# Do Christians follow the 10 commandments? Specifically the one about the Sabbath. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 8, 2011, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853 "2011-01-08T06:14:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pierrot\_Le\_Fou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f475e1/32.png) [@Pierrot\_Le\_Fou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pierrot_Le_Fou)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/1 "2011-01-08T06:14:21Z")
I cannot remember knowing a Christian that observed the sabbath. Most seem to instead observe the lord’s day on Sundays, which is not the sabbath. Do any of the branches of Christians follow the ten commandments? Are they required to follow all or just some? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/2 "2011-01-08T06:25:26Z")
I know that Seventh Day Adventists and their kin all observe the Sabbath. I also know a lot of Christians of every denomination that will not work on Saturday. I, as a Christian, see Romans 14 as an indication that it doesn’t matter. Verse 5 lumps in viewing days as special as being as unimportant as what food you eat. The entire passage is about how unimportant it all is, but Paul clearly lumps himself in with the people who do not think it matters. He only honors it out of respect to the people he is with. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/3 "2011-01-08T06:29:30Z")
How is keeping the sabbath on Sunday a violation of a Commandment? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Pierrot\_Le\_Fou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f475e1/32.png) [@Pierrot\_Le\_Fou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pierrot_Le_Fou)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/4 "2011-01-08T06:42:32Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > How is keeping the sabbath on Sunday a violation of a Commandment? > > Regards, > Shodan It is not the Sabbath anymore than Wednesday. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/5 "2011-01-08T14:48:34Z")
> [@Pierrot\_Le\_Fou](#): > > It is not the Sabbath anymore than Wednesday. How did you determine that? There is nothing in the Bible that specifies Saturday as the day on which the sabbath must be kept. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/6 "2011-01-08T15:02:38Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > How did you determine that? There is nothing in the Bible that specifies Saturday as the day on which the sabbath must be kept. > > Regards, > Shodan We don’t know if God’s calendar starts the week on Sunday or Monday. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/7 "2011-01-08T15:45:29Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > How did you determine that? There is nothing in the Bible that specifies Saturday as the day on which the sabbath must be kept. Well the Jews _wrote_ the bible, and they were celebrating the Sabbath on Saturday long before Jesus was even a twinkle in Mary’s ovary. Remember, the Sabbath is the seventh day, the one God rested on. You can’t just say “any old day will work, as long as God gets his”. It has to be THE seventh day, so either the Jews or the Pope is wrong, it can’t be both ways. Personally, I would assume that the people and culture who invented the entire concept had it right for thousands of years, and the upstarts who came along later and changed it were the ones who got it wrong. I realize it’s not an airtight argument, but I don’t care because it’s like arguing how many angels can dance on a pinhead. Pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/8 "2011-01-08T15:58:28Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Remember, the Sabbath is the seventh day, the one God rested on. You can’t just say “any old day will work, as long as God gets his”. It has to be THE seventh day… OK, how do you know that God started work on Sunday instead of Monday like the rest of us? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/9 "2011-01-08T16:05:45Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > OK, how do you know that God started work on Sunday instead of Monday like the rest of us? I just spelled out my argument: The Jews invented the concept, and they said so. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/10 "2011-01-08T16:40:51Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > I just spelled out my argument: The Jews invented the concept, and they said so. The OP asked if Christians followed the Ten Commandments, and gave celebrating the sabbath on Sunday instead of Saturday as an example. So where \*in the Ten Commandments \*do the Jews, or God, specify that it has to be Saturday? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/11 "2011-01-08T17:08:39Z")
> [@](#): > > For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it. The Sabbath is a concept invented by Jews, and in a book written by Jews (and taken by most Christians as the Word of God), it says we must keep the seventh day holy. The seventh day, according to the Jews, the very authors and progenitors of the concept of the Sabbath, is Saturday. Again, it’s not an airtight argument, I admit. But let’s turn it around: Where in the ten commandments, or anywhere in Christian scripture for that matter, does it say “The Jews were all wrong for thousands of years, Sunday is the REAL Sabbath”? My point is that the _change_ requires explanation, not the business as usual. Or rather, the original Sabbath only requires _one_ explanation (one I don’t think is valid and that’s why I don’t observe the Sabbath), the change from one day to the other requires _two_. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that the original Sabbath justification was valid, there still isn’t any valid argument that I’ve seen for changing it from Saturday to Sunday. ---
