Sabbath and the International Dateline Problem

 

From a reader:

As a comment to your posting on the Sabbath, I tried to post this comment. But it was too long to be accepted. Nonetheless, Armstrongites in the Western Hemisphere celebrate the Sabbath on the biblical 1^st day of the week here, as I tried to explain:

 

 

Armstrongism and its requiring, for salvation, 7th-day Sabbath observance, is simply wrong; at least in the Western Hemisphere. Churches requiring strict observance of the 7th-day Sabbath in the Western Hemisphere (and in Arctic regions) have a great problem they conveniently never address or resolve, because it disqualifies all of their doctrines based on Sabbath-keeping.

 

How could Sabbath-keeping in the Western Hemisphere be wrong? The seventh day of each week, by scriptural command (at least to Israelites in ancient times), was to be diligently kept. But, among others, one big problem occurred; in 1492. Columbus found the New World, and in subsequent years it was settled and occupied by people from the Old World. That’s the problem.

 

Does the Sabbath-keeping command apply worldwide, to everyone, in all times, in all places? Or, ony to the peoples of the Middle East and the rest of the Old World? Please examine the problem.

 

The problem? The world is a globe, not a flat earth. Although it appears that the sun “rises” in the east each morning and “sets” in the west each evening (except in polar areas), the sun actually doesn’t move. The earth does; it revolves 360 degrees each day. So, to keep track of days, so that they always retain their proper names (Sunday is each week’s Day One; Saturday is Day Seven), there must be, necessarily, somewhere on the globe an “International Dateline.”

 

That’s the problem, which negates the commonly-perceived 7th-day Sabbath in the Western Hemisphere. To accommodate the convenience of commercial interests, the International Dateline, many years ago, was established in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

 

But, Biblically, the dateline, if there is to be one, so that we can know which is the actual 7th day of each week, needs to be in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, not the Pacific. There is absolutely no Biblical justification for the dateline to transect the Pacific, for the following reasons.

 

It must be presumed that the weekdays and the Sabbaths, although not observed, followed the humans who survived The Flood and safely exited the Ark after it landed on Mt. Ararat, as they and their descendants then dispersed across the globe. Every 7th day, without interruption, was the Sabbath, for everyone, everywhere. Can anyone contest the fact that the Sabbath, even though unobserved, went with all peoples, wherever they settled, without gaining or losing even a day, anywhere?

 

Then, in 1492 Columbus landed in the New World. And there were people already living here. “Indians” he thought. Nope, Native Americans, thousands of miles distant from India — because the earth is a globe, with the Western Hemisphere having a calendar different from the one in Spain. 

 

Now none of the Native Americans had a seven-day week that they followed. They didn’t know or care about a Saturday or a Sunday. But their most distant ancestors, through hundreds of generations, after safely leaving the Ark, had the sequence of weekly days necessarily follow them; even if they didn’t know or observe them.

 

That’s the crux of the matter. Even though unknown and unobserved, the 7th-day Sabbath went with the humans from the landing of the Ark all the way to the New World. Not a day could have been gained or lost. The new day started at sundown each day; exactly as described and defined in Scripture. But, the world is a spherical globe. When humans came across from Asia to settle the Western Hemisphere, there was no International Dateline. They never changed the counting of weekly days when they landed here. The weekly Sabbath, even though unknown and unobserved, began at sundown at the end of the 6th day, each “Friday.”

 

That’s the problem. Which Friday, in, say, 1492, or even today, is the biblically correct one? Fact is, in 1492 Columbus’s Friday was the Native American’s Saturday. Because the Western Hemisphere was already settled with humans, descended from original ancestors from the Middle East, or Mt. Ararat, the Sabbath went with them, with never the gain or loss of a day. The sundown that signaled the start of the Sabbath was their “Friday” — which was Columbus’s “Saturday.”

 

It’s very clear, Biblically, as determined by the historical migrations of humans, both to the east and west of Mt. Ararat or the Garden of Eden, that the International Dateline must be placed in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, accurately dividing the Old World from the New World. In the Americas, the observance of the 7th day Sabbath starting at sundown on today’s Friday is off by a day. Biblically, people and churches trying to observe a 7th-day Sabbath starting on the calendar’s Friday evening are actually observing a Biblical 1st-day Sabbath. Biblically, historically, the dateline must be in the Atlantic, not the Pacific. 

 

When I was a member worshiping in the Worldwide Church of God, because I had training in geography and perceived the dateline problem, I asked my local pastor about it. Sure seemed that we were meeting on the wrong Biblical day. His response? “Well, we simply follow the modern calendar and accept the International Dateline where it has been placed.”

 

And, that was the problem. They followed the modern calendar and observed the International Dateline. But that’s not Biblical. Because the 7th-day Sabbath went with all peoples from their ancient origins in the Old World, people observing what they think is the 7th-day Sabbath on today’s calendars in the New World are in error. They are off by a day. If Sabbath-keeping is a pre-condition to salvation, they are condemned. In the New World they’ve been erroneously keeping it on a Biblical, historical 1st day. 

 

Then, of course, is the problem of people living above the Arctic Circle. Examples are the Inuit (“Eskimo”) peoples and the Sami, of northern Europe. Above the Arctic Circle, for varying periods of time each year the sun never sets or rises within 24-hour periods. Biblically, if a new  “day” is started by the sun’s setting, many “days” of the year in the Arctic can be several months long. If 7th-day Sabbath-keeping is a prerequisite for salvation, people living above the Arctic Circle are geographically condemned.  

 

Sorry, Armstrongists in the New World, you’ve been keeping the Sabbath in this half of the globe on the real 1st-day of each Biblical week, modern calendars and the International Dateline notwithstanding. Seems, then, that if proper 7th-day Sabbath-keeping is a pre-condition of salvation, you are condemned, doesn’t it?

 

OR, Biblically, the Sabbath commend was for a specific people, for a specific period of time; in a specific region, until Christ fulfilled the Law for all who believe.