SDA Open Letter - What about the Samoans?

WHAT HAPPENED IN WESTERN SAMOA AND TUVALU?  ARE SDAS THERE GOING TO RECEIVE THE MARK OF THE BEAST?

The Red dotted line makes a mockery of SDA Doctrine

A strange thing happened in Western Samoa and Tuvalu in 2011, when they decided to move the International Date Line so that these two countries sat on the Australian side.   

At midnight December 29^th 2011 a day was skipped – Saturday December 30^th.  

As such, the Sabbath was skipped.  The SDA General Conference ordered SDAs to continue to worship on the seventh day which is now Sunday.  So today, in Western Samoa and Tuvalu, SDAs go to church on Sunday with all the other Sunday worshipping Christians.  So since Ellen White claims that Sunday keepers receive the Mark of the Beast and will go to Hell, has the General Conference condemned Samoans and Tuvaluans to Hell?

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That is all I wrote in the letter, but let me try and make this more clear for you. (I hope!)

The SDA Official Declaration

Firstly let's begin with what the SDA Church has stated.  I have highligted interesting parts, but you can read the whole article here and download the official statement here

Around the world, the name of the seventh day of the week changes from language to language. For example, in Korean it is Toyoil, in Swahili it is Jumamosi, in Hindi it is Sanivāra. The name of the day used by society isn’t important to us. What is important is that we rest on the seventh day of the weekly cycle. As Saturday is generally the name given to the seventh day of the week in English, we sometimes use the term Sabbath and Saturday interchangeably. But this should not be confused with an endorsement of Saturday as the Sabbath,

[Unless you want to proclaim Sunday worshippers as worshipping the Sun God and receiving the mark of the Beast]

only an acknowledgement that in most of the world, the day we refer to as Saturday in English is, indeed, the seventh day of the weekly cycle. We know this with certainty, as the Jewish community has maintained the weekly cycle unbroken over thousands of years.  

[Yes, except in Samoa where they keep Saturday as the Sabbath, which means that in 2011, they had a 6 day week, thereby breaking the, unbroken for thousands of years, cycle.]

For 120 years, Adventists in Samoa kept the Sabbath in the same weekly cycle that early Adventist Ellen White kept when she visited Samoa on her way to Australia.

That would be when she was exiled from her own community in America following the Battle Creek and Dr Kellog controversies?

During those years, Samoa and American Samoa, which are only 64 kilometers apart, kept the same weekly cycle. When the government of Samoa decided to switch sides of the dateline, the Seventh-day Adventist Church faced a difficult decision: should it join the government in breaking the weekly seven-day cycle to remain worshipping on Saturday? Or should it retain the integrity of the seven-day cycle, and hence meet on the day the government had renamed Sunday? After significant discussion, the Adventist Church leaders in Samoa decided to retain the integrity of the seven-day cycle. Why? Because God instructs humanity to rest on the seventh day of the week, not on the day we refer to in English as “Saturday”.

[Despite the fact that in so doing you condemn all Samoans to worship on a day you say as wrong.  This day is the same one that NZ, Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu see Sunday worshippers following.]

That said, in making the decision, they acknowledged that Samoa is in a small area of the globe where legitimate ambiguity exists on which day of the week is actually the seventh day.

[That's convenient!  Samoa is tiny so it doesn't matter?  Imagine if something like America changed.]

Why is there ambiguity? Like the Jewish community in Auckland, we believe the seventh day of the week in New Zealand is the day we call Saturday. Similarly, Adventist Christians and Jews believe the seventh day of the week in Chile is the day of the week called, in Spanish, Sábado. The question is, where in the space between New Zealand and Chile should the dateline be drawn? For that we don’t have anything in the Bible to guide us.

[The bible is silent for the simple reason that when God gave the commandment to Israel, the Jewish World consisted of a line where the sun came up to where it set.  That being 90 degrees East and West of Jerusalem.  Outside of that was the "sea" of nations. The sea being symbolically used in scripture to refer to the Nations outside Israel (DAn 7:3, Rev 13:1).  Despite that, one justification given by SDA leaders is that the International Date Line is God Ordained! (See below)]

So as a community we have proceeded with much prayer and consultation to decide how best to honour God in a region where ambiguity exists. In so doing, we recognise that for every commandment in the Bible, there is always ambiguity on the margins. The fact that ambiguity exists does not undermine or negate the commandment. Precisely how to apply Christ's instruction to "love your neighbour as yourself", for example, is ambiguous.