**Author:** ![Pierrot\_Le\_Fou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f475e1/32.png) [@Pierrot\_Le\_Fou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pierrot_Le_Fou)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/12 "2011-01-08T17:31:22Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Remember, the Sabbath is the seventh day, the one God rested on. You can’t just say “any old day will work, as long as God gets his”. It has to be THE seventh day, so either the Jews or the Pope is wrong, it can’t be both ways. From looking at the Catholic Encyclopedia, it looks like Catholics are pretty open about celebrating the Lord’s Day instead of the Sabbath: > [@Catholic Encyclopedia](#): > > In the Didache (14) the injunction is given: “On the Lord’s Day come together and break bread. And give thanks (offer the Eucharist), after confessing your sins that your sacrifice may be pure”. St. Ignatius (Ep. ad Magnes. ix) speaks of _ **Christians as “no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day, on which also Our Life rose again”** _. In the Epistle of Barnabas (xv) we read: “Wherefore, also, we keep the eight day (i.e. the first of the week) with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead”. emphasis added. And from [Catholic.com](http://Catholic.com): > [@Catholic.com](#): > > Some religious organizations (Seventh-Day Adventists, Seventh-Day Baptists, and certain others) claim that Christians must not worship on Sunday but on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. They claim that, at some unnamed time after the apostolic age, the Church “changed” the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. > > However, passages of Scripture such as Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2, Colossians 2:16-17, and Revelation 1:10 indicate that, even during New Testament times, _ **the Sabbath is no longer binding and that Christians are to worship on the Lord’s day, Sunday, instead.** _ emphasis It looks like Catholics, going back to at least St. Ignatius (born 50 AD died 98-117 AD), have said that they no longer observe the Sabbath. > **[CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Sunday](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14335a.htm)** > > Sunday (Day of the Sun), as the name of the first day of the week, is derived from Egyptian astrology [http://www.catholic.com/library/Sabbath\_or\_Sunday.asp](http://www.catholic.com/library/Sabbath_or_Sunday.asp) ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/13 "2011-01-08T18:13:25Z")
> [@Pierrot\_Le\_Fou](#): > > I cannot remember knowing a Christian that observed the sabbath. Most seem to instead observe the lord’s day on Sundays, which is not the sabbath. > > Do any of the branches of Christians follow the ten commandments? Are they required to follow all or just some? I was raised in a cult known as the [World Wide Church Of God](http://www.hwarmstrong.com/), or as I now call it, The World Wide Church of God Damned Lies. Observing the “Sabbath” (sundown Friday until sundown Saturday) was required. No work, no shopping/buying things, no television. They never mentioned fucking which was good as when I was 16 I was nailing a deacons teenage daughter when my family went to their house for Friday night prayer and fellowship. Members that were found to be violating the sabbath got stern counseling from the elder ministers which could include being “disfellowshiped” (not being allowed to come to the church any more. At the time I prayed and prayed that would happen to me!). ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/14 "2011-01-08T20:54:06Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > The Sabbath is a concept invented by Jews, and in a book written by Jews (and taken by most Christians as the Word of God), it says we must keep the seventh day holy. The seventh day, according to the Jews, the very authors and progenitors of the concept of the Sabbath, is Saturday. > > Again, it’s not an airtight argument, I admit. But let’s turn it around: Where in the ten commandments, or anywhere in Christian scripture for that matter, does it say “The Jews were all wrong for thousands of years, Sunday is the REAL Sabbath”? > > My point is that the _change_ requires explanation, not the business as usual. Or rather, the original Sabbath only requires _one_ explanation (one I don’t think is valid and that’s why I don’t observe the Sabbath), the change from one day to the other requires _two_. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that the original Sabbath justification was valid, there still isn’t any valid argument that I’ve seen for changing it from Saturday to Sunday. You may have gotten wind of a little event that occurred on a Sunday that Christians think kind of shook things up a bit and changed the rules. Googling “new Covenant” could be a good start. > **[New Covenant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Covenant)** > > The New Covenant (Ancient Greek: διαθήκη καινή, romanized: diathḗkē kainḗ) is a biblical interpretation which was originally derived from a phrase in the Book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31–34), in the Hebrew Bible (or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible). Generally, Christians believe that the promised New Covenant—new relationship with God—was instituted at the Last Supper as part of the Eucharist, which, in the Gospel of John, includes the New Commandment. > Most Christians believe that Jesu... Basically, Christians believe God had a first covenant with the Israelites and that was fine, but then (as foretold by Jeremiah and maybe others) – they renegotiated the deal. Happens in the NFL all the time. And while the New Covenant applied to the Jews/Israelites, it became clear early on that the apostles thought it applied more universally, so the rules that had worked for the Hebrews were not sine qua nons. No one really thought, for instance, that you had to keep the rules of Kashrut if you were a formerly Jewish Christian, or non-Jewish convert. Heck, Paul intimated that he really didn’t think eating the meat of animals sacrificed to false gods was any big deal, which of course a pre-Resurrection Jew worth his salt would have freaked the Hell out about, properly interpreting the scriptures. Changing the observance of the Sabbath to the day of the Resurrection is hardly more “illegitimate” than overthrowing a bunch of rules from the Pentatuch. P.S. The Israelites changed the rules themselves, sort of, when Jews decided all of the purification and sacrificing turtle dove rules were no longer really workable (I know it goes back to the Temple and is more complex than that, my point is that “hardcore orthodox Judaism,” including the Talmud, has always recognized that sometimes the rules could evolve). P.P.S. One of the bigger criticisms Jesus encountered was being jumped on by Saducees or whoever for curing people on the Sabbath. Again consistent with a New Covenant and with Jesus (otherwise generally regarded as a good Jewish boy; they did call him “rabbi”) showing flexibility of substance over form. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/15 "2011-01-08T21:20:56Z")
