What do you do to keep the sabbath holy?

[Abiyah]

The question was asked by SaggyWoman:

What do you do to keep the Sabbath holy?

-- A worthy questions for non-Baptists as well. So how do you do to keep the Sabbath holy?

 

[Singer]

Colossians Ch 2 puts it into perspective for me.
Verses 14 and 20 in particular. Jesus blotted out ordinances that were against us and hung them on his cross. (Including judging Sabbath days).

Being dead with Christ from these rudiments, it is proper to accept their "blotting out".

Worship / honor and respect for God becomes a lifestyle that is Holy Spirit driven and not a particular day's event that is motivated by rules, ordinances, doctrines, culture, habits customs and denominational beliefs.

 

[Abiyah]

That is not an answer to the question, but thank you anyway.

 

[BobRyan]

In Isaiah 66 we are told that in the New Earth Christ the Creator's Sabbath (Made for Mankind Mark 2:27 in Gen 2:3) continues to be honored. It says "From One Sabbath to another shall ALL mankind come before Me to Worship".

So that is one way I keep Sabbath - just as it was "made for mankind" by Christ the Creator - as a day of worship.

#1. I worship God.

It is also a day of rest and meditation. Without all the "other issues of daily life" to distract it is a special time of worship not possible on the other "work days". Having daily worship and devotions is great - but having a day where God allows us to shove all the busy-work aside - and then to have "worship" - is a great blessing.

No wonder Christ the Creator said it was "made for mankind"! It is one of two blessing - institutions - taken by mankind out of the Garden of Eden.

In Christ,

Bob

 

[Singer]

Originally posted by Abiyah:
That is not an answer to the question, but thank you anyway.

Abiyah, I offered it in good faith as my answer....why don't you accept it as such?

 

[WPutnam]

Originally posted by Abiyah:
The question was asked by SaggyWoman:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />What do you do to keep the Sabbath holy?

-- A worthy questions for non-Baptists as well. So how do you do to keep the Sabbath holy? </font>[/QUOTE]I observe the "Lord's Day," because the church from all antiquity, has done so.

Speculation is, when the Christians began to be persecuted, they left the synagogues, began to have their "sabboth" on Sunday in their own homes to distinguish themselves from the non-believing Jews.

Also, the church apparently had the "authority" to do this, since the power to "bind and loose" from Matthew 16:18 seems to be applicable here.

Eventually, they were able to do this in building dedicated for this purpose.

There was only one "church" around (applying the word "church" to Christianity here) and all historical records, including the early church fathers and archetectual/archological evidence shows that this same church, traced through history, is todays Catholic Church.

Here is another clue...

Somehwere around AD 100, we find some of the early fathers applying the title "Catholic" to this church.

I know of no other Christian community around during that period, even up to about 1,000 years after Pentecost, not counting the various heresies that came and went.

Incredible, huh?

God bless,

PAX

Bill+†+


Regina Angelorum, ora pro nobis!


Eventually

 

[BobRyan]

Singer -

Perhaps you meant to say

#1. I don't honor the Sabbath as I don't think God wants us to do that anymore.

#2. I don't even keep Sunday as a Sabbath - it is more a tradition where I attend church and then spend the rest of the day doing whatever needs to be done on the weekend.

Others might say --

"I keep Sunday as the Sabbath - I worship and referain from work on that day".

Anyway - I think Abiyah was looking for something like that in addition to some of the other things you posted.

In Christ,

Bob

 

[Singer]

(Pacman)

Incredible, huh?

(Singer)

No, not incredible Bill.
I'm not impressed that a certain Catholic ruler decreed his institution as the topdog of the day and began killing the opposition. I'm not impressed that somebody took the term "catholic" meaning general, universal and overall believers and applied a capital C to it and then called it "The Church" that Jesus established.

Nope....not impressed yet, Bill.

(Eventually)

 

[Jim1999]

I don't observe a Sabbath as such, but I do manage to keep Sunday as a special day to consider the Lord; hence, The Lord's Day. Aside from church services, I use the day for rest, often fast, and refrain from those activities than can be done in the week. I do not attend nor view on the telly, sporting events or other such activities. These are personal choices and I have never preached on them as "law" or "musts" to determine one's spiritual level. These are things I must do to satisfy my own mind.

It is a changing world, however, and we must also consider this in the equation. Not every man can fish on Saturday and must consider Sunday to share that fishing experience with his youngsters.

Cheers,

Jim

 

[Singer]

Bob,

I meant to say what I said. I'm just not a legalistic christian and if I was it would be hard to determine if one day is any more important than another considering all the input available today. I feel that if I honored Sunday that I'd have fingerpointers who would ridicule my choice and vice versa. I don't attempt to please man in their various choices...only to find peace with God...... and the Holy Spirit has not condemned me for my action. Condemnation only comes to me from man. I'd like to think you're not one of them.

Romans 14:22 " Hast thou faith? have [it] to thyself before God. Happy [is] he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth"

That seems like a reasonable defense on my part.

 

[Abiyah]

Singer responded --

Colossians Ch 2 puts it into perspective for me.
Verses 14 and 20 in particular. Jesus blotted out ordinances that were against us and hung them on his cross. (Including judging Sabbath days).

Being dead with Christ from these rudiments, it is proper to accept their "blotting out".

Worship / honor and respect for God becomes a lifestyle that is Holy Spirit driven and not a particular day's event that is motivated by rules, ordinances, doctrines, culture, habits customs and denominational beliefs.

