orthodox and the seventh-day sabbath

[icedragon101]

Hello
I am looking into sabbath groups, and I am wondering about sabbath groups in the ortodox groups. what is the sabbath keeping practices in the orthodox groups?

[kamikat]

We still consider Saturday the sabbath. In many larger churches, the Divine Liturgy is still celebrated on Saturdays. However, we typically celebrate our weekly services on the Lord's Day of resurrection. Since Christian worship focuses on Christ's Resurrection, Sunday is the proper day to worship Christ.

[The Prokeimenon!]

God blessed the Sabbath when He rested from His creative work.

Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath when He rested from His re-creative work in the tomb.

Thus, the Orthodox universally commemorate those who have departed to their rest and set aside Saturday (the Sabbath) to pray for them.

We celebrate the Resurrection on the 8th day- Sunday.

Rdr Moses

[Khaleas]

Totally OT, but those two kiddos are very cute! :)

[Oblio]

One of the biggest days in our year is Great and Holy Saturday, of which the weekly Sabbath (and the Sabbath of Creation that it commemorates) is a foreshadow. This is the time when our Lord, after bringing forth the new Creation by his work on the Cross, rested in preparation for His glorious Pascha.

[Oblio]

From our services (a VERY small portion) of Great and Holy Saturday:

You have sanctified this, the seventh day,
which of old You blessed by rest from work;
for You bring all things into being and renew them, my Savior,
while resting and reviving on the sabbath.

By the overwhelming strength of Your divine nature.
You won the victory, O Word;
for Your soul was parted from the flesh,
sundering by Your might the bonds of hell and death.

When hell encountered You, O Word,
it was embittered.
Seeing You as a mortal man deified,
marked with wounds yet having almighty power,
it cried out at Your awesome appearance.


THE GREAT MOSES MYSTICALLY FORESHADOWED THIS DAY
GOD BLESSED THE SEVENTH DAY WHEN HE SAID:
THIS IS THE BLESSED SABBATH.
THIS IS THE DAY OF REST
ON WHICH THE ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD RESTED FROM HIS WORKS.
HE KEPT THE SABBATH IN THE FLESH,
THROUGH THE DISPENSATION OF DEATH.
BUT ON THIS DAY, HE RETURNED AGAIN
THROUGH THE RESURRECTION.
HE HAS GRANTED US ETERNAL LIFE,//
FOR HE ALONE IS GOOD, THE LOVER OF MANKIND.

[ma2000]

I don't know about other Orthodox countries, but in Romania (and in my oppinion this is simmilar in Russia, Greece, etc) the seventh day of the week is Sunday. And that is Lord's day.
The weeks starts with Monday and ends with Sunday.

[xristos.anesti]

Many years,

Sunday is the first day of the week, Saturday is the seventh. Many Orthodox countries, due to a rather un-beneficial influence of the reds (communists) use calendars that have Sunday as the 7th day of the week. I had a look at some Orthodox calendars and it seems to differ.

In the most cases the day order in a week (Orthodox calendars) is:

S M T W R F S

But in some, like Romanian for example it is,

M T W T F S S

However, that is a case for someone else to study.





For the OP.

As far as the Christian Church is concerned, we are not sabbatarian - nor are we in any part - part of the "remnant" (EGW). We do not hold Saturday to be holy because it was given to the Jews so that they can remember that they came out of slavery out of Misir (Egypt) (Deut. V) and it was a sign between God and Jews.

Ten commandments, including the fourth, were the teacher until Christ (Gal III, 24), when He defeated death there is no more teacher (tutor, pedagogue) but Christ. The ministry of the death has passed away and the new covenant is now ours (II Cor. 3).

We, according to an ancient custom, gather in the First day of the week, the Lord's Holy and Great Eight day because it is proper and right to do so.

Christian Church is not a slave to letters written on the stone, nor is she a Jewish Synagogue.

If you have further questions, please feel free to ask.



