Believe It or Not-The Resurrection Was NOT on Sunday!
Hundreds of millions gather each “Easter” on mountain tops, in huge outdoor stadiums, and in churches all over the Christian professing world to observe a sunrise service. All suppose they are observing the moment of Christ’s resurrection. But the resurrection was NOT ON SUNDAY! Almost no one, among all those millions of people, has ever sought to PROVE, from the Bible, when the resurrection really occurred. What the Bible says is astonishing! Here, most likely for the first time in your life, you will read the astounding facts!
Believe it or not, there is no biblical commandment to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ! Instead, there are many commands to solemnly celebrate his death!
Most professing Christians are completely ignorant of this fact.
To hundreds of millions of professing Christians all over the world, “Easter” is either the MOST important “Christian” holiday, or second, behind “Christmas.” Few have ever researched the origins of either celebration. Few know that both are laden with paganism; customs derived from heathens who were sun worshipers, and not from the Bible, or the apostles of Christ.
Jesus Christ would never have allowed His chosen disciples to worship Him by using symbols of sex and fertility, such as rabbits, eggs, mistletoe, little green trees, holly wreaths and the like. Certainly, He would have soundly CONDEMNED the practice of a “religious” service conducted at SUNRISE, facing the SUN! Such is utterly pagan, and Jesus Christ, in His pre-human state, inspired Jeremiah to write, “LEARN NOT THE WAY OF THE HEATHEN,” while He described the Christmas tree (Jeremiah 10:1-4).
Make no mistake! The resurrection of Jesus Christ was a GREAT EVENT! The fact of Christ’s resurrection represents the very cornerstone of the faith of the apostles; the reason for their deep conviction and conversion; the wellspring of their courage in the face of martyrdom! It was the proof of Christ’s resurrection which caused them to assemble in Jerusalem for that first great moment on Pentecost when God sent audible and visual evidence of His Holy Spirit!
Yet, for all the stupendous significance of the resurrection, there is not one scripture in all the Bible which sets apart the DAY of the resurrection as a day to be appointed for worship; not one “thus saith the Lord” which commands Christians to gather for worship on that day!
In spite of this, the entire “Sunday – Saturday” controversy is based on Catholic doctrine (adopted by almost all Protestants) which states that “Our Lord rose from the dead on the first day of the week.”
Professing Christians know there is no command in the Bible to observe Sunday. They say they are doing it in “commemoration of the resurrection.” But the resurrection was NOT ON SUNDAY.
The Bible Commands Us To Celebrate Christ’s Death
While there are no scriptures commanding Christians to celebrate the moment of Christ’s resurrection, there are many plain ones commanding us to observe, in solemn ceremony, His DEATH on the “tree.”
Paul wrote to the Gentile Christians in Corinth, “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
“And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
“After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
“For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
This was not the age-old celebration of the PASSOVER, but a supper held as the nighttime of the fourteenth began, with new and different symbols which Christ had instituted, conducted from 17 to 24 hours prior to the “Feast.” The Feast of the Passover was eaten in the NIGHT at the beginning of the fifteenth of Abib, or Nisan. The lamb, which pictured Christ, was killed in the afternoon of the fourteenth!
Christ CHANGED the symbols of the Passover, setting His disciples an example of a NEW Testament observance Paul later referred to as “The Lord’s Supper.” In ancient Israel, the roast lamb, eaten on the night of the Feast with their shoes on their feet, their staffs in their hands, in haste, symbolized Jesus Christ, the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” The lamb was slain by shedding its blood. The unleavened bread, or the “bread of haste” symbolized getting rid of SIN. These shadows led to Christ. Once the reality had come; once the very Son of God was now about to become the sacrifice for the sins of all mankind, there was no further need to follow shadows. The shadow LED to the stake upon which Christ died. Now, the Savior of all mankind instituted a NEW ceremony. The ancient Israelites did not engage in a foot washing ceremony; did not partake of only a small piece of unleavened bread, or drink a sip of wine. Instead, they ate an entire meal of roast lamb!
When Christ instituted the NEW Testament symbols of the foot washing, the bread and the wine, He commanded His disciples, “For I have given you an example, that you should DO, as I have done unto you!” (John 13:15).
For centuries, God’s called and chosen servants continued to faithfully observe the “Lord’s Supper” (which many continued to call “The Passover”) ON THE FOURTEENTH OF NISAN.
