The Day Line

George Burnside

In recent years it has been claimed by some that as the Sabbath began in Eden therefore the date line immediately east of Eden must be the true date line and the Sabbath should begin and end there. Let us therefore think through a few facts.

No one has the faintest idea where Eden was located. The Scriptures have given us no information on this. The tremendous changes that took place on the surface of the earth at the time of the flood makes the locating of Eden's original site an impossibility. The exact location of Eden is largely conjecture and certainly no basis on which to build a religious teaching.
"God is not the author of confusion" 1 Corinthians 14:33 Think for a moment of the confusion that would result if the date line ran through Mesopotamia today. It would run through the Soviet Union and Africa. It would be well nigh impossible. It would mean Sunday on one side of the street and Monday on the other. Business as usual on one street and to church on the next. God is not the author of confusion.
That Christ and His apostles kept the Sabbath on the right day must be acknowledged. Christ the Maker of the Sabbath commissioned His disciples to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. It was to be the whole Gospel to the whole world. The spread of the early Christians from the Middle East to as far a field as China can be traced. Thomas Yeates in his "Indian Church History" shows that the apostle Thomas traveled east through Persia into India, where he raised up many churches. The Thomas Christians are still found in India to this day. "From thence he went to China, and preached the gospel in the city of Cambola (which is) supposed to be the same with Peking, and there he built a church". Indian Church History, page 873.

"In the year 1625, there was found in a town near Si-ngaufu, the metropolis of the province of Shin-si, a stone having the figure of a cross, and inscriptions in two languages Chinese and Syriac as follows: "This stone was erected to the honor and eternal memory of the law of light and truth brought from Ta-Ciu, and promulgated in China (The inscription consists of 736 words giving) a summary of the fundamental articles of the Christian faith." Id pages 86 - 88

These Christian missionaries were Sabbath keepers as can be seen from the following: "On the seventh-day we offer sacrifices, after having purified our hearts and received absolution for our sins." Christianity in China (1873 - M.C. Abbe Huc Volume 1, pages 48, 49.

Of the Thomas Christians in India Thomas Yeates writes, "Saturday, which amongst them was a festival day agreeable to the ancient practice of the church." Indian Church History, page 133.

These facts clearly answer the question sometimes asked, "How can we be sure we are keeping the real seventh-day?

The answer is clear and simple. Christ and His Apostles kept the correct seventh-day Sabbath. Go to Palestine and there you can keep the same day as our Lord kept. Now travel to Australia by the most natural and shortest route, count the days carefully and you will find our seventh-day Sabbath corresponds exactly with the day kept by Christ, it is the same day as the Apostles observed in India and China. They cross the so-called Eden date line, but to them it did not exist. They knew nothing of it although they taught like Paul "The whole counsel of God" they observed the same holy day of the eek as we do here in Australasia. It is apparent the Eden date line is merely a man made imagination and has never existed.

4. The date line constituted no problem until men began to travel around the world. Naturally as one travels east, towards the sun, the day will be shortened and the opposite will be seen as one travels towards the west and hence when they meet in the Pacific they will be a day out.

5. The Pacific Date line.

This is the only reasonable place for the day to begin, for here we can run a line from north to south with only ocean and crossing no land masses or thickly populated regions.
This line is found on the exact opposite side of the world from the thickly populated regions.
The date line would be impossible in Europe and Africa, Asia or the Americas, but here in the Central Pacific is ideal on the 180 degree meridian. That it is divinely arranged is evident. It is not so much man-made as God-arranged and thus man was forced by the situation to agree to accept it.

6. The Bible clearly reveals a world-wide work of warning against the beast and its mark and a call to worship the Creator. Revelation 14:6,7.

The Seventh-day Sabbath cannot be separated from worship. The Sabbath governs worship. In the glory land Sabbath by Sabbath shall all come to worship. Isaiah 66:22,23. In all-the clear instruction on the Sabbath, where in scripture do we find a question raised on the date line or an inference that the day is lost in certain areas of earth? There is no hint. The Scriptures of truth are silent as to any mistake here. The Sabbath of the land where Jesus walked is the Sabbath of India and China. Thomas the Apostle brought it to the shores of the Pacific. There was to him no Eden date line. It is but a man-made theory. Our God made the Sabbath. He made the world round and He made the Sabbath to travel round the world. Let us keep-the same day that Saint Thomas brought to the Pacific and may it never be neutralized by man-made theories.