THE SABBATH IN SAMOA By Neone Okesene

Transcription

1 THE SABBATH IN SAMOA By Neone Okesene OUTLINE INTRODUCTION THE PURPOSE OF THE PAPER THE CONTENTION OF THE PAPER ASSERTION 1: That the decision by the Samoa Tokelau Mission (STM) to observe Sunday as the Sabbath is based on arguments that have inherent flaws and is therefore untenable ASSERTION 2: That when, the 180-degree meridian, the International Date Line (IDL), and the Gregorian calendar are properly understood they would reveal that the Church s teachings (as alluded to in the introduction) concerning the Sabbath are not only perfectly compatible with the new context in Samoa but also universally applicable ASSERTION 3: That the proper instrument for delineating the true Sabbath is not the 180-degree meridian but the Gregorian calendar ASSERTION 4: That the starting point in dealing with the IDL issue is the Church s teachings on biblical prophecy and not the arbitrary non-biblical man-made 180-degree meridian CONCLUSION ANNEXES 1

2 THE SABBATH IN SAMOA INTRODUCTION The decision by the Executive Committee of the Samoa-Tokelau Mission to observe Sunday as the Sabbath has called into question the integrity of Seventh-day Adventist doctrines and teachings on the Sabbath. It has also cast serious doubt on the trustworthiness of Ellen G White s inspiration and writings. One of the defining teachings of Adventism is that the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday in fulfillment of the prophecies of Daniel 7 (with regards to the activities of the little horn) 1 and of Revelation 13 (concerning the mark of the beast) 2. In many of her books, Ellen G White consistently endorsed this teaching and stressed emphatically that Sunday sacredness is a satanic error 3. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has seen as its prophetic role the recovery of the true seventh-day Sabbath, which is Saturday as distinct from Sunday, and the calling of nations to observe the sacredness of this day in accordance with the messages of the three angels of Revelation How could Samoa have overlooked such distinguishing features of Adventist beliefs in its decision to observe Sunday as the Sabbath? A more pertinent question is: Could the STM continue to call itself by the name Seventh-day Adventist when it has clearly taken an action that contradicts the foundational teachings of the parent body? THE PURPOSE OF THIS PAPER It is not the purpose of this paper to answer these questions. The question being considered here is: Are the long standing Seventh-day Adventist teachings concerning the Sabbath, compatible with the change of the International Date Line (IDL)? In other words can the teachings that the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday, that Sunday sacredness is a satanic error according to the writings of Ellen G White, that all who believe in God should observe the true Sabbath, which is Saturday the seventh-day, and that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is prophetically called into existence to tell this to the world within the context of the three angels messages of Revelation 14, be adhered to and upheld in a context where the IDL has been changed? THE CONTENTION OF THE PAPER It is the contention of this paper that the answer to this question is yes; that Seventh-day Adventists in Samoa after the change in the IDL in December 2011, can continue to observe Saturday as the Sabbath (like the rest of the Adventist Church around the world), with a clear conscience and complete confidence that the church s foundational teachings of bible truths regarding the Sabbath are intact and valid in their situation; that they can preach the messages of the 3 angels of Revelation and promulgate separation from Sunday sacredness in accordance with the counsels of Ellen G White without fear of contradiction; and moreover 1 Ministerial Association of General Conference, Seventh- day Adventists believe- A Biblical Exposition of 27 Fundamental Doctrines. Maryland, 1988 p Ibid. p Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p statements/28beliefs- English.pdf accessed 19 November Ted Wilson, Adventist World, September 2013, Called to Proclaim Messages of Life /called- to- proclaim?search=proclaiming+messages accessed 19 November

3 that they can obey the authorities of the land as instructed by scripture 5 without compromising their faith. This contention is based on 4 assertions as follows: 1. That the decision by the Samoa Tokelau Mission to observe Sunday as the Sabbath is based on arguments that have inherent flaws, and is therefore untenable. 2. That when, the 180-degree meridian, the International Date Line (IDL), and the Gregorian calendar are properly understood, they would reveal that the Church s teachings (as alluded to in the introduction) concerning the Sabbath are not only perfectly compatible with the new context in Samoa but also universally applicable. 3. That the proper instrument for delineating the true Sabbath is not the 180-degree meridian but the Gregorian calendar 4. That the starting point in dealing with the IDL issue is the Church s teachings on Biblical prophecy and not the arbitrary non-biblical man-made 180-degree meridian. The rest of this paper will focus on proving the viability of these assertions. ASSERTION 1: That the decision by the Samoa Tokelau Mission (STM) to observe Sunday as the Sabbath is based on arguments that have inherent flaws and is therefore untenable This is a serious statement and requires a thorough critical analysis of the said arguments to verify its correctness. As the arguments are many and varied, and as some have changed structure over time, this paper has chosen to concentrate on those found in mainly four sources: (i) The SPD Power Point presentation to the STM Executive Committee 2011 (Source 1) (ii) The Summary of the Biblical Research Committee (BRC) Study as found in an from Paul Petersen circulated in the net (Source 2) (iii) The list of principal reasons why Sabbath should now be observed on the day now called Sunday in Samoa, prepared by the President of the South Pacific Division and forwarded in an to invitees to a meeting held in Wahroonga, Sydney, in August 2, 2012 (Source 3) (iv) A pastoral letter forwarded by Dr. Oliver to Seventh-day Adventists of Samoan heritage. (Source 4) Arguments for Sunday keeping For the purposes of clarity, the main arguments in these sources have been identified as follows: a. The 180 degree meridian is the fixed, unchangeable, natural, and divinely instituted International Date Line b. The Biblical Research Committee Study and its conclusion c. The line of the setting of the sun d. Sacred time defined by the line of the setting of the sun e. The physical count of days from one to seven in Samoa f. Only God can sanctify time; governments cannot. 5 Romans 13:1-2 3

4 g. Reference to the Missionaries h. The changing of the names only and the changing of the calendar i. The continuous sequence of seven days from creation j. What if the government of Samoa changed the IDL again? k. Reference to the Samoan Pioneers l. The Sabbath and the land m. Reference to Ellen G White n. The sun that shines on Samoa is the same one that shines on American Samoa. How can there be different days between the two countries? o. Where is the missing day, Friday the 30 th December 2011? p. Consistency in the practice of the islands in the Pacific The critical analyses of the arguments will be in the above order. To save time and space the sources quoted above will not be footnoted except the Power Point Presentation and will be referred to in the paper by the source number. Sources 2, 3,and 4 are attached to the paper as annexes. Analyses of arguments a. The 180-degree meridian is the fixed, unchangeable, natural, and divinely instituted International Date Line. A critique dated October 2011 by the author of this paper of Source 1 found that at the core of the South Pacific Division s (SPD) position on the Sabbath in Samoa is the presupposition or the assumption that the 180-degree meridian is the divinely sanctioned demarcation point by which the Sabbath should be determined in the Pacific. This paper strongly believes that if it were not for this presupposition there would have probably been a more open and wider consultation, a more thorough analysis of different view points and approaches, and a more rigorous debate on the issue before the decision was made. The two lines It is important to point out from the outset that there are actually two lines under scrutiny in the issue of the Sabbath in Samoa. The first is the 180-degree meridian, a longitude that runs from pole to pole over the Pacific. As an important part of the coordinate system for navigation it is straight and does not deviate. It lies to the west of Samoa and east of New Zealand. The SPD believes that this is the natural date line and must be adhered to at all times. According to the SPD the line is divinely instituted so that the positions of countries (e.g. Samoa) relative to it have been providentially determined. 6 The line therefore cannot be changed or moved. This is why when Samoa changed the IDL to the east of the country in 2011 the SPD would not recognize it. The SPD believes that the rightful God determined place for Samoa is east of the 180-degree meridian. The second line is the IDL or the International Date Line. It is not straight. It zigzags roughly along the path of the 180-degree meridian but is not the same as the meridian. Its path is determined by the decisions of the countries that lie in proximity to the 180-degree meridian as to which side of the universal day they would like to be on. This is the line that Samoa shifted to the east of the country in December It is arbitrary and imaginary. 6 SPD Power Point Presentation, Samoa and the IDL, 7 th October 2011, Slide 57 (quoting Acts 17:26 NASB). 4

