>> David C. Pack: The Good Friday-Easter Sunday tradition
is among the most popular in the Christian world.
This broadcast asks, did Jesus Christ rise from the grave
on Sunday morning?
Had He been there for three days and three nights?
He said this was the only sign He was the Messiah.
Does this fit with the tradition of a Friday crucifixion near
sunset and a Sunday sunrise resurrection?
Much more is at stake here than meets the eye.
Since no one actually saw Jesus rise, we must examine the only
available authority on this miraculous event, the Bible.
The Apostle Paul wrote, "Prove all things; hold fast that which
is good."
While most accept popular traditions without proof,
including everything Easter, true followers of Jesus wanna
know what He says.
>> male announcer: "The World to Come."
The Restored Church of God presents David C. Pack.
>> David C. Pack: What proof did Christ offer
that He was the Messiah?
The Pharisees challenged Him on this point, and He answered, "An
evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there
shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonah.
For as Jonah 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."
This is plain.
Could Jesus, then, be in the grave less than 3 days and 3
nights, 3 complete 24-hour periods?
Can 72 hours fit between late-day Friday and early Sunday
morning?
Why do so few question this only sign Jesus said He would give
that He was the Messiah?
Could He have been wrong on this single proof and still have been
the Messiah?
Consider what is at stake in Jesus's statement.
If He failed his only sign, then He is not our Savior and nothing
He said can be trusted.
In effect, if His prophecy did not come to pass as He foretold
exactly, then He must be considered a false prophet, a
fraud, who should be ignored, meaning mankind has no Savior.
Do not confuse the resurrection itself with the question of how
long Jesus would be in the grave before rising.
This length of time was the test of his sign, not the actual
resurrection.
Get this.
While it is embarrassing to watch so-called Bible experts
try to explain away Jesus's obvious meaning, they really
have no choice.
Think.
If the sign remains intact, the Good Friday-Easter Sunday
tradition would be exposed as groundless and, therefore,
false.
Many Bible commentaries leave one nearly breathless in
astonishment in how they assert that three days and three nights
in the Greek language can mean three periods of time, day or
night.
Friday night, Saturday day, and Saturday night are supposedly
these three periods.
At least some are honest enough to acknowledge the Friday-Sunday
tradition is, in fact, only half the length of time, 36 hours
that Jesus said He would be in the grave.
Can we know for certain, or must we speculate on the definition
of a day or the meaning of a night?
The book of Jonah records, "And Jonah was in the belly of the
fish three days and three nights."
Most scholars acknowledge that this Hebrew phrase must mean a
72-hour period.
In short, there is no room for any approximations of time
theories in the Hebrew.
Jesus said His time in the grave would be as Jonah.
"As" means comparison.
In other words, just like Jonah was in the fish for three entire
days, Jesus was to be in the grave for three entire days.
This comparison prohibits negotiating the meaning of the
Greek, as many do, since the Hebrew phrase can only mean
three full days.
Let's ask: did Jesus understand the length of a day or the
length of a night?
Of course, He did.
Notice His question, "Are there not twelve hours in the day?"
In several places, the Bible mentions Jesus rose the third
day.
How long was this?
The first half of the Genesis 1 creation chapter plainly states,
"God divided the light from darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called
Night, and the evening [darkness] and the morning
[light] were the first day.
And the evening," darkness again, "and the morning," light
again, "were the second day.
And the evening," now three periods of darkness, three
nights, "and the morning," now three periods of light, three
days, "were the third day."
This is the Bible's definition of the length of time accounted
for within the phrases "the third day" and "three days and
three nights."
It spanned three periods of darkness and three of light.
Six times twelve hours equals 72 hours.
Clear and easy.
Simple math.
We've now established the exact duration of Christ's time in the
tomb as a 72-hour period, 3 days and 3 nights, as Jonah was.
In Mark 7:13, Jesus warns against, "Making the word of God
of none effect through your tradition."
This would include Jesus's words.
How is it that intelligent, well-educated Bible scholars
seem to just know Jesus was crucified Friday and resurrected
Sunday?
What is it about Jesus's plain, straightforward sign that they
cannot accept?
The answer lies in the comfort of long-held but clearly false
traditions.
One of the most important rules of Bible study is to gather all
the Scriptures on a subject to gain a complete picture.
There are other Scriptures that prove the 72-hour duration of
Christ's time in the tomb.
The apostle John wrote, "Jesus answered and said unto them,
Destroy this temple," His human body, "and in three days I will
raise it up," but He spoke of the temple of His body.
Clearly, the phrase "in 3 days" means Christ's time in the tomb
could not exceed 72 hours or it would not be within the 3-day
period.
