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THE TRUTH ABOUT EASTER
Roman Catholicism has dictated
the date of many Christian events and distorted the meaning of others. The
fact is that Christ was not crucified on Friday, nor did he raise on Sunday
morning.
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.
According to tradition, Jesus
died on the cross at 3:00 PM on Friday and rose very early Sunday morning. How
can three days and three nights be compressed in such a short time span? Most
Christians simply ignore the obvious problem and hold the traditional view.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that Jesus was crucified and died on Friday.
This is because the Bible says that Jesus was crucified on the day before the
Sabbath.
Mark 15:42 and now when the
even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the
Sabbath.
There were other Sabbaths
beside the weekly Sabbath (Saturday). The first day of the Passover week no
matter what day it may be.
Exodus 12:16 and in the first
day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be
an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that
which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
Lev 23:7 in the first day ye
shall have a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
The Passover Sabbath, falling
on the 15th of Nisan, which came on Thursday the year that Christ,
died. It was not accidental that Christ died during the Passover. The Bible
tells us that Jesus was tried and crucified as the preparation of the Passover
was going on.
John 19:14 and it was the
preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the
Jews, Behold your King:
Christ was not tried and
crucified before the weekly Sabbath (Friday), but the day before the Passover
Sabbath. In the year falling on Thursday, therefore, the only conclusion we
can make is that Christ was crucified on Wednesday. John tells that Jesus ate
the Passover the evening before and that he himself died on the cross at the
very moment that the Passover lambs were being killed between the two evening
on the 14th of Nisan Jesus the real paschal lamb, whom all other
paschal lambs offered through the centuries were only types, was therefore
slain at the very time appointed of God. He would not eat the Passover lamb on
the Passover day, for he was the Passover lamb.
Exodus 12:3 speak ye unto all
the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall
take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb
for the house:
Exodus 12:6 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.
Jesus was killed on the 14th of Nisan. He was not crucified on the Passover day but on the preparation of the Passover, and that he was to be three days and three nights in the grave, and as the preparation of the Passover that year would be Wednesday and his resurrection early on the first day of the week. This allows exactly three days and three nights in the grave.
Jesus died some time after 3:00 PM on Wednesday and was placed in the tomb before dark or at the beginning of a new day, Thursday (remember that the day started at 6:00 PM). Wednesday night, Thursday night, and Friday night makes three nights. Thursday, Friday and Saturday day takes care of the three days. So at the beginning of the first day of the week which is Sunday, which started at 6:00 PM Saturday night our time, Jesus rose from the grave.
The statement that Jesus made
was literally true (Matthew 12:40), his body lay in the sepulcher three days
and three nights, but he himself went into paradise and declared that the
perfect sacrifice had been made and then led the O.T. saints out of that place
and Paradise has been moved into the third heaven. (Ephesians 4:8-10; II
Corinthians 12:2)
I Peter 3:18 for Christ also
hath one suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to
God, being put to death in the flesh, and quickened by the Spirit:
I Peter 3:19 by which also he
went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
If we take exactly what the
Bible teaches, we see the marvelous fulfillment of prophecy and O.T. typology,
on the other hand, if we accept the Roman Catholic tradition, we rob Christ of
essential glory. In fact if the traditional good Friday/Easter morning
tradition not only robs Christ, it also neglects the clear teaching of God’s
word, thus placing it beneath everything about the Passover lamb that Jesus
was a picture of:
1. He was a lamb without spot or
blemish. (Exodus 12:5 your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first
year.)
2. He was chosen on the 10th
day of Nisan. (Exodus 12:3 in the tenth day of this month they shall take to
them every man a lamb.)
It was he 10th day
of the month, the preceding Saturday, that the triumphal entry into Jerusalem
was made, and not on Palm Sunday as tradition suggests. This is clear since
Jesus came from Jericho to Bethany six day before the Passover.
John 12:1 then Jesus six day
before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead,
whom he raised from the dead.
This would have been Friday
that he made the trip from Jericho to Bethany. If the Roman Catholic Palm
Sunday is historically correct, it would mean that Jesus made a trip on the
Sabbath (six days before Friday) in violation of the law.
Exodus 16:29 see, for that the
Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the
bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his
place on the seventh day.
Bethany was a Sabbath’s day
journey from Jerusalem.
Acts 1:12 then returned they
unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath
day’s journey.
Jesus entered Jerusalem on the
next day.
John 12:12 on the next day
much people that were come to the feast, when thy heard that Jesus was coming
to Jerusalem.
It was also the same day that
Judas went to the chief priest and offered to betray Jesus for thirty pieces
of silver (Matthew 26:6-16; Mark 14:3-11). That evening (Friday night), Jesus
and his disciples were at dinner at Simon the Leper’s house. That same night
(now Saturday, 10th of Nisan, remember that the days begins at
sunset), Judas sold Jesus the fulfillment of prophecy.
Zech 11:12 and I said unto
them, if ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear, So they weighed
for my price thirty pieces of silver.
There is absolutely nothing is
favor of a Friday crucifixion or any verses to support it. On the other hand,
everything scripture offers on the time of the Lord’s crucifixion points to
Wednesday:
1. Matthew 26:61 “to build it in
three days.”
2. Matthew 27:40 “buildest it in
three days.”
3. Matthew 27:63 “after three days
I will rise again.”
4. Mark 8:31 “and he began to teach
them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the
elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three
days rise again.”
5. Mark 9:31 “and after that he is
killed, he shall rise the third day.
6. Mark 19:34 “and shall kill him;
and the third day he shall rise again.”
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