THE TRUTH ABOUT EASTER

(PART1)

About 2 billion Christians believe that Jesus Christ was crucified and entombed on a Friday afternoon—”Good Friday”—and raised to life again at daybreak on Easter Sunday morning, a day and a half later.

But when we compare this to what Jesus Himself said about how long He would be entombed, we find a major contradiction. Mathew 12:40, Jesus says: "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth".

How long did Jesus say He would be in the grave?

Still more important is the context in which Jesus said these words. The Pharisees and the Scribes were demanding another miraculous sign from Him to prove that He was indeed the long-awaited Messiah. Just before, He answered them in verse 39, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah".

Jesus made sure that emphasis was used throughout these two verses and that this was the only sign that He was the promised Messiah.

The fundamental key to understanding the timing of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection lies in understanding God’s timetable for counting when days begin and end, as well as the timing of His biblical festivals during the spring of the year when these events took place.

It is obvious, then, that the traditional timing doesn't add up. John 19:30-42 is clear that Jesus died and was hurriedly placed in a tomb late in the afternoon by Nicodemus and Joseph in order to avoid working on the Sabbath, which began Friday evening at sundown.

Traditionally, from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown is one night and one day. Following the same principle, Saturday night to Sunday sunrise is another night, thus giving us two nights and one day. This creates definitely a problem. Where is the other night and the two days to equal three days and three nights are going to come from?

Most Christians, religious scholars and theologians try to solve the case by using the argument that any part of the day or night counts as a day or night. They argue that the final minutes of that Friday afternoon were the first day, all day Saturday was the second day, and the first few minutes of Sunday morning were the third day. They reckon that it sounds reasonable. What a load of rubbish! The trouble is that it doesn't work. This only adds up to three days and two nights, not three days and three nights.

John 20:1 says, "Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance".

The stone was not rolled away from the entrance to the tomb so Jesus could get out. He could have left easily without moving the stone. It was rolled away so others could get in and see that Jesus was gone. People who hear about the resurrection for the first time and still others a few more times mat need time before they can comprehend this amazing story. Like Mary and the disciples, they may pass through 4 stages of belief.

* At first, they may think the story is a fabrication, impossible to believe.

* Like Peter, they may check out the facts and still be puzzled about what happened.

* Only when they encounter Jesus personally are they able to accept the fact of the resurrection.

* Then, as they commit themselves to the risen Lord and devote their lives to serving Him, they begin to understand fully the reality of His presence with them.

By now, you are accustomed to my style of writing, I call it "TO and FRO". Therefore, making justice to the same, let's go back to the three days and the three nights explaining the chronology of Jesus Christ's death, burial and resurrection. The popular belief is that Christ was crucified on a Friday and rose on a Sunday. But neither of these suppositions is true. A close reading of the Bible makes that quite clear. The choice of a Sunday date for Easter is based on the assumption that Christ rose from the grave early on a Sunday morning.

Did you catch the problem here?

John tells us it was still dark when Mary went to the tomb on Sunday morning and found it empty. Jesus was already resurrected well before daybreak. Thus He wasn’t in the tomb any of the daylight portion of Sunday, so none of that can be counted as a day.

That leaves us with, at most, part of a day on Friday, all of Friday night, a whole daylight portion on Saturday, and most of Saturday night. That totals one full day and part of another, and one full night and most of another—still at least a full day and a full night short of the time Jesus said He would be in the tomb.

Clearly something doesn’t add up.

Either Jesus misspoke about the length of time He would be in the tomb, or the “Good Friday–Easter Sunday” timing is not biblical or accurate. Great dilemma!

Obviously both cannot be true. So which one is right?

In order to solve this dilemma, one has to agree that the key to understanding the timing of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection lies in understanding God’s timetable for counting when days begin and end, as well as the timing of His biblical festivals during the spring of the year when these events took place.

The majority of people no idea that the Bible talks about two kinds of Sabbath days—the normal weekly Sabbath day that falls on the seventh day of the week and seven annual Sabbath days.

In first place, we need to realize that God doesn't begin or end days at midnight as we do. That is the human method of counting time.

God repeats this formula of Genesis 1:5, for the entire six days of creation, where in very plain terms God counts a day as beginning with the evening and ending the next evening. Thus, the evening (nigh time) and the morning (daylight) were the first day.

In Leviticus 23, where God lists all of His holy Sabbaths and festivals, He makes it clear that they are to be observed “from evening to evening” (Leviticus 23:32)—in other words, from sunset to sunset, when the sun went down and evening began.

This is why Joseph and Nicodemus, followers of Jesus, hurriedly placed His body in Joseph’s nearby tomb just before sundown. A Sabbath was beginning at sundown (John 19:31), when work would have to cease.

John 19:31, says: "Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down".

Because of the Jewish culture of that time, all household work (including cooking) were done on the day before a Sabbath to avoid any work done on God's designated day of rest. Thus the day before the Sabbath was commonly called “the day of Preparation”. Clearly the day on which Christ was crucified and His body placed in the tomb was the day immediately preceding a Sabbath. The question is, which Sabbath?

Confusion. (to be continued ...)