5 The divine status presupposed for the 180-degree meridian is implicit in the SPD presentation to the Executive Committee in Samoa and is at the core of the subsequent decision by the STM. The following statement confirms this understanding: True day sequence for our world can only be marked by the setting sun as it crosses a meridian of the globe. That meridian has been identified both historically and geographically as the 180 th. All lands within the same longitude experience the same day period regardless of what name is given to it. (Source 3). It is also implicit in this statement from the BRC study: The Seventh-day Adventist pioneers coming to the Pacific understood, however, the 180 th meridian to be the natural dateline and chose to keep the Sabbath in accordance with that. They observed that the sunset moved in a consistent line across the globe, without any random deviations, and the setting of the sun implied to them a biblical principle. (Source 2) All other arguments presented in support of Sunday observance are compliant with this one point. In fact it is accurate to say that the enforcement of Sunday keeping in Samoa and the STM decision that led to it stand or fall on the sustainability or non-sustainability of the presupposition. Problems with the divine status The real meaning of the 180-degree meridian and how it came about will be dealt with later. For now suffice it to note that the presupposing of its divine or absolute status in the context of the IDL change in Samoa is beset with problems for the following reasons: It came to the fore in 1884 thousands of years after the Sabbath was instituted at Eden. It could not therefore have been the point on earth at which the day started and finished at creation. It has no historical connection with the Sabbath. It has no connection with the scriptures; it is a non-biblical line. It is man made. The usage of it to identify the weekly sequence of 7days was never a consideration in its establishment (at the time the seven-day sequence of the week was and still is based on the Gregorian calendar). It was never established as the International Date Line at the Meridian Conference or by any international treaty (to be dealt with in detail in Assertion 2). It was established as a consequence of the choice of the primary meridian, which for reasons of convenience and economy is the Greenwich meridian. Its major function is in the development of a common coordinate system for international navigational, nautical, and geographical activities. It became a convenient arbitrary route of the demarcation point for the starting and the ending of the universal day because it provided the least interruption to the daily economic activities of the highly populated civilized parts of the world namely America and Europe. Each argument for Sunday observance in Samoa is built around or undergirded by the use of this meridian as the divinely instituted International Date Line. So much so that each will have an inherent problem emanating from or orientating to the meridian. b. The Biblical Research Committee (BRC) Study and Conclusion. Purpose of the study The influence of the BRC study on the SPD recommendation is unquestionably huge. 5

6 It is being vigorously promoted as the final academic and theological word on Sabbath observance for Seventh-day Adventists in the Pacific and is the basis for the choice of the 180-degree meridian over the Government s IDL change as the preferred demarcation point for the day in Samoa. This is evident from the following statement: The decision of the Executive Committee of the Samoa Tokelau Mission is supported by the study of the Biblical Research Committee of the South Pacific Division. That study was done with reference particularly to the practice of Sabbath observance in Tonga where our people have had to grapple for over 100 years with issues very much the same as those now in Samoa. (Source 4) The study took more than 5 years. From the information available, it appears that the aim of the study was to find out firstly whether the keeping of Sunday in Tonga is biblical and secondly if there are good grounds to change. Conclusion of the study The conclusion of the study is as follows: On the basis of these observations and the wide consultation sought, the Biblical Research Committee of the South Pacific states that: As there is no clear Thus says the Lord for the establishment of the dateline and the keeping of the Sabbath around the dateline, it is important to listen to the local Seventh-day Adventist community and its leadership, And as there is a general sense of agreement with present practice in the Pacific islands, and as any attempt to change would create serious and complicated pastoral problems, And as the present calendar is subject to change by any future government at any time, as has recently occurred in Kiribati, We recommend that The present practice of Sabbath keeping in the Pacific Islands around the dateline be maintained. Further that initiatives be taken and a strategy developed to teach the theology and existential meaning of the Sabbath in the areas involved, in order to maintain a clear understanding of this important aspect of Seventh-day Adventist identity in present and future generations. (Source 2) The first point of the conclusion clearly states that there is no biblical basis for the IDL or the 180-degree meridian. This is an admission that the line cannot be used theologically or biblically. The Bible contains no statements regarding the dateline and the challenge of keeping the Sabbath around the dateline. The dateline, which is necessary because the earth is round, is not established by any divine principle, but solely on the basis of historical and practical human considerations. (Source 2) The next two points are subjective reasons why Sunday keeping should be maintained in Tonga. One is based on pastoral considerations and the other on an apprehension over something that may or may not happen. Application of the study to Samoa Noting that this was a study made specifically for Tonga, and considering its weak conclusion, this paper contends that the study s findings should not be applied to Samoa. But if they are, then the SPD is duty bound to follow the study s recommendations to the letter as was done in the case of Tonga. In the Tongan situation, the BRC recommends that in the absence of a thus says the Lord for the establishment of the dateline it is best to maintain the practice, which has been in existence for over 100 years, of observing Sunday as the Sabbath, because of serious pastoral complications if there was a change. 6

7 In the case of Samoa, the practice there, which has been around for more than 120 years, of observing Saturday as the Sabbath, should have been maintained as changing it would cause serious pastoral complications. Be that as it may however, it is clear that not only has there been some seemingly inadvertent misapplication of the BRC study in Samoa but by the Study s own admission the use of the 180-degree longitude for determining the Sabbath is non-biblical and problematic. The BRC Allegiance to the 180-degree meridian The following statement in the BRC summary is interesting: For various historical and practical reasons, a few societies deviate from the general dateline at the 180 th meridian and follow an Eastern hemisphere calendar, even though they are positioned in the Western hemisphere. As a consequence, Seventh-day Adventists in those places today face a choice either to celebrate the Sabbath on the Sunday of their nation s calendar by selecting a different dateline than commonly accepted, or to drop the allegiance to the 180 th meridian and keep the Sabbath on the Saturday of their national calendar. (Source 2) Allegiance is a strong word but indicates the status to which the 180-degree meridian has been elevated by the BRC and the SPD despite the line s non-theological origin, a status that is the cause of the current conflict over the Sabbath around the date line. An apparent weakness At this point it is important to mention briefly one of the disappointing weaknesses of the BRC study, which will be dealt with in detail later. From the information available to this paper, not once is there any reference to or mention of the three angels messages and the fundamental teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church on biblical prophecies concerning the Sabbath. The study s starting and ending point, as it is reflected in the summary, is allegiance to the 180-degree meridian or more specifically the missionaries usage of it in the past as the natural dateline. And because the line is non-biblical and manmade, it is understandable that the study would struggle to validate the practice in Tonga theologically and scientifically. The conclusion thus is subjectively influenced by the reluctance to upset the practice that has been around for over a 100 years. In applying the study to Samoa however, the SPD has needed to come up with more valid reasons than blind adherence to the missionaries decision (which has worked quite well rather covertly in Tonga over the years). The result is the many and multifaceted arguments that are listed in this paper all of which, unfortunately, have innate flaws as shall be revealed in these analyses. c. The Line of the Setting of the Sun The line of the setting of the sun is referred to in the following BRC statement: The Seventh-day Adventist pioneers coming to the Pacific understood, however, the 180 th meridian to be the natural dateline and chose to keep the Sabbath in accordance with that. They observed that the sunset moved in a consistent line across the globe, without any random deviations, and the setting of the sun implied to them a biblical principle. (Source 2). The BRC study rightly notes that the Bible stipulates the reckoning of the day to be from sunset to sunset (even to even). They surmise hence that it is a biblical principle to apply the line of the setting of the sun to the delineation of the Sabbath. As this line is theoretically straight, the application of it in juxtaposition with the straight line of the 180-degree meridian seems a good fit. While the argument appears feasible, in reality it has inherent problems and difficulties as follows: 7

8 i. Practicality How can this line be tracked? And how wide is it? Should it be measured right down to the millisecond as it sweeps across the world at approximately 1000 miles an hour to determine the arrival of the Sabbath for every point on the surface of the earth? Is this how each day was reckoned in Bible times? According to Nehemiah 13:19, the Sabbath had set in when evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem (NIV) or when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark (KJV). Darkness spreading across the land denotes the arrival of the Sabbath. But exactly how this darkness can be defined in terms of a line is highly hypothetical and impracticable. In any case is there such a thing as the line of the setting of the sun in real life? This paper contends that for all practical purposes, such a line cannot be traced or defined. Hence, it could not be used as an absolute demarcation point for the beginning and the ending of the Sabbath day. ii. The tilt of the earth The linking of the line of the setting of the sun with the 180-degree meridian is based on the assumption that the sun sets along this line all the time. This is utterly false. The earth tilts at roughly 23 degrees from the perpendicular and as it travels around the sun, it is clear that the line of the setting of the sun (if such a thing exists) never coincides directly with the 180- degree meridian except for when the equinoxes occur which is twice a year and then only very briefly. This is a major hurdle for this argument to overcome; one that this paper believes is insurmountable. In fact the tilt of the earth exposes the argument as totally false. d. Sacred time defined by the line of the setting of the sun Concerning sacred time note the following statement: The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Samoa has worshipped on the same 24-hour period of blessed and sanctified time ever since the church first came to Samoa in 1891, until the present time. (Source 3) Rationale The notion of 24 hours of sacred time is closely linked to the idea of the line of the setting of the sun. According to the argument where the sunset line of the seventh-day is supposedly stretched out on the face of the earth that is where sacred time is. Consider the picture/diagram below (Diag. 1) 8

