THE MUCH discussed Sabbath-Sunday question presses more and more to the fore. It will soon become one of the major religious issues of the day.
Of great interest and concern at this point in time is the apparent beginnings of Sunday worship being enforced by the Adventist Church itself! How can this be?
The problem all started just over 100 years ago with the Tonga islands. Prior to 1884 the Islands simply accepted the week which was brought to them by the missionaries. Since all the first missionaries (Methodists and London Missionary Society) arrived by traveling via Australia, they were all in line with Australia as to what day it was.
When the first adventist visitors arrived they of course were on the American (tail end of each day) and they thought everyone on the Islands were keeping the right day but calling it "sunday". BUT NO -- those Methodist and London Missionary Society and Catholic missionaries were NOT keeping the "right" Sabbath. They were keeping Sunday!
The confusion mounted as it was in October of 1884 that Greenwich England was declared the "Prime Meridian" by an International conference in Washington DC, even though no official 180th meridian dateline was established. Yet, a quick calculation showed that the 180th longitude is half way around the world from Greenwich England. So pressure was on to make it the dateline. In 1892 Samoa accepted the American pressure and moved into the western hemisphere. (The first Adventist Missionaries arrived shortly after that). Tonga however, resisted, they refused to change and remained in the eastern hemisphere. Now we can excuse the early Adventists (though I still think it was a big mistake) who probably thought Tonga would change just as Samoa had done, so they worshipped on Sunday -- thinking it would soon be acknowledged as Saturday.
But Tonga decided to stay right where they were -- in line with New Zealand and Australia. At that point (in my opinion) Adventists should have realized their mistake.
But now Tonga is taken as a precedent as if the 180th were a divinely ordained creation event. it's not! It's a man made estimate -- and nothing more. But since then as Island governments realize they really belong with the Australia/New Zealand group, and have changed back to being the "start of each new day" rather than the "tail of each day", Adventist leadership in these areas have instituted SUNDAY WORSHIP!
An interesting article shows the General Conference has NEVER endorsed Sunday worship in these Islands.
No Endorsement Given To Samoa Church for Sunday Worship
Monday, 23 July 2012, 12:38 pm Press Release: Event Polynesia
No Endorsement Or Support Was Given To Samoa Church To Worship On Sunday Source:eventpolynesia.com
The debate of which day is the‘seventh day’ Sabbath in Samoa has taken a 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 wasnota 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.
Three missionary societies influenced Samoa but the most important by far was the London Missionary Society. Its true that two years before the arrival in 1830 of Williams, the L.M.S. missionary, Tongan converts of the Wesleyan Society had made their way to Samoa, yet the Wesleyans never won as great an influence while the London Missionaries were THE Christian influence on the Samoa Islands. Roman Catholic missionaries arrived in 1845 and drew a small number, yet the London Missionaries still held the majority.
The L.M.S translated the Bible into Samoan (1835–45) They founded a teachers' seminary at Malua, 1844, for the training of natives. During the first ten years the spread of Christianity was rapid,but it was also somewhat superficial, all was not peace and harmony even though most of the natives were now "christians".
The natives stopped their regular activities (and fighting) on Saturday that they might forage and cook food on that day and leave the next day Sunday, which the missionaries (as well as the natives) called the Sabbath to be a day of rest from secular work.
All these early missionaries came to the Islands by traveling through from Australia. The week was clearly the Asian week which was established in all the South Pacific islands. The day of worship was on Sunday, which, like many Christians with a Puritan background they called "sabbath".
In many ways, this was the natural way to count time. To group together the Islands with Australia and New Zealand was natural. To have them all on the same day was natural.
All may have continued without confusion of days except that world travel was becoming a part of the life on this round globe. The fact was discovered that a person travelling across the Pacific Ocean either lost a day or gained a day depending on which direction they were travelling. The need arose for sailors to have some kind of established means by which to tell time as they travelled from one time zone to the next. In 1884 the International Prime Meridian Conference met in Washington D.C. and agreed to make the longitude running through Greenwich, England the Prime Meridian or line "0". The 360 degrees of the globe were divided into 24 sections of 15 degrees each. Thus every 15 degree longitude would mark the change of a one hour time zone. And since the Prime Meridian means it's high noon in Greenwich England when the sun is directly overhead, it mathematically meant it was midnight at the 180th longitude. The meridians were numbered 0 to 180 both ways and the world mathematically divided into two hemispheres. In 1915 the Nautical dateline (the dateline for sailors on the open oceans) was declared to be the 180th meridian.
