JAMES WHITE:

Is it one of “the latest assured verdicts of science” that the earth did not rotate on its axis till the fourth day? If the earth did rotate, did it not do so once in twenty-four hours, as it still does; or did it then go so slow that it took it ages upon ages to make one rotation? The latter cannot be so, as we believe that it is “the latest assured verdict of science” that it is entirely to its rotary motion that the earth owes its oblate-spheroidal form.” SITI December 16,  1886, p. 759.4

“The universality of a kingdom could be no more strongly asserted in human language than is this dominion of the king of Babylon. No spot on the round globe, where an animate being dwells, that is not included in his ample dominion.” {ARSH May 30, 1854, p. 145.10}

JN ANDREWS:

“The earth continues its revolution on its axis, and in its orbit; the moon also, and the planets continue their usual course, impelled by the power of God; the rain falls, vegetation continues its growth as usual, and God watches over, and preserves the lives of men.” JN Andrews, RRCS 20.6

 “The days of the week are measured off by the revolution of our earth on its axis; and hence our seventh day, as such, can come only to dwellers on this globe.” JN Andrews, SITL 6.2-SITL 6.3

JOSEPH BATES:

“Is it not plain then that this same earth and sea, which constitutes the whole dominion of Jesus, will as regularly and as precisely, and minutely continue to make one thousand revolutions round the sun, (in accordance with this prophecy,) as it has the six thousand in the past.” SLG 11.1

“When this earth shall have performed six thousand revolutions around the sun, man will have had 313,071 holy days, or 857 years of holy days set apart and sanctified by God for his special benefit.” SLG 22.1

WILLIAM MILLER:

“Night, in the natural world, is that portion of time in which the face of the natural sun is hid from us, or that part of our earth on which we dwell, in accordance with certain infallible laws of nature, such as light and the vivifying influence of the sun, or the revolution of our earth upon its axis.” MWM 384.11

EJ WAGGONER:

“The day is not made by the sun but by the revolution of the earth on its axis, and the earth could revolve if the sun and moon, it did not shine, the language indicates that this was the case. There was “the first day,” “the second day,” and “the third day.” Each of these days was composed of a period of darkness succeeded by a period of light, but the sun did not shine. And the sun and moon were made to be light-bearers, to rule the day and night. The sun was made to rule the day. What day? The day which was already formed by the revolution of the earth on its axis, and which could henceforth be more distinctly marked than before.  

“It is a mistaken idea that the sun was not created till the fourth day. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The sun and moon were created “in the beginning,” on the first day, but were not made to be light-bearers until the fourth day. And probably they were not made to assume their present shape until that time.” SITI May 26,  1887, p. 311.4-SITI May 26,  1887, p. 311.5 

“But the question is presented, “How could there be days before there was any sun?” Such a question implies ignorance, or at least forgetfulness, of what forms the day. The day is made by the revolution of the earth on its axis. Each complete revolution makes one day. As a matter of fact, the sun has nothing whatever to do informing the day. If it should suddenly become a body of darkness, instead of a body of light, it would be days just the same, and they would be just the same length that they now are. So there were days before the sun was appointed to rule the day. This appointment was not made until after the earth had completed three revolutions, or until three days of time had passed. The very statement that God set the two great lights in the firmament, “to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness,” shows that there were days independent of the sun. These great lights were to rule in the day and then the night, which had been arranged before they were given their office.” SITI December 29,  1887, p. 795.2

“Notice now the steps by which the Sabbath was made: First, God made the heavens and the earth in six days,—six days such as we are familiar with, composed of a dark part and a light part, caused by the revolution of the earth upon its axis, and each completed in twenty-four hours. Second, God rested on the seventh day. Third, he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested. Then it became God’s holy Sabbath day.” FACC 350.3

“In the question under consideration, however, the claim is that since the calendar has been changed, it cannot be known with certainty which day is the Sabbath. To this it is only necessary to say that no change that man may make in the calendar can affect the revolution of the earth on its axis, which alone governs the division of time into days.” PTUK November 24,  1898, p. 739.7

“This succession of light and darkness is caused only by the revolution of the earth on its axis.” SITI March 17,  1887, p. 168.13

“It is only by means of our senses, after all, that we are able to realize the fact that the earth is round, and that it revolves on its axis and moves through space.” SITI July 21,  1887, p. 438.6

“Astonishing! But we would like to ask if the day has been measured by the revolution of the earth around the sun at any time since the sun was created. If we are correctly informed, the day is measured by the revolution of the earth on its own axis, without reference to the sun, and that could be done before the sun was made as well as afterwards. The sun was made to rule the day that already existed; but the earth would revolve on its axis once in twenty-four hours, forming the day, if the sun did not shine at all. Who has the next astro-geological “reason” to bring against the commandment of the Lord?” SITI September 29,  1887, p. 608.13

JH KELLOGG:

