Churches in Japan

[Song of Amazon]

I'm studying abroad at a college in the Kansai region (Kobe, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, etc) next semester, and I'm trying to find a fellowship of some sort while I'm over there. Does anyone know of any churches or how to find churches in that area? I'm Lutheran, but pretty much anything protestant would be a good find.

[Gabriel 9.0]

Try Seventh Day Adventist( and no its not just because I'm one either). Or Messianic Jew if any are there, Methodist, Baptist, Southern Baptist, United Church of God. Others I can't think of atm.

[kat-su-chan]

hmm. I don't but I am studying abroad too! what college are you going to? I'm going to Caprenwray bible college, at Yamanakako (base of mt. Fuji and it's close to Tokyo if you don't know where mt. fuji is )
I'm not really sure about the churches...since I hear there aren't a whole lot of them out in the country and stuff...But I am sure your college might know?

[EricTheFred]

Since you are Lutheran, you might want to check out the website for The Japan Lutheran Church: http://www.jlc.or.jp/index_e.html
It includes a list of member congregations.
Also, the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church http://www.jelc.or.jp/e-index.html whose links for their member congregation list seems to be broken, but contact info for the synod itself is there, so you can call or write them.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Um Gabriel, Seventh Day Adventist aren't Christian, the others you mentioned are.

[Tyrel]

Um Gabriel, Seventh Day Adventist aren't Christian, the others you mentioned are.

Now now, be nice.

[Kaori]

I know of one small church in Kyoto and could tell you how to get to it, but it's a branch church of a Korean church in Tokyo, so I don't know whether they hold their service in Japanese or Korean.

What I would recommend is to go to a bookstore and pick up a map of whichever city is closest to you (probably Osaka or Kyoto would be better bets, since they are large enough to have multiple Christian churches within them). Maps of cities in Japan usually not only have the temples and shrines marked but also mark Christian churches with a cross icon. That will tell you where the large churches are. You could also purchase a map after arriving in Japan, but it's easier to find maps in English before you leave.

[Gabriel 9.0]

Um Gabriel, Seventh Day Adventist aren't Christian, the others you mentioned are.

Yes they are, I'm Seventh Day Adventist, ( I may not attend church each Sabbath) but firmly believe in Jesus Christ, The Father and Holy Ghost, do my best to follow every Commandment of God and the testimony of Jesus. Therefore I'm a Christian just like you and everybody else here. You should be more careful on what you say .

[Aka-chan]

Where in Kansai are you going to be? Also, how's your Japanese? My church is in Japanese only, but I think I know of an English-speaking church in Kyoto and one in the Nara-ish direction. I can also ask around for recommendations from my friends and some local Christian fellowships if you need.

[CAAOutkast]

Churches in the Land of the Rising Sun? Wow,who would've guessed?

[chibiphonebooth]

Churches in the Land of the Rising Sun? Wow,who would've guessed?

there are chruches everywhere across the world. XD

even underground chruches.

[Shadowalker]

Yes they are, I'm Seventh Day Adventist, ( I may not attend church each Sabbath) but firmly believe in Jesus Christ, The Father and Holy Ghost, do my best to follow every Commandment of God and the testimony of Jesus. Therefore I'm a Christian just like you and everybody else here. You should be more careful on what you say .

I agree with Gabriel here - the Seventh Day Adventists are Christians. To the best of my knowledge, the only major difference between them and most other Protestant Christians is that the Seventh Day Adventists hold that Saturday, not Sunday, is the Sabbath Day.

Historically, I think that they're correct - at least in a sense.

IIRC, as a way of honouring the ressurection of Jesus, early Christians shifted the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday (the day of the week upon which Jesus rose from the dead, we hold). Seventh Day Adventists hold that the historical sabbath (Saturday) is the day when one should honour God.

My own view is that the important thing is to have a day you set aside as a Sabbath Day, whether it's Saturday or Sunday. It's not a major sticking point for me.

Seventh Day Adventists are sometimes confused with Jehovah's Witnesses (at least where I live) - Jehovah's Witnesses (based on what I've heard from those who have evanglized their faith to me) are not Christians. They hold Jesus in very high esteem (more or less in the same esteem that religious Jews hold Moses), but don't hold Him to be both human and Divine as we as Christians do.

