Seventh-Day Adventist Beliefs: The Sabbath

The beneficent Creator, after the six days of Creation, rested on the seventh day and instituted the Sabbath for all people as a memorial of Creation. The fourth commandment of God's unchangeable law requires the observance of this seventh-day Sabbath as the day of rest, worship, and ministry in harmony with the teaching and practice of Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day of delightful communion with God and one another. It is a symbol of our redemption in Christ, a sign of our sanctification, a token of our allegiance, and a foretaste of our eternal future in God's kingdom. The Sabbath is God's perpetual sign of His eternal covenant between Him and His people. Joyful observance of this holy time from evening to evening, sunset to sunset, is a celebration of God's creative and redemptive acts.

--Fundamental Beliefs, 19

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I should probably mention, since they keep doing wacky things with the calendars, that the Sabbath in question refers to Saturday. The "evening to evening, sunset to sunset" emphasizes that this is a continuation of the original Jewish Sabbath.

You've got to admit that the concept of putting the Sabbath to Saturday makes sense -- after all, God rested on the seventh day, and Saturday is the seventh day of the week.

Anyway, that having been said, not all religions observe the Sabbath on the same day. I'm no religion scholar, but here is what I know:

  • Most Christian Denomiations - Sunday
  • Jewish - Sundown Friday to Sundown Saturday (Thanks for calling me on this, Jurph)
  • Seventh-Day Adventist - Saturday
  • LDS (Mormon) - Could use some explaination...
    Althought he LDS people generally as a whole will observe the Sabbath on Sunday, this is not rigid. The Beliefs of the LDS church are that the day of the Sabbath is not (and it not required to be) rigidly defined; An example is the BYU Extension in Israel; Since the Jewish faith is the majority there, most of Israel shuts down during the day on Saturday and so most students and staff at the BYU Israel Centre observe Saturday as their Sabbath as well.

...I know I've missed many, so please, add them!

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