Jonathan: “Dad, where are we going?”
Father: “Son, we’re going to the Johnson’s house.”
Jonathan: “What? Why aren’t we going to church?”
Father: “We are, Jonathan. We’re going to church at the Johnson’s today.”1
Jonathan: “But why, Dad? Why aren’t we going to the same church where we’ve always gone?”
Father: “It’s closed today, Son. They will be having services there tomorrow, on Sunday.”
Could such a scenario actually happen to Adventist believers? Believe it or not, this is the very situation now confronting many Seventh-day Adventist believers in the independent state of Samoa. How did such a state of affairs ever come about? Well, it all revolves around an imaginary boundary commonly known as the “international date line.”
What is the international date line, and how does it affect Sabbath keepers?
Of course, most people are aware that there is such a line, roughly following 180 degrees longitude, where on one side of the line it is considered to be one day, while on the other side it is already the next day. When you really stop and think about it, you realize that some such line, though necessarily arbitrary in nature, must exist somewhere on the globe if there is to be any kind of uniformity in determining what day it is at any given time and place.
How is the “international date line” determined? Is there some kind of international treaty in place?
Interestingly enough, there is not. The “line,” as we call it, is the result of the collective decisions of the various governmental jurisdictions of the world. There is sufficient agreement among these various entities to form a somewhat convoluted line, but which can nevertheless be drawn on a map.
What theory or convention is being followed, in order to achieve this degree of uniformity?
Well, I find that it is commonly believed, among both the religious and the secular, that Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization. That’s also where the Garden of Eden is considered to have been. So, it would stand to reason that any date line should be somewhere close to halfway around the world from that location. However, the actual international convention for keeping time is a mean time based at an observatory in Greenwich, England. Apparently, this came about just because the English were the first to exert a sufficient global influence. This is what defines 180 degrees longitude, a line which the various governments may or may not follow exactly.
Sabbath keepers have generally not questioned such decisions made by government. However, things can get interesting when one government or another decides to make a change. One could say that the people of any given country used to consider themselves to be in the Far West of the world, but now they will be in the Far East – or vice versa. Independent Samoa (as opposed to American Samoa) is not the first country to make such a change. Many such revisions have been made, from time to time, among the islands of the Pacific. At one time, the date line ran to the east of Alaska. Again, it once ran to the west of the Philippines. In 1892, Samoa made a change. In 2011, the government of independent Samoa decided to reverse the previous move.
All of this begs the question: The Sabbath is holy time. Does any government really have the right to make a decision affecting the observance of God’s holy Sabbath day? We read the following in Genesis 2:3 (NKJV):
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
What is the meaning of the Sabbath blessing of Genesis 2:3?
Here, one is faced with a deeper question. In blessing the seventh day, was God infusing the day itself with a special quality, or was He rather promising to bless those who would observe the seventh day in obedience and sincerity of purpose? The former seems to be an appealing concept to many, but just how is one to picture this in one’s mind? Did this blessing commence in Mesopotamia, spreading at a uniform rate of speed around the circumference of the earth, until it bumped into itself at a line exactly equidistant from its origin? If this were the case, it seems to me that the Sabbath blessing could only be realized by celebrating the day according to an exact comparison of the distance from where one is to the longitude of where the Garden of Eden was, by going either eastward or westward.
What would be the implications of such an approach? Well, for one thing, all generally accepted ideas of what day it is, at any given location, would have to be ignored. From sunset to sunset, one would necessarily end up observing the Sabbath on what the general public is calling Friday, or Saturday, or Sunday! In addition, we Sabbath keepers would have to draw our own Sabbath-keeping “date line,” running straight north and south, and dividing continents, countries, states or provinces, and perhaps even local communities. I write from British Columbia, and I realize that this line would necessarily run somewhere between here and Alaska. Can anyone really believe that this is the way God wants us to honour His holy day? The world would think we were crazy!
Therefore, I cannot escape the conclusion that the promised Sabbath blessing is bestowed on the basis of our willingness to obey and our sincerity of purpose. Hence, I believe that we need to follow the principles of Romans 13, going along with the government as long as they are not asking us to do anything wrong. In a location roughly halfway around the world from the cradle of civilization, could anyone seriously suggest that there are any moral implications (of right and wrong) involved in the decision of whether to consider one’s country to be in the Far West verses the Far East? I think not.
The Samoan Sabbath Dilemma
So, what has actually happened in Samoa, anyway? Following Thursday, December 29, 2011, the independent state of Samoa skipped Friday the 30th and moved directly into Saturday, December 31. The result is that, in this location, what would have been called Saturday, had the change not been enacted, will now be called Sunday. The Samoan government has cited a number of economic and logistical reasons for making the change, but it seems to have thrown the local Sabbath keepers into confusion.