[Tyrel]

I agree with Gabriel here - the Seventh Day Adventists are Christians. To the best of my knowledge, the only major difference between them and most other Protestant Christians is that the Seventh Day Adventists hold that Saturday, not Sunday, is the Sabbath Day.

Absolutely incorrect.

Saturday is always considered Sabbath. The Sunday worship tradition is an ancient one which recognizes the Sunday as the day when the Lord resurrected. Therefore, it's called "The Lord's Day". The Sabbath was still always believed to be Saturday, and some mystical Christian Tradition teaches that Jesus is the Sabbath for us.

Nobody educated has ever taught that the Sabbath day ever changed. It is Torah law which sets it clearly as prescribed, and it is Oral Torah {Midrash} which asserts beyond doubt that it is Saturday.

Sorry]
My own view is that the important thing is to have a day you set aside as a Sabbath Day, whether it's Saturday or Sunday. It's not a major sticking point for me. [/QUOTE]

yeah, I guess I disagree. Torah is not to be practiced, it is to be learnt from, and we are to use it as a key to understand true Eternal Law.

Note:

"One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind."
~ Romans 14:5


pshghoshah... I was holding all that in since the second comment about the SDA's

Sorry, that's as reserved as I can be. I won't debate it though, as that is quite frowned upon here, and for good reason. However, anyone who wants to discuss, PM me freely.

[Shadowalker]

Absolutely incorrect.

I don't see why you say that. We're saying almost the same thing. We're both saying that Saturday is the traditional Sabbath.

The only difference between us is that you say...

Saturday is always considered Sabbath.

... to which I say, well, this is clearly not the case amongst Christians.

Almost all Christians I know consider Sunday to be "the Lord's Day" - we go to church on Sunday, not Saturday. To many Christians, "keeping the Sabbath" translates into attending church on Sunday, and perhaps abstaining from shopping, and/or engaging in prayer/Bible reading to a greater degree than on weekdays, or Saturdays.

Now, I agree with you that Saturday is the historical Sabbath, and that was never changed by God Himself or anything like that... but the vast majority of Christians have effectively chosen to make Sunday our holy day of the week.

The Sunday worship tradition is an ancient one which recognizes the Sunday as the day when the Lord resurrected.

Exactly. Which is why we think of Sunday as "the Lord's Day", and translate "keeping the Sabbath" as going to church on Sunday, reading the Bible more, etc...

Honestly, I know precious few Christians who attach any religious significance at all to Saturday.

Therefore, it's called "The Lord's Day". The Sabbath was still always believed to be Saturday, and some mystical Christian Tradition teaches that Jesus is the Sabbath for us.

Nobody educated has ever taught that the Sabbath day ever changed.

Well, again, I know precious few Christians who attach any religious significance whatsoever to Saturday. However, almost all Christians I know attack religious significance to Sunday.

That's all that I meant by what I wrote concerning the Sabbath in my reply to Gabriel.

No problem on your reply or anything - just clarifying what I meant.

[EricTheFred]

Seventh Day Adventists do claim that the rest of Christianity is failing to observe the correct day. This is simply an error on their part. Christian churches, to my knowledge, universally acknowledge Saturday as the Sabbath. If they didn't, then Good Friday would be Good Saturday, and Easter would fall on a Monday. We aren't worshipping on "the wrong day", but rather, choosing to hold our worship services on a day other than the Sabbath.

My personal theory is that the whole idea of Christians considering Sunday the Sabbath comes from a mistake made for many generations among lay people. The idea of "Remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy", as stated in the Ten Commandments, became confused somewhere along the way with the practice by many communities to ban "sinful" and/or "material" activities on Sunday. (What we called "Blue Laws" here in Texas. I don't know if that's a local term or if it's well known.) Somewhere along the way, lay people started assuming the commandment and the legal practice were related, and started calling Sunday "the Sabbath Day".

Languages that actually use the term "Sabbath" as the name for Saturday (for example, Spanish, which calls Sunday simply "the Lord's Day", Domingo), don't ever have this confusion, of course.

It's fascinating to me that three religions that have historically been so hostile to each other, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, all manage to agree on this one thing. The Sabbath is Saturday in all three cases, differing only in where on the clock the day begins. True to our contrary natures, though, we hold our worship services on different days. Islam uses the "Preparation Day" (the day before the Sabbath), Judaism uses the Sabbath itself, and Christianity the day after.