9 The picture shows the earth during the summer solstice (northern hemisphere). The part of the earth in darkness is coming into sunrise because the earth is turning eastward. When the earth has made a 180-degree turn, the same part will be experiencing sunset. So for our purposes imagine that the part that is shaded is actually in the light and the part in the light is actually in the shade. The line in the middle between the poles is the line defining the change of the day as it travels across the world from the 180-degree meridian east to west. This is where the sunset line is assumed to be according to the sacred time argument. The two lines do not coincide As the picture clearly shows, these two lines do not coincide; this fact alone nullifies the whole argument. The lines cross each other at an angle of roughly 23 degrees during the solstices. At such a time the area between the two lines can be quite substantial and increases the further out one goes from the equator towards the poles. At the point of the earth s revolution captured in the picture the area concerned covers most of Europe including the whole of Great Britain in the northern hemisphere and a large part of the African continent in the southern hemisphere. It is important to note that the sunset in the northern hemisphere is for a different day to that in the southern hemisphere because they are on opposite sides of the day-defining meridian. Divine time could not be along the whole line Supposing that Diag.1 is of the arrival of the Sabbath day. Then according to the argument, the path along the so-called sunset line and to the east of it should be where sacred time is. But half of the so-called sunset line (above the horizontal dark blue line) as the picture clearly shows, is for a day that is different to the half below the dark blue line because they are on opposite sides of the day-defining meridian. In other words, the so-called sacred time fixed to the line of the setting of the sun, is really only sacred in one half but not sacred on the other. This is a huge contradiction in terms, which renders this argument totally indefensible. e. The physical count of 7 days Note the following statement: They did not accept that having worshipped on one Sabbath, it was appropriate to count only six days and then call that day Sabbath. (Source 4) The physical count of seven days is closely linked with the sacred time and line of the setting of the sun arguments and is of course undergirded by the 180-degree meridian (i.e. it exists primarily because of the SPD s allegiance to the 180-degree meridian). Rationale The fundamental contention is that the days in Samoa should be counted as they are physically being experienced. According to this rationale the day following the 29 th of December 2011 shall remain the 6 th day and is called Saturday while the Sabbath the seventh-day - which naturally follows the 6 th day - is now called Sunday. This is the argument that the local Sunday keeping Samoan Adventists have latched on to as the cornerstone of their stance, which is understandable as it is based on what they are experiencing physically. However, when viewed in the context of the overall picture of what happened when the 180- degree meridian was introduced in 1884 and when the IDL was changed in 1892 for Samoa, and in the light of the accepted practice concerning the arbitrary man-made line that denotes where the day begins and ends in a round world, the argument is found to have inconsistencies and flaws. 9

10 The 1892 change and the 8-day week When the meridian of Greenwich was chosen as the common prime meridian in 1884, the 180-degree meridian as a consequence was also confirmed as the antemeridian. Initially Samoa did not use this line to determine her dates and continued to count her days in alignment with New Zealand and Australia using the Gregorian calendar. In 1892 King Malietoa decided to adopt the American reckoning on behalf of Samoa. In essence, the 180- degree meridian then became the date line for Samoa. This meant that Samoa had to repeat a day to account for the change. Accordingly, a one off 8-day week was put in place and Samoa repeated Monday 4 th July 1892 (i.e. went through the same day twice). It was no coincidence that the day chosen coincided with the American Independence Day, as it was American influence that led to the change in the IDL. It is important to note that the SDA Church did not apply the idea of a physical count to this change. If it had the Sabbath would have fallen on the Friday. Instead, the Church accepted the positional re-alignment and began to observe the Sabbath as denoted on the Gregorian calendar, which was Saturday. Some will argue that there was no change in dateline for Samoa but that Samoa just simply accepted the 180-degree meridian as the dateline. This point will be dealt with later in Assertion 3. The 2011 change and the 6-day week In 2011 the Samoan government put the International Date Line back to where it was prior to 1892 on the eastern side of the country so that Samoa relative to the dateline, was now on the side that is 24 hours ahead to the side where it was originally. This is a re-alignment that Samoa has every right to make just like it had in Applying the same principle as was applied in 1892 but in reverse, Samoa accordingly put in place a one off 6-day week in order to fit into its new alignment. This means Samoa, having experienced part of Friday (from sunset Thursday evening to midnight) went straight to Saturday 31 st December Friday, the 30 th December 2011, did not go missing from the weekly sequence of days for the planet. It was experienced in total by the whole world. Samoa, because of its new alignment, is simply deemed to have already completed it after mid-night. This is the big picture of what actually took place, and why after 1892 Samoa s local calendar, which is the Gregorian calendar, indicated that the seventh-day is Saturday, and why after the 2011 IDL change, Samoa s calendar which is still the Gregorian calendar continues to designate Saturday as the seventh-day. A question to ponder This poses a question critical to the validity of the argument: Why is the physical count applied only to the change of the IDL in 2011 and not to the one in 1892? The inconsistency renders the argument completely invalid. As a matter of interest, Tonga has maintained to this day its original physical count that existed before the universal day was established in 1884 If the argument is truthfully applied to Tonga the Sabbath there should really be Saturday. f. Only God can sanctify time, governments cannot Note the following statement: The Church respects the right of governments to determine the positioning of the date line relative to their particular country. It understands that governments can and do make changes which impact on the sequencing, numbering and naming of the days of the week. However, the Seventh-day Adventist Church believes that when it comes to Sabbath observance, it is not the role of any government or secular agency to determine when and how the members of the Seventh-day Adventist church will observe the Sabbath. That is an 10

11 ecclesiastical matter based on the Church s understanding of Scripture. (Source 3) It is a known theological truth that only God can sanctify time. The 180-degree meridian is a line devised by governments of the world The application of this truth however by the SPD to the situation in Samoa has a tinge of duplicity about it. It is used to justify the SDA Church s non-compliance with the Samoa government s change to the IDL. And yet the Sabbath that is now observed in Samoa, that the SPD and the STM are adamant is now called Sunday, that they persistently say is the correct Sabbath and is sanctified time, was arrived at not through a biblical or divine injunction but through the use of the 180-degree meridian a man made imaginary line which was put in place by governments of the world. Hence, on the one hand the argument says one thing and yet on the other hand the church aligns with the very thing it decries in the argument. This makes the argument invalid. g. Reference to missionaries Note the following statement: (Note: prior to the 1892 change, early Adventist pioneers on the Pitcairn observed the Sabbath in Samoa on Sunday along with other Sunday observers recognizing it as the true seventh day of the western hemisphere.) (Source 3) Also note the one below: The Seventh-day Adventist pioneers coming to the Pacific understood, however, the 180 th meridian to be the natural dateline and chose to keep the Sabbath in accordance with that. (Source 2) It is clear that the missionaries with all due respects had in their time, with the information available to them, and having travelled from America westward along the Pacific, made a decision to adhere strictly to the 180-degree meridian as the date line. This is understandable as international navigators were already using the coordinate system based on the Greenwich longitude to calculate their exact locations and positions on the globe. The antemeridian for most of these vessels denoted the date line for navigational and communicational purposes only but on shore they were instructed to abide with the local reckoning. While the decision by the missionaries is admirable, it has no biblical foundation and has called into question the authenticity of Adventist beliefs. It has also cast doubt on the legitimacy of Ellen G White s writings and her inspiration. In the light of a comprehensive understanding of the IDL, the Gregorian calendar, and the 180-degree meridian (all of which will be dealt with in Assertion 2 of this paper) and in view of the numerous problems in pro- Sunday arguments stemming from the SPD s allegiance to the 180-degree meridian, it is a decision that is unfortunately erroneous and must be corrected. h. The changing of the names of the days only/ the changing of the calendar The notion that only names are changed, e.g. from Saturday to Sunday, when the location of the IDL was shifted, is one of the key arguments local Samoans are using to justify Sunday keeping. Note the statement below: They believed that the 24-hour period of time which had always been sacred to their forebears and the pioneers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Samoa should continue to be held sacred, even though the earthly name of that 24-hour period of time had changed and was now called Sunday. (Source 4) Along with this argument is the promulgation of the belief that Samoa has changed its 11

12 calendar. Like the other arguments, these are beset with problems. Inaccurate claim The claim about the change of the calendar is not true. Samoa never intended to develop a new calendar after December 29, The Government recognized from the start that the change in the IDL does not constitute a change in the calendar. Samoa hence continues to use the Gregorian calendar. The same calendar has been adopted for use by nearly every country in the world on both sides of the IDL and is the universally accepted system for mapping the days of the planet from the time it (the system) was introduced to the present as well as into the future. When the IDL changed Samoa did not change the calendar but it adjusted its reckoning to synchronize its present situation with the unchanged calendar (Gregorian) as it was being used on the west side of the IDL. Problems in application The notion that only the names are changed but not the days is based on an understanding of the IDL and of the Gregorian calendar that is unfortunately misinformed. It is language that is unheard of in the educated world and in this day and age when the Gregorian calendar is fairly set and universalized. If the rationale is applied truthfully in Samoa, it will create numerous problems. Take Friday, the 30 th of December 2011 for instance. As the argument goes this was renamed Saturday after the IDL change. This means every other day of the week has also had a name change. Mondays have become Tuesdays, Wednesdays have become Thursdays and so on. Church members thus would need to remember this sweeping change for the purposes of civil life. They would need to change birth dates on passports and birth certificates to maintain international integrity. If they travelled overseas and wanted to celebrate their birthdays there, they would need to remember that the third of the month in Samoa is actually the 2 nd of the month in New Zealand and Australia and every other place on earth where the Gregorian calendar is used. Problem with the number (date) that goes with the name Another problem is what to do with the number or date of the month that is designated to a particular day. If it was a name change only (Saturday to Sunday), then strictly speaking the number or date of the month should remain the same. For instance, the date of the day that followed Thursday the 29 th of December, which the argument insists is now called Saturday, is December 30. th Samoa would thus be the only country in the world to have a Saturday with the date 30 th December That would have indeed constituted a calendar change! But why continue to keep the name of the day tied to the date of the month as it appears on the Gregorian calendar? The simple answer is that in reality there is no calendar change, there is no changing of names only taking place, Samoa is simply regarded to have completed Friday the 30 th December 2011 and has moved on ahead in the calendar. As the calendar has not changed, the date pertaining to a day in Samoa is the same date for the same day everywhere else in the world. It is what this paper calls the calendric identity of the day (which will be explained in detail in Assertion 2). For instance the 15 th June 2013 is a Sabbath and is the identity pertaining to that particular Saturday wherever the Gregorian calendar is used; it is celebrated thus as the Sabbath worldwide. It is unthinkable that on the same calendar Samoa celebrates the 16 th of June, which is a Sunday, as the Sabbath. How can two distinctly different days with distinctly different designated dates (or calendric identities) on the same calendar both be the Sabbath? This point will be discussed in detail under Assertion 3: That the proper instrument for 12

