(This was written back in 2002 while we were attending the IC.) (Institutional church)
While listening and watching to the typical Easter church performance which was followed by a distribution of Easter baskets, colored eggs and candy, my mind wandered into the scriptures and how they related to what we were doing.
Yesterday in our Easter service I started thinking about the timing of the events regarding the crucifixtion and Resurrection. With this in mind we had a lively home discussion about the timing of the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ. The verses in Genesis regarding the Lord saying "and the evening and the morning" kept going thru my mind.
So I did a little study and there is no way Christ was crucified on Friday. Impossible. When you look at the event using scripture and what a scriptural "day" was, it becomes much more clear.
Furthermore we uncovered another mystery regarding what on the surface appears to be a contradiction when you compare Mat. 12:40 with many related passages. So let's be good Biblical "detectives" and the Lord help us solve these cases:
Matthew 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. -Jesus Christ.
Mark 9:31 ...and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.
Luke 18:33 ...and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.
1Cor. 15:4 he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures
TWO scenarios emerge:
1. is the traditional view Jesus was crucified on "Good Friday", spent three days in the grave, and rose on Sunday. Now go back and re-read that sentence and start counting the days on your fingers. If you need help, ask a 5 year old.
2. a second view has Him crucified and He is in the tomb for two days, then rises early Sunday, the third day.
Time factors:
1. (Gen. 1) 6:30 pm according to our time (non daylight savings). That means in Jesus' day, for example, 7 pm the "day" he was crucified, He was put in the grave actually the "next" day or in other words, the first day in the grave began corresponding to our Wed night. (actually the beginning of the Jewish 5th day).
The elapsed time from His death at 3pm to sundown is used to obtain the body from Pilate and wrap-prepare for burial. He is placed in the tomb around evening.
The 3 days in the tomb scenario: so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The word translated "heart" does not speak of the geographical location, rather it means "..thoughts, feelings, middle", according to Strong's definition.
2. At 6:30 (the estimated time of sunset) Thursday, the Jewish 6th day begins, He begins His 2nd, 24hr day in the tomb. (the 3 days in the tomb scenario).
3. At 6:30 (estimated sunset Friday) the *Sabbath begins for the Jews. Work ceases. The Biblical 7th day begins, Jesus is in the tomb for the third day during the Jewish Sabbath.
Here is where it gets interesting.
Sunset (our time Saturday) actually begins the 1st Biblical Jewish day of the week! So, according to a Biblical calendar, Christ came out of the tomb the first day of the week after the Sabbath, (we don't know the exact hour/minute). It may have been between our "Saturday" 11:59-12am, to our early "Sunday" am, which still fit the Jewish FIRST day).
(Jesus once mentioned how "at midnight the bridegroom cometh..." )
The women went to the grave finding it empty EARLY the next day (pre-dawn,our Sunday, the Jewish "first day"). The tomb was already empty. John 20:1 "Now on the FIRST DAY of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early...".
According to this chronology and the scriptures, Jesus Christ fulfilled His Word and the other verses fall into order concerning the crucifixion and resurrection. The Roman tradition does the usual obscurification to the major events of our Lord, and of course the apostate church has put most of the pagan Roman traditions into practice.
What makes it difficult to grasp is the paradigm of our Roman day-date system. Our days change at midnight, Jewish-Biblical days changed at sunset. Would it not be interesting if we began the celebration of Resurrection Sat. evening which corresponds to the 1st day of the week of Jesus' day??
Now about that mystery of Jesus being in the "heart of the earth 3 days and 3 nights"....
We will offer this:
The day he came out of the grave and He appeared to Mary, He told her "touch me not for I am NOT YET ASCENDED unto the Father. -Jn 20:14-18.
But by that evening when He appeared to the other disciples He allowed them to touch Him. By this we know that his resurrection was more than just leaving the earthen cave, it also included leaving earth to ascend back to the Father. John 20: 17.
If this is so, we have Jesus indeed fulfilling the Jonah prophecy He referred to in Mt. 12:40: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly;
So we have the intriguing time-line of the 3 days and nights including the hours after He came out of the grave and before He was ascended ("risen") to the Father.
-What we also know is the Roman tradition and math do not add up to 3 days and three nights, or even two days and nights in the tomb and the Lord rising heavenward to the Father after the third day itself (the third full set of daylight hours).
Try graphing out Jesus crucifixion at 3pm Good Friday and rising Sunday morning. 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the earth or even TWO full days and three nights before rising the third day?? -CLUNK! Of course, most of us were too busy decorating eggs and eating chocolate bunnies to think about these things, lol.
But as long as the church and tradition say 2=3, it is ok it must be fine with God?
Another point to ponder: when the Romans destroyed the Jewish nation, the pagan day-date system was the world-wide standard for time keepping. Saturday (named for the Roman god saturnalia) was "party time" of celebration and debauchery -a mockery of the order and time God had given in scripture that is still the practice of the world today. This is an anti-type of the Sabbath and reverence to God as given in the OT. Even Sunday is for the "sun" god, Thursday is "thor's-day, etc.
-A deeper study of the term "Easter" reveals the name for a pagan female fertility goddess, hence the eggs and bunnies. Jews observed the "Passover" and Jesus observed, kept, and fulfilled the Passover for us. Never would they have kept "Easter", which would have been an abomination.
From Ezekiel Chapter 8:17
Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here?
8:10 So I went in and saw; and behold, every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about. What idols? You mean God's covenant people would actually fall for the idolatry of pagan practices?
11 And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel; and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, every man with his censer in his hand; and the odor of the cloud of incense went up. There's the spiritual forefathers of the modern apostate preachers who celebrate pagan holidays with God's people today.
12 Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his chambers of imagery? for they say, Jehovah seeth us not; Jehovah hath forsaken the land.They still say the Lord is OK with pagan traditions in the church and God overlooks these "fun" celebrations.
13 He said also unto me, Thou shalt again see yet other great abominations which they do.
14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of Jehovah`s house which was toward the north; and behold, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz. Tammuz was the "reincarnated" son of Nimrod who was slain by a wild boar. Pagans celebrated his "resurrection" by eating the traditional easter ham and remember his exalted mother Ishtar, a harlot. "Happy Easter (Ishtar)"?
15 Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? thou shalt again see yet greater abominations than these.
16 And he brought me into the inner court of Jehovah`s house; and behold, at the door of the temple of Jehovah, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of Jehovah, and their faces toward the east; and they were worshipping the sun toward the east.
Well there they were, having a nice little sunrise service...
So once again, we are stirred to compare what the disciples of scripture studied and with what we observe in the church world around us. What a WORLD of difference.
A related point we would make is in the form of a question:
WHAT GOD NAMED THE DAYS OF THE WEEK?
(Oh yes He did! And the TRUE name of each day of the week is found in the Bible.)
Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Genesis 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Genesis 1:13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
Genesis 1:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Genesis 1:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Genesis 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Genesis 2:2 And on the *seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