When an APOSTATE church began to IMPOSE the ancient custom of Ishtar (the “h” is silent, so the pronunciation is “Easter”), and command Christians to cease and desist from observing the Lord’s Supper on the fourteenth of Nisan, many thousands continued to do so in defiance of the “Council of Nicaea.”
For centuries, these believing people, faithful to Christ’s commands and His example, were sought out, persecuted, and murdered. The “Quartodeciman Controversy” is documented through many centuries of history; “Quartodeciman” meaning “Fourteenth.”
Thus, God’s true Church continued to follow Christ’s example by observing the symbols of His DEATH. NEVER did the apostles celebrate a sunrise service! NEVER did they observe the dawning of the first day of the week in “celebration of the resurrection.” NEVER did they revel amid symbols of fertility, such as colored eggs and rabbits!
Instead, they gathered to rehearse Christ’s instructions just as he gave them on the “night in which he was betrayed,” reminding themselves, year by year, of the DEATH of the Lord and Savior of all mankind!
The ONLY SIGN That Christ Was The Messiah
The murder-plotting, posturing Pharisees, like many professing Christians today, wanted to see some kind of supernatural “sign,” as proof of Christ’s credentials. Matthew recorded it: “Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.
“But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
“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” (Matthew 12:38-40).
The significance of the sign was the precise LENGTH OF TIME Christ would be in the tomb! Think of what this means! Christ was NOT saying that the SIGN of His Messiahship would be the fact of the resurrection, but, instead, the length of time He would be dead, IN THE TOMB!”
This has caused tremendous controversy, and no end of devious circumventions, human reasonings, evasions, convoluted explanations and outright falsehoods among the so-called “higher critics” and would-be Bible “scholars.” Why? Simply because steeped in the traditions of men, they have clung to their fables surrounding “Easter,” and REJECTED the ONLY SIGN Jesus gave as PROOF that He was, in fact, the Son of God!
None of these would-be scholars will admit he is REJECTING CHRIST! Oh, no, he will use every excuse, every argument, to GET AROUND the plain statement of Christ Himself, and, without knowing it, cling to a FALSE “Christ” of his own imagination, REJECTING the real Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
How do they do this? What reasons do they put forth to get around Christ’s statements?
First, it is obvious that “Good Friday” to “Easter Sunday Morning” cannot fit into Christ’s plain statement that He would be in the tomb for “three days and three nights.”
For, if He was entombed late on “Good Friday,” then Friday sunset to Sabbath sunset is one night and one day; Sabbath sunset to Sunday sunset is two nights and two days, and Sunday sunset to Monday sunset is THREE NIGHTS AND THREE DAYS!
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that something is wrong here!
So, they have decided to say that Christ’s statement was in the Greek language, and that He used a Greek idiom, which meant only “part” of three days and “part” of three nights, or, in other words, just TWO nights, and ONE DAY! Thus, since they claim Christ was buried on “Good Friday” just before sunset, He would have been in the tomb only all night Friday night (which is really not “Friday” at all, but “the Sabbath,” since the days began at sunset), all day “Saturday,” all night “Saturday night” and would have arisen AT SUNRISE on “Easter Sunday Morning!”
But Jesus Christ would not have spoken in Greek to His disciples, who were Galileans; hill-country folk, who spoke Aramaic, a dialect of the Hebrew language which had developed among Jewish captives during the Babylonian captivity!
Also, Jesus said specifically that He would be in the tomb “…AS JONAH WAS three days and three nights!” The book of Jonah was written in HEBREW, not in Greek! The only scriptures extant during the days of Christ and the disciples were the Hebrew scriptures of the Old Testament! The first book of the New Testament — the very book containing Christ’s words about the sign of Jonah, Matthew, was not written until almost twenty long years later; about 55 AD!
There is no “Greek idiom” contained in Jonah!
Did not Christ know the difference between a day and a night? When He presented the ONLY SIGN which He would leave as a perpetual sign of His Divine origins; His Messiahship, would He have used confusing language?
Jesus said, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because heseeth the light of this world.
“But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him” (John 11:9, 10). Clearly, Jesus stated there are twelve hours of daylight, and an equal time of darkness! He was using a spiritual analogy, of course, but it is absolutely PROVED that when Jesus Christ said “three DAYS” He meant three periods of twelve hour daylight, and three periods of equal darkness — three days and three nights!