Countries however, were never required to follow this strict mathematical dividing of the earth. Timezones are adjusted by the countries, as is the dateline.
Now we have a problem in the Pacific Islands. The 180th runs right through the middle of these Islands, some being on the east side, others on the west side. The pressure was on to "line up" with this new arbitrary line. Between 1884 and 1900 many of the Islands east of the 180th converted to American time, including Samoa which celebrated TWO 4th of July (two Mondays in one week) in 1892. Thus falling behind one day with their neighbors.
Tonga refused to change, remaining in the Asian time zone.
But now there is confusion in the Islands. Travelling a relatively short distance from one Island to the next (Samoa to Tonga or Fiji) meant a day difference. Traveling from Samoa to New Zealand meant there was a day difference. Islanders who travelled had to continually adjust one day ahead or one day back as they travelled from one set of Islands to the other.
On top of this there was considerable unrest as three colonial powers battling for control of Samoa - America, Germany and Britain - and the indigenous factions struggling to preserve their ancient political system.
In 1914, following the first World War, Samoa came under the control of New Zealand. Already in 1914 the plan was to return to the eastern time zone, but America intervened and they continued to operate in the American time zone. These years were difficult years for Samoa.
Finally a worldwide trend towards decolonisation after the Second World War and increased pressure from the newly formed United Nations led New Zealand to prepare for Samoan independence.
Western Samoa achieved independence on 1 January 1962. In 1970 it became a member of the Commonwealth.
Now, Dec of 2011 Samoa has returned to the eastern time zone to be back in sync with Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, and other Islands that are either west of the 180th or have also returned to the eastern time zone.
The Adventist leadership in the south pacific decided that Adventists should continue to count their Sabbaths according to the American time zones, even while accepting the eastern time zone for the rest of the week.
This has led to Adventists worshipping on Sunday along with the rest of the Christian denominations on the Islands.
The Adventist Church in Samoa is worshipping on the FIRST DAY of the week.
There has been no change in the first day of the week for Samoa, it remains at Sunday.
The issue I believe is plain in scripture. Scripture places the Sabbath between the "preparation day" and the "resurrection day". It's spelled out in several of the gospels. Christ rested from His work of creating on the seventh day. (Gen. 2:2-3 cf John 1:3) Christ rested from His work of saving mankind on the seventh day. (Matt. 28:1)
The first day has been known as Sunday, even in the first centurary AD. The counterfeit Sabbath was introduced already in the early centuries based -- On the first day upon which Christ rose from the dead etc.
The issue in scripture is who do we worship? The God Who gave the commandments and created the world. Or the beast who thinks to change times and laws?
The day that is honored and recognized by the whole community as the day that Christ arose -- is the first day of the week, not the seventh. In the Pacific Islands -- this Sunday was brought to them long before any Adventists were around. (Adventist missions were first begun in 1895)
Sunday is still celebrated as the "resurrection day" in Samoa. Easter Sunday was celebrated on Sunday, April 8, 2012 in Samoa, the same as in all other countries. It's even in the same time zone once again in which it was first introduced to Samoa.
The reason I'm concerned about this issue is because it has been handed down from the church leadership in the Pacific Islands. It is not simply a personal issue between individuals and God.
Seventh-day Adventist people in the Islands of Samoa who are basically locked out of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. They are not allowed to worship in the Seventh-day Adventist Churches on Saturday. So they have been finding other places to worship. (Often outside) In other words -- those who believe the seventh day is from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset according to scripture are no longer treated like members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
They are considered as rebelling against the Seventh-day Adventist Church leadership, because they refuse to accept the "official" decision to worship on the 1st day, Sunday, instead they remember the 7th day Sabbath (Saturday) to keep it holy .
