Samoa, the International Dateline Shift, and the Seventh-day Sabbath
by Andrew Hanson
THE EVENT
On midnight, (10:00 GMT) as December 29, 2011 ended, Samoa and Tokelau “fast forwarded” to December 31. In other words, these countries chose to “move” from the United States side of the International Date Line to the New Zealand and Australia side to benefit trade and tourism. That meant that the seventh day of the week was now Sunday. What were the Adventists on Samoa and Tokelau to do?
THE INTERNATIONAL DATELINE
Imagine you are looking at a globe map of the world. Imagine that your reference point is the Chatham Islands—just east of New Zealand. If your globe is like mine, you will notice a red line that jogs west and south to join a dark, broken line that indicates a 180° longitude meridian that ends at the South Pole.
If you follow the red line north from the Chatham Islands, you discover that it rejoins the meridian in the vicinity of the Tokelau Islands until it jogs west around the Aleutians and east between Russia and Alaska. (The Meridian begins and ends at the Poles as does that red line.) It’s imaginary and exists only as a figment of the world’s imagination, but it’s very important. It’s the International Date Line (IDL).
The International Date Line is the imaginary line on the Earth that separates two consecutive calendar days. The date in the Eastern hemisphere, to the left of the line, is always one day ahead of the date in the Western hemisphere. It has been recognized as a matter of convenience and has no force in international law.
Without the International Date Line travelers going westward would discover that when they returned home, one day more than they thought had passed, even though they had kept careful tally of the days. This first happened to Magellan's crew after the first circumnavigation of the globe. Likewise, a person traveling eastward would find that one fewer days had elapsed than he had recorded, as happened to Phileas Fogg in "Around the World in Eighty Days" by Jules Verne.
The International Date Line can be anywhere on the globe. But it is most convenient to be 180° away from the defining meridian that goes through Greenwich, England. It also is fortunate that this area is covered, mainly, by empty ocean. However, there have always been zigs and zags in it to allow for local circumstances. https://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/international_date.php
PRINCIPLES AND CONSIDERATIONS
The Biblical Research Committee of the South Pacific Division was asked by Transpacific Union to make an assessment of principles and practices for Sabbath keeping in the Pacific in relation to the dateline.
This statement is the result of wide consultation. The Biblical Research Committee has listened to and received advice from a number of sources, such as theologians both inside and outside the Division, Transpacific Union administration and members; and submissions have been received by, among others, William G. Johnson, Bruce Roberts, Ray Coombe, Paul Cavanagh, and David Hay. The issue has also been presented and discussed at the Pacific Islands Administrators Counsel, among others.
THE FIRST OFFICIAL STATEMENT
The Executive Committee of the Samoa Tokelau Mission (STM) has taken an action at the recommendation of the South Pacific Division (SPD) that the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Samoa will not recognize the new reckoning of days after the IDL shift with regards to the seventh day, and will instead continue to follow the sequence and reckoning of days on the Eastern side of the IDL. This means that while Christian Churches in Samoa will recognize the first day of the week in the new weekly cycle as Sunday (their day of worship), Adventists will treat the same day as the Sabbath.
Practical Reasons Given For This Decision
Remember that early Adventist pioneers also worshiped with Sunday-keepers when Sunday was the true seventh day prior to 1892, and since Chief Malietoa corrected that situation, Adventists in Samoa have been worshiping on the seventh day of the week (now Saturday) for over 120 years as a part of their Adventist identity. Why would we change now and break the weekly cycle just because the name of the day has changed?
This decision must also consider the impact and implications for Sabbath observance in American Samoa. American Samoa is also at this time part of the Samoa and Tokelau Mission. Although standing as a separate territory and political entity they are our brothers and sisters in both culture and spiritual family. Their views and feelings about this change should be considered also.
It is inconceivable that two countries and people so closely located geographically and under the same daytime should be worshiping on different days without a setting of the sun between them! Common sense demands that Adventists within the Samoan group of islands should be worshiping together on the same day. How could a sunny Sabbath in Pago Pago not also be the Sabbath in Apia, just because the Samoan government has drawn a line between Upolu and Tutuila so the day is called Sunday instead of Saturday? Surely Adventists in both nations should be worshiping together on the same seventh day.
Without exception Adventists in countries located east of the 180th meridian, are providing a united witness in observing the 7th day Sabbath on the same day of Western Hemisphere ‘day’ sequence. As the Sabbath arrives and is welcomed at the eastern boundary of each country it continues on crossing lines of longitude in a 24-hour period and finally farewells the Sabbath at the next sunset.
