it's only fair i repost the entry i made a while back, since easter sunday's around the corner;

despite the fact that i get close to 0 traffic at my diary, sometimes i make a conscious effort to hold back posting(despite the fact that things keep happening in life) when i posted what i consider a very deep post; i know not everybody reads every single new post i make, but maybe those that do just read the top post, so i'm hoping ppl at least read this huge bulk of text when i do, IF they do

have a great day celebrating christ's day of resurrection, ppls; ok onto the reposted entry:

from thursday, october 27, 2005:

What day did Christ die, and what day did he rise again?

It is quite interesting to see how easily people come to believe something they are told within the church without researching things for themselves.

Common belief amongst Christians is that roughly 2000 years ago(more like 1970 or so years), Jesus died on a Friday morning during Passover, and then arose on Sunday morning.

What I wrote below, I basically read from somewhere off the web, and the 1st time I read it, I was shocked. But I sat down, thought about it, diagramed it, and realized it must be true. It all makes sense.

Now, what I’m about to say seems to be pretty controversial, but I encourage you to not debate this by questioning how skewed my ideas are from common belief, but by countering my arguments from the bible itself; I believe that the Bible is the absolute truth from God’s mouth, and that God can’t lie. If you think I’m wrong, show me in the Bible where I’m wrong.

First of all, why what we believe is wrong:

Jesus stated that he would remain dead for 3 full days; that’s 3 days and 3 nights; read the following passage:

Matthew 12:40

That means Jesus could not have died on the supposedly Good Friday and risen on Easter Sunday; if he died on Friday morning, that would mean to fulfill the biblical prophecy, he would have to arise on Monday night(he would have spent Friday night, all of Saturday and Sunday, and Monday morning dead in order to fulfill the prophecy). If he died on Friday night, then he would have to arisen on Tuesday morning. Likewise, if he arose on Sunday morning, he would have died on Wednesday night(all of Thursday, Friday and Saturday spent dead), and if he arose on Sunday night, that would mean he would have had to died on Thursday morning. There are only 1 and a half days that exist between Friday morning and Sunday morning; Friday night and all of Saturday.

Time to look some verses up:

So then, how can we know what day Jesus actually died and what day he actually arose? The Bible does not in plain English state what day Jesus died, and what day he arose.

However, the Bible DOES infer what day Jesus died, and what day he arose, but you have to put two and two together; it does not state in any single passage when he died and arose.

We do know that Jesus died during the day; perhaps either morning or afternoon. That of course, helps us to know that Jesus must have arisen during the night.

Matthew 27:45-50

We also know Jesus died on the Passover; that’s a fact. Because there’s numerous passages that support this belief.

Matthew 26:2; the Son of Man will be crucified on the feast of the passover
John 13:1; again, the last supper took place during the feast of the Passover; Jesus would later die that night
John 18:39; Pilate offers to release one of the prisoners to the Jews, which means that the day that Jesus was crucified was the Passover

What many people don’t seem to know though, is that there were more than 2 Sabbaths that occurred during the Passover at the time of Jesus’ death; yes; two. People don’t even know that Passover coincides at the same time with another holiday that God commanded his people to observe:

Exodus 12:17-20

So we see that Passover is also known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread and spans from the 14th of the 1st month until the 21st of the same month; that makes for a total of 8 days; count them:

14(1) 15(2) 16(3) 17(4) 18(5) 19(6) 20(7) 21(8)

Leviticus says essentially the same thing, but in another way:

Leviticus 23:4-8

It says that the feast of unleavened bread follows the Passover(which occurs on the 14th) and consists of 7 days; the very 1st day, or the 15th of the 1st month, no work is to be done. The 7th day, or the 21st of the 1st month, no work is to be done. According to the definition of a Sabbath, that would make those Sabbath days.

Leviticus 23:2-3

In addition, remember that the Israelites were still required by God to observe the weekly Sabbath on Saturday during those days. Since a full week is 7 days, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread spans 7 days, That means, the Feast of Unleavened Bread could have 3 Sabbaths, with the weekly Sabbath falling somewhere in between the 2 Sabbaths observed during the feast.

