Was Jesus crucified on a Friday and resurrected on a Sunday? Is there a Good Friday and an Easter Sunday? This is a popular accepted belief but is it right? Matthew 15:9 tells that our worship will be in vain if we follow the traditions of man instead of obeying God’s truth as found in His words. How can Jesus have been in the grave for three days and three nights if He died Friday afternoon and rose before sunrise on Sunday? This would have been two nights and one day.
Jesus said being in the grave for three days and three nights was a sign of His Messiah-ship. Matthew 12: 38-40, “Then certain of the scribes and the Pharisees answered, saying, Master we would see a sign from Thee. But He answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous
generation seekest 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 (fish’s) belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Jesus clearly stated the difference between day and night. In John 11:9-10: Jesus asked, ‘are there not twelve hours in a day? If any walk in the day he stumble not because he seeth the light of the world. But if a man walk, in the night he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.’
Jesus clearly stated that after three days He would rise again. (Matthew 16:21; 20:19). He proved right because on the third day, God resurrected Him. When Jesus rose from the grave, He became our Saviour and Redeemer. If we accept His sacrifice, we have obtained the right to call God, Father. After His resurrection, Jesus remained on the earth for forty days before He returned to His Father’s throne.
Before He died Jesus openly declared that He would be resurrected on the third day. Therefore, the rulers tried to secure His body by sealing the sepulchre with a huge stone. Pilate gave orders that His grave be made secure because he was afraid someone would take away the body and then say that He had risen (Matthew 27: 62-66). Pilate did not understand the power of God.
Jesus was not crucified on a Friday neither was He resurrected on a Sunday. This is a Babylonian tradition which honours Baal, the god of the rising sun, who is also Satan. This is why sunrise services are important at Easter; it is an old pagan Babylonian practice for Baal worshippers.
Some have wondered why the word Easter is in the Bible. (Acts 12:1-4) If you read carefully you will understand that it was not the Children of God who intended to celebrate Easter but it was evil King Herod and other idolaters. This was his Roman custom because they did not worship the true and living God. Years later when the Romans claimed to have accept Jesus Christ, they transferred all their pagan practices to Christianity and polluted God’s truth. They hid the Bible for years and so the populace had no opportunity to know God’s words. Whatever the Roman church taught them they accepted. That is why today Christianity is tainted by the filthiness of paganism.
Nimrod was Noah’s great grandson and he built the tower of Babel and the city of Babylon. The word Babel means confusion and it is from this word that we get the word Babylon. Nimrod’s wife was Semiramis. After his death she began to tell the people that he