What do you do when the government changes the days of the week on you?Probably not much, unless you're a committed Seventh-day Adventist.
Samoa's SDA's are in conflict with the denominational leadership in the United States. They want to keep observing the unchanged Sabbath, which is no longer Saturday but, horror of horrors, Sunday.
Can we all say "mark of the beast" brethren?
Adventists in Tonga, Kiribati and Wallis and Futuna are similarly discombobulated by the evolving bumps in the dateline. It gives a whole new meaning to the canard that somebody "doesn't know what day of the week it is."
The implications of planet Earth being a whirling sphere in space don't seem to have sunk in yet in Battle Creek, Michigan. My advice: brush up on your Brinsmead.
Give the SDAs credit though, at least they're grappling with the issue, whereas - to my knowledge - Pasifika members of the Sabbath-keeping splinters of the Worldwide Church of God are not.
Problem? What problem?
There have always been some problems associated with teaching mandatory observance of strict, Jerusalem-based customs. Both latitude and longitude influence time-frame anomalies, and the particular hemisphere on which one happens to live influences the lesson values associated with the seasons and presumed holydays. Much of the world is hopelessly out of sync.
ReplyDeleteThe ways in which the more conservative religions have treated this is that you keep a day when it comes to you. The alternative would be to keep it as it occurs in Jerusalem.
Legalism is inherently inaccurate.
BB
And, it's already tomorrow in your part of the world, Gavin.
ReplyDeleteKeeping the Sabbath on a certain day is impossible on a spherical earth - unless we all set our watches to Jerusalem time.
But, if a person would actually read the Sabbath law, they might see that it was for keeping "in the land" where the Israelites were then going. In order to keep the Sabbath you have to force your neighbors and servants to keep the Sabbath also. Otherwise, it's ignoring part of the same commandment and God frowns on being partial in keeping his commandments.
Bob says "Legalism is inherently inaccurate". I agree, but what guidance has God given us other than his written word the Bible? Some say the pope and his priests, some say ministers, but it seems clear to most of us that these Elmer Gantry con artists are not sources of wisdom about the truths of God. So what are we left with besides the written word? And if strict adherence amounts to "legalism" (and I agree it does), how does one decide where to draw the line? What is true and what isn't?
ReplyDeleteActually, Samoan Seventh-day Adventists are divided. Many are now observing Sunday, as in Tonga, Kiribati, Wallis, and Futuna, in harmony with the regional church leadership and a legalistic approach. A small but growing minority are (correctly) making the adjustment in order to stay with the Saturday Sabbath.
ReplyDeleteThe world church leaders are in Silver Spring, Maryland (a suburb of Washington, D. C.), not in Battle Creek. They have not yet taken a position against the Sunday trend, but hopefully it's just a matter of time.
R.G. states:
ReplyDelete"A small but growing minority are (correctly) making the adjustment"
"Correctly"? Is there a correct day given this disastrous SDA fiasco?
Ancient Canaanite superstition meets modern spherical (not flat) world.
Actually 7-day week originally Mesopotamian: More Hebrew plagiarism!
It could be worse.
ReplyDeleteThey could be at the North Pole.
"Not a problem," say the Armstrongists, "Watch for the dip".
Not difficult because the Armstrongists all see to be a bunch of dips.