Even in countries following Eastern days, Adventist faithfully observe Sabbath according to the 7th day of Western days. Take for example the two independent countries of Tonga and Samoa: In these two nations Adventists observe the 7th day Sabbath on the same day even though there is a difference of one day—Sunday on Tonga is Saturday on Samoa.
A similar situation exists in the eastern islands of Kiribati: on the Phoenix Islands and on the Line Islands. Adventists observe the 7th day Sabbath on the 7th day Western order of days.
On the islands of Wallis and Futuna, situated near the 180th meridian on its eastern side, Adventists do the same: worship on Sunday, the 7th day of Western day sequence. Each Pacific country and territory situated east of the 180th meridian is, at this time, observing the 7th day Sabbath according to Western days. These are: Tonga, Niue, Wallis and Futuna, Samoa, American Samoa, Tokelau, Kiribati, Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Hawaii, Pitcairn.
So every Adventist living in the Pacific islands east of the 180th meridian, observes the same 7th day Sabbath as sunset arrives in their location—a powerful and impressive witness for the unified observance of the 7th day Sabbath of the Bible. Of course, any change under such circumstances would create serious pastoral problems.
("The Seventh-Day Adventist Church In Samoa
 and The Change Of The International Date Line," A paper by Pastor Neone Okesene, November 2011)
https://www.samoaobserver.ws/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=37444:church-issues-statement&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=50
NOTE: This online source no longer exists. (1)
This argument was also supported by a paper compiled by David Tasker from materials prepared by Pastors Paul Cavanagh, David Hay and Ray Coombe with input from the ministers and elders of Samoa:
Notice how the Sabbath day progresses on our round world. The Sabbath begins in the Eastern hemisphere at the dateline, so the first countries to welcome the Sabbath each week are NZ, Fiji, then Australia. Then the Sabbath enters Asia, the Middle East, Europe and USA. Finally the Sabbath enters the Western end of the Pacific island by island until the last churches to usher in the Sabbath are those in Samoa, Tonga, Wallis and Futuna. So the island nations in the Western hemisphere that are closest to the IDL close the Sabbath each week for the world. https://adventist.org.au/samoa-dateline-change-2011
NOTE: The online source cited here no longer exists.
Theological Reasons Given for This Decision: A Summary
God has allowed this challenge to come upon the church for a reason. The church needs to humble itself before Him and be ready to see how He plays this drama out. In the process the church needs to know what it stands for and needs to give a united witness to the world. We must share with the community what God has revealed to us.
Calendar change opens up new opportunities for us as a church: to demonstrate our faithfulness to the Word of God in a world where everything else fluctuates and changes; to show that our Christian faith impacts on all areas of our lives; to develop new approaches to evangelism in our own communities; to renew our commitment as a church to the observance of the Biblical Sabbath; to deepen our understanding of our Adventist identity.
https://adventist.org.au/samoa-dateline-change-2011
NOTE: This online source no longer exists.
A Minority Opinion
It is the conviction and contention of this paper that the situation facing the Church in Samoa over the changing of the dateline is not about what is right or wrong theologically. The paper strongly contends that the Sabbath is the same on either side of the dateline; that Samoa’s alignment to the west of the dateline does not constitute a change in the Sabbath: that the Sabbath the Church will keep on the western side in the new reckoning is no different from the Sabbath that they were keeping on the eastern side under the old reckoning. This contention is possible because of the closeness of Samoa to the IDL and the choice this allows for alignment.
Changing the dateline does not change the Sabbath; it simply changes the side of the IDL where one will celebrate the Sabbath. (Adventist Pastor Neone Okesene)
https://www.circleofcourage.org.nz/ride/journals/neone_okesene
NOTE: The preceding online source no longer exists; however, this one does: https://sabbathissues.org/2012/06/arguments-for-keeping-sunday-as-sabbath-in-samoa-examine/.
THE FIRST SPD DECISION: RATIONAL AND PRACTICAL
In the opinion of this author, the first SPD decision to ignore the Dateline shift was carefully and thoughtfully considered and makes sense, rationally and practically given the doctrinal assumptions that undergird Adventist theology. However, these “reasons” are predicated on a naïve historical assumption about the sacredness of a specific twenty-four hour Sabbath.