13 delineating the true Sabbath is not the 180-degree meridian but the Gregorian calendar. Suffice it to point out at this juncture that the argument that names only are changed is problematic to say the least. i. The continuous sequence of seven days. Consider the following: Seventh-day Adventists believe that the integrity of the seven-day cycle and time of the Sabbath has been preserved from the time of creation until the present. So there has been an unbroken cycle of seven days since creation and it is this seventh day as it moves around the globe that is to be observed regardless of what it might be called. (Source 3) As a general statement, this has merit as it basically says what most Adventists believe. However, to make it without qualification in the context of the Sabbath in Samoa is in the view of this paper, very misleading. There is a part that is missing. The complete statement should really be as follows: Seventh-day Adventists believe that the integrity of the seven-day cycle and time of the Sabbath, as determined by the 180-degree meridian, has been preserved from the time of creation until the present. So there has been an unbroken cycle of seven days since creation and it is this seventh day as it moves around the globe starting from the 180-degree meridian that is to be observed regardless of what it might be called. The addition of the bolded and underlined phrases are necessary to explain fully what the argument actually means in the context of the Sunday Sabbath in Samoa. After what has been said so far concerning the shortcomings of the 180-degree meridian and the flaws in the other arguments that comply with it, need this paper say any more to prove the problematic nature of this statement? One has only to note that the 180-degree meridian came to the fore in 1884 whereas the Sabbath was instituted at creation to know that the argument is seriously flawed. How can something that man introduced in 1884 be used to define the Sabbath that has been in existence since creation? Also when the universal day concept was adopted in 1884 it was meant to define a common day for the world not the sequence of days for the week. One other point, which flows from this and needs to be made very clear, is that the argument is tantamount to saying that the first day at creation started along the 180-degree meridian and that Samoa and the islands of the Pacific were the last places on earth to experience the sunset of each day of creation week. It s a bold claim, which this paper believes is not only presumptuous, but seriously indefensible. j. What if the government of Samoa changed the IDL again? Note the following statement: If any government were to change its present decision on the position of the dateline, and the church had already decided to worship on whatever day is named Saturday, would the church change the weekly cycle again? What does that changeable position do to the blessed and sanctified time as determined by the setting sun? (Source 3) Although highly subjective and anticipatory in the way it is phrased, the question is valid and needs an informed answer. A proper understanding would allay fears One of the underlying claims of this paper which will be brought out in detail in Assertion 2 is that when the function of the calendar, in particular the Gregorian calendar, is properly understood there is no need to worry over possible future changes to the IDL. The mapping of the days of the planet on the Gregorian calendar predates the 180-degree meridian and the 13

14 IDL and is not affected by a change in either. The Gregorian calendar has a historical connection with the time when the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday by the Roman church. As it is derived from the Julian calendar it has links with biblical times, in particular the time of Christ; in fact it is connected to days and years further back in history right through to the original Sabbath via the Julian calendar. The Gregorian calendar is the constant factor that undergirds and maintains the consistency in the counting of the days of the planet and the passing down of an unchanged seven-day sequence from the time of Christ to the present. Hence, in this day and age with the Gregorian calendar now considered universal, it is the belief of this paper that this is the instrument, rather than the 180-degree meridian, that should be used for determining which day is the Sabbath anywhere in the world including the Pacific. This will be explained more clearly in Assertion 3. The Sabbath on the Gregorian calendar is constant Wherever a person may find himself or herself on the planet either as a traveller or settler, he could align himself with the global Sabbath by following the Gregorian calendar as it is used in that part of the world and it would always be Saturday. In Europe some countries have altered the weekly count so that Sunday has become the seventh day. This change for whatever reason does not negate the original weekly count of the Gregorian calendar, which designates the Saturday as the Seventh-day and is therefore the Sabbath. The same goes for Auckland where the Auckland City Council has put out its own weekly sequence where the Sunday is the Seventh-day. But the Calendar has not changed and the dates are identical with the calendars of other countries, which are all Gregorian. Hence, for Auckland Seventh-day Adventists, they are not deceived by this change. They know that the original Gregorian weekly sequence designates Saturday as the seventh-day and is therefore the Sabbath in Auckland as well as throughout the world. A better scenario In regard thus to the question posed by the argument, the change in the IDL is a non-issue for Saturday Sabbath observance. However often the IDL is changed and wherever it is placed, the sequence of days will remain the same on the Gregorian calendar so that Saturday is still the Sabbath. It is the view of this paper that not only is this the right way to go as it is verifiable by calendric reality and is compatible with the teachings of the Church but it is also a far better scenario than for the Church to be seen jumping from Sunday to Saturday (which are respectively the 1 st and 7 th days of the week on the Gregorian calendar) and vise versa each time there is an IDL change. k. Reference to the Samoan Pioneers. Consider the following statement: They believed that the 24-hour period of time which had always been sacred to their forebears and the pioneers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Samoa should continue to be held sacred, even though the earthly name of that 24-hour period of time had changed and was now called Sunday. (Source 4) This is a subjective appeal to the cultural sentiments of the Samoan people. It is suggesting that the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath in Samoa is in keeping with the forebears beliefs and wishes. This is somewhat presumptuous. The most zealous people among the Saturday Sabbath keepers in Samoa, as well as among their supporters from outside of Samoa, are sons, daughters, and relatives of actual forbears or pioneers (who were pastors, presidents, teachers, mission workers, national missionaries, and 14

15 village chiefs) in the Adventist work; those who would dare to stand up for their forebear s beliefs rather than lean towards their forebear s sense of respect for the missionaries. They would be the best people to know how their forefathers would have felt. For many of them, they currently feel that their families have been betrayed. Their forebears had suffered much for observing the Sabbath in an uncompromising Sunday keeping environment and even more so for being faithful and true to the fundamental biblical teachings of the Adventist faith. They feel that they are now going through the same troubles all over again, except this time it is worse in that it is at the hands of their own former fellow church members. l. The Sabbath and the land. Consider the following statement: An individual s personal travel has nothing to do with when the Sabbath should be kept, except that an individual should attempt to observe the Sabbath during that period of time, which is identified as the seventh day for that longitude. A body of land, which cannot move, cannot be likened to a person crossing the dateline. (Source 3) This argument is promulgated to counter the view that the realignment of the IDL in 2011 is no different to the crossing of the dateline where one experiences a change of date. The core rationale is that the Sabbath is tied to the land, which does not move. This is misleading. The gist of the argument is not really about the land but the nonchangeableness of the 180-degree meridian. If it was truly about the land then the argument is obligated to identify which piece of land on the earth a mountain, a river, a valley, or wherever to which the identification of the Sabbath has been designated biblically since creation. The argument is correct in saying that the land did not move but is wrong in assuming that the line for determining the beginning and the ending of the day cannot be moved. The IDL can be moved and was moved. The very fact that the line was made by man in the first place bespeaks of the consequential fact that the line is therefore changeable and movable. From the biblical perspective the seventh-day Sabbath is not bound to any immovable physical landmark or imaginary man-made line. Its arrival is described simply as coming upon the earth or on the land when darkness moves in. In any case Jesus clearly says the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath. Further more, the bible has made provision for a special Sabbath for the land. The land is to be cultivated and planted with crops for 6 years. On the seventh-year there should be no sowing or planting. This year is to be called the Sabbath for the land (Leviticus 25:1-7). m. Reference to Ellen G White Consider the following statement: God raised up prophets in the past to bring people back to the Sabbath. Yet not once in the past 120 years has God raised up any prophet to warn Adventists in Samoa (or Tonga) that they were observing the wrong day. The dateline change in Samoa has nothing to do with God correcting a past error of the church. Rather, history reveals that the only living prophet of our time clearly recognized the 180 th meridian as the place to observe day change, and correctly observed the day sequence of the hemisphere she found herself in. Ellen White actively denounced alternative proposals for the placing of the dateline. (See Selected Messages, Volume 3, page 317, 318, as well as ( for an explanation of the day line theory. ) (Source 3) To verify the validity of this argument, it is important to see what Mrs. White actually says in the reference quoted above. 15