Conversely, Matthew establishes Jesus's time in the tomb as not
less than 3 days, or 72 hours, because it quotes Christ saying,
"After three days I will rise again."
Two verses in Mark's account prove these same parameters.
Notice, "And He began to teach them, that the Son of Man must
suffer many things and be killed, and after three days
rise again."
Think.
A late Friday afternoon entombment would have to mean a
late Monday afternoon resurrection.
Again, it is as simple as counting one, two, three.
If this passage stood alone without other verses to qualify
it, it must be admitted that Christ's use of the word "after"
does not by itself limit His time in the tomb to 72 hours.
He could still be there longer.
He just could not be there one bit less than 72 hours.
Now, the second passage from Mark, "They shall kill Him; and
after that He is killed, He shall rise the third day."
This presents another limitation on Christ's time in the tomb.
Consider this verse, if taken alone, places Christ in the
grave between 48 and 72 hours.
The phrase "the third day" caps the duration at 72 hours, but it
also creates a minimum of 48 hours, or the period would be
somewhere in the second day.
The Friday-Sunday tradition distorts the truth of what
actually happened.
Since the originators of this false doctrine had no biblical
proof or authority, they resulted to fraudulent tactics
to legitimize their invention.
One claim was that Hermes, Pope Pius's brother, about the year
A.D. 147, quote, "Had received instruction
from an angel, who commanded, that all men should
keep the Pasch," that's Passover, "on the Lord's Day,"
meaning Sunday.
In time, Sunday came to represent the Passover, as the
whole general period of Christ's crucifixion, burial, and
resurrection.
However, since no one could accept condensing events of
three days and three nights into just one day, Passover is one
day, the idea of a Friday crucifixion was born.
Hermes's statement was used to validate the position of Pius's
successor, Anicetus, who disputed with Polycarp, who was
trained by the apostle John, over transferring Passover to a
Sunday.
Polycarp taught the observance of Passover as Christ and the
apostles had done.
The bishops of Rome, however, had other ideas, thus the
supposed Hermes letter was either a forgery or was
deceptively reported by Pius, who died just before Polycarp's
visit to Rome.
The Roman bishops had decreed that they possessed the power to
supersede and change the times and laws of God.
Read Daniel 7:25.
They rewrote history and changed the order of events to introduce
false doctrines.
Their effort to change the day of the resurrection to Sunday
was, in fact, a continuation of a Babylonian tradition that
Nimrod, father of the Babylonian mystery religion, was
resurrected on a Sunday.
By A.D. 321, Roman Emperor Constantine
established Sunday worship as part of the official state
religion, thus legitimizing the various traditions attached to
that day.
Jesus's crucifixion occurred on Passover afternoon, the 14th of
Abib, or Nisan, which is the first month in God's sacred
calendar.
This occurred in the year A.D. 31, in which Passover fell on a
Wednesday.
Many failed to consider Daniel's prophecy that the Messiah would
be "cut off in the midst of the week," as it says in Daniel 9.
Wednesday is the middle of the week, the day of Passover in
A.D. 31.
According to the Roman calendar, this was Wednesday, April 25.
Here is a brief but important timeline.
Between the 9th and 12th hours on Wednesday, 3 to 6 p.m., Jesus
died, Luke 23, verses 44 to 46.
With Pilate's permission, Joseph of Arimathea procured the body,
wrapped it in linen, John 19:40, and placed it in the sepulcher,
Luke 23:50-53.
By the time the burial was complete, the Sabbath drew on,
verse 54, thus the burial took place on Passover day shortly
before sunset.
Passover is what is called a preparation day.
The day of Passover precedes an annual Sabbath called the first
day of unleavened bread, or a high Sabbath, or high day,
John 19:31.
This Sabbath fell on a Thursday that year.
It was on this day that the high priest and the Pharisees came to
Pilate to ensure Christ's tomb was sealed and guarded, Matthew
27:62-66.
Mark 16:1 records what occurred Friday, "And when the [annual]
Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother
of James, and Salome had bought sweet spices, that they might
come and anoint Him."
Verse 2 jumps to Sunday morning.
The phrase "and when the Sabbath was past" refers to the Thursday
high day.
Since the women could not buy spices on the seventh day,
Sabbath, Saturday, Friday was the only time they could have
done this.
Luke 23:56 states, "And they returned, and prepared spices
and anointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the
commandment."
After buying the spices, they returned and prepared them to be
applied to Christ's body in the tomb, which they planned to do
after resting on the weekly Sabbath, again Saturday.
The next verse, Luke 24:1 adds, "Now upon the first day of the
week [Sunday], very early in the morning, they," the women, "came
to the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared,
and certain others with them."
The women found the tomb empty, verse 3.