“The earth turns upon its axis at the rate of seventeen miles a minute, while it moves in its orbit around the sun at the rate of nineteen miles a second. Think of this! Try to comprehend the meaning of this enormous speed – the earth revolving upon its axis at the rate of seventeen miles a minute – seventeen times as fast as the lightning express, and we clinging to its surface like flies revolving on a spinning top. But this is a slow rate compared with the rate at which it moves through its orbit, more than sixty times as great… The sun travels faster that the earth. It travels at the rate of twenty-seven miles a second. And the earth and all the planets are traveling with it. So here is another still more rapid movement in addition to the earth’s movement on its axis and in its orbit. Not only the earth and the sun, but every sun in the universe (and all the stars are suns), with their planets revolving about them, are moving, doubtless, at equally rapid rates. The mind staggers at the thought of the immense expenditure of energy necessary to keep all these gigantic suns and worlds in orderly movement.” GCDB February 19,  1897, p. 82.1,3

AT JONES:

“Neptune receives only one-thousandth as much as we do but the wonder is that it receives any at all. Again: these all revolve round the sun, and they not only revolve round it, but the sun with his whole system, revolves round other grand central systems, and systems of systems till we are overwhelmed with the immensity of the firmament, and these planets and systems rolling in their orbits at a rate of speed that is almost incredible. The earth revolves on its axis at the rate of more than one thousand miles an hour it rolls forward in its course round the sun sixty-four thousand, eight hundred miles in an hour, more than one thousand miles a minute, eighteen miles in a second.” SITI April 18,  1878, p. 113.8

“It  was by believing that the earth is round, against the dogma of the Catholic Church that it is flat, that Columbus ever discovered Cuba and the western continent. Of course every American schoolboy knows that before Columbia discovered America the Catholic Church insisted that the earth was flat. But it is too sadly true that along with this the impression is left, if not  actually inculcated, upon the minds of the school-children that at that time all the world supposed the earth to be flat. But that is a great  mistake. All except the Catholic world knew then that the earth is  round. The  ancients knew that the earth is round. The Jews knew it always.  Aristotle taught it; so did Ptolemy the Geographer. Indeed, this was a familiar truth among the people of those times. It was the  church fathers who, with the many other falsehoods of the great  apostasy, brought in the dogma that the earth should be flat. The chief of the church fathers, and the chief author of the dogma that the earth was flat, was Augustine—the father also of the Inquisition—tho in point  of time Lactantius preceded him in advocating the dogma. Lactantius lived in the time of Constantine, and was one of the important factors in forming the union of Church and State, having so much of the favor of Constantine that Constantine gave him a place in the imperial family as tutor to the emperor’s eldest son. Augustine lived from 354 to 430. He  became a churchman in 386. Thus the period in which lived Lactantius and Augustine was the very period  in which the church of the apostasy got full control of the power of the  State, and used that power to compel all, even to the penalty of death,  to conform to her dogmas, Augustine consecrating the whole scheme by his final proposition that it is “by the rod of temporal suffering,”  that dissenting parties “attain the highest grade of religious  development.” The apostasy having full control of the imperial power, and compelling all to conform to her teaching, and two of the chief factors in the creation of this Church-and-State combination being the chief authors of the dogma that the earth is flat; thus in that time and onward through the consequent Dark Ages, the truth that the earth is round was forced out  of all the realm which the church controlled.” {SITI January 11, 1899, p1.3-9}

URIAH SMITH:

“The record stands in its native strength and simplicity. The six days of creation were such days as we now have, ruled by the sun, determined by a revolution of the earth upon its axis. The seventh of these was devoted by the Creator to rest.” SYNPT 74.2

“The second vial throws the sea into the most infectious and deadly condition that can be conceived of; it becomes  like the blood of a dead man. If this applies to the oceans of our globe, as there seems to be no reason why it may not, each one’s imagination may be left to grapple with the problem, what the condition of the earth would be with three quarters of it enveloped in this deadly substance.” LUJ 253.5

“It is said that in Germany the ladies are rather ignorant of the geography of the earth. One of them in conversation asked if Christmas did not occur in the summer in the United States, as it came in the winter in Germany (if my memory is correct). This reminds one of the objections some people raise against the Sabbath, on account of the spherical form of the earth.” ARSH July 3,  1860, page 55.3

GEORGE STORRS:

“There are many points of doctrine that a few years ago passed for truth, that are now rejected. That this is the case in science, generally, no one will doubt. How long is it since men were satisfied that the world is round and revolves on its axis? Those who advocated such a theory, no doubt, were thought to be stark mad! – To the minds of their opponents, it was as clear as the light, that the world was flat – their fathers had always believed so; and all the reservoirs of water would have been emptied long ago, if the world turned over! – Copernicus, it is said, was compelled, by public opinion, to keep his discovery of the true solar system to himself more than thirty years. And Galileo, for avowing his belief in the same system, was cited to appear before the Pope, and condemned to prison, while his writings were publicly burned in the streets at Rome.” SSII 122.2

ELDER C:

“But the days are measured off just as accurately as here, and the week has its apportioned place, together with the Sabbath, which can be found and kept in the arctic regions, if any one wants to keep it there. The north star and the ‘dipper’ give the earth’s revolutions as plainly as the sun does to us.” – “Tabernacle Lectures,” p. 178. RCASDA 43