16 Now, my sister,... I write... to tell you that we are not to give the least credence to the day line theory. It is a snare of Satan brought in by his own agents to confuse minds. You see how utterly impossible for this thing to be, that the world is all right observing Sunday, and God's remnant people are all wrong. This theory of the day line would make all our history for the past fifty-five years a complete fallacy. But we know where we stand (Letter 118, 1900, in SM Vol. 3, ) Proponents of the Sunday Sabbath in Samoa have tried to explain this by saying that E G White is talking about the day line theory but not the date line. Ellen G White s main concern Regardless of whether it is the date line or the day line, Ellen G. White s central concern is clearly on the legitimization by either of Sunday as the Sabbath, which would place God s remnant people in the wrong. It would make all our history for the past 50 years a complete fallacy. The history that she is referring to is the Seventh-day Adventist Church s stance that the true Sabbath is distinct from Sunday, that it was changed from Saturday to Sunday by Catholicism, that Sunday is a counterfeit of Satan and is the mark of the beast. K.H. Wood s (former employee at the White Estate) letter in 1984 bears this out. He says, The whole context of these statements on the date line is in that of Revelation 11, 13, and 18. Mrs. White is making it clear that the apostate churches are Babylon and that Sunday is the mark of the beast. E. G. White s sentiments in many of her writings confirm this view. In one of her most popular works the Great Controversy she has this to say: Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. Great Controversy pg. 588 Ellen G White is consistent Ellen G White, more than any other Adventist writer, has insisted consistently in her writings that the Lord s Sabbath is distinct from Sunday and that Sunday worship or Sunday sacredness is a satanic deception. Hence, this paper contends that using Ellen G White to prop up the Sunday Sabbath in Samoa is not only a total misrepresentation of her beliefs and views but goes against all that she believed and has stood for. n. The sun that shines on Samoa is the same one that shines on American Samoa. How can there be different days between the two countries? The rationale This is an argument that the locals are promoting. The rationale is that as the sun that shines on Samoa is the same one that shines on American Samoa simultaneously, it should follow that the day in Samoa is the same as that in American Samoa. How could they be different? This kind of thinking is implicit in the SPD power point presentation where it states the following regarding the sun setting on Tonga, Samoa, and the Cook Islands: It is the same sun in the same hemisphere that ushers in the Sabbath when it sets on the evening of the 6 th day in Samoa, Cook Islands and Tonga. (Source 1) Inconsistent application The reasoning seems sound except that it fails to recognize what is involved in having a date line. It is also inconsistently applied. For instance, before the 29 th of December 2011 the date line for Samoa was along the 180-degree meridian. This made the day in Samoa different to 16

17 that of New Zealand although the sun shines on the islands of the Pacific including New Zealand simultaneously. There is no application of the argument in this situation. But when Samoa changed the dateline in 2011, suddenly the argument seems to find merit. Why is this? It is because at the core of Sunday keeping is the presupposition that the 180-degree meridian is divinely instituted for the purpose of separating one day from the other. What a line does The reality of having a date line is that once it is drawn, whether it is the 180-degree meridian or the practical IDL, it automatically creates two sides. And by its very presence the line would naturally separate one side from the other. The fact that American Samoa is closer to Samoa than New Zealand and that the sun is shining on all three countries at once are not what makes the difference. It is the line that determines the separation of one day from the other between countries. A proper understanding of the 180-degree meridian, the IDL, and the Gregorian calendar would reveal the reasons why Samoa and American Samoa are separated the way they are. At this point suffice it to say that a day in Samoa with the same calendric identity as a day in American Samoa is the exact same day. For example the 19 th October 2013, the calendric identity of the Sabbath in American Samoa, should also be the Sabbath in Samoa. The principle of calendric identity holds true for all countries that use the Gregorian calendar, a point that will be dealt with in detail in Assertion 2. o. Where is the missing day, Friday the 30 th December 2011? The thought that a day could go missing in Samoa is hard for many Samoans to fathom. The SPD s solution to this is to apply the physical count with the reasoning that the names only of days have been changed but not the days. However, the problems highlighted in the analyses of these two arguments reveal that they cannot be the solution. The correct answer is found in a proper understanding of the 180-degree meridian, the IDL, and the Gregorian calendar (Assertion 2). It is important to note at this point an interesting observation which has merit but which this paper will not pursue as it could cause confusion. The measure of the day based on the 180- degree meridian is from mid-night to mid-night. The biblical measure is from sunset to sunset. Based on the biblical definition, Samoa did experience part of the Friday from sunset to midnight, before the dateline was changed at midnight December 29, And according to biblical reckoning, as is used in the calculation of the days Jesus spent in the tomb, part of a day is considered to be a full day. So strictly speaking, Samoa did not miss a day. p. Consistency in the practice of the islands of the Pacific Consider the following: It has been the consistent policy of the SDA church since its work began in the Pacific to abide by the international agreement that appoints the 180-degree longitude as the place where the new day begins (Source 3) True day sequence for our world can only be marked by the setting sun as it crosses a meridian of the globe. That meridian has been identified both historically and geographically as the 180 th. All lands within the same longitude experience the same day period regardless of what name is given to it. (Source 3) All Seventh-day Adventists in Pacific nations east of the 180 th meridian worship in the same 24-hour period the blessed and sanctified Sabbath of the seventh day. In some places that day is called Saturday (as in Niue, American Samoa and Hawaii) and in some places it is called Sunday (as in Tonga, Wallis, The Phoenix & Line Islands of Kiribati, and Samoa). (Source 4) 17

18 Falsity in the statement A couple of things need to be pointed out with regards to the accuracy of this statement. Firstly, there has been no international agreement to set the date line on the 180-degree meridian 7. Secondly, as far as this paper is able to ascertain, there is no written policy in the SDA Church (world church) regarding the 180-degree meridian. It appears that the use of the meridian as the date line was a practice adopted by missionaries who were no doubt influenced by the counting systems of the vessels they travelled on. The practice appears to have been adopted indiscriminately by the South Pacific Division.. Inconsistency in being consistent While the SPD has insisted on being consistent, it fails its own intention in the case of some countries where the 180-degree meridian crosses the land. The BRC admits to this inconsistency: A few nations cover areas on both side of the 180-meridian and choose to follow the same calendar for all of their territory. These are USA (Alaska), Kiribati, and Fiji (Lau islands). (Source 2) In the case of the Lau group the part of the islands that lie on the east of the 180-degree meridian is allowed by the church to keep the same Sabbath as the rest of the country that lies on the west. Such an exemption renders impotent the whole idea of a straight, unchangeable, and divine date line. At any rate, while the SPD has chosen to try to be consistent with the practice of the missionaries, it is at the risk of being inconsistent with the church s fundamental teachings. This paper will endeavor to show that the fundamental teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church on biblical prophecy and the Sabbath have been consistent from the time of Christ to the present and should be applied to Samoa. Conclusion Thus far this paper has clearly revealed that the arguments in support of Sunday keeping in Samoa are riddled with problems and flaws. One by one the arguments are found to be wanting in authenticity and accuracy. The most seriously problematic is the presupposition at the core of the Sunday Sabbath issue - that the 180-degree meridian is the natural or the divinely instituted date line. In the light of all this, this paper fervently asserts that the decision to observe Sunday as the Sabbath in Samoa is unsustainable. While the evidence for unsustainability is clear, of greater concern is how the continuing promulgation of these arguments would ultimately reflect on the ethics of the SDA church. This is in regard to the contents of the arguments as well as to the conflict between what the church says and what it actually practices in Samoa. This paper has intentionally avoided making value statements other than to point out the problems in the arguments, but at some point the Church would have to review these arguments in the light of the morals that the Church purportedly upholds. This paper is deeply concerned that there is a clear lack of integrity in many of the arguments. 7 Wikipedia < accessed 21 Nov

19 ASSERTION 2: That when the 180-degree meridian, the IDL, and the Gregorian calendar are properly understood they would reveal that the church s teachings (as alluded to in the introduction) concerning the Sabbath are not only perfectly compatible with the new context in Samoa but also universally applicable Understanding the 180-degree meridian The 180-degree meridian is the geometric name given to the meridian that runs directly opposite to or is at 180-degree angle to the prime meridian. It is often referred to as the antemeridian. To understand its meaning and purpose it is critical firstly to understand the significance of the prime meridian and how it was established in the 1884 Meridian Conference as well as the fixing of the universal day at the same conference. a. The 1884 Meridian Conference The best document to provide an accurate account of what happened in 1884 at the International Meridian Conference is the record of the minutes of the Conference. These are available on the Internet in the form of an electronic book at 8 It is a priceless document, which contains the names of the representatives from the participating countries, the purpose of the conference, the proceedings, the contributions of each participant, and more importantly the resolutions. The two pronged purpose of the conference is found in the title to the minutes: The International Conference Held at Washington For the Purpose of Fixing a Prime Meridian and a Universal Day, One interesting aspect of the conference is the rising international influence and power of the United States of America. The conference was at the call of the President of the United States. His communication with the various countries with diplomatic relations with itself to call them to the conference was more officious than invitational. Nearly all of the resolutions that were voted through were from the American representative Mr. Luis Rutherford. The British and the Americans also dominated the discussions. b. Fixing the Prime Meridian Demands of progress Prior to 1884 there were as many as 12 initial or prime meridians being used by navigators around the world. 9 By 1884 it was clear that civilization had reached such a point in international trade, time keeping, geographic, geodetic, astronomic, nautical, commercial, communication, and navigational activities that it was needful for the nations of the world to agree on a system that would unify these. The 1884 Conference was called to discuss the possibility of adopting a common prime meridian as the starting point for the development of such a system International Conference Held at Washington for the Purpose of Fixing a Prime Meridian and a Universal Day. October, Released February 12, 2006 [EBook #17759] < 9 Ibid., pp Ibid., p. 7 19

