoxy for almost 5 years now just trying to build up some courage to actually go to a church.

thank you for any answers.

The church is not the forbidding place you might think it is. Basically it is a group of people worshiping the Lord in the way they feel most comfortable. I think it is the fear of the unknown, and going into a group of people you have never met. Some people have a real phobia about meeting groups of new people. My daughter's fiance gets very anxious in crowds, even made up of people he knows. We went looking a Open Homes during the weekend, and the first house had only us looking at it, and he was happy to come in with us. The second house had a whole lot of people looking through it, and he wanted to stay in the car while my daughter and I went in to look at the house.

Of course you are going to get some insensitive people who may button hole you and get in your face about religion, but most people in churches I have visited for the first time have been very welcoming and made me feel right at home. In one church when the Curate came to visit me, he told me that after three weeks I will be as mad as the rest of them! And it happened! Behind the liturgical services there was a loving and accepting group of people with whom I had much good fellowship. When my little daughter was about three years old, she got away from me right in the middle of the Archdeacon's sermon, and she ran laughing and giggling down the middle aisle with me in pursuit. The Archdeacon stopped, came from the pulpit and gathered the little tyke so I could take her back to my seat. No one was offended at all.

Yes, it takes a little courage to step into a new church for the first time, but you will be pleasantly surprised. I am sure that if the Orthodox church is like the Anglican church I attended for a number of years, you will enjoy the experience and fellowship, and you will discover that you will be among Christian friends who will love and accept you as you are. Those who don't are not worth worrying about.

 

[Asithilathanas]

Hello,

I read on the link below that this particular OO church keep the sabbath day as well as the Lord's day Sunday and somewhere else that the OO in general recognise that sabbath is on Saturday but worship on Sunday.
About Us
Firstly if sabbath is recognis;ded as Saturday why not worship on Saturday? (curious)
If it is true that you keep both days the Saturday for rest and the Sunday for Worship then how does it work how do you keep sabbath in your tradition?
what exactly are your beliefs on the hypostatic union? - if your beliefs are that the nature of christ was both human and divine in one on not two sperate natures but both combined is that not the true meaning of hypostatic union.

I come from a Sabbatarian (don't know how to spell) tradition in the first place I see the value in it when it is not take as a hard and fast rule that you must do or be condemned to hell. (Exaggeration of course but some people in my life are that zealous about about sabbath keeping).

i've been researching orthodoxy for almost 5 years now just trying to build up some courage to actually go to a church.

thank you for any answers.

In

 

[Asithilathanas]

In today’s society trying to keep a “sacred” day is insane. We have bills to pay, if I’ve got to work on Saturday or Sunday I’m going to.

 

[SeventhFisherofMen]

Hello,

I read on the link below that this particular OO church keep the sabbath day as well as the Lord's day Sunday and somewhere else that the OO in general recognise that sabbath is on Saturday but worship on Sunday.
About Us
Firstly if sabbath is recognis;ded as Saturday why not worship on Saturday? (curious)
If it is true that you keep both days the Saturday for rest and the Sunday for Worship then how does it work how do you keep sabbath in your tradition?
what exactly are your beliefs on the hypostatic union? - if your beliefs are that the nature of christ was both human and divine in one on not two sperate natures but both combined is that not the true meaning of hypostatic union.

I come from a Sabbatarian (don't know how to spell) tradition in the first place I see the value in it when it is not take as a hard and fast rule that you must do or be condemned to hell. (Exaggeration of course but some people in my life are that zealous about about sabbath keeping).

i've been researching orthodoxy for almost 5 years now just trying to build up some courage to actually go to a church.

thank you for any answers.

Hey Curiousaboutchrist26,
I'm a Christian who keeps Sundays Holy (The Lord's Day) by not working or purchasing things on that day and taking as a day to focus on the Lord and rest from my labors. The place in the Bible where The Lord's day is mentioned is in Revelation 1:10 "On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit..."

I also honor Sundays as the day of worship because that's the day that The Lord Jesus rose from the dead: Mark 16:9 "Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week..."

It is also the day that the early church starting to meet on: Acts 20:7 "On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight."

With all that in mind that is why, based on Biblical reasons, I worship on Sunday and honor Sunday as The Lord's Day.

Also there is a testimony by a Pastor Kim Yong Doo and his congregation called Baptized By Blazing Fire about how his congregation met together and prayed for 30 days and the testimony can be found at this link:
Baptize by Blazing Fire Book 1, by Yong-Doo Kim
And in this testimony Jesus spoke to his congregation members stressing the importance of keeping Sundays (The Lord's Day) Holy by not working or buying things on that day.

 

[dzheremi]

Hello, CuriousaboutChrist26. Welcome to the forum.

I'm not Ethiopian or Eritrean (I'm Coptic Orthodox, which is the native church of Egypt), but as far as I know, Saturday worship is something of a peculiarity of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Tewahedo Orthodox Christian churches, and the church you have found at that link is Ethiopian, so it makes sense that they would write about this. I'm not sure exactly how they honor the Sabbath (what kind of worship service or act is involved), but like it says at the link they do keep both Saturday and Sunday, though more emphasis is put on Sunday.

