Sabbath Observed in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia

tim April 28, 2021

In Hungary and Transvylvannia there were Sabbatarians found among the Unitarians around the year 1571. In 1635 they were forced to join with the major denominations or lose life and property. In Scandinavia, Sabbath observance was outlawed as being Jewish and heathen. A letter from Norwegian diplomats in 1435 read, “We fully agreed and resolved that in harmony with the laws of the holy church, observance of the Saturday must under no circumstance be allowed hereafter unless the church canon so decrees it. We therefore counsel all the friends of God, the Christians in Norway, those who will remain obedient to God’s holy church, to refrain from this great evil habit of Saturday observance, as mentioned. But other obstinate, those who persist in this custom, we forbid under the severe penalty of the holy church to keep that day as a holy day from now on; but should there be any who for Godfearing reasons wish to do good on that day instead of on another, then he shall fast or contribute to his cathedral, cloister and honorable men by willingly giving alms from his catch which he rightly has made on the Saturday, or from any other types of work” (Diplomatarium Norvegicum, ed., by C.R. Unger and H.Jj. Huitfeld, vol. 7 [Christiania: P.T. Mallings, 1867), no. 397, p. 391).

Categories: Sabbath Timeline

Related Articles

Is Sabbath a Christian Holiday?

The Biblical Sabbath has always been the seventh day of the week, what we call Saturday. However, the “Christian Sabbath” is today almost universally recognized as Sunday, the first day of the week. This day of worship dates back to the convergence of religious and political power under the Roman Catholic Church in the middle ages.

tim March 27, 2021

Sabbath Rest and the Environment

Many wars are fought over natural resources and food production, and the same technologies that have allowed for tremendous increases in crop yields also exact terrible collateral damage on the environment and on humanity. Tthe Bible’s Sabbath rest on the seventh day of each week, and the principles of wisely using and safeguarding the resources found in our environment, could make a difference for us today.

tim March 30, 2021
calendar

What Day is the Sabbath?

The word Sabbath literally means “rest,” and the Bible says that God blessed and sanctified, or set apart as holy, this first Sabbath rest day as a memorial of His finished work of creation. This is why the fourth commandment begins with a call to remember the seventh-day Sabbath rest.

tim March 26, 2021