The Lord's Day Celebration

For Christians today the commandment to honour the Sabbath is not well understood. For a start Christians do not keep the Sabbath as such that is Saturday but rather Sunday, as a special day, and although some Christians call it the Sabbath, the majority call it the The Lords Day.

From early times Christians saw the honouring of the first day of the week, the day of the resurrection, as a way to fulfill the Sabbath commandment. But in the early church, as in the Jewish world, the day began at sunset not at midnight, as it does for us, and so the early Christian celebration of the Lords Day began on Saturday evening rather than Sunday morning.

Our churches mark the Lords Day primarily by holding their main services, masses or liturgies on it. However for many people attending church is the only thing that is different about Sunday, and it is largely treated in the same way as Saturday. About thirty years ago a number of Christians felt that if they were going to keep the Lords Day as special then they needed to do something else. At the same time many new Christians were looking for ways to better use Saturday evening, a time in secular society often set aside for romantic relating. Since part of this number were Messianic Christians, Christians from Jewish backgrounds, a solution was found in the Jewish traditions, and the result was the Lords Day celebration we are looking at today.

The Lords Day celebration takes place on Saturday evenings and has three components: worship and prayer in which we thank God for his goodness to us, and which is sometimes followed by a Bible discussion or teaching; then secondly a great meal; and then thirdly time to relax together and enjoy one anothers company. It is a time to mark the good things of the week, and enter into Sunday on Saturday night as the Jews had entered into the Sabbath on Friday night.

The prayers of the Lords Day celebration are a Christianised form of the Jewish prayers that were prayed at the opening meal of the Sabbath on a Friday evening.

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[Starpass]

What do you mean by saying "For Christians today the commandment to honour the Sabbath is not well understood."

I believe; in the Bible Jesus said to honour the Sabbath. The Sabbath is Saturday. Sun day is pagan worship of Jesus. Most people who call themselves Christians have it wrong; thanks to the pagan ideals of the Roman Catholic Church; the Whore of Babylon and the Harlots that came out of her are all the other churches that broke away from the Catholic Church. Revelation of Jesus Christ.

[readermichael]

...fast before receiving Communion if the Eucharist is celebrated on that day. Saturday then concludes at sundown with the gathered people of God offering prayer and praise at the setting of the sun, heralding the day of Resurrection in the service of Great Vespers. This has been continuous Orthodox practice since earliest times, as can be seen from the canons and ancient liturgies. I suspect the non-observance of the Sabbath is a later custom of other Christian traditions.

[readermichael]

I would respectfully challenge the assertion that Christians do not keep the Sabbath. Sunday is most certainly the Lord's Day and the pinnacle of the Christian week but we never left the sabbath behind. It is observed as a day for commemorating the Saints and praying for the departed. Weddings may not be performed on Saturdays and, even in the strictest of fasting seasons, the ancient canons forbid fasting on Saturdays, so abstinence is practised instead. The only exception to this is the...