As far as the hypostatic union is concerned, the Ethiopian and Eritrean Tewahedo Orthodox Churches, like all OO, affirm one incarnate nature of the Word, the God-man Jesus Christ. Of course we believe that this is the correct understanding of the incarnation, though thanks be to God in recent decades (since the 1960s) there has been a rapprochement between us, the "non-Chalcedonians", and the "Chalcedonians" (Eastern Orthodox like the Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, etc., and Roman Catholics) such that we have come together on many fronts and gone back to our original sources and found that we can agree in matters theological so long as certain safeguards are in place that exclude monophysitism (the belief that Christ has one 'simple' nature -- i.e., that He is either only divine or only human, instead of both as we believe) or Nestorianism (the belief that Christ's natures are separate from one another, i.e., He has both, but they are not hypostatically united, so there is a kind of division between the human and the divine in Christ, rather than being united in one Person). We were originally accused of being monophysite by the Chalcedonians, and we originally accused them of being Nestorian because some passages of the Tome which they accepted at Chalcedon in 451 could be read in that manner, so it's important that we do not go too far to any one extreme in Christology, because we both want to avoid those heresies which are at both ends of this Christological continuum. Orthodoxy is very balanced.

I'm sorry I can't provide a better answer to your original question. I'm not Ethiopian, and they would know best of all about those practices which are unique to them. Maybe you can contact the website of the church that you found and they can help you or answer some of your questions?

It would be a blessing to attend an Ethiopian liturgy, I'm sure. I've never been to one, but I've worshiped with Ethiopians in my own Coptic parish lots of times. They are some of the most humble, God-fearing, and lovely people you could ever meet. A little on the shy side sometimes, but maybe that's more in comparison to Egyptians, most of whom are definitely not shy by any definition!

 

[klutedavid]

Hello,

I read on the link below that this particular OO church keep the sabbath day as well as the Lord's day Sunday and somewhere else that the OO in general recognise that sabbath is on Saturday but worship on Sunday.
About Us
Firstly if sabbath is recognis;ded as Saturday why not worship on Saturday? (curious)
If it is true that you keep both days the Saturday for rest and the Sunday for Worship then how does it work how do you keep sabbath in your tradition?
what exactly are your beliefs on the hypostatic union? - if your beliefs are that the nature of christ was both human and divine in one on not two sperate natures but both combined is that not the true meaning of hypostatic union.

I come from a Sabbatarian (don't know how to spell) tradition in the first place I see the value in it when it is not take as a hard and fast rule that you must do or be condemned to hell. (Exaggeration of course but some people in my life are that zealous about about sabbath keeping).

i've been researching orthodoxy for almost 5 years now just trying to build up some courage to actually go to a church.

thank you for any answers.

If you live in a country where the Sabbath day is a public holiday, such as in Israel in the first century. Then take a break and rest after all it is a state sponsored rest.

If you do not live in a society that honors a Sabbath day, then you impose an impossible burden on folk. Many occupations these days have rotating shifts and weekend work.

Gentile Christians are not under the law, hence we are not required to observe a Sabbath.

Gentile Christian churches throughout history have regarded the first day as the Lord's day.

We are under grace and not under the law!

 

[dzheremi]

Hello all,

Please take note of the fact that this thread is quite purposely posted in the Oriental Orthodox subforum, Voice of the Desert, as the OP has asked questions about a particular OO church. Hence, this thread is not the appropriate place to put forth arguments regarding the topic of Saturday worship more generally, whether or not Christians are "under the law", etc.

Please refrain from posting argumentatively about this general topic, since the OO forum is not a place for non-OO to argue, and as Saturday worship is a feature of at least two particular OO churches (that of the Ethiopians and that of the Eritreans), posting such arguments could be construed as arguing against the faith represented by the forum, which is against the site-wide rules regarding visitor conduct in the confessional forums. Future posts that stray into argument will be reported to the mods for clean up. Please see here and the link contained therein to the community guidelines if you require more information. Thank you.

 

[klutedavid]

Hello all,

Please take note of the fact that this thread is quite purposely posted in the Oriental Orthodox subforum, Voice of the Desert, as the OP has asked questions about a particular OO church. Hence, this thread is not the appropriate place to put forth arguments regarding the topic of Saturday worship more generally, whether or not Christians are "under the law", etc.

Please refrain from posting argumentatively about this general topic, since the OO forum is not a place for non-OO to argue, and as Saturday worship is a feature of at least two particular OO churches (that of the Ethiopians and that of the Eritreans), posting such arguments could be construed as arguing against the faith represented by the forum, which is against the site-wide rules regarding visitor conduct in the confessional forums. Future posts that stray into argument will be reported to the mods for clean up. Please see here and the link contained therein to the community guidelines if you require more information. Thank you.

Roger, over and out.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Hey Curiousaboutchrist26,
I'm a Christian who keeps Sundays Holy (The Lord's Day) by not working or purchasing things on that day and taking as a day to focus on the Lord and rest from my labors. The place in the Bible where The Lord's day is mentioned is in Revelation 1:10 "On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit..."

I also honor Sundays as the day of worship because that's the day that The Lord Jesus rose from the dead: Mark 16:9 "Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week..."

It is also the day that the early church starting to meet on: Acts 20:7 "On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight."

With all that in mind that is why, based on Biblical reasons, I worship on Sunday and honor Sunday as The Lord's Day.

Also there is a testimony by a Pastor Kim Yong Doo and his congregation called Baptized By Blazing Fire about how his congregation met together and prayed for 30 days and the testimony can be found at this link:
Baptize by Blazing Fire Book 1, by Yong-Doo Kim
And in this testimony Jesus spoke to his congregation members stressing the importance of keeping Sundays (The Lord's Day) Holy by not working or buying things on that day.

We're coming up on the Easter season and the annual arguments about which day Jesus rose, and the meaning of the "Lord's Day." Stay tuned.

 

[dzheremi]

Such arguing is not a feature of OO churches, thank God. We set Pascha for the rest of you, remember, which is why our Alexandrian patriarch is called among his various titles of respect "Judge of the Universe" (ecumene, not kosmos).

 

[rakovsky]

Good replies, Dzheremi.