THE SABBATH’S HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
A Catholic Comments
Patrick Madrid, Catholic conservative made the startling comment on EWTN, Global Catholic Radio Network on Jan 5, 2006 when answering a question about the Catholic Church changing the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday:
…There was a distinct break between the Old Testament requirements…dealing with the Sabbath worship…. [Christians] wanted to show that Christianity was distinct from Judaism…The other thing that we should remember, too, is that our calendar that we follow, including Seventh-day Adventists, is not only a calendar that was devised by the Catholic Church, but also it is a calendar that’s based upon the solar year, not the lunar year and the Jewish calendar that was observed in the time of Christ follows a lunar calendar…. So the great irony is that even the Seventh-day Adventists themselves are not worshiping on exactly the same Sabbath day as the Jews of the time of Christ. https://www.4angelspublications.com/articles/catholic_scholar.php
The Lunar Calendar
The Samoa Dateline Dilemma shows that one cannot use the International Date Line in determining the Sabbath. In fact, the Old Testament Sabbath does not use the modern Gregorian Calendar: The calendar used by Moses was based upon the phases of the Moon, not a continuous weekly cycle. (2)
The Old Testament calendar starts every month on New Moon Day, and the Sabbaths are always in the same place: The 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th of the month. This is why the feast days in Leviticus 23 have a Sabbath on the 15th of the month, and why the words "New Moon" and "Sabbath" often occur together in Scripture.
The Moon is the clock which orbits the round Earth and provides the reference for Biblical time. If this reference is ignored, then an arbitrary man-made marker (such as the International Date Line) has to be substituted.
The Sabbath is introduced in the Biblical book of Genesis. Note that does not say "count every seven days", but rather:
Genesis 1.14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for SEASONS, and for days, and years.
“The word for SEASONS is Strongs #4150, ‘religious festivals’. Notice that Genesis 1:14 says that the "religious festivals" are designated by the "lights in…heaven". Psalm 104:19 identifies the light as the Moon.
The Sabbaths and Feast Days are linked by the Fourth Commandment as recorded in two different Bible books: The Fourth Commandment in Exodus 20 clearly references the seventh day Sabbath based on Creation; The Fourth Commandment in Deuteronomy 5 clearly references the seventh day Sabbath based on the deliverance from Egypt, which occurred on the evening of the Sabbath of Unleavened Bread.
Note that the Sabbath commandment in Deuteronomy 5:12-15 does not mention Creation, but rather the Exodus from Egypt, which happened on the 15th, at night. To repeat, the seventh-day Sabbaths are always in the same place: The 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th of the month, and they use the same calendar as the Feast Days—the Lunar Calendar.
The format of the Biblical Month.
Note: Moon phases are approximate, and are shown for the Northern Hemisphere; If you're south of the Equator, they are reversed.
The reason most Jews today keep Saturday is the same exact reason that most Christians keep Sunday—because of Constantine's calendar change, and the persecutions by which he enforced these changes. Prior to this, in 46-45 BC, Julius Caesar (the Julian Calendar) had separated the months and weeks from the Moon and made a continuous eight day cycle, but he did not enforce it on other nations living within the Empire.
In AD 321, Constantine created a compromise calendar. He blended the Hebrew idea of a seven day week with the Julian concept of a continuous weekly cycle, and added the veneration of the "sun god" from Mithraism to create the Roman calendar used today. He enforced his calendar upon the entire Roman Empire with military power.
Because of these changes which were being enforced by persecutions across the Roman Empire, the Jewish Sanhedrin met for the last time around AD 350, and modified their calendar to the form used by most Jews today, in which the Sabbath is on Saturday. Other Feast Days are determined using a form of the Lunar calendar.
Constantine's calendar was modified slightly by Pope Gregory into the calendar used today. However, the true Calendar ordained at Creation, according to Genesis 1:14 and Psalms 81:3, is based on the phases of the Moon. Therefore, neither Saturday nor Sunday is the Old Testament Sabbath, and the International Date Line is not involved at all.
This situation in Samoa is a tiny foreshadowing of what is coming. If the proposed New World Calendar is adopted, and the 364-day perpetual year is implemented, then the extra "blank" day (called "World Day Holiday") will disrupt any continuous seven-day cycle. At that point, the whole world will face a situation where the day that "should have been" Saturday or Sunday will fall on a different day. https://sda-samoa-dateline-sabbath.info/
NOTE: This online source no longer exists.
IN SUMMARY
Samoa’s dateline shift has and will continue to be a starting point in a discussion of the Sabbath. Sadly, we as Seventh-day Adventists have traditionally venerated specific Sabbath hours and attempted to persuade other Christians to honor our Saturday Sabbath upon threat of eternal condemnation. While the observance of a seventh day Sabbath is an undeniable blessing, it should be considered a traditional observance, not a fundamental doctrine.