20 The countries represented at the Conference were: Austria, Hungary, Brazil, Columbia, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Great Britain, Guatemala, the Kingdom of Hawaii, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Paraquay, Russia, San Dominigo, Salvador, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The United States of America, Venezuela, Chile, Denmark, Liberia, Netherlands, and Turkey. Choosing a prime meridian acceptable to all these countries, let alone the whole world was no easy feat. Aware of the political sensitivity of the issue, the delegates from France were particularly insistent that a neutral meridian, 11 one that did not favor by its location any particular country, be chosen. In the end, however, the vote went to the Greenwich meridian. Pertinent to the purposes of this paper is the reasoning behind the choosing of this meridian. It would give us an insight into the significance of the 180-degree meridian, which was essentially an inevitable consequence of that choice. Reasons for choosing the Greenwich meridian There were three powerful arguments in support of the Greenwich meridian, which ultimately swayed the vote in its favor. The first is that it had a transit instrument for telegraphic communication with vessels at sea, a vital requirement for the determination of location and longitudes. 12 The second is convenience it was already being used by 72 percent of the whole floating commerce of the world. 13 The third is economics 14 - the cost that could be saved by maintaining the use of the charts and nautical maps already printed for much of the world s commercial fleet as well as the plates that were created for them was quite substantial. Once the prime meridian was chosen it was a matter of formality more or less, for the other meridians or longitudes, including the 180-degree meridian, to fall into place. This is reflected in the first three resolutions of the Conference as follows: I. "That it is the opinion of this Congress that it is desirable to adopt a single prime meridian for all nations, in place of the multiplicity of initial meridians which now exist." II. "That the Conference proposes to the Governments here represented the adoption of the meridian passing through the center of the transit instrument at the Observatory of Greenwich as the initial meridian for longitude." III. "That from this meridian longitude shall be counted in two directions up to 180 degrees, east longitude being plus and west longitude minus." 15 Some critical points were raised in the discussion prior to the vote, which are vitally important for the purposes of this paper. These will be discussed in detail under the next section on the universal day. For the moment, it is important to note that while the SPD has placed a great deal of theological importance on the 180-degree meridian as a divinely instituted line for defining the beginning of the day, such an emphasis is clearly absent in the 1884 conference. The focus was primarily on the prime meridian. c. The fixing of the Universal Day Principles, objectives, and motivations The fixing of the universal day at the Conference is particularly vital in the validation or non- 11 International Conference, p Ibid., p Ibid., p Ibid., pp Ibid., pp

21 validation of the role of the 180-degree meridian in determining the Sabbath in Samoa. The principles, motivations, and objectives undergirding the establishment of a universal day are outlined in Mr. Sandford Fleming s (delegate for Great Britain representing Canada) speech 16 prior to the vote on the third resolution. These can be summarized as follows: The conditions of modern civilization demand that a comprehensive method of time reckoning be established. There is one and can only be one passage of time for the earth. The truest unit measure of time is the day or one diurnal revolution of the earth. This unit of measurement and any portions of it must be common to all. The concept of a universal day is based on the understanding that there is only one passage of time for the planet and that every country in the world goes through that same passage. While each country or community may have its own preferred system for reckoning that passage, it would be advantageous for the world to have a common system so that every point of the day could be pinpointed and referred to in a way that is understandable to all. Not only that but the day would need to be fixed to some point on the earth so that every country will be able to use that point as the common reference point. On the basis of these principles and motivations, Mr. Fleming set out the objectives of his scheme as follows: 1. To define and establish a universal day for securing chronological accuracy in dates common to the whole world. 2. To obtain a system of universal time on a basis acceptable to all nations, by which, everywhere, at the same time, the same instant may be observed. 3. To establish a sound and rational system of reckoning time which may eventually be adopted for civil purposes everywhere, and thus secure uniformity and accuracy throughout the globe. Recommendations Mr. Fleming then went on to make some recommendations on how the day can be set up and measured: The advantages of such a system of reckoning and nomenclature, as suggested in the recommendations which I now submit, will be, I think, self-evident. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE REGULATION OF TIME AND THE RECKONING OF LONGITUDE 1. That a system of universal time be established, with the view of facilitating synchronous scientific observations, for chronological reckonings, for the purpose of trade and commerce by sea and land, and for all such uses to which it is applicable. 2. That the system be established for the common observance of all peoples, and of such a character that it may be adopted by each separate community, as may be found expedient. 3. That the system be based on the principle that for all terrestrial time reckonings there be one recognized unit of measurement only, and that all measured intervals of time be directly related to the one unit measure 4. That the unit measure be the period occupied by the diurnal revolution of the earth, defined by the mean solar passage at the meridian twelve hours from the Prime Meridian established through Greenwich. 5. That the unit measure defined as above be held to be a day absolute, and designated a Cosmic Day. 6. That such Cosmic Day be held as the chronological date of the earth, changing with the mean solar passage at the anti-meridian of Greenwich. 7. That all divisions and multiples of the Cosmic day, be known as Cosmic Time. 16 International Conference, pp

22 8. That the Cosmic Day be divided into hours, numbered in a single series, one to twenty-four, (1 to 24,) and that the hours be subdivided, as ordinary hours, into minutes and seconds. Note: As an alternative means of distinguishing the cosmic hours from the hours in local reckonings, they may be denoted by the letters of the alphabet, which, omitting I and V, are twenty-four in number. 9. That until Cosmic Time be admitted as the means of reckoning in the ordinary affairs of life, it is advisable to assimilate the system to present usage and to provide for the easy translation of local as far as practicable, the several hour meridians be taken according to the longitude of the locality, to regulate local reckonings, in a manner similar to the system in use throughout North America. 10. That, in all cases where an hour meridian is adopted as the standard for regulating local reckonings, in a particular section or district, the civil day shall be held to commence twelve hours before and end twelve hours after the mean solar passage of such hour meridian. 11. That the civil day, based on the Prime Meridian of Greenwich, shall coincide and be one with the Cosmic Day. That civil days on meridians east of Greenwich shall be (according to the longitude) a known number of hours, or hours and minutes in advance of Cosmic Time, and to the west of Greenwich the contrary. 12. That the surface of the globe being divided by twenty-four equidistant meridians (fifteen degrees apart) corresponding with the hours of the Cosmic Day, it is advisable that longitude be reckoned according to these hour meridians. 13. That the divisions of longitude less than an hour (fifteen degrees) be reckoned in minutes and seconds and parts of seconds. 14. That longitude be reckoned continuously towards the west, beginning with zero at the Anti-prime meridian, twelve hours from Greenwich. 15. That longitude, generally, be denoted by the same terms as those applied to Cosmic Time. Although some of these recommendations did not end up in resolutions and some were even rejected (e.g. the idea of counting longitude from 0 to 360), most of the points in Mr. Fleming s presentation made good sense. The timing of the presentation is interesting. It came after the 2 nd resolution on the prime meridian well before discussions on the universal day. Obviously, much thought had gone into these recommendations in anticipation of the choice of the prime meridian but the presentation of them at this point indicated that the motive is obviously to influence the thinking of many when it came to the fixing of the universal day. General concerns There was a lengthy dialogue on defining where the universal day should begin. Some general concerns were raised as follows: As expressed in the explanation on the setting of the prime meridian, a major concern was on the effect the universal day would have on civil lives and routines of people, especially around Europe, North America, and the commercialized countries of the world. 17 Mr. Ruiz Del Arbo, the delegate from Spain 18 raised a concern that the universal day would affect chronology of history, preserved through the Julian calendar and passed down by the Gregorian calendar. He feared that it would cause discontinuity in the recording of time and felt strongly that the universal day should start from the meridian of Rome. In his view Rome was the center of the civilized and Christian world from which the history of civilization is marked out in fixed dates on the Julian and Gregorian systems. 19 The delegate from Turkey 20 felt that reasons of a national and religious character would prevent his people who were of the Muslim faith from fully accepting a universal day as it might mean abandoning the two modes for the counting of time that was used 17 International Conference, p Ibid., p Ibid., pp Ibid., pp