Two angels informed them that Christ was already risen, verses
4 to 6.
Mark 16:2 states that the women were present at the rising of
the sun.
This means Jesus was resurrected before sunrise.
John 20, verse 1 tells us that Mary Magdalene came early, when
it was yet dark, and found the stone that sealed the tomb was
already rolled away.
So, a sunrise resurrection was impossible because Jesus was
already resurrected.
Let this sink in.
Nowhere does Scripture record that Jesus rose at sunrise on
Sunday morning.
However, it does tell us that he would be in his grave for three
days and three nights.
Anyone willing to believe the Bible should not find this
difficult to accept.
In fact, it is the only logical conclusion that can be drawn.
Christ was placed in the tomb before sunset on Wednesday.
Three complete days, three days and three nights, bring us to
the end of the weekly Sabbath, Saturday, just prior to sunset
when Christ was resurrected, exactly as He had prophesied.
I urge you to read our booklet, "Christ's Resurrection Was Not
on Sunday," and the article, "Christ's Crucifixion Was Not on
Friday."
They thoroughly cover the timing of these events.
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>> David C. Pack: There is another important reason
theologians and many others must conclude the resurrection
was on Sunday, and it is big.
Sunday is commonly referred to as the Lord's Day, while the
true Lord's Day of the Bible is actually the day of the Lord,
the day of His wrath.
The term the "Lord's Day" has come to be synonymous with
Sunday, but why?
If Sunday can be established as the day Christ was resurrected,
it can be a means of validating and authorizing the keeping of
Sunday by the churches of the world in place of God's true
Sabbath.
Exodus 20, verses 8 to 11 shows that the keeping of the Sabbath
is the fourth commandment.
The Sabbath was always the seventh day of the week.
God never authorized Sunday, which would be keeping the first
day.
He hallowed the seventh day at creation, Genesis 2:1, long
before there were any Jews or Israelites to keep it.
The Sabbath was to be kept forever, continually, and
throughout the generations of Israel, which was intended to be
God's model nation.
Christ kept the Sabbath and said he was Lord of it and that it
was made for man.
He did not say made for the Jews only.
The apostle Paul also observed God's Sabbath.
The subject of keeping the Sabbath as God's command for
true Christians is a big one, requiring its own book to
properly explain.
Our eye-opening full book, "Saturday or Sunday, Which Is
the Sabbath?" does this.
Therefore, more than the Friday-Sunday tradition
collapses if Christ was in the grave for 72 hours instead of
half as long.
The largest single reason for the unscriptural tradition of
Sunday-keeping crashes with it.
God has always said, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it
holy."
He has never said, "Remember to keep Sunday holy and just call
it the Lord's day."
You are left to ponder this.
The false Resurrection Sunday idea was necessary for a second
reason.
It became a perfect means of injecting into Christianity
another lie, the long-held, pre-Christian pagan practice of
sunrise worship toward the east at dawn.
In Ezekiel 8, God calls this practice an abomination, and He
is explicit.
These two lies, a Sunday resurrection and sunrise
services, help wonderfully to validate, perhaps, one of the
most monstrous pagan traditions of all: the great Easter lie.
The viewer will absolutely want to read this booklet, "The True
Origin of Easter," to learn the ancient roots of this modern
celebration.
You will be astonished.
Certain historical accounts underscore evidence presented
here about an A.D. 31 Passover, instead of the
popular A.D. 33 used by Catholics and
Protestants to get to a Friday crucifixion.
God's sacred calendar, maintained by the Jews for
millennia, reveals that Passover occurred on a Wednesday in
A.D. 31.
By establishing the day of the week and month of Passover in
1931, we can arrive at the day of the week and month of the
Passover in A.D. 31.
1931 is significant because precisely 119-year sacred
calendar time cycles would have elapsed from 31.
This method helps in computing the elapsed time between the
Roman and sacred calendars during that 1900-year span.
By this method, we can calculate the month and week in which
Passover fell in A.D. 31.
Various Hebrew calendar software programs can calculate when
Passover, any other holy day, fell even before A.D. 31.
One example from history to establish when Christ's ministry
began is the time of King Herod's death.
By comparing Scriptures with historical sources, we can learn
when Herod died.
Shortly after Christ's birth, an angel warned Joseph in a dream
that he and Mary should take Jesus and flee into Egypt.
They stayed there until Herod's death, Matthew 2:15, when Christ
was about a year old.
Of course, the Bible records that Herod killed all male boys
in Judea under age two.
A reference in Josephus's "Antiquities of the Jews" to a
lunar eclipse helps establish when Herod died.
Notice, "This eclipse of the moon, which is the only eclipse
mentioned by Josephus, is of the greatest consequence for the
determination of the time for the death of Herod and for the
birth and entire chronology of Jesus Christ.