[Tyrel]

I don't see why you say that. We're saying almost the same thing. We're both saying that Saturday is the traditional Sabbath.

The only difference between us is that you say...



... to which I say, well, this is clearly not the case amongst Christians.

Almost all Christians I know consider Sunday to be "the Lord's Day" - we go to church on Sunday, not Saturday. To many Christians, "keeping the Sabbath" translates into attending church on Sunday, and perhaps abstaining from shopping, and/or engaging in prayer/Bible reading to a greater degree than on weekdays, or Saturdays.

Now, I agree with you that Saturday is the historical Sabbath, and that was never changed by God Himself or anything like that... but the vast majority of Christians have effectively chosen to make Sunday our holy day of the week.

What I'm saying is that this isn't true. See, early Jewish Christians did both. There was no competition between one and the other, as there is no competition between Christmas and Easter. They were completely oriented towards other things.

Other than some exclusive Fundamentalist groups, I can't see any evidence of any Church accepting that the Sabbath Translates to our Worship on Sunday. Sunday was a gathering, usually at a house, not a synagogue.

{if you can show me that there ARE groups that believe this, then I will accept correction gladly}

Exactly. Which is why we think of Sunday as "the Lord's Day", and translate "keeping the Sabbath" as going to church on Sunday, reading the Bible more, etc...

Honestly, I know precious few Christians who attach any religious significance at all to Saturday.

Right, and we'd expect that, as most don't observe the Sabbath at all. From the beginning of the Church, I think it was Clement who said that Jesus was our Sabbath, and every day is our rest, or that our true rest is with him.

Only some, very silly, Christian groups have confused the tradition from 2000 years ago, of the Lord's Day, with the Sabbath.

The reason I said you were wrong at first, is that you said this made the SDA's different from other Fundamentalists. Having debated at length with SDA's, and having been a Fundamentalist previously for many years, I know well that this isn't quite fair. Most Fundamentalists don't consider the Lord's Day to be the Sabbath. It's one of those misunderstandings among common church goers.. just as The descriptions surrounding the birth in Matthew and Luke are assumed to be on the same day, even though they clearly are not, or the assumption that Eve ate an Apple, or that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, or that there were 3 Magi, etc.

These are misconceptions, and they are rarely actually an article of faith for any group, because when people write articles of faith, they study up first.

Well, again, I know precious few Christians who attach any religious significance whatsoever to Saturday. However, almost all Christians I know attack religious significance to Sunday.

That's all that I meant by what I wrote concerning the Sabbath in my reply to Gabriel.

No problem on your reply or anything - just clarifying what I meant.

yeah, I've just got to keep myself on a little bit of a leash here, as apparently discussing theological things leads to debate, which leads to for the mods. So... yeah. I just felt I'd like to clarify that point.

[Gabriel 9.0]

Seventh Day Adventists do claim that the rest of Christianity is failing to observe the correct day. This is simply an error on their part. Christian churches, to my knowledge, universally acknowledge Saturday as the Sabbath. If they didn't, then Good Friday would be Good Saturday, and Easter would fall on a Monday. We aren't worshipping on "the wrong day", but rather, choosing to hold our worship services on a day other than the Sabbath.

Erm Eric, I myself being a Seventh Day Adventist for 21 years have never stated anything like that along with other Adventists.
We are fully aware that there are other churches out there that still acknowledge the historical/original Sabbath mentioned in the Bible.

I even agree to what the Bible says about that there are true followers of his that aren't even SDA.

I'm completely against Seventh Day adventists, but I understand we shouldn't argue here. I'm simply pointing out this stuff because I think it's really important

If you don't mind me asking, but why are you against Seventh Day Adventists like myself?

Even though what it all really boils down to is how you follow God, his Ten Commandments and his son's testimony. Not what denomination we are all part of or were raised in.

yeah, I guess I disagree. Torah is not to be practiced, it is to be learnt from, and we are to use it as a key to understand true Eternal Law.

But the Torah is part of the Bible and even mentions how the Ten Commandments were formed......

[Stephen]

Hooray. Another theological debate. Ya know guys, we have a PM system on CAA. Use it.