23 locally, namely from sunset to sunset and noonday to noonday. Assurances from the delegates of Britain and the United States that defining the universal day to coincide with the civil day at the Greenwich meridian neutralized fears of extensive disturbance; the placement would cause the least inconvenience. 21 With regards to the point raised by the delegate from Spain, the speech by Commander Sampson dispelled worries over chronological discontinuity. The speech is as follows: Mr. President, as near as I can follow the Delegate of Spain, he seems to be under the apprehension that by the adoption of the universal day, which has been proposed here, we should either gain or lose time in our chronology; that we should skip 12 hours, more or less. But, of course, that is not the case. Any event which has occurred, or which will occur, at the time of the adoption of the universal day will be expressed just as exactly with reference to time as if the time had been calculated from the beginning of the Christian era. There will not only be no confusion, but it seems to me the adoption of the universal day will tend to avoid confusion hereafter, because confusion must exist where we have so many standards of time. Now, if any event which is taking place, or has taken place at any past time in the history of the world, is referred to the prime meridian, or is expressed in the time of any locality or of several localities, these times will all be different. The adoption of the universal day is to avoid any difficulty of that sort, and any event, which has transpired will, when expressed in the time of the universal day--that is, according to the universal method--represent exactly the interval of time, which has elapsed since the beginning of the Christian era. Nothing is gained or lost. 22 Finally, the comments by the President (chairman) of the Conference in response to the concerns raised by the delegate from Turkey are worth noting: The Chair would remind the Delegate of Turkey that the following resolution was passed at our last session: "_Resolved_, That the Conference propose the adoption of a universal day for all purposes for which it may be found convenient, and which shall not interfere with the use of local or other standard time where desirable." The very difficulty, which the Delegate of Turkey anticipates was thus carefully provided for in the resolution just read. 23 The resolutions The resolutions pertaining to the universal day are: IV. "That the Conference proposes the adoption of a universal day for all purposes for which it may be found convenient, and which shall not interfere with the use of local or other standard time where desirable." V. "That this universal day is to be a mean solar day; is to begin for all the world at the moment of mean midnight of the initial meridian, coinciding with the beginning of the civil day and date of that meridian; and is to be counted from zero up to twenty-four hours. VI. "That the Conference expresses the hope that as soon as may be practicable the astronomical and nautical days will be arranged everywhere to begin at mean midnight." 24 The 1884 conference s lack of emphasis on the 180-degree meridian What is all this information going to contribute to an understanding of the 180-degree meridian, in particular the validity of its role in the decision by the STM? This paper has taken great pains to quote large portions of speeches in an effort to capture the mood of the conference and the motivations behind the speeches as well as the scientific principles involved. More importantly it is done in order to validate vital points at a glance so as to minimize searching through footnotes. Some of these points will be crucial for the discussion on the Gregorian calendar. 21 International Conference, pp Ibid., p Ibid., p Ibid., pp

24 On the basis of the quotes and comments given thus far it is safe to make the following observations: The absence of any special emphasis on the 180-degree meridian in the resolutions is poignant. It points to the fact that the 180-degree meridian was never approved nor endorsed in the 1884 conference as the International Date Line for the world 25. The universal day was defined to coincide with the civil day of Greenwich, so that the peoples of Europe and North America could go through their days normally as though nothing had changed. The 24-hour break or discontinuity would occur theoretically along the 180-degree meridian several miles away in the Pacific. 26 Like the prime meridian, the establishment of the universal day was motivated by commercial interests and the growing need to unify global time keeping in the light of huge advancements in international trade, communication, and travel. The universal day was set up for all purposes for which it may be found convenient, and which shall not interfere with the use of local or other standard time where desirable." This means that the Governments or nations of the world are at liberty to view the universal day concept in the context of their local situation and to apply it as they see fit. The common system for reckoning the day is primarily with regards to the measuring of the day in reference to a common point namely the Greenwich meridian. It was not for the identification of the day. The calendric identity of the day at Greenwich was taken for granted to be the identity also of the same day everywhere else where the Gregorian calendar is used. This will be discussed under the section on the Gregorian calendar. Any inconvenience caused by the placement of the day, particularly in those countries affected by the discontinuity, was accounted for in the wording of the resolution in the same way that the wording accounted for the national and religious concerns raised by the delegate from Turkey In the case of Samoa thus, because of the country s proximity to where the discontinuity would occur she is at liberty to make a choice on how to use the universal day to suit her local context. She could choose either to be on the west (11+ hours before the prime meridian) or on the east (13- hours after). The SPD decision vs the 1884 Conference s resolutions These valid observations lead to the inevitable conclusion, which reiterates what has already been said, that the use by the SPD of the 180-degree meridian as the international date line - the absolute and unchangeable line on the face of the earth for the demarcation of the day is neither supported by the 1884 conference resolutions nor by international practice. The 180- degree meridian was never defined or fixed by the conference to be the International Date Line. The natural, absolute, and unchangeable role conferred on this longitude by the SPD is the SPD s own private decision. 25 Wikipedia < accessed 21 Nov International Conference, pg

25 The role of the 180-degree meridian What then is the real role of the 180-degree meridian in the civil and scientific affairs of the world? After the common prime meridian was chosen, it together with its antemeridian became vital parts of the longitude-latitude coordinate system currently used in geographic maps and navigational charts. Latitudes like longitudes are not affected by the sun or by the rotation of the earth but are essential for the precise calculation of positions of vessels at sea and for the exact direction of travel either by air or by sea. In such situations a degree of permanency is required for the charts to have any real practical value and the longitudes and latitudes needed to be straight. The 180-degree meridian is part of the longitudinal time keeping system that is tied to the Greenwich meridian, which although not passed as a resolution at the conference, is currently used today by most countries. It is the system where longitudes are given time values based on one diurnal revolution of the earth or one day. The measure of this day is from midnight to midnight on a 24-hour time span. The 180-degree meridian forms what is known as the nautical dateline 27 (not to be confused with the idea of an international date line) agreed to internationally by maritime operators to be used by vessels at sea for navigation and communication purposes only. 28 When the vessels reach shore they use the local time and dates. While the 180-degree meridian is not, strictly speaking, the international dateline, it is used as the general guide for the location of the international dateline. While all these functions are noble, necessary for the affairs of mankind, and scientifically verifiable, the line has no theological or biblical significance. Understanding the International Date Line (IDL) This is the line that has come under scrutiny since the Samoa Government s decision to change where it lies in relation to the country. The South Pacific Division has said that the change was driven by commercial and economic motivations and that the Church therefore will not comply with it. Given that the prime meridian, the 180-degree longitude, and the universal day were all put in place for exactly the same reasons and more, this paper questions the integrity of such a statement, especially in view of the elevated status now given to the 180-degree meridian by the SPD. To fully understand the IDL, its origin, and how it is currently being viewed, note the following statement: When the meridian of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich was by nearly-unanimous consent adopted as the prime meridian, it was remarked how convenient this choice was as it insured that the 180º meridian, where formally the date line should be located, mostly passed over water. However, no attempts were made during this conference to specify the exact course of the date line when it happened to cross land or pass through island groups. As such the term International Date Line is thus in fact a misnomer. Its exact course was never defined by any international treaty, law or agreement. At the end of the 19th century, George Davidson ( ), the pioneer scientist and surveyor of the American West Coast, summed up the situation as: There is no International Date Line. The theoretical line is 180 from Greenwich, but the line actually used 27 Wikipedia 28 Ibid. 25

26 is the result of agreement among the commercial steamships of the principal maritime countries. Due to the lack of any international guidelines for the location of the date line, 20th-century mapmakers have tended to follow the recommendations of the hydrographic departments of the British and the American Navy. Both departments regularly issue charts and pilot books for the Pacific Ocean region that represent the date line as a series of connected straight lines (or better circle segments ). The earliest recommendations issued by these departments referring to the date line appear to date from 1899 and Note also the following from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: All nations unilaterally determine their standard time zones, applicable only on land and adjacent territorial waters. These national zones do not extend into international waters. No international organization, nor any treaty between nations, has fixed the IDL drawn by cartographers: the 1884 International Meridian Conference explicitly refused to propose or agree to any time zones, stating that they were outside its purview. The conference resolved that the Universal Day, midnight-to-midnight Greenwich Mean Time (now known as Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC), which it did agree to, "shall not interfere with the use of local or standard time where desirable". From this comes the utility and importance of UTC or "Zulu" time: it permits a single universal reference for time that is valid for all points on the globe at the same moment Ships should adopt the standard time of a country if they are within its territorial waters within 12 nautical miles of land (about 22 km or 14 miles), but should revert to international time zones (15 wide pole-to-pole gores) as soon as they leave. In reality, ships use these time zones only for radio communication and similar purposes. For internal purposes ships use a time zone of their own choosing. The IDL on the map on this page and all other maps is an artificial construct of cartographers the precise course of the line in international waters is arbitrary. 30 The IDL is a misnomer This paper s study of the minutes of the 1884 conference confirms the comments quoted above. At worst the IDL is a misnomer. At best it is an artificial construct. Why is this so? When fixing the universal day, it was necessary to link it to a meridian. But the conference recognized that it does not have the right to determine time zones, or more specifically for our purposes, an international date line. Consequently, the universal day was defined in such a way as to coincide with the civil day of the meridian at Greenwich so that it would create the least inconvenience. It was fixed to that meridian in such a way that we today have what is called UTC (coordinated universal time). Essentially it is time calculated in reference to the prime meridian. The exact route of the discontinuity that would occur as a consequence on the other side of the world, was beyond the purview of the conference to fix or determine. That part was left to the countries that would be affected by the break. The resolutions were worded accordingly to accommodate that. For international travel, navigation, communication, and trade the cartographers and navigators needed to have more definite information for these activities hence the so-called IDL as it is known today. It is drawn by cartographers in accordance with the decisions of countries in proximity to the antemeridian of Greenwich (180-degree longitude) as to which side of the universal day they would like to be in i.e. either so many hours before Greenwich or so many hours behind. The decisions by these Governments were never really made in reference to the 180-degree longitude but to the prime meridian. Samoa Government s decision 29 A History of the International Date Line < > accessed 21 November Wikipedia < accessed 21 Nov