It happened on March 13, in the year of the Julian period 4710,
and the 4th year before the Christian era."
According to Josephus, Herod died the following year
or 3 B.C.
Since Jesus was 1 year old at this time and his ministry began
when he was 30, and understanding that there is no
year zero, we arrive at autumn A.D. 27
as the start of his 3 1/2 year ministry.
Here is another fascinating proof.
The prophecy in Daniel 9 referenced earlier establishes a
period of 483 years, starting from a decree issued by King
Artaxerxes in 457 B.C. until Jesus's ministry begins.
Verse 27 establishes the length of Jesus's ministry.
Notice, "And He [the Messiah] shall confirm the covenant with
many for one week: and in the midst of the week," referenced
earlier in the broadcast, "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."
The margin says "desolator."
This somewhat awkwardly translated prophecy is generally
thought to reference the final antichrist and a supposed
seven-year tribulation period, a popular idea of Rapturists.
This belief is false.
In fact, this prophecy is speaking of Jesus Christ, not
the antichrist, who is to confirm the new covenant for one
week.
According to the prophetic day-for-a-year principle, these
7 days equal 7 years, but midweek the Messiah was to offer
His life for mankind's sins as part of God's plan of salvation.
He was to be cut off, verse 26, in the midst of the week after 3
1/2 days or prophetic years.
Jesus's earthly ministry did last three and a half years.
Also, since Wednesday is the middle of a literal week, midst
of the week carries a dual meaning, as do many prophecies.
Since Christ's ministry began in the autumn, lasted three and a
half years, and He was crucified in the spring, He kept four
Passovers.
Let's count them.
Follow carefully.
John 2:23 records the first Passover of His ministry
in A.D. 28.
Luke 6:1 records Christ with His disciples, who were plucking
corn during the Passover season in the second year of His
ministry, A.D. 29.
The phrase "the second Sabbath after the first" here means the
second high day, or holy day, the last day of unleavened
bread.
John 6:4 and 5 records what preceded the third Passover,
A.D. 30, of Christ's ministry.
The fourth and final Passover of Jesus's ministry is the most
documented.
All four gospels cover it in detail.
Notice Luke, "Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near,
which is called the Passover."
These Passovers fell on Monday, A.D. 28,
Saturday, A.D. 29, Wednesday, A.D. 30,
and again Wednesday, A.D. 31.
I repeat Christ's ministry began in the autumn of 27 and ended in
the spring of 31 on a Wednesday in the midst of the week.
So then, the A.D. 33 claim of traditional
Christianity and its Friday Passover is further proven
false.
Now, a final account.
It involves two angels with the women at the tomb.
Here is what the angel said, "He is not here: for He is risen,"
past tense, "as He said."
This would be impossible if Christ had been in the grave one
second more or one second less than 72 hours.
The one who said, "Are there not twelve hours in a day?"
was well aware of exactly how long his sign required, that he
remain in the belly of the earth, the grave.
Not only did Jesus state that He would fulfill His sign, but it
was confirmed by two unimpeachable witnesses, angels.
Based on when Jesus was buried, sometime between 3 and 6 o'clock
on the day of his crucifixion, his sign as Messiah was that he
must rise at the same time 72 hours later, otherwise He is
both impostor and fraud, and we have no Savior.
It is time to ask who will you believe, theologians, scholars,
higher critics, and other traditionalists, who reject the
sign that Jesus gave, or Jesus's own words that he would spend 3
full days and 3 full nights, 72 hours, in the grave?
Christ asked, "Why call you Me, Lord, Lord," or Master, Master,
"and do not the things which I say?"
And we could add or believe not His plain words regarding His
messiahship.
Jesus also said, "Full well," or knowing full well, "you reject
the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition."
Moments later He added, and I'm repeating from earlier, "Making
the Word of God of none effect through your tradition."
Get this.
Jesus was God.
His plain words about when He would die and be resurrected
are, then, the Word of God.
Here are more of Jesus's words, this time as a warning, "In vain
do they worship Me."
Yes, people can literally waste their time worshiping Christ,
doing so in vain.
How?
He explains, "Teaching for doctrines the commandments," and
traditions, "of men."
These verses apply to all who reject Jesus's only sign that He
was the Messiah in order to keep the pagan Easter.
Make yourself admit that a popular tradition, the fiction
of a Friday crucifixion and Sunday resurrection, which makes
Jesus Christ both a fraud and a liar, has crashed in a heap.
Again, I urge you to read our booklets, "Christ's Resurrection
Was Not on Sunday," and "The True Origin of Easter."
Until next time, this is David C. Pack
saying goodbye, friends.
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