The Seventh-day Adventist church in most of Independent Samoa is administered by the Samoa Mission. However, the Samatau S.D.A. church is not under the Mission’s administration. The Mission administration, after considering the matter, had decided to begin observing Sunday (from sunset to sunset, of course) as the Sabbath. Their stated purpose was to continue observing every seventh day as the Sabbath, regardless of what the general public might call it.2 According to one news article, Samoan S.D.A. ministers were brought in from other countries. These visiting ministers made a presentation, advising the Samoa Mission administration against the decision which they had made – but to no avail. The local leaders were well-intentioned, no doubt, but they could not be persuaded to change their purpose.
The leadership of the Samatau S.D.A. church has decided to continue observing Saturday as the Sabbath, thus achieving unity in their ranks. Within the Samoa Mission, on the other hand, there are many families and individuals who cannot conscientiously go along with the decision of the church leadership to observe what is now Sunday. Thus, confusion has been the result.
It has been urged by some that there may be cultural issues involved, of which we may be unaware. It has been said that this problem needs to be sorted out locally. I can certainly agree that a local solution would be ideal, and I share the hope that this will be achieved over time. Meanwhile, can we leave our Samoan brothers and sisters, who find that they cannot go along with the decision of their church leaders, to struggle along as best they can without any indication of support from the rest of us in the world church?
I hope and pray that they will find this article here, and that they will know that there are others who understand their plight.
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This seems that it is serious dilemma in our church. Some thought the answer is simple. Some thought that it should not be simplified. If music genre and bible versions already divided many of Adventist churches, how much more this would be.
I think issues here are
1. Identity of Samoan church with the community in terms of the day of worship
2. extent of the influence of governments shifting the days especially those that are in the IDL in our sabbath keeping
3. Adventist Pioneers sabbath day legacy when they started the church in Samoa
4. Historical changes in the IDL in that region
5. Continuity of the 7-day cycle and whether God endowed holiness on the physical minutes of the sabbath day based on the original sabbath cycle on eden or it is endowed based on the human knowledge of time.
(i.e. we keep the sabbath not at the same time around the world, but when God rested and blessed that first sabbath during the first Friday sunset in eden, most likely opposite region of earth where the Samoa is still in early morning of Friday)
6. Technicalities regarding division of day in IDL (GMT, original location of Eden)
7. Validity/Acceptability of human sincerity when detailed explanation in the Scriptures are not explicitly stated
in this kind of modern issue
8. The authority of the local conference/union in their territory and the extent power of the worldwide body of believers to define rules for local members
There are many other issues but i think these ones are among prominent.Though its much convenient to stay neutral in this issue, it seems that there is no way one can compromise or be neutral in this kind of issue.
Some questions are needed arise in my mind when I heard this story:
1. Is it possible that the church (local, conference or world church) may decide (whatever decision it is)about this issue today and later found out that what they have made a mistake in that decision and later change it? (Our church leadership and official postions even those that are proclaimed by the highest levels are not infallible, as we can see from our history).
2. If the church leaders or individual are not infallible, must they be obeyed based on the divine Providence that appoint them in that position so that the unity and credibility of our church can be preserved? Or must we respect the freedom of conscience and risk a major division in our church in this issue? (Remember, if we are not careful to have a clearcut explanation in the official decision, opponents of our church can capitalize this issue as an example to prove our inconsistency regarding what we believe)
3. What could be the advised from out late messenger/prophet Ellen G. White had she had been alive she been alive during these days? (Though often times she delivered messages that is cuts our conscience which most of us do not like, how would be well if someone like her can say to us “Thus saith the Lord to the believers in Samoa and to the Adventist church as a whole…)
4. What if this scenario happened not only in Samoa but in the whole world when an international government association like UN or G20 decide to shift the day of the whole world based scientific fact (which obviously would be a fabrication of “scientific data”) or some economic reason? How would we stand?
5. Can I flee to Samoa to avoid persecution when worldwide Sunday law happens and at the same time keep my sabbath with a clear consience?
I admit that I do not know now what should be the correct position of our church in this issue. But what I believe is that God has the corrects answer for these problems and because He love us so much to the extent that He gave his life for us, he would not desire to leave us divided and confuse in this serious issue, especially if all we want is to follow His will. He may just want to show us that despite our century and a half long knowledge regarding the doctrine of Sabbath, we still have many things to learn and still needed to seek diligently again our Scriptures just like our pioneers before us. May God bless our church with the knowledge of God and presence of His spirit.