27 Samoa thus was true to the spirit of the conference s resolutions when she chose an alignment to the universal day that was desirable for her purposes. She was perfectly within her rights to change the IDL or strictly speaking the country s alignment to the discontinuity (break of 24 hours) that was precipitated by the said resolutions. From the perspective of the teachings of the church, the change would not affect the world s singular time-flow. It would not affect the seven-day sequence or the way that the time flow was mapped out on the Gregorian calendar. It would not therefore affect the identity of the Sabbath within that system. If Samoa s decision had been tabled in the 1884 conference, this paper sincerely believes that it would have been welcomed and fully accepted by the countries represented as it was well within the spirit of the resolutions and of the theoretical function of the universal day. Unfortunately over time the church has bestowed on the 180-degree meridian a role that was never intended by those that identified it in the first place. The church has consequently taken a stand that refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the Samoan Government s action. Unfortunately, it is a stance that places Seventh-day Adventists in Samoa in conflict with the Church s own fundamental teachings. Understanding the Gregorian calendar In this section it is important to reiterate some principles already mentioned in the section on the universal day: There is and can only be one passage of time for the world. Our systems of reckoning that passage are arbitrary. The truest and purest unit for measuring the flow of time is the diurnal revolution of the earth on its own axis or the day. Having a universal day does not affect the flow of time or the recording of that flow. It in fact consolidates both. Gregorian system and the universal day It is important to note that the idea of a universal day is undergirded by the wider concept of the calendar because the day would need to be identified in a calendric system. In the context of the discussions at the conference, that calendric system which of necessity must be one that every country is familiar with, was somewhat assumed to be already in use. The identity of the civil day of Greenwich, for instance, seemed to have been understood by all. This paper asserts that the calendric system in question is the Gregorian calendar. All the countries represented at the conference except Turkey and Russia had adopted the Gregorian calendar for national use prior to This meant that most of the representatives at the conference were already on the same page as to the identity of days when they were discussing the various resolutions. This is why the universal day was never referred to in the conference as a date of the month or a day of the week. Calendric identity of a day At this point it is important to explain what is meant by identities of days and calendric systems. As noted earlier there is only one passage of time for our planet and the unit measure of that passage is the day. A calendar, whether lunar or solar, has two basic self-evident functions. The first is to make sure that all the units or days in the passage of time are accounted for; the second is to provide a system valid for the civil and religious lives of those 31 The Calendar FAQ accessed 21 November

28 that use it. To account for the units of time, each day is given an identity, (e.g. in the Gregorian system it would be a date of the month, the name of the day in the weekly cycle, and the year), which essentially locks that day into the chronology of history as recorded in that calendric system. This is what this paper means by the identity of a day. 32 Civil and religious relevance So that it could be relevant for civil and religious use, the Gregorian calendar like the Julian calendar before it uses the solar method, where the system is ordered in such a way that the vernal equinox coincides with Easter while the summer and winter seasons fall into regular predictable positions in the system. This is helpful for the Catholic Christians who place great importance on Easter and to the horticultural and agricultural communities of Europe who need to know the exact time for harvesting, lambing, planting and so forth for each year. The difficulty in maintaining the civil relevance of a solar-based calendar like the Julian calendar is that the revolution of the earth around the sun (the year) cannot be measured in exact whole days (the basic unit). The length of the year comes to 365 days plus 6 hours and some minutes and seconds. The Julian calendar adjusted to this by adding an extra day to the year every four years (leap year). But the system failed to adjust to the extra minutes and seconds. After more than 1500 years of usage with this error intact the Julian calendar was found to be totally out of sync with the equinoxes and solstices. These were not occurring on the days that they were expected to in the system. The Julian calendar was several days ahead. The Gregorian calendar, which is a revision of the Julian calendar made the necessary adjustment by removing ten days. The 5 th of October became 15 th October in Correction of the Calendar does not change the flow of time It is important to note that this is an adjustment to the system but not to the passage of time. The latter cannot be interfered with. There is no loss of days in the chronology of the planet, just a loss of days in the recording system (the calendar). It is also important to note that the passage of time from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian was not interrupted. That passage measured in days was passed on together with the weekly sequence so that the Sabbaths were clearly marked off and given identities within the new system. The Gregorian calendar has corrective features 33 that account for the extra time that the Julian calendar failed to adjust to. Once the system is set, the calendar could be made to map out the passage of time on a grid. It is possible thus to compute the exact calendric identity of each day including the Sabbaths 100 years into the future. This is how the church is able to prepare its Sabbath school lessons way ahead of time. It is also possible to go back in history and locate Sabbaths that have passed. The Sabbaths within the one passage of time have all been given calendric identities. For instance, the day with the calendric identity Saturday the 31 st of December 2011 is the seventh day of the week; it is the Sabbath everywhere in the world. Similarly Sunday, the 1 st January 2012 is the calendric identity for the first day of the week. Explanation of the missing day This understanding of the Gregorian calendar helps explain the issue concerning the missing day. What happened to the Friday 30 th December 2011? Where did that day go? The SPD says that it has been renamed Saturday 31 st December As has already been explained, that could not be, as long as Samoa continues to use the Gregorian calendar. The calendric 32 Wikipedia, Calendar < accessed 21 November Wolframresearch, Gregorian Calendar, accessed 21 November

29 identity Saturday 31 st December 2011 is for a different day and cannot be swapped for Friday 30 th December 2011 on the same calendar. The latter is a separate day in its own right, with its own calendric identity. Friday the 30 th December 2011 was never lost to the planet. Every country in the world experienced it in full except Samoa. Samoa had changed her alignment to the universal day at midnight on the 29 th December Having experienced part of the Friday 30 th December 2011 from sunset Thursday to midnight Friday Samoa moved on to the Sabbath when the IDL changed, with Friday being deemed as completed already. Explanation of the 8-day week The understanding also resolves the issue with regards to the so-called extra day that was added in The argument that only the names have been changed was not applied then, and rightly so for the same reasons as were used in the case of the missing day. What happened in 1892 was not about an extra day being added to the planet, but rather that when the dateline was changed Samoa went back to repeat one day while the rest of the world experienced that day only once. In all of this the passage of time for the planet remained unaffected. The Sunday keepers might argue that the passage of time in Samoa has not changed and therefore the physical count is valid. This would be feasible if what had happened was a change in the calendar or the introduction of a new calendar. In which case the principle used by the Gregorian calendar in the revision of the Julian calendar would apply i.e. the system has been adjusted while the passage of time has remained constant. But what happened in Samoa is not a change in the calendar. Samoa still uses the Gregorian calendar. What happened was a change in the so-called date line. In practical terms, it is a shift in the placement of Samoa within the passage of time for the planet. Samoa is one of the few countries in the world that can do the shift or change the date line because of its proximity to where the break in the day is deemed to occur. Graphic representation For this truth to be fully understood, it needs to be pointed out emphatically that Samoa is not isolated from the rest of the world. Samoa goes through the same passage of time as the rest of the world. There is one passage of time, not two, or three, or more. The identity of a day therefore is the same for Samoa as it is for the rest of the world. Supposing that we could cut the section of the world which contains Samoa and New Zealand, (the section between the 0 and 45 degree latitudes south of the Equator), at the point of the IDL and stretch it out into a flat band or a straight arrow as follows: c Samoa NZ NZ would be at the beginning of the arrow and Samoa would be at the end. The diagram below shows the journey of this part of the world (as the globe turns on its axis) through the passage of time represented as days of the week. 29

30 Thursday Friday Sabbath Sunday A B C D E Explanation: A. NZ at the front of the arrow has entered Friday while Samoa at the rear has entered Thursday. B. NZ has only just entered Sabbath and Samoa has only just entered Friday. An hour or so earlier the whole world for a very brief moment would have been in the one day - Friday. C. NZ is half way through the Sabbath while Samoa is half way through Friday. D. NZ has entered Sunday and Samoa is into the Sabbath E. NZ has entered Monday and Samoa has entered Sunday This graphic presentation clearly illustrates that every country along the band, and on the planet for that matter, goes through the same passage of time. The earth travels through time and no day can go missing unless the earth stops spinning. The week experienced by the Western Hemisphere is the same one celebrated by the Eastern Hemisphere. More importantly for the purposes of this paper, the Sabbath enjoyed by NZ at the front of the arrow is the same Sabbath celebrated by Samoa at the end of the arrow and similarly by the rest of the world that is in between. c NZ Samoa At midnight on the 29 th December 2011 just before NZ entered the Sabbath (arrow B in the table above) Samoa by changing its position relative to the dateline, moved to the front of the arrow (diagram above) and entered the Sabbath infront of NZ with Friday deemed to have been completed. The Sabbath has not been changed. Samoa has simply changed its position relative to the Sabbath by shifting the dateline from the west of the country to the east. Also Friday has not disappeared. It is still there. The passage of time is constant. Samoa is deemed to have completed Friday (without going through all of it) by changing its position at midnight. This happened once only in the week of the IDL change. There after Samoa was back to the normal seven-day physical weekly sequence. A similar graphic scenario could be constructed for what happened in 1892 when Samoa shifted from the front of the arrow to the back. 30