Yet Jesus said this after an expert of the Law asked him, which Commandment was the greatest.  This being a trick question as all commandments are equal.  Simply stated, Jesus summarised here what the last six of the 10 Commandments state, which summarises s significant chunk of the Mitzvot (Commandments of God).  I actually do not find "love your neighbour as yourself" ambiguous at all.

Should we all sell everything and give the proceeds to the poor as Jesus instructed the Rich Young Ruler? Or should we keep what is necessary to sustain ourselves and give all else away? If so, by what standards do we measure what is necessary? Or should we, like Abraham, enjoy both the spiritual and the material blessings that come from God? Easy answers to complex spiritual questions are seldom right. Complexity is a natural part of reality that Christians of all denominations navigate every day—sometimes with much thought and prayer, sometimes with less thought and prayer than we should.

Today a majority of Seventh-day Adventists Christians in Samoa are meeting on the day now commonly called Sunday in Samoa

[Along with all the other Sunday keepers]

—which is the same day of the week that their Adventist church family in American Samoa, only 64 kilometres away, worship on and call Saturday. A minority of our community is meeting on the day now commonly called Saturday in Samoa, but is called Friday in American Samoa. 

Both groups believe they are meeting on the seventh day of the week. The Adventist Church acknowledges the unusual ambiguity that exists in Samoa, and accepts communities meeting on both days for the time being. Unfortunately, not everyone has been as respectful as they should be of the differences over this question. The South Pacific Division encourages all those involved in the discussion to remember that even the Apostle Paul said that we see spiritual matters through a dark glass or mirror, not a complete picture (1 Corinthians 13:12), and therefore a good spirit of humility is necessary for all followers of Christ. It is hoped that in time, unity will be restored. Discussions continue towards that end.

Nothing like finishing by taking a verse out of context is there!  The Apostle Paul was referring here to the fact that we do not see God face to face but that we only have an indirect view of our relationship with God.

The chaos and confusion

Now you may have noticed a cursory mention of there being a minority of their community in Samoa that still keeps Saturday (which would be Friday in American Samoa).  This is downplaying the reality.  In Samoa there is chaos and confusion.  This article appeared in the NZ Herald

Divine intervention may be needed to help resolve a dilemma that has been brewing in Samoa - exactly which day is the Sabbath.

The Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church in the island nation has been arguing about its day of worship ever since the country changed its dates to coincide with New Zealand, in December 2011.

Because the country skipped Friday, many Seventh Day Adventist members argue that Sunday had now become the seventh day and therefore switched from going to church on their usual day of worship - Saturday - to Sunday.

The idea has effectively split the church and caused further grievances after a recent decision by the Pacific region's SDA leaders that members in Samoa should now worship on the "new Sabbath" - Sunday.

Samoan community leader and member of the church, Pa'u Fereti Puni, said the issue had turned the church into a joke.

"It's just ridiculous, it's really making a mockery of the church. The people who now say that the seventh day is Sunday - in their eyes, it's the real Saturday."

A paper written by Auckland Pastor Neone Okesene was submitted to church leaders last year. Mr Okesene wrote that the decision went against everything the church stood for.
"Could the [church leading body] 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 Seventh Day Adventist's day of worship is based on the fourth commandment; to observe the (seventh) Sabbath day and to keep it holy.

The whole dateline move thing involving such a small place as Samoa has caused a major problem for the SDA leadership.  They have been coming up with all sorts of concepts to rationalise the descision.  You can check out some here.  It includes this:

Apologists for the South Pacific Division have suggested that the 180th Meridian, as we know it, was God-ordained to be the one place on earth where each day begins, regardless of any local reckoning.

God ordained!  The 180th meridian is the line that for the most part travels along the international date line.  Vanuatu lies between the 165th and 168th meridien which puts us about 12-15 degrees West of the date line.

There is an  official site where SDAs can go to get reassurance that worshipping on Sunday is OK  On that site I found the following piece of justification

The first Europeans in the region assumed all island nations across the Pacific and in fact around the world shared the same day.  There was no concept of a date line.  Early (and mistaken) assumptions were corrected with the introduction of the dateline and its placement down the middle of the Pacific.  The all--‐encompassing day assumed by the early traders and missionaries is not the “pure original” that some have claimed.  It had to be corrected—and it was—by countries east of the dateline.  All Adventist pioneers crossing the Pacific have respected that correction and all Adventists in the Pacific along that sunset line have consistently kept the same seventh day holy.  