There are not three periods of twelve hours of daylight between “Good Friday” at sunset and Ishtar(pronounced “Easter” today) Sunday morning! Instead, there are only TWELVE HOURS of daylight — ONE twelve-hour day —the day we call by its pagan name, “Saturday!”
The so-called “higher critics” admit that Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for seventy-two hours. Jesus said He would be in the tomb for the exact same amount of time! WHY?
For the very important reason that to remain in the tomb for such a protracted period of time would remove any last vestige of doubt about whether Christ had truly DIED or not! When Jesus resurrected Lazarus, He was warned that Lazarus had been in the grave for four days and nights, and warned that there would be a terrible odor, for his body would have begun to decompose by this time!
Notice the account. Christ had arrived at the tomb where Lazarus had been buried when “Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days” (John 11:39).
All knew that Jesus Christ had been mercilessly, horribly beaten with a “scourge,” like a “cat o’ nine tails,” or a lash with bits of stone or metal woven into the tips! His flesh had been ripped and torn! God’s Word says, “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
“As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men [so much so that He didn’t look human!]
“So shall he sprinkle many nations [from the blood dripping out of many wounds!]; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider” (Isaiah 52:13-15).
In the moving prophecy about Christ’s sufferings found in Psalms 22, it says, “My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
“For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
“I may tell [count] all my bones [they had flayed His flesh from His ribs!]: they look and stare upon me.
“They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
“But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me” (Psalms 22:15- 19). A Roman soldier jammed a spear into Christ’s side, at which time He cried out, and died! Christ died by the shedding of His blood from multiple lash wounds and a spear thrust!
It was critical for ABSOLUTE PROOF that He was the Son of God that He remain in the “heart of the earth,” for exactly three days and three nights! Jesus Christ said so!
The Bible Definition Of Days and Nights
Jesus Christ told His disciples that He would “rise the THIRD DAY!” Now, what is the Bible definition of that third day?
“And God [Elohim; more than one. See John 1:1-10] said, Let there be light: and there was light.
“And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening [darkness] and the morning [light] were [together!] the first day” (Genesis 1:3-5). The Hebrew word for “day” is Yom. It means a normal twenty-four hour day, commencing with sunset, with approximately twelve hours of darkness, and twelve hours of light.
Notice further biblical proof about the meaning of “days” in the only scriptures extant when Christ made His prediction from the book of Jonah. Esther asked all the Jews to fast for “three days.” Notice what she said: “Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer,
“Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.
“So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.
“Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, over against the king’s house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house” (Esther 4:16-17; 5:1).
Just as in Christ’s day, the expression “on the third day” meant when the full period of three days and three nights had been completed!
Now you have the BIBLE definition of the meaning of three days and three nights!
Even a little child in the first few grades of primary school can understand this!
Christ had said, “After three days I will rise again!” When His murderers reminded the Roman authorities of this statement, His tomb was not only sealed, but an armed guard was required to remain there! “Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,
“Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.
“Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.
“Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.
“So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch” (Matthew 27:62-66).Notice that statement carefully! It was the DAY AFTER THE PREPARATION, which some have mistakenly assumed was the weekly Sabbath! As you shall see, it was NOT the preparation day for the weekly Sabbath, but the preparation day prior to the ANNUAL Sabbath of the FIRST DAY OF UNLEAVENED BREAD; an“high day Sabbath!” Your Bible says so!
Jesus had also said, “Destroy this temple [referring to His body], and IN THREE DAYS I will raise it up … But He spake of the temple of His body” (John 2:19-21).
Obviously, from several absolute proofs, the expression “in three days” does NOT mean AFTER ONLY TWO DAYS, but during a part of the third day. No, it means “after three full days” as we have seen!
The so-called “higher critics” make no mention of the appeal by the Jews to Pilate! WHY? Simply because they did not ask that the sepulchre be made sure for only “part of three days and three nights!” Nor did they speak using a “Greek idiom!” No, they remembered that Christ had specifically stated that He would be three days and three nights in the tomb!
What Was The TIME OF DAY When Christ Was Buried?
Can we know the time of day when Christ was entombed? For if we can determine the time of day, all we need do is count seventy two hours from that time to determine the exact time of the resurrection!