It seems reasonable to conclude that Seventh-day Adventists could reasonably defend the Sabbath as a day of worship in a seven-day worship cycle. Our name proclaims it, and a “day of rest” is good for human beings, spiritually and physically. That we choose to end that cycle at sunset on the sixth day is our way of honoring our Judean-Christian heritage. Our fellow Christians who honor Sunday, honor the resurrection, the legacy of their catholic-Christian faith. Isn’t honoring God the important thing? Isn’t squabbling about which “seventh day” in the weekly cycle a divisive issue that only serves to create ill will between Christian believers? Why not give the Apostle Paul the last word?
“One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord.” (Romans 14: 5 & 6)
Author’s Note
I have quoted extensively from blogs and posts originating from Samoa and Australia. I did not paraphrase unless clarification was called for. Obviously, this article does not include all the Internet chatter. Perhaps the most extensive discussion of this issue by laymen and women occurred on the Spectrum Blog (https://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2011/12/30/today-did-not-exist-some-adventists).
Four hundred twenty-six comments provide a wide-ranging and representative sample of Adventist lay opinion regarding not only the official response to Samoa’s decision to join Australian and New Zealand on the west side of the International Date Line, but the justification for the foundational Adventist belief in the sacredness of the seven day sequence of Sabbath hours has been formally endorsed by the GC (https://www.adventist.org.au/samoa-dateline-change-2011).
Reflections
The idea of a Sabbath is as old as the Biblical creation story and as modern as Samoa’s decision to bend the dateline. In the first century, many members of the primitive Christian church assembled on Sunday, “The Lord’s Day”, to break bread. By the second century, its observance of Sunday as Sabbath was universal. Christians had chosen to celebrate the most important event in human history, Christ’s resurrection, and not the Jewish Sabbath’s “Feast of Creation.” (3)
Seventh-day Adventists refer to the first Christians as our spiritual ancestors because they believed it was important to set aside one day of the week as a day of worship. That day, for practical reasons, was based on a universally accepted calendar, just as the decision to honor a continuous morning and evening Sabbath is a practical solution for Sabbath keeping Adventist believers in close proximity to the IDL.
When early Christians met for worship was not a doctrinal concern of the Apostle Paul. In fact, he argued that worshiping the Lord was what mattered; the day and/or time was a matter of personal conviction. (4)
Designating an officially legislated period of time between two contiguous evenings as a specific God ordered Sabbath on a planet orbiting around a sun, fails to take into account the IDL and regions near the poles where this “sacred day” can only be determined by secular means. In addition, the Apostle Paul would condemn this fiat as destructive of Christian unity. (5)
– – –
(1) The explanation for removing this and other online information regarding the IDL is speculative. However, it should be noted that the South Pacific Division’s original decision to ignore the IDL shift, was hotly debated. As late as July 23, 2012, there is evidence that this decision was under review. Previous announcements could not be considered official, and a reversal of the SPD decision was being seriously considered.
What I am attempting to demonstrate is that the online sources no longer exist because the church wanted to eliminate evidence that the official sources the SPU used to justify their initial decision were being questioned. Note the names of the people and organizations that initially went on record as supporting the original decision:
This statement is the result of wide consultation. The Biblical Research Committee has listened to and received advice from a number of sources, such as theologians both inside and outside the Division, Transpacific Union administration and members; and submissions have been received by, among others, William G. Johnson, Bruce Roberts, Ray Coombe, Paul Cavanagh, and David Hay. The issue has also been presented and discussed at the Pacific Islands Administrators Counsel, among others.
Claims were made that the men and organizations that supported these “official” documents were attempting to deceive members; that they acted without official GC approval. Note the following:
No Endorsement Given To Samoa Church for Sunday Worship
July 23, 2012
Source: eventpolynesia.com
Press Release – Event Polynesia
No Endorsement Or Support Was Given To Samoa Church To Worship On Sunday Source: The debate of which day is the ‘seventh day’ Sabbath in Samoa has taken another twist with confirmation from the Seventh-day Adventist world…. No Endorsement Or Support Was Given To Samoa Church To Worship On Sunday.
The debate of which day is the ‘seventh day’ Sabbath in Samoa has taken another twist with confirmation from the Seventh-day Adventist world headquarters in America, there is no documented action by the General Conference endorsing or supporting the action of the Samoa SDA administration to change its Sabbath day of worship to Sunday.