I should note that in the many discussions I’ve had about religion, I’ve heard practicing Jews criticize or question this or that aspect of Christianity (divinity of Christ, obviously, Immaculate Conception, the Papacy) or the modern Church (confession, corruption, the pro-life doctrine). I have to say that not once has a self-identifying Jew quibbled or complained that Christianity as practiced today had corrupted or distorted the Sabbath. Among the real Orthodox, I’ve heard criticism that Christians aren’t observant enough because they work seven days a week, but unless I’m badly mistaken most Jewish people would acknowledge that the Christians, despite having backed the wrong horse for Messiah, did practice/observe **a** sabbath and (at least observant Christians) had their own forms of special prayers and observances/sacraments that were not different in kind or in spirit or appropriate reverence from that of the old-skool Friday sabbath. I don’t know for sure the religious background/lack of anyone posting here, but wouldn’t it be passing strange to insist that Christians were fundamentally wrong/hypocritical as to the Sabbath, by reliance on Jewish laws/observances that even practicing Jews don’t see as the fundamental disconnect between the two religions? Put differently, who has standing to insist on purer-than-pure application of the Old Jewish Ways? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/16 "2011-01-09T00:49:45Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > OK, how do you know that God started work on Sunday instead of Monday like the rest of us? > > Regards, > Shodan **Shodan** , the Gospel writers all agreed that the Sabbath was Saturday, and that Sunday was the first day of the week. We had this discussion last year, when **Siam Sam** was grumbling about Thai calendars starting the week on Monday. See [this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11778600&postcount=47) and [this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11781330&postcount=52), quoting all four of the Evangelists: Jesus was crucified on Good Friday, and his body taken down in the evening and hastily entombed, before the Sabbath started. Then, early on the first day of the week, Sunday, the women came to the tomb, to prepared the body properly, and well, you know the rest…😉 ---
**Author:** ![Pierrot\_Le\_Fou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f475e1/32.png) [@Pierrot\_Le\_Fou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pierrot_Le_Fou)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/17 "2011-01-09T02:05:16Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > You may have gotten wind of a little event that occurred on a Sunday that Christians think kind of shook things up a bit and changed the rules. But none that changes day of the week that is the Sabbath. It is fine to say Christians no longer need to observe the Sabbath, but they cannot change the Sabbath. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, early Christians decided to celebrate the Lord’s Day and not the Sabbath. It seems the majority of Christians continue this practice, observing the Lord’s day instead of Sabbath, with a few exceptions. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/18 "2011-01-09T02:13:19Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > How did you determine that? There is nothing in the Bible that specifies Saturday as the day on which the sabbath must be kept. > > Regards, > Shodan No, but the Sabbath **is** a Jewish thing (at least originally), and Jews have been observing every seventh day as the Sabbath since ancient times and have never, so far as we know, lost count of the days. There is a theory that originally the Sabbath was a monthly full-moon festival and that the Jews learned to make it a weekly one during their exile among the Babylonians, who counted seven planets (sun and moon included) and who invented the custom of counting the days by sevens; a different discussion. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/19 "2011-01-09T02:15:48Z")
> [@Pierrot\_Le\_Fou](#): > > But none that changes day of the week that is the Sabbath. It is fine to say Christians no longer need to observe the Sabbath, but they cannot change the Sabbath. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, early Christians decided to celebrate the Lord’s Day and not the Sabbath. > > It seems the majority of Christians continue this practice, observing the Lord’s day instead of Sabbath, with a few exceptions. Depends on what you mean by “observing.” Only **some** Christians consider it impious to do any work at all on a Sunday, the way observant Jews will not work from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday (and have filled volumes of commentary about what does or does not count as “work”). ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853/20 "2011-01-09T03:10:25Z")
I’m not sure why this is so hard. Christians want the 10 Commandments to be posted on the walls at schools, insist that our judicial system is based on it, and bring it out anytime they think they can use it to buttress their mean-spirited political views, but when it is inconvenient they say we have a new covenant and it’s actually OK to play football on Friday nights with a ball made from pig skin while they sit in the stands with their girlfriend after divorcing their first two wives and wear clothes made with mixed fibers and talk smack about the religion of the guy they worship. Just business as usual. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christians-follow-the-10-commandments-specifically-the-one-about-the-sabbath/566853.md?page=2)