No.
Regardless of which day they “observe” the Sabbath, very few Christians honor the Sabbath as the Bible says God wanted it to be honored.
The Hebrew Bible makes it clear that no work was to be done on the Sabbath, and the first man known to have violated that commandment, a guy who just gathered sticks to build a fire, was executed by order of God. See Numbers 15:32 ff.
So if we let the Ten Commandments be the law of the land, then anybody who washes his car or mows his lawn on the Sabbath, whichever day it is, will be executed.
Save us Jesus!
One of my close friends is a Mormon and he observes the Sabbath, refusing to work or make purchases during it. His entire family is the same way. I can’t say if that’s how all or most Mormons operate but I assume so.
There are quite a few Mormon pro athletes who play their games on Sunday.
And “work” can have a lot of meanings. I imagine that many Christians don’t work for a salary on Sunday, but still probably do the dishes or whatever around the house.
I’m no expert on Judaism, but I understand that very, very strict Jews will not even turn on a light switch on the Sabbath.
It’s not made of pigskin. Get a clue.
The rest is not worth responding to.
What’s your point? It’s established that other than a few sects, no, literally, factually, no Christians treat Friday night/Saturday day as a holy period.
It’s also a fact that most modern Christians who observe anything fairly . . . observantly think that when they hold services, abstain from (menial) work, whatever, on Sunday, they are observing one of the Ten Commandments. Most Jews would (not very vehemently) disagree. So what?
Christianity makes a claim to being a legitimate successor/heir of the old covenant/Jewish tradition. As I have pointed out, though, that has never amounted to a claim that they were going to do things exactly as the Jews did. Paul (a former “zealous Jew” as the encyclopedia puts it) made that clear from very, very early on.
Again, I don’t see any debate. Christianity (any doctrine) means what its members decide it means. To the extent it has (what you think you have identified as) internal inconsistencies (and again, I must point out that other than a few sects, you seem to be the only one hung up on the exact date the sabbath needs to be observed), I don’t see how you can possibly hope to overcome the trump card that pervades all religious discussions, i.e., “God told us it was okay to do it.”
Don’t most of us get TWO sabbath days a week, thus keeping both bases covered?
Gays have a new covenant too.
I really just want a factual answer, but I put it in here because this is the forum for religion. Is God telling Christians it is okay to observe the Sabbath on Sunday or is he telling them they no longer need to observe the Sabbath and that they should observe the Lord’s Day instead. That seems to be the Catholic position. So are other Christian sects observing the Sabbath or a different day (the Lord’s Day) instead?
If you found that in the catechism of the RCC (and maybe you did), it’s being hypertechnical and (factually) you would find surveying a thousand practicing modern Christians that they equated Sunday with “the Sabbath” of the Bible. We live in a world in which we celebrate historical heroes birthdays on the most convenient Monday or Friday, regardless of the actual date, so it’s not so much of a stretch.
The “Lords day” would be an unfamiliar, strained term to most Christians I know, despite the theological technicalities that you might find in a catechism. Sunday is, to Christians, the “Christian sabbath.”
When I saw the thread title I assumed that a discussion of the degree to which Christians observe a day of rest was the intent. I am surprised to find that it has primarily been about what day is the sabbath. The word sabbath (actually shabbath is probably closer) in Hebrew simply means “rest”. So Yom shabbath = day of rest. It seems unlikely to me that adherence to the commandment hinges on having an accurate count of the days since “in the beginning…”. The commandment says work six days and rest one.
Of course, regardless of which day they call the Lord’s Day, few Christians actually rest to the extent that orthodox Jews do. I know a few Christians who won’t do any work for money on Sunday. Very few.
I probably should have stated up front that I’m a Christian, in many ways what you might consider a pretty serious one. I know a lot of folks who are in the inerrant camp regarding the bible. I don’t know any of those who actually adhere to everything in there. Part of the reason for that is the new covenant idea mentioned by others above. There is a whole lot of language in the new testament devoted to the idea that Christians are no longer under the Mosaic law. Of course there is some language in there suggesting otherwise, too. That’s why so many Christians spend so much time in bible studies.
OK, so we’ve got the Jewish Sabbath, the Christian Sabbath… which day of the week is the Black Sabbath?
That’s easy: Friday, Feb 13 1970. 
Right. The one thing we can just about be sure of wrt any religious holiday is that whatever event it’s commemorating probably didn’t happen on that exact date IRL.
Most christian denominations believe that Christ ushered in a new covenant and that christians are not bound by the Jewish covenant (which would include the ten commandments). They believe that Christ instructed that there are only two commandments that are required to be followed:
- Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul, and mind; and
- Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
Just curious, then, why do (seemingly) many Christians in the US want to have the Ten Commandments posted in various public places in the US?
RS
Because there are a lot (in fact, most) people who claim to be christians, that have no clue about theology, beyond what they learned in kindergarten sunday school.
Christians get to have it both ways as you’ll note that neither of Jesus’s “simplified commandmants” is inconsistent with or could not contain/cover the original ten. Also, Jesus went around saying stuff like “I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it,” then saying . . . other things that suggested the law as it was being enforced by the priestly class had become overly legalistic. Suffice to say Christians like the legitimacy and rules the Ten Commandmants bring but like to be free to say the new covenant gives us carte blanche to do X (I’m being unduly flippant).
I think the question is based on a false premise. Christians don’t necessarily follow the 10 Commandments.
Not because the Commandments are regarded as wrong or despicable, or anything, but because Jesus is understood to have changed the game, or at least redefined the rules.
Jesus is quoted in the gospels as summing up or simplifying the commandments into one or two general themes, and is described as (provocatively) doing things that were specifically understood by the authorities of the time as violating the Sabbath.
ETA: I was interrupted in composing the above post - and I see there has been some discussion during that interval that may make it look as though I am restating a point already discussed.
Uh, OK, thanks. Both of those are pretty odd explanations, but I’ll accept them.
ETA: Directed to the two posts above Mangetout’s.
I’m a Jew, and Christians occasionally ask me why the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday rather than Sunday, at which point I relay the quibble in question.