The church has always been in a quandary about people who live in the far northern and southern hemispheres when it comes to Sabbath-keeping. From Herbert Armstrong to all of the splinters, the speculations vary by group, with most trying to use the International Dateline as a guidepost. That by itself presents a huge issue because the Jewish nation never has used the international dateline as a standard since it did not exist when Isreal was forming out nations around them.
I remember in the Dayton area people being whipped into a frenzy about the end times when the church speculated that the U.S. and other countries would put COG members on spaceships and shoot them into space in order to get rid of them. Church members wanted to know how they would be able to keep the Sabbath. Can the church get any crazier?
...how then would someone keep the Sabbath in areas of the world where there wouldn’t be a sunset-to-sunset time period during certain times of the year? For example, certain places in Alaska, Norway, Sweden, and other far northern or even southern areas would fall into that category. How is the Sabbath to be kept there?
Bibleask.org has this to say:
“Modern living provides some unique situations where keeping the Sabbath might have some questions. For example, keeping the Sabbath in space and the polar regions of the Earth like Alaska presents unique issues for Sabbath keepers. In the north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle, a single period of daylight can last for a month or more during the summer, and the night lasts for a similar length of time in the winter.
“The Bible says, ‘It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest… from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath (Lev. 23:32).’ This means that the Sabbath should be kept from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.
“Therefore, in the further regions of the earth and in countries where the sun doesn’t go down like the Polar zone, the timing of the Sabbath should be adjusted to the International Date Line. Example: permitting local rest-day adjustment, And believers may determine the Sabbath by the longitude that are further south or further north depending on which Polar zone they are in.
Therefore, for those who live in Alaska, they can follow the time zone of Portland, Oregon. Thus, Sabbath keepers living in those areas can rely on the cycle of day and night in 24-hour periods. These periods are commonplace in most of the world.”
“Modern living provides some unique situations where keeping the Sabbath might have some questions. For example, keeping the Sabbath in space and the polar regions of the Earth like Alaska presents unique issues for Sabbath keepers. In the north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle, a single period of daylight can last for a month or more during the summer, and the night lasts for a similar length of time in the winter.
They also have this:
A letter was written back in the Worldwide Church of God days asking the question about keeping the Sabbath in the arctic. This is what was answered by the Personal Correspondence Department, Letter L163, which was included in a collection of the letters written under Herbert W. Armstrong, dated August 1, 1988:
“God has not made it impossible for His people to obey His laws. God’s law is spiritual and is intended for all people, wherever they live on earth. But His law is also practical and workable.“In the far northern latitudes, the days are divided in the following manner: About the beginning of summer, the sun almost touches the horizon once every 24 hours. When it reaches its lowest point, one day ends and another begins. About the beginning of winter, the sun comes up to, or almost up to, the horizon once every 24 hours. This also divides the days. The effect is that near the beginning of summer the seventh day is from midnight to midnight. Over the next six months, the beginning of the days drops back rapidly until near the beginning of winter the seventh day is from noon until noon. The sun touching, or almost touching, the horizon corresponds to sunset in both cases.“It should be noted, then, that God revealed the Sabbath commandment to people living in the temperate zone, where He defined the proper observance as being from evening to evening. But in extreme latitudes where farming is not a factor and thus daylight is not associated with work, this rule is not practical or reasonable. Jesus said, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath’ (Mark 2:27). For this reason, the Church has made a judgment based on the spirit of the law. Brethren living in areas crossed by or above the 60th parallel (parts of Alaska, Canada, and Sweden are examples) have been advised that it is proper to begin observance of the Sabbath at 6pm in cases where actual sunset time varies extremely.”
Thankfully Christians are not bound by laws made specifically for the nation of Israel. There is no record of the Sabbath being kept before Moses nor were there any commands to keep it. When the Apostles met in Jerusalem the Sabbath was never imposed upon Gentiles. In fact, Paul rebuked the Galatians for trying to impose the law upon the gentiles in Galatians 4:10 -11.