We have seen, from Christ’s own words; from the Bible definition of the number of hours in a day; from The Jews’ own fears and determination to set a watch for three days over the tomb that Christ did NOT say He would be only TWO NIGHTS AND ONE DAY in the tomb, but THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS!
Anyone who refuses to accept this ONLY SIGN of His true Messiahship is REJECTING THE REAL JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH and accepting a false “Christ,” who never existed; a myth!
Now, notice what Mark wrote: “For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day” (Mark 9:31). The duration of time Christ expressed could not be one second PAST 72 hours for Christ to rise from the dead “the third day!” Therefore, it could not have been from Friday sunset to “Easter” sunrise, which would be only 36 hours; two nights, and one day!
Christ was quoted by the Jews [who were speaking HEBREW, not in idiomatic Greek!] as having said, “After three days I will rise again!”
This cannot possibly be figured in less than 72 hours!
John wrote, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
“Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
“But he spake of the temple of his body.
“When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said” (John 2:19-22). This conversation was in Hebrew; the Aramaic dialect, NOT in “Greek idiom!”
Unlike the “higher critics” today, the disciples REMEMBERED exactly what Jesus had said, and it was because of this, and His many appearances to them that “they BELIEVED.”
To be raised up IN three days cannot be MORE than 72 hours. Therefore, the length of time Christ was in the tomb could not have been LESS than 72 hours, and it could not have been MORE than 72 hours! It had to be 72 hours, EXACTLY!
Now, THINK! For the resurrection to have been AT SUNRISE, then the BURIAL had to be AT SUNRISE, 72 hours earlier!
But Christ was NOT buried at sunrise, but just before SUNSET on the day called “the preparation,” (Matthew 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54).
It was soon after the “ninth hour,” or at about three o’clock in the afternoon when Jesus “cried out” loudly (Matthew 27:46-50; Mark 15:34-37; Luke 23:44-46). The preparation day would end at sunset, according to Bible reckoning (Leviticus 23:32).
Joseph of Aramathaea came to claim the body of Jesus and accomplish the burial at some time after 3:00 PM, but before sunset on that “preparation” day, which was the day before a Sabbath!
“When the even was come, there came a rich man of Aramathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple:
“He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.
“And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
“And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.
“And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.
“Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,
“Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again” (Matthew 27:57-63).
Now notice the parallel account in Luke’s chronology: “This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.
“And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.
“And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on.
“And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid.
“And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment” (Luke 23:52-56).
The laws required the Jews to bury a dead body BEFORE A SABBATH DAY began! Therefore, haste was made to bury the body of Jesus BEFORE SUNSET on that preparation day. John wrote, “There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand” (John 19:42).
Jesus Christ was buried before sunset on the same day He died, in a tomb very near to the “place of the skull” called “Golgotha.”
Since the burial of Jesus Christ occurred some time after 3:00 P.M., and before sunset on this “preparation day,” it follows that He was resurrected at the SAME TIME OF DAY exactly 72 hours later!
IF He was buried on a “Friday,” (which He was not, as we shall soon see) then He would have remained in the tomb all of Friday night, all of Saturday daytime, all of Saturday night, all of Sunday daytime, all of Sunday night, until late in the afternoon on a MONDAY!
But Christ did not remain in the tomb until Monday!
Clearly, the tomb was EMPTY when the disciples came to see it while it was YET DARK, “as it BEGAN TO DAWN toward the first day of the week!”
Notice Luke’s account of the resurrection: “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
“And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
“And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
“And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
“And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?
“He is not here, but is risen [obviously, this is past tense; He had already risen!]: remember how he spakeunto you when he was yet in Galilee,
“Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again” (Luke 24:1-7).
It was in the pre-dawn darkness when Christ’s followers first approached the empty tomb! It was not at sunrise! Notice John’s account: “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
“Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
“Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.
“So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.
“And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.
“Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,
“And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
“Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.
“For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead” (John 20:1-9).
Since Christ was buried on a late afternoon, some time just prior to sunset on a “preparation” day, and since He plainly staked His claim to divine office; His very Messiahship, on the precise length of time He would be in the tomb, and since He HAD ALREADY RISEN prior to the time the disciples came to the empty tomb while it was yet dark, then Jesus Christ MUST have been placed in the tomb on a WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON!
But wait! How is this possible?
Haven’t we read, time and again, that it was the “preparation” day? And isn’t the “preparation” day the day before the SABBATH? And does not the Sabbath correspond to our weekly “Saturday?”