Thanks to all of you folks of the Seventh-day Adventist People,
I truly value all of the above posts as an excellent example of a dialog with a focus upon the truth as reflected by the Ten Commandments of the Creator… That is, as represented also by the two cherubs on the throne of the Ark of the Covenant. Remember also Jesus’ words, along that same line, per Matthew 18:20!
Please remember also that asking questions for the purpose of finding God’s answers is that which alone can bring us the blessings intended for each and all by our Creator! Contrariwise, questioning even the possibility of finding an ultimate answer is the one certain way of retaining all of our blindness, all of our errors, and all of their specific, and undesirable, consequences…
To my mind, there are some very vital fundamentals still missing within the above dialog… No, I do not purport to have all the answers. No way! But perhaps a tiny ray, or two, from our loving Creator may find its way unto one or two, or more among us, by means of these frail words of mine?…
God asked Moses to build Him a Tabernacle that could be moved from place to place. The Most Holy portion of that Tabernacle was to represent the throne of God Himself. That was the reference point! Over and above all, and regarding more things than one. However, I am convinced that the Tabernacle was to be forever a prime reference point for all things pertaining to God’s own reckoning of time upon this planet Earth. Without such a localized reference point there can be no sensible unity re the beginning of any lunar month reckoning. Without such a reference there can be no unity re the IDL… Or so I see it. Unfortunately, there is no definite and final proof available to most anyone among us, re the exact whereabouts of the Ark of the Covenant. Personally I may find reason for believing that it is located in Axum, Eritrea, as suggested per the evidence brought forth in Graham Hancock’s book The Sign and the Seal, but there are a host of other authors suggesting other locations for it at other places most everywhere around our planet, let alone Jerusalem… I believe, as God’s People, we should unite in seeking and asking God to reveal to us whatever it be His will to reveal along this line. Yes, even the true whereabouts of the Ark of the Covenant itself…
Re the possible whereabouts of the Garden of Eden: Please remember that there is no way of knowing how far, or in which direction, the ark of Noah, traveled during the year of the Flood! The ark itself can be for us the only reference provided for us by God re His own reckoning of time for that period. But the exact resting place for the ark of Noah is not exactly proven, nor do we know as yet, its true longitudinal relationship to either Jerusalem or to the Ark of the Covenant…
Yet, I do not believe we have a reason for panic or confusion re issues such as the above, re issues pertaining to the Sabbath of the Lord! Remember Revelation 14:12!
I have found, by my own insistent Bible studies upon this topic, that, more that anything else, the particulars of the Tabernacle are a representation of the Family unit as created in the very image of God. Consider, for instance, the covenant between Man and Wife vs. the covenant between God and His own People, as represented most particularly by the two cherubs on the throne of God!
The one and only hierarchy ever promoted by the Creator Himself from the very beginning is that Family unit that our Creator created into the image of the Family of God. Remember, even after the fall into sin, the woman was authorized, even encouraged and commanded, to place her “desire…” upon her very own husband! I am convinced that that implies that the husband, and none other, is to serve as the chief reference point for the remainder of his very own family.
How could that be? Well, consider the importance of that living dialog between two cherubs! To me, the answer is self evident. In God’s eyes the family unit is nothing less than His chief treasure, the apple of His eye, the crown of His creation. It is not His will for any of our families to fall apart, even in spite of sin, even in spite of all our blindness and misguided thoughts, teachings, and actions! And that must pertain also to a question such as sabbath keeping in Samoa vs whichever IDL is being recognized or promoted re any particular location… Indeed, in a most important sense, the basis of each our family unit, “male and female created he them…,” is the throne of God and the Most Holy. It follows that it must be up to each Husband and Wife – in dialog and with a focus upon the Law of God – to determine for themselves, and for each their own family, how to handle that which pertain to that sacred dominion which belong to them and to none other, their own family.
It follows that we must all learn to respect one another, even in spite of all our differences of opinion! If one family chooses to submit themselves to another power, to another god than their Creator alone… Well, so be it! From the very beginning God, our Creator, has chosen to stand behind each our covenant that we may choose for ourselves, even when such a covenant is contrary to His own instructions and guidance for us, and even when it brings us to our own demise… Cf. Genesis 2:16-17!
Yes, covenants, and our obedience to such covenants, seem to be a foremost priority of our loving God and Creator! Please, cf. the 7th Commandment!
Let’s make a point out of not trespassing, either as a church or as a society, upon the sacred boundaries being defined by each our family unit… Or isn’t it true that the nucleus of every cell in each our body is carrying the specific imprint of our Maker – and the specific imprint of the two that were created into the image of the Family of God? That is, the sign and the seal of God Himself… Remember Uzzah! 2 Sam 6:7.
Think about it! Selah!