I answered:

That is not an answer to the question, but thank you anyway.

Singer wrote --

Abiyah, I offered it in good faith as my answer....why don't you accept it as such?

My question was:

What do you do to keep the Sabbath holy?

I wrote this question knowing that many here set aside Sunday, and I and others set aside the last day of the week as Sabbath. I was not trying to be tricky or to cause problems; I really wondered.

But the reason I thanked you for the answer, with the explanation that it does not really answer the question is because you don't set aside any day, apparently. Or did I missread your post? I suppose I could get into answering your post, but that was not my intention here; I merely wanted to know what folks do.

For example, many in my belief-system will not turn on the computer; I do. I come here because I want to "chat" with others who know my Lord on Sabbath; it is part of my observance. Then again, i will not go out to eat or otherwise spend money, while some may (although I know no Sabbath-observers who will). This is what my intentions were -- to learn how it is observed, not how it is ignored.

I intended no offense.

 

[Carson Weber]

I don't keep the Sabbath.

 

[Eric B]

There was only one "church" around (applying the word "church" to Christianity here) and all historical records, including the early church fathers and archetectual/archological evidence shows that this same church, traced through history, is todays Catholic Church.

Here is another clue...

Somehwere around AD 100, we find some of the early fathers applying the title "Catholic" to this church.

I know of no other Christian community around during that period, even up to about 1,000 years after Pentecost, not counting the various heresies that came and went.

I know this is a tangent, but wouldn't it really be the Greek Orthodox Church? Rome was originally only one patriarchate out of the 5, and it broke off, while the others remained in communion with Constantinople.

 

[Singer]

Thanks for explaining, Abiyah, I see your point.... and while we're on the topic, I might add my thoughts on the Sabbath. We have an SDA church in our town and I observe the members (both of them..) walking to church on Saturday. I really have to wonder if God is giving them brownie points for relaxing on this day. All SDAers here are vegetarians (I know them personally) but yet their prominent member was a very successful cattle rancher who provided beef for the American dinnertable. I'm sure when his wife was hospitalized in the ICU that he would not have expected the doctors and nurses to NOT show up for work on Saturday. I doubt if he failed to turn on lights in his house or flush the stool so as not to cause anyone to work on his Sabbath. If he got to church and found it on fire on Saturday would he call the fire dept. or would he cause them to sin by coming to his aid?

Same goes for Sunday keepers.

You can use my verse Rom 14:22 in support of your beliefs too...it works both ways..

Thanks

 

[Eric B]

SDA's are not as strict as Orthodox Jews (no turning on lights, etc). Emergencies are what they would consider "the ox in the ditch". Some SDA's eat maet, but only the "clean" meats.

 

[Singer]

(Quote)
There was only one "church" around (applying the word "church" to Christianity here) and all historical records, including the early church fathers and archetectual/archological evidence shows that this same church, traced through history, is todays Catholic Church.
(Unquote)

Wrong...there was a church in the wilderness in Moses' time and many churches that Paul visited that (traced through history) existed before Catholicism.

Catholicism can be traced to 110AD at the earliest and they cannot claim every church that existed before that time was Catholic also.

Salvation was granted thousands of times before Catholicism. Jesus released souls from hell without input from the Vatican.

 

[BobRyan]

Originally posted by Carson Weber:
I don't keep the Sabbath.

Say it aint so!

In Christ,

Bob

 

[BobRyan]

Originally posted by Singer:
Bob,

I meant to say what I said. I'm just not a legalistic christian and if I was it would be hard to determine if one day is any more important than another considering all the input available today. I feel that if I honored Sunday that I'd have fingerpointers who would ridicule my choice and vice versa. I don't attempt to please man in their various choices...only to find peace with God...... and the Holy Spirit has not condemned me for my action. Condemnation only comes to me from man. I'd like to think you're not one of them.

Romans 14:22 " Hast thou faith? have [it] to thyself before God. Happy [is] he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth"

That seems like a reasonable defense on my part.

Singer - I did not mean for you to feel like you had to defend your choice for either keeping or not keeping some day on a 7 day creation-week cycle.

Either you "observe" one of your own choosing or you do not. I just didn't know which you were choosing.

In Christ,

Bob

 

[BobRyan]

Singer said Catholicism can be traced to 110AD at the earliest and they cannot claim every church that existed before that time was Catholic also.

Catholics claiming that the 2nd century church was "their catholic church" is a bit like Baptists saying that John the baptist was a Southern Baptist "because the word is the name".

I always find it entertaining when Roman Catholics choose that same path as some of our Baptist brethteren have been known to do with John.

In Christ,

Bob

 

[BobRyan]

Though Carson rejects Pope John Paul's views as quoted beloe - still I thought it would be fun to quote.

Dies Domini pt 11 "the rest of the Sabbath..discloses something of the nuptial shape of the relationship which God wants to establish with the creature made in his image, by calling that creature to enter a pact of love". Pt 15 "unlike many other precepts it (the Sabbath) is set not within the context of strictly cultic (Jewish) stipulations but within the Decalogue, the "ten words" which represent the very pillars of moral life inscribed on the human (not merely Jewish) heart".

Dies Domini pt 15 "in setting this (Sabbath) commandment within the context of the basic structure of ethics ,Israel and then the church declare that they consider it not just a matter of community religious discipline but a defining and delible expression of our relationship with God"

The "I pay no attention to the Sabbath" views - expressed by some of our Catholic friends - is not "in complete harmony" with what the Pope has said.


In Christ,

Bob