The answer is found in the fact that God also instituted seven annual Sabbaths, or “high days,” to picture His plan of salvation. All seven are laid out in Leviticus 23. Notice what God’s Word says about these feast days of God: “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
“Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.
“Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
“These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.
“In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord’s Passover.
“And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
“In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein” (Leviticus 23:1-7). This holy day could fall on whichever day of the week happened to be the fifteenth day of the month called “Abib,” whether or not it was the seventh day, or the weekly Sabbath. It was called one of God’s “Sabbaths,” and was celebrated as a special “high day” Sabbath.
Notice another example: “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation” (Leviticus 23:24).
Regardless as to which day of the week upon which the first day of the seventh month fell; whether a Monday or a Thursday, it was called a “Sabbath!”
Christ Our Passover Is Sacrificed For Us
For centuries, God’s people had observed the annual Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. The paschal lamb, which typified Christ, was sacrificed in the afternoon, which was on the “preparation” day for the FEAST, which was (and is) the first day of Unleavened Bread!
This annual high day Sabbath is the first annual holy day of the year, immediately following the Passover. Christ was killed by a spear’s thrust, following a horrible beating, in which skin and flesh was flayed from His body! He died at the same moment the High Priest slaughtered the first sacrificial lamb! From the time of the Exodus, (Exodus 12) this ceremony had been accomplished on the fourteenth of Abib “at even,” meaning just before sunset “at the going away of the sun.” The lamb was then roasted, and the FEAST was eaten in the nighttime of the fifteenth of Abib.
God commanded Moses, “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
“And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
“And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.
“And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
“Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.
“And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire” (Exodus 12:5- 10).
Millions of people who observe pagan Ishtar (pronounced “Easter”) are absolutely IGNORANT of the events surrounding the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. They know NOTHING about the Days of Unleavened Bread which immediately followed!
Because of this, they do not know that the “Sabbath” which was coming on and the “preparation” day on which Christ died which caused the haste with which He was buried occurred on Wednesday and Thursday!
That Thursday was the first annual Sabbath of the year; the FEAST day of Unleavened Bread after the Jews slaughtered the lambs and kids in the ancient Passover ceremony! The lambs and kids were slaughtered in the afternoon of the FOURTEENTH of the first month!
Now, notice John’s eyewitness account of which day of the week it was when Christ was slain: “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost [exhaled; breathed His last].
“The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away” (John 19:30,31). Of course! This HIGH day Sabbath was the ANNUAL Sabbath; the first day of Unleavened Bread! It was followed by the day we call “Friday,” then “Saturday,” or the WEEKLY Sabbath!
Count back from the time of Christ’s resurrection, late on a weekly Sabbath afternoon, and you come to late Wednesday afternoon! Wednesday was the “preparation day” prior to the FEAST day on that Thursday, which was the fifteenth of Nisan, or Abib!
The calendar proves that the only year in a sequence of years when the first day of Unleavened Bread fell on a Thursday was in 31 AD! But the so-called “scholars” WILL NOT ever choose 31 AD, even though it is the ONLY year in which all the parameters FIT!
Instead, they will choose the years 29, 30, 32 or 33, deliberately avoiding 31 AD!
A little simple research proves that Christ was born in “4 BC” according to the flawed Roman calendar. He was exactly 33 1/2 when He was killed. He was thirty when His public ministry began. The prophecies stated He was to perform a seven year ministry, and was to be “cut off in the middle of the week!” Thus, not only was He cut off in the exact middle of His seven year ministry, leaving another three and one half years to be fulfilled AFTER His second coming (See Isaiah 66:19-23), and He was also cut off in the MIDDLE OF THE WEEK!
The prophecy says, “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Daniel 9:27). The sacrifices and oblations CEASED for Christians when Christ rose from the dead, for now the reality which had cast the shadow had come. There was no longer any need for a “schoolmaster” to lead toward Christ, for Christ had now come in the flesh!
Christ came to “confirm the covenant” by preaching repentance and salvation; the terms and conditions of the NEW covenant (Jeremiah 31:31) for three and one half years.