The current Samoa Sabbath dilemma in fact has come about because the SDA leadership in Samoa and the Pacific region failed to accept that the Samoa government implemented a lawful and legitimate shift in the International Date Line, effectively moving Samoa to the same side as New Zealand and Australia for trading purposes.
While most Christian churches in Samoa also call Sunday the Sabbath commemorating the day of Jesus’ resurrection on the first day of the week, Seventh-day Adventists keeps the Sabbath on the ‘seventh day’ of the week which is Saturday like everywhere in the world.
In order to facilitate the IDL adherence change, Samoa missed one day resulting in a ‘one off’ 6 day week. This experience is normal when crossing the IDL from the American to the Asian side. Friday 30th December 2011 in Samoa did not vanish into thin air as promoted by the local church administration whereby making Sunday 1st January 2012 the ‘seventh day’ of the weekly cycle in Samoa.
What happened in December 2011 was not a calendar change, nor was there any name change. What is confusing is the notion being promoted by the local administration and the South Pacific Division (SPD) regional office in Australia, “The practical result in terms of Sabbath keeping is that Sunday not Saturday has become the seventh day of the week.”
In fact, understanding which day is the ‘seventh day’ of the week is quite simple, contrary to a statement in a public notice from the Samoa Tokelau Mission that was published in the local Samoa Observer newspaper 1st July saying, “The subject to the change to the IDL and resulting implications for the weekly cycle and for Sabbath keeping is a complex one”; Simply, Sunday is still the ‘first day’ of the week and Saturday is still the ‘seventh day’, both before and after the IDL change in Samoa like everywhere else in the world.
In its presentation last year to promote Sunday Sabbath worship to Adventists in Samoa, the statement formulated by the SPD “The present practice of Sabbath keeping in the Pacific Islands around the dateline be maintained” was said to have been endorsed by the General Conference. The statement refers to the current situation where SDAs in Tonga, Kiribati and recently Wallis and Futuna worship on Sunday; the later countries due to the precedent set in Tonga.
With the confirmation that the General Conference did not endorse or support the change to Sunday worship in Samoa, nor endorsed or supported the view being promoted by the SPD of Sunday keeping for those Island States in the Pacific around the IDL, the motives behind the South Pacific Division’s actions to deliberately mislead is now being questioned.
The General Conference has since referred the Samoa Sabbath issue back to the Pacific regional office to be further discussed. A meeting is scheduled 2 August in Australia to be attended by senior Samoan ministers from Samoa, New Zealand and Australia and SPD executives with the hope of finding a way forward.
Today, church members from 21 Seventh-day Adventist churches around Samoa have returned to keeping the ‘seventh day’ Sabbath on Saturday, joining Adventists in American Samoa and the rest of the world.
Providing the “expired” links along with the names of the pastors and church officials who wrote these documents is my attempt to authenticate the fact that they once existed and were the “official” justification for the 2011 decision to ignore the dateline shift; that the final document supporting the original decision was issued months after the dateline shift occurred provides support for the idea that some official church entity at least considered the notion that the sacredness of the seventh day in an existing seven day cycle might not be justification enough to establish its holiness.
(2) Adventist theologians are not convinced. “The origin of the biblical Sabbath is definitely connected with the creation week. It was instituted by God three days after the creation of the moon (Gen. 1:14; 2:2), not the seventh day after the first day of the month.” Angel Manuel Rodríguez, Director of the Biblical Research Institute of the General Conference, BIBLE QUESTIONS, Adventist World, August, 2008.
(3) Schaff- Herzog Encyclopedia of religious knowledge 1891 Ed., vol. 4 Article on Sunday.
Note: The following references were supplied by https://www.letusreason.org/7thad18.htm.
Didache 80-90 A.D. "And on the day of our lords resurrection, which is the Lord’s Day meet more diligently."
Ignatius 110 A.D. wrote in his epistle to the Magnesians 9…" If they who were concerned in old things, arrived at a newness of hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living according to the Lord’s day, by which our life sprung from him and by his death (whom certain persons deny)…we have been made his disciples, let us live according to Christianity."
Barnabas 120A.D. "Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day, also, on which Jesus rose again from the dead."
Justin Martyr 140 A.D. "Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness, made the world; and Jesus Christ our savior, on the same day rose from the dead."
(4) “One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord” (Romans 14: 5 & 6).
(5) The Christian community must “stop passing judgment on one another”, must “not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister”, must “make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” (from Romans 14).