There was no concept of a date line in the Pacific, which seems obvious.  Like when you cross the equator, there is not a painted line on the ground or rope across the oceans.  But there is no mention that when the first Europeans arrived here, there was also no concept of Saturday, Sunday or any other day.  Ask anyone who knows kastom and they will tell you that they know the "day" by the moon phase and they know months by the periodic moon phases - often Full moon to Full moon.  Seasons can be worked out by the positions of stars.  In the Pacific, the Pleaides are important.

Pleaides - The Seven Sisters

For all the justification, the SDAs have taken great lengths to explain a seven day rotation regardless of the date lines, etc, but yet, claim that people worshipping on Sunday have the Mark of the Beast?  This is what can be described as customising God's law to fit man's law.  The Mormons effectively did the same when they proclaimed that Black Men could now receive the blessings of Priesthood following the Civil Rights declaration in America (before they were declared the slaves of slaves for eternity by Brigham Young).

Again their justification states "Nowhere does the bible use the names 'Saturday' or 'Sunday' to name the days of the week," but yet they still tell Ni-Vanuatu that observing 'Sunday' is evil.

They also claim that the cycle follows the path of the sun.  The setting of the sun counts as important.  They quote this verse

Lev 23:32  It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must humble yourselves on the ninth day of the month in the evening, from evening until evening you must observe your Sabbath.” 

Arctic Circle

So before the sun set on Friday in American Samoa and in Western Samoa, but because of a law change, the same sun rises in American Samoa on Saturday but in Western Samoa on Sunday!  

But we have another problem.  If I live north of the Arctic Circle.  For several months of the year the sun never sets, and for several months, the sun never rises.  So how does an SDA manage to find out when Sabbath starts?  For the Israelites, this was not an issue, because they lived outside the Arctic circle in a place called Israel.

The net result of this outcome and the way the SDA leaders have dealt with it shows that the actual day is not important.  It has nothing to do with Saturday or Sunday, or any other day.

The funny thing is that American Samoa is still on the other side of the International dateline.  So Sabbath keepers could cross over to the American Samoa, where it is still Saturday (Sabbath).  The distance is about 100km, or about the distance from Efate to Epi.

In the justification report that I read, the final sentences are quite interesting

Jesus s coming soon, and we need to focus on telling the world about Jesus' soon return 

No we don't, we need to tell Jesus through the Gospel message - after all that is what jesus told us to do.  Worry about salvation first, the  rest will follow.

Maybe God has  given this struggle to the church to help us see how unready we are for the Second Coming

 Indeed - how unready they are! Or perhaps they should consider that maybe God has given this struggle to the church to show how much of a shadow it really is.  (Col 2:17)

I will leave you with this commentary about the Jewish answer to the Sabbath question. (note: Shabbos and Shabbat are equivalent terms for Sabbath)

Rabbi Dovid Heber, an adviser to the Baltimore-based Star-K kosher certification agency and a lecturer on halachah and astronomy at the Ner Israel Rabbinical College, said he fielded two questions this week about when one should observe Shabbat in Samoa and neighboring Tokelau, which is also participating in the change.

"Neither were traveling there," Heber noted of the questioners. While the Star-K does send kosher supervisers to the Pacific to inspect fish and food oil factories, he said none have been to Samoa or American Samoa, which is not adopting the time change.

Nevertheless, Heber formulated a two-page halachic opinion on the issue. The upshot: Sabbath-observant Jews should avoid traveling to these areas. If they must travel to New Zealand, Japan or other areas in the Pacific over the weekend, they should consult their local rabbis.

"In Samoa it is ‘safek Shabbos’ (questionable as to when Shabbos begins) every week," Heber’s opinion said. "Shabbos would begin every Thursday night at sunset and end when it gets dark on Saturday night — or 49 hours of Shabbos.”

[Source JTA]

Finally, it is probably worth considering that there are more Samoans living in NZ than in Samoa.  I still have some great Samoan friends in NZ.  But what happens when a Samoan SDA born and raised in Samoa and who before worshipped on Saturday (which was Sunday in NZ) moves to NZ and finds out that the Saturday Sabbath service is now on Friday (Samoan time)!  They have not kept the seventh day!  Can you see the absurdity of it all! 

For the record, the more orthodox Jews living or visiting Samoa observe Shabbat (Sabbath) on Saturday, in keeping with the seven day cycle.There probably are not many of these though.

Col 2:16-17 (NET)
(16)  Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days – 
(17)  these are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ! 

And the thing about shadows is that they constantly move, while Christ, being God, remains the same.