Notice what Dr. Bullinger says in his Appendix concerning the events surrounding the crucifixion: “That Sabbath and the high day of John 19:31, was the ‘holy convocation,’ the first day of the feast, which quite overshadowed the ordinary weekly Sabbath … this great Sabbath, having been mistaken from the earliest times for the weekly Sabbath, has led to all the confusion … We have therefore the following facts furnished for our sure guidance:
“1. The ‘high day’ of John 19:31 was the first day of the feast.
“2. The ‘first day of the feast’ was on the 15th day of Nisan.
“3. The 15th day of Nisan commenced at sunset on what we should call the 14th.
“4. ‘Six days before the Passover’ [John 12:1] takes us back to the 9th day of Nisan.
“5. After two days is the Passover’ [Matt. 26:2; Mark 14:1] takes us to the 13th day of Nisan.
“6. ‘The first day of the week,’ was the day of the resurrection [Matt. 28:1, &c.], was from our Saturday sunset to our Sunday sunset. This fixes the days of the week, just as the above fix the days of the month, for,
“7. Reckoning back from this, ‘three days and three nights’ [Matt. 12:40], we arrive at the day of the burial, which must have been before sunset, on the 14th of Nisan; i.e. before our Wednesday sunset.
“Therefore Wednesday, Nisan 14th [commencing on the Tuesday at sunset], was ‘the preparation day’, on which the crucifixion took place: for all four Gospels definitely say that this was the day on which the Lord was buried [before our Wednesday sunset], because it was the preparation [day] that the bodies should not remain on the cross [Greek: Stauro, meaning an upright pale] on the Sabbath day, ‘for that Sabbath day was a high day,’ and, therefore, not the ordinary seventh day, or weekly Sabbath. See John 19:31” (The Companion Bible, Bullinger, Appendix 156, p. 180).
It is because people have blindly assumed that the “preparation day” was a Friday that they thought Christ was not buried until late on a Friday, and thus remained in the tomb only two nights and one daylight period!
Did Jesus Christ Fulfill His Sign?
Unless Jesus Christ was EXACTLY the length of time in the tomb He said he would be, you have no Savior!Jesus staked His Messiahship on being exactly three days and three nights in the tomb!
For centuries, because fallible men, many of whom were bitten with antisemitism, and who desperately wanted to rid the apostate church of all things “Jewish,” claimed they were worshiping on SUNDAY in “honor of the resurrection!”
But Christ DID NOT RISE ON SUNDAY! The angels told the two Marys, “He is NOT HERE!” They said “HE IS RISEN!” They did not use the present tense that He was just then “rising,” but the past tense, saying He had already risen!
There is simply no question about the days of the month, the days of the week, or the hours of those days in which these MOST IMPORTANT events occurred!
Paul wrote, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
“By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
“And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
“And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
“After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
“After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
“And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15:1-8).
Paul said “…according to the scriptures.”
Paul MAY have known about the earliest gospels, but remember, the only “scriptures” extant during Paul’s day were those of the “Old Testament.” Paul had to be including Christ’s reference to Jonah, and the fact that he was exactly “three days and three nights” in the belly of the great fish, as well as referring to Christ’s statements which were faithfully recorded by the apostles.
The apostles believed because they saw the living proof, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, now GLORIFIED; able to appear and disappear at will; able to materialize within a room enclosed by stone walls! They were so CONVICTED by the proofs they saw that many of them were martyred for their faith! Men do not go willingly to their deaths by crucifixion, burning, or beheading because they believe in a hoax!
Now, notice one final proof! Only the Fenton translation of the English from the Greek takes note of the fact that the word for “Sabbath” in Matthew 28:1 is in the plural! In a footnote to this text in his translation, he says, “The Greek original is in the plural; Sabbaths!”
Of course! There were TWO Sabbaths that week; the annual HIGH day Sabbath, the FEAST, which fell on Thursday, and the regular weekly Sabbath, which fell on the day we call “Saturday.”
Yes, believe it or not, the plain truth is the resurrection was NOT on Sunday!
Jesus Christ commanded His disciples, and He commands US, today, to observe the symbols of His DEATH each year (1 Corinthians 11:23-30) at the “Lord’s Supper.” He told His disciples, “HAPPY are ye if ye do these things.”
You may copy and distribute this information only to friends and family without changes, without charge and with full credit given to the author and publisher. You may not publish it for general audiences.
This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.
The activities of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association are paid for by tithes, offerings and donations freely given by Christians and co-workers who are dedicated to preaching the gospel according to Jesus Christ.