CHRIST IS RISEN!
Well, Christian 1,
You did come to an Orthodox Christian forum, so you were obviously seeking our perspective. Keep up with the studies and remember that there is power in prayer...as long as you pray for the truth.
The simplest prayer of the heart is...Lord, Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
God bless.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Ps. 50)
CHRIST IS RISEN!
Christian 1,
You see, the meaning of the sabbath goes beyond the temporal understanding of the day: Saturday. The prophets knew this. And Christ Who is God was there with them in the Old Testament and became visible to us in the New Testament. This is what He taught the prophets through inspiration and He taught the world through His Own physical example. It's the lack of spiritual knowledge of those who read the Old Testament and the Gospels that create their own meager rules about it.
The Holy Fathers were in a constant spiritual communion with Christ and by God's Grace were given these pearls of spiritual wisdom. That is why Orthodox people always turn to the writings of these illumined men because we trust their dedication to God. There are amazing writings and teachings. This is a small example.
Spiritual Instructions by St. Maximos the Confessor
Philokalia, vol. 2
Second Century on Love
First Century on Theology
In the Law and the prophets reference is made to the sabbath(Isa. 66:23), sabbaths(Exod. 31:13) and sabbaths of sabbaths(Lev 16:31)......
The sabbath signifies the dispassion of the deiform soul that through practice of the virtues have utterly cast off the marks of sin.
Sabbaths signify the freedom of the deiform soul that through the spiritual contemplations of created nature has quelled even the natural activity of sense-perception.
Sabbaths of sabbaths signify the spiritual calm of the deiform soul that has withdrawn the intellect even from of all the divine principles in created beings, that through an ecstacy of love has clothed it entirely in God alone, and through mystical theology has brought it altogether to rest in God.
The sabbath rest of God signifies the complete reversion of created beings to God. It is then that God suspends in created beings the operation of their natural energy by inexpressibly activating in them His divine energy. It is by virtue of this natural energy that each created being naturally acts; and God suspends its operation in each created being to the degree to which that being participates in His divine energy and so establishes its own natural energy within God Himself.
The sixth day of creation, according to Scripture, represents the completion of the beings that are subject to nature. The seventh day marks the limit of the flow of temporal existence. The eighth day betokens the quality of that state which is beyond nature and time.
He who observes the sixth day only according to the Law, fleeing the active, soul-afflicting domination of the passions, passes fearlessly through the sea to the desert (Exod. 16:1); his sabbath consists simply of rest from the passions. But, when he has crossed the Jordan (Josh 3:17) and has left behind this state of simply resting from the passions, he enters into possession of the virtues.
He who observes the sixth day according to the Gospel, having already put to death the first impulses of sin, through cultivation the virtues attains a state of dispassion which, like a desert, is bare of all evil; his sabbath is a rest of his intellect even from the merest images suggested by the passions. But, when he has crossed the Jordan he passes over into the land of spiritual knowledge, wherethe intellect, the temple mystically built by peace, becomes in spiritu the dwelling-place of God.
He who after the example of God has completed the sixth day with fitting actions and thughts and has himself with God's help brought his own actions to a successful conclusion, has in his understanding traversed the condition of all things subject to nature and time and has entered innto the mystical contemplation of aeons and the things inherent in them; his sabbath is his intellect's utter and incomprehensible abandonment and transcendence of created beings. But, if he is also found worthy of the eighth day, he has risen from the dead - that is, from all that is sequent to God, whether sensible or intelligible, expressible or conceivable. He experiences the blessed life of God, who is the only true life, and himself becomes god by deification.
The Law instituted the sabbath, says Scripture, so that your ox and your servant might rest(Exod. 20:10). Both of these are symbols for the body. For a person engaged in the practice of virtues, the body is an ox under the yoke of his intellect; it is forced to bear the burdens imposed in the ascetic life through the exercising of the virtues. For the contemplative, the body is the servant of his intellect, because through contemplation it is now endowed with intelligence and so serves the intellect's spiritual commands intelligently. For both the ox and the servant, the sabbath signifies the final goal pursued by them throughout the ascetic and the contemplative life, and so it provides for both of them a fitting rest.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Ps. 50)
When someone says they believe in and go only by the Bible (I used to be one so I know) what they really mean is that they believe in and go only by their interpretation of the Bible. If they really believed the Bible they would accept that the Bible forbids private interpretation and requires us to accept the Church as the pillar and gound of the Truth and to accept the written and unwrritten Apostolic Tradition.
The original sin of Adam was an insistance on a personal and private interpretation of God's revealed will. Since then, it has been one of Satan's favorite tools.
CHRIST IS RISEN!
When someone says they believe in and go only by the Bible (I used to be one so I know) what they really mean is that they believe in and go only by their interpretation of the Bible. If they really believed the Bible they would accept that the Bible forbids private interpretation and requires us to accept the Church as the pillar and gound of the Truth and to accept the written and unwrritten Apostolic Tradition.
Interesting point...that you used to be one. I would think that you would understand him better, since you were in his shoes once. What happened to you that opened your eyes?
The original sin of Adam was an insistance on a personal and private interpretation of God's revealed will. Since then, it has been one of Satan's favorite tools.
No. The original sin was refusing to repent for their disobedience. God already knew what they were going to do. God knows that we, as the created, will be tempted and fall. God called to Adam, in the Garden, three times, giving him the chance to repent. But, He already knew that Adam would not repent. That is why He had already planned for Christ to come to us and be sacraficed for us...to break the power that satan was given over us because of the choice of the free will of Adam and Eve. Just as Christ asked Ap. Peter, three times, if he loved Him. Ap. Peter repented for his lack of faith. God knew what satan was planning. satan's favorite tool is pride, which leads to many paths and one of them is personal interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Ps. 50)