Adventism and the Dateline

By Mark Swarbrick

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By Mark Swarbrick

Adventism and the International Dateline

The international Dateline is an internationally accepted demarcation of the surface of Earth, running between the South and North Poles and serving as the boundary between one calendar day and the next. It passes through the Pacific Ocean, roughly following the 180.0° line of longitude and deviating to pass around some territories and island groups.

There are some key points to understand: One, this line is an “internationally accepted” line. In other words, the line is man-made. It is not something established by God. Secondly, it is not a perfectly straight line. It squiggles and bends around certain territories and island groups. Google up a map of the International Dateline and you can see that in eastern Russia the line swerves to the right by many hundreds of miles into the Bering Sea.

According to Adventists, being saved means making sure that you worship Jesus on Saturday but not on Sunday. For if you worship on Sunday, that is the dreaded Mark of the Beast, or so says the infallible SDA prophetess, Ellen G White.

But being saved can be very confusing for Adventists that live near the International Dateline. The image above shows that the International Dateline is not a straight line but various significantly in places. Consider that the proper location for this line is not stipulated in the Bible. This line was not made by the Church. Neither did Adventists make this imaginary line. People arbitrarily came up with it long ago, yet Adventists use this line to establish whether or not a person is saved or lost.

Adventists living or travelling near this line need a map that shows the exact location of the dateline, and a GPS, especially if they are travelling on a ship or plane. To insure that they do their Sabbath observance at the right time they need to know where they are in relation to this line. One wonders how travelling Adventists avoided the Mark of the Beast in sailing ships before the advent of global positioning satellites. So, Adventists in this situation don’t just need a Bible to learn about salvation, they must have a map that shows the exact location of the Dateline and a GPS to insure they are not taking the Mark of the Beast.

This begs the question: Who is to say where that line should be? Since whether or not you are saved (according to Adventists) depends upon worshipping on the correct day, the question must be asked: Is this a line that man should draw? Who is to say it was drawn with God’s approval? Who is to say it is right to swerve the line for convenience? Who is to say it should be drawn at 180 degrees?

Of course, there is no authority, certainly no biblical authority, to establish this line. Yet, Adventists are forced to accept this line as authoritative or their entire doctrine of Sabbath observance goes out the window.

Lest anyone think this is all a hypothetical problem that doesn’t appear in real life, consider the case of Pitcairn island.

The Problem of Pitcairn

Pitcairn was a deserted island in the South Pacific until the mutineers of Mutiny on the Bounty fame settled the island. For a hundred years the island remained uncharted and no one knew what had happened to the mutineers that had commandeered the HMS Bounty.

Fortunately, one Bible survived along with the mutineers, and their descendants made good use of it. From that Bible, all the descendants came to Christ. They worshipped Christ on Sunday in honor of the Lord’s resurrection on that day, just as the apostles and the early church did. And of course, coming from England, they were observing the day that was Sunday in England.

For nearly a hundred years the Christian inhabitants of Pitcairn observed Sunday with no outside contact. But then the island was discovered. Adventist missionaries arrived with the writings of prophetess Ellen G White. These missionaries told them they were not really saved, for they were sabbath breakers. They were in danger of having the Mark of the Beast for worshipping on Sunday. They were told that they all must change their Sabbath to Saturday to be saved and the islanders listened to them.

But later the Adventists discovered that Pitcairn was actually on the American side of the date line. For a hundred years, the people of Pitcairn Island had actually already been observing the Sabbath on Saturday. They just thought it was Sunday because it was Sunday in England, but they had actually been worshipping the Lord on Saturday, as per the International Dateline. So, the Adventists had a real problem! They had inadvertently switched them from worshipping on Saturday to worshipping on Friday! Thus, they were still Sabbath breakers. What a mess!

How did they fix it? They convinced the Pitcairnians to change their reckoning of the days of the week to coincide with America’s. They switched them to worshipping on America’s Saturday. Problem fixed, now they were worshipping on the proper Sabbath. But it was the exact same day they had observed for the past 100 years!

As you can see, salvation in the SDA is quite a complicated matter, especially for people near the Dateline…or those near the North Pole where the sun never sets for months of the year, or for astronauts orbiting the earth!

A person is thoroughly brainwashed who does not to see the absurdities of Adventism.

And all this begs the question: If Saturday keeping is central to the Gospel, how is it that the Christians on Pitcairn, who studied the Bible daily for 100 years, did not see such a command in Scripture? I submit to you that it is because it is not there. Show me what passage in the Bible says to observe Saturday and not to worship the Lord on Sunday. Show me what passage of the Bible even tells people what day Saturday is in the middle of the South Pacific? No SDA adherent has ever been able to do answer these questions. Does anyone imagine that the Gospel and salvation depend upon such fickle matters? Unfortunately yes; Adventists imagine it all the time.

 

If you enjoyed this article you would like the author’s comprehensive book on Adventism. Available in Kindle eBook, Paperback, and Audiobook. Only $2.99 on Amazon. Click HERE to purchase. 175 pages of documented facts. Learn about:

• False predictions of Ellen White
• The Investigative Judgment
• Soul Sleep
• Sabbatarianism

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