This is why in many passages before Jesus’ death, the Passover is referred to as the Preparation; it was also the preparation day for the feast of unleavened bread.

Mark 15:42-47; the preparation is known as the day before the Sabbath
Luke 22:1-8; the feast of unleavened bread is also known as the Passover, which is the day which Jesus ate with his disciples, then later died
John 19:31; the preparation is the day before the Sabbath(a high day), which is why the Jews wanted to take down the bodies, since they could not do work the next day
John 19:14; it was called the preparation OF the Passover, not preparation FOR the Passover, which means that it had the time during the Passover when one prepares for the feast of unleavened bread

Unfortunately, that still does not enable us to pinpoint the location of the weekly Sabbath during the feast, which would greatly help us know which day Jesus died and rose again.

We do know however, that seemingly a contradiction in the Bible exists after Jesus died; read these two passages.

Luke 23:53 – 24:3
Mark 16:1-6

If only 1 Sabbath existed that week, the women couldn’t possibly buy the spices AFTER they’ve prepared them, and God would be lying. But if 2 Sabbaths existed that week, then the women could buy the spices and then prepared them; they bought them after the 1st Sabbath of the feast, and then prepared them before the weekly Sabbath(Saturday). Then, on the very 1st day of the week in the morning(Sunday), they went to Jesus’ grave, only to find that he had already arisen.

With those facts at hand, we can piece together when Jesus died, and when he arose again.

14th of 1st month - Passover:
-Jesus dies in the daytime; he is taken off of the cross, and buried
-Jesus spends a half day in the tomb; 1 night

15th of 1st month – 1st day of feast of unleavened bread; also the 1st of the 2 of the special Sabbaths observed during that time:
-Jesus spends a full day in the tomb; 1 day and 2 nights have elapsed
-The women rest during that day

16th of 1st month – 2nd day of feast of unleavened bread:
-Women buy and prepare the spices so they can perfume Jesus’ dead body
-Jesus spends a full day in the tomb; 2 days and 3 nights have elapsed

17th of 1st month – 3rd day of feast of unleavened bread:
-Women do not go to tomb; they rest, observing the Sabbath; the feast of unleavened bread spans 7 days, and 7 days have not yet elapsed, so this must be the weekly Sabbath, which would make this day Saturday
-Jesus spends the day in the tomb, but only 1 day, not the night, completing the time he said he would be dead; 3 days and 3 nights, then arises and leaves tomb.
-That means Jesus arose on Saturday night.

18th of 1st month – 4th day of feast of unleavened bread:
-Women go to tomb, only to find that Jesus has arisen

Note that this also makes sense; if Jesus arose on Sunday morning, it is quite plausible that the women who came to the tomb would see Jesus arisING, as opposed to an empty tomb.

So, knowing what day Jesus arose(Saturday night), we can now work backward to Passover(Saturday morning, all of Friday, all of Thursday, Wednesday night), and find out that Jesus died on Wednesday, during the day.

And all this makes sense and coincides with that the Bible states:

Between Wednesday morning, when Jesus died, to Saturday night, when he arose, there are 3 full days; Wednesday night, all of Thursday, all of Friday, and Saturday afternoon. Those 3 days, Jesus spent in the middle of the earth(presumably hell), as he said he would. Amazing eh?

We should be observing Saturday and not Sunday.

(I wanted to add another section stating what Easter really was; during that time, it was a pagan religion, but that’s beyond the scope of this subject, and besides, I don’t have any hard evidence at the time to support this)

Ok, so what am I supposed to do with this information?

Treating weekly Saturdays with more reverence than Sunday’s a good start; I don’t mean to not go to Sunday church and do what you do on Sundays, but inward, have more respect for Saturdays and what you do during that day.

Well, if you want to be anal, you can start by observing Jesus’ death on Wednesday, and his resurrection on Saturday. As opposed to Friday and Sunday.

Or, observe his death on Passover, and his resurrection 3 days later. Consult a Jewish calendar for that.

However, we need to realize that God does not judge us by which days we observe, but by our faith. So rejoice that God rose on the Sabbath, but use this knowledge to draw closer to God, instead of lording it over those who don’t know.

Colossians 2:15-17