If you have a representative of the SDA Christians in front of you and the conversation turns to the Sabbath, then Chernyshov V.M. advises asking him a question: “Tell me, please, why do you Seventh-day Adventists violate the Sabbath?” [Source: Chernyshev V.M., Sectology. – publishing house im. St. Leo, Pope of Rome. – Kyiv, 2006, p. 228-233.] This will cause some bewilderment and confusion:
- [Adventist:] Excuse me, what do you mean violate? We are perhaps the only Christian denomination that just keeps the Sabbath rest.
- [Orthodox:] That’s what I’m talking about…
After a short pause, explain: - [O:] Tell me, do you agree that Christ not only fulfilled the entire Law, but also magnified it?
You receive a response: - [A:] Undoubtedly exalted.
- [O:] And not only exalted, but also glorified?
- [A:] Exactly.
- [O:] So, He exalted and glorified also the 4th commandment in the law?
- [A:] Of course, glorified!
- [O:] Orthodox Christians accept the Sabbath through the Law, i.e. permanent rest in Christ. Since for them Christ became the Sabbath Himself, i.e. rest (Rom. 10:4, Luke 6:5), then abiding in Christ and His teachings, Orthodox Christians abide in constant rest, or on the Sabbath. But you, SD Adventists, by accepting and keeping the Sabbath not glorified by Christ, deprive the fourth commandment of the glory that the Lord of the Sabbath bestowed upon it.
[One may continue…] Therefore, it is said in the New Testament: “… let no one condemn you either for food, or drink, or for any feast, or new moon, or Sabbath …” (Col. 2, 16). The apostle, instructing the pagans who accepted the teaching and believed in the Lord, says: “But write to them that they refrain from defilement with idols, from fornication, stranglehold and blood, and not to do to others what they do not desire for themselves” (Acts 15:20). At the same time, not a word about the unglorified Sabbath.
Therefore: “He who distinguishes the days, distinguishes for the Lord; and he who does not distinguish the days does not distinguish for the Lord…” (Rom. 14:6). “So it is possible to do good on the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:12). But even evil, according to Scripture, is never permissible to do. This means that good deeds have swallowed up the fourth commandment, and love, the engine of these good deeds, absorbs all the others, as the Savior testifies: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is similar to it: love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37, 38).
Therefore, love, which is “the totality of all perfections”, and which “… does not envy … does not exalt itself, is not proud, does not act outrageously, is not irritated …” (1 Cor. 13: 4) absorbs the commandment . This is possible because “God Himself is love” (1 John 4:8) and “Love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10).
Continuing the debate with the SDA, it is necessary to explain to them that we, Gentile believers, have never been under the law, and therefore we should not have the question whether the law still has force in us…the path of spiritual experience for us is: from the law to the freedom of the children of God (Rom. 3:30; 4:9-12). Therefore app. Paul testifies: “I do not reject the grace of God. And if justification is by the law, then Christ died in vain” (Gal. 2:20).
In Galatians (4:21-31) it is shown what becomes of those who come under the law and those who come under grace. The way of the law is the way of the flesh–self-help. It is only a guide to Christ…[T]he son [Ishmael] of a servant [Hagar] was born through carnal calculations against the will of God. Isaac was born supernaturally on the basis of God’s promise (Rom. 4:18-25). Here comes the difference between the Old and New Testaments. Earthly Jerusalem with the law, sacrifices and a temple led the Jews, as representatives of the Old Testament, to the rejection of Jesus (1 Cor. 2:8). Heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 9:11-17) is the mother of all the New Testament children of God. Therefore, the city is so wonderful and desirable, whose inhabitants they can become (Rev. 21:9-27). The children of God are free and are not under the law of Sinai, but under the law of the spirit of life. (Rom. 8:2)
Whoever steps on the ground of legality, stands on the ground of the curse of the law. In this case, the Adventist will immediately open Romans 7:1 and read: “… the law has power over a man while he lives.”
You can ask him a question: are we not dead with Christ? What were we baptized into?… In His death! So you and I must die to sin with Christ. Here is Galatians 2:19-20 and says, “By the law I died to the law, that I might live to God. I crucified myself with Christ. And it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And as I now live according to the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Why are you again, knowing Christ, becoming a “lawyer”? What more can you earn from the Lord by doing these things?
By mixing law and grace, we destroy both. We rob the law of its fear and condemnation, and rob grace of freedom, joy, and life. When we accept Jesus by faith, we accept the fact that He fully paid for sin and accept His life, and then our personality is no longer that of a dirty, wicked sinner, but of a new creature.
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The preceding is from:
The SDA teaching on the Sabbath (a brief educational and polemical manual on this issue for the missionary school of the Church of the Apostle Thomas on Kantimirovskaya). Prepared by teacher A.I. Solodkov.
Orthodox Christian Theology 
Sabbath and Marriage are two Edenic institutions, are Gentiles bound to keep marriage?
Just because Marriage will be between Christ and the Church doesn’t mean literal marriage is no longer kept on earth.
Just because Eternal rest will be with Christ in the Age to come doesn’t mean literal Sabbath day is no longer kept on earth.
It is nothing about mixing law and grace.
“The apostle, instructing the pagans who accepted the teaching and believed in the Lord,”…” “But write to them that they refrain from…blood”
Why do most Orthodox go against the teaching of Acts 15:20? Adventists keep all four requirements.
Romans 14 makes no mention of Sabbath, it is eisegesis to read it into the text. In context Paul is talking about choose specific days of the week as special for fasting.
Scripture doesn’t explicitly say that a marriage remains for the people of God and that this marriage is the Heavenly Marriage of the Christ and the Bridegroom. If it did say that, we WOULD probably be bound to not get married.
As for the Sabbath being Edenic, while the setting apart of the Seventh Day as Holy is indeed Edenic, the command to REMEMBER it by resting on it (as God rested on it) was not. There is no evidence that the command to remember the Sabbath by resting on it was given to the Gentiles and many Second Temple documents (such as the Book of Judith) show that the Jews did not believe honoring the weekly Sabbath was among the Noahide Laws.
Where did you get the impression that Orthodox go against Acts 15:20? It was my impression that our canons condemn ingesting blood and that we are one of the few non-Judaizing Christian groups to still believe this verse is applicable.
The argument isn’t that Romans 14 mentions the weekly Sabbath, it’s that distinguishing one day as more holy than the other days is condemned and -since doing so is a necessary component of honoring the weekly Sabbath- that it is condemning honoring the weekly Sabbath by extension.
Gotta say, think this is a stretch. Gentile Christians don’t have to keep the Sabbath but it wasn’t forbidden either. If it were, it would be forbidden for Jewish Christians too, and it wasn’t.
As a former Seventh-day Adventist of 11 years, now Orthodox Christian of 6 years, I can say the arguments presented in the article are good, but probably not convincing to the typical Seventh-day Adventist or sabbath-keeper in general.
@Anthony, excellent response!
@Mary, saying that the keeping of the sabbath wasn’t forbidden is a far cry from saying it’s a command that must be observed, and yet this is precisely what Seventh-day Adventists and sabbath-keepers in general thrust upon others. I’m curious, would you accept St. Justin Martyr’s solution? From Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho the Jew:
Trypho: But if some one, knowing that this is so, after he recognises that this man is Christ, and has believed in and obeys Him, wishes, however, to observe these [institutions], will he be saved?
Justin: In my opinion, Trypho, such an one will be saved, if he does not strive in every way to persuade other men-I mean those Gentiles who have been circumcised from error by Christ, to observe the same things as himself, telling them that they will not be saved unless they do so. This you did yourself at the commencement of the discourse, when you declared that I would not be saved unless I observe these institutions.
Trypho: Why then have you said, ‘In my opinion, such an one will be saved,’ unless there are some who affirm that such will not be saved?
Justin: There are such people, Trypho, and these do not venture to have any intercourse with or to extend hospitality to such persons; but I do not agree with them. But if some, through weak-mindedness, wish to observe such institutions as were given by Moses, from which they expect some virtue, but which we believe were appointed by reason of the hardness of the people’s hearts, along with their hope in this Christ, and [wish to perform] the eternal and natural acts of righteousness and piety, yet choose to live with the Christians and the faithful, as I said before, not inducing them either to be circumcised like themselves, or to keep the Sabbath, or to observe any other such ceremonies, then I hold that we ought to join ourselves to such, and associate with them in all things as kinsmen and brethren. But if, Trypho, some of your race, who say they believe in this Christ, compel those Gentiles who believe in this Christ to live in all respects according to the law given by Moses, or choose not to associate so intimately with them, I in like manner do not approve of them. But I believe that even those, who have been persuaded by them to observe the legal dispensation along with their confession of God in Christ, shall probably be saved. And I hold, further, that such as have confessed and known this man to be Christ, yet who have gone back from some cause to the legal dispensation, and have denied that this man is Christ, and have repented not before death, shall by no means be saved. Further, I hold that those of the seed of Abraham who live according to the law, and do not believe in this Christ before death, shall likewise not be saved, and especially those who have anathematized and do anathematize this very Christ in the synagogues, and everything by which they might obtain salvation and escape the vengeance of fire. For the goodness and the loving-kindness of God, and His boundless riches, hold righteous and sinless the man who, as Ezekiel tells, repents of sins; and reckons sinful, unrighteous, and impious the man who fails away from piety and righteousness to unrighteousness and ungodliness. Wherefore also our Lord Jesus Christ said, ‘In whatsoever things I shall take you, in these I shall judge you.’