Sabbath vs Sunday - Why and who

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I'll answer in case this post doesn't get closed...

This is one of the passages used in explaining our perspective:

Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. - Colossians 2:16-17

Here is another:

Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another?... One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind... for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord... But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God... Therefore let us not judge one another anymore... I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. - Romans 14:1-14

Jesus was criticized several times for His and His disciples' actions on the Sabbath:

The Pharisees were saying to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”... Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath...” - Mark 2:24-27

In Hebrews we receive some more teaching on the subject:

Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it... So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. - Hebrews 4:1-11

I was once convinced that Saturday should be "the Sabbath Day" for all Christians. One day the Spirit pressed me to read Galatians. I considered the book in light of passages such as those above, and I now have a different perspective. I now believe that while taking a day of rest is part of God's design for healthy living, it is ultimately a foreshadowing of something yet to come. So, in my view "remember it and keep it holy" relates more to our view of what is to come than our rituals in this life. I believe that it is good to worship, minister, fellowship and serve on Saturday... and Sunday... and every day. I believe it is good to remember the coming Sabbath rest for the people of God. I also believe there is value in taking a day off (without becoming a slave to it.)

However, I am only sharing my views. I will not attempt to convince you to believe what I believe, because as Romans 14 teaches, each one should be fully convinced in what they do and should not judge the other.

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From Orthodox catechism

In the first day there are more reasons to celebrate:

it is sunday - the day of the sun - the first day when sun arised (Genesis 1:3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.) (not in catechism, Muke comment -> false assertion)

  • In this day He created the univers - one verset -

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

  • Is the day when the Lord Jesus Christ rise from death, the day when death was defeated for the human nature.

Matthew 28:1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

The true reason.

  • Is the day when Holy Spirit come down to the earth in the day of pentecost

Acts 2:1,3 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

Everybody could observe, not only that the Lord Jesus choose the first day to bring us the good news. Also, the Holy Spirit choose the same first day to come to us. What kind of Christian could ignore these proves and to not take the first day as the day of joy?!

  • Is the day of first liturgy, the day when first christians "break bread"

Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread.

1 Corinthians 16:2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

The first day is called Lord's Day. What day we can celebrate other than Lord's Day?!

Revelation 1:10 On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,

In my opinion (which is not so important) the 10 commandments must be understood in their context. The context was that, the Jewish people, after spending centuries in Egypt, became seek with egyption disease: idolatry. They were so seek, because after they saw the miracles from the dead see, at short time after, the same people with same eyes and minds, made a calf from melted metal thinking to it as the savior from the Egyptian's hands. Today for us seems to be very unbelievable to embrace this kind of illusion. (meanwhile God teach us and cured us.) So God, gave them a reason to not forget and to not delude their-self with illusions, and to remember Who is their savior and protector, by celebrating the seven day as a law.

But we today what to remember? The Sabbath? The exod of Jewish people? This is not so clever. We have more important reasons to celebrate, to remember, directly regarding to us.

To understand that God cured us (in the first day), we should not forget that the same kind of idolatry (illusion) was very spread 2000 years ago. The most civilized cultures, Greek and Roman, had many gods in that time: gods for everything: for food, for water, for fertility, for beauty, for hunt, for war etc. How they dissapeared in 300 years? What happened? The answer: God make a fire to Golgotha. And the martyrs spread that fire around the world. Through apostles, God bring civilization, hospitals, schools teaching us real wisdom and philosophy of the life: Christianity. Not pitagoreic schools, or previous academies, neither followers of Socrates.

So, we celebrate the rise from death of the Lord of the life, Jesus Christ.

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