Word on Seventh Day Adventists (SDA)

SDA is teaching that Sabbath (Saturday) is still “in power”. In these – last - days, the Decalogue (Ten Commandments) and those who obey that law – Sabbath being the major sign of that obedience - will have the “sign of God” and "worshipping of Sunday" will be the mark of the beast - all those who don't have the mark of the beast will be prosecuted.
SDA is teaching that they are "the Church of the remnant" and that in the last day they will win and everyone else will "burn until there is fuel to burn". SDA teaches soul sleep, that is - no hell theory.
They have a prophet - EGW (Ellen Gould White) who had visions and is "the Spirit of prophecy" - also a sign that they are a "real Church".
SDA teaches that USA will throw away the State-Church separation and that all Protestants and Roman Catholics will unite under the Roman Pope (who is Antichrist due to "one of his titles" being VICARIVS FILII DEI - Vicar of Son of God - the Latin letters adding to 666 - where V=5, I=1 and so on). All of these (Protestants and RC – and Orthodox I guess, for we “worship Sunday” also, plus we are idol worshippers and the usual) will prosecute and kill SDA members when the Sunday Lwa is passed (law requiring for Sunday to be observed as Sabbath) and that then Christ will come and that will be the end of "great controversy" – which is the name of one of many books that their prophet wrote.

They have very interesting evangelisation programme which uses lots of brain numbing mathematics to prove that they are the true Church.

They used to be same sect as the JW but they split.

At first, pioneers of SDA held that Christ was not God and that He is Archangel Michael – this is still held among many.

They live according to the Jewish (Old Testament) dietary law. And consider alcohol, smoking to be sin.

They also teach that Christ entered into Holy of Holies (in Heaven) in 1844 and is doing service for us and that soon the days of mercy will be closed and the "number" of the saved will be fulfilled.



EGW was found to have plagiarised many of her work – for a prophet she was very busy copying works of other people – even Roman Catholics.

SDA is very active in Orthodox Countries, especially due to a fact that communist governments of earlier days were tolerating them, whilst - at the same time - banning and prosecuting Orthodox. Since the fall of communism, luckily, their number has remained steady and in Serbia actually fell somewhat.

I was an SDA for some time.

Unlike many of you (like former Lutherans for example) who have serious respect for your former religious affiliation, I am very negative towards SDA due to many things that happened to me when I told them that I am questioning their theories, for this my behaviour towards SDA is somewhat militant - for this I apologise.

Many years.

ICXC
NIKA

[Shubunkin]

Thank you for the info, xristos.anesti. I had a great aunt that was SDA, and I never knew those things except that she was a vegetarian, worshipped on Saturday (she was a former Catholic), didn't wear jewelry, and also was actually a very sweet person.

[Akathist]

I never heard refereces that we consider Saturday to be the "sabbath". But that we consider Sunday to be the day we remember the ressurrection year round. That is our Holy Day. Our liturgical days are a bit like how the Jews mark the days however, and Saturday evening is actually the beginning of Sunday or the beginning of the Holy Day.

We have a service Saturday evening that is preparatory for Sunday's Divine Liturgy. Further, that service is much like former Jewish synoquogue style services for example, the reading of the Psalms. But of course, we have a lot of New Testament references on Saturday evening as well.

As far as keeping the "sabbath", many Orthodox try not to work that day and to keep it as a day of refreshment to spend with family, to read, to pray and to rest. However, some have to work.

[buzuxi02]

The first day of the week is Sunday.

This is more recognizeable in greek where there named numerically:

Theutera (theu means "two")

Triti (third day)

Tetarti (tetra- fourth day)

Pempti (pent- fifth)

Paraskevi- (preparation day)

Savato- (sabbath and the only day of the week in the greek in the neuter. Every other day of the week is in the feminine)

Kyriaki- (sunday and the feminie form for Lord)


With that said, Orthodoxy has ALWAYS held Sunday as the "eighth day" or eternal day and is the customary day of christian worship. This is verified in REV 1.10 where the feminine greek word "KYRIAKI" is tanslated as Day of the Lord. This is a complete mistranslation, otherwise the koine would have read "Imera tou Kyriou".

The term Kyriaki is the actual word used in the greek language for sunday as personified by a feminine word. Sunday (Kyriaki) being the customary date of christian worship is further verified in the DIDACHE 14.1 and in the epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 9.1.

[Shubunkin]

That was the first thing I noticed about the Orthodox Church when first beginning last June, that there are things going on in Church on Saturday and Sunday. Of course the Orthodox consider sunset the beginning of the next day, so the Great Vespers services at 6:00 PM are simply the beginning of Sunday, and we continue into Matins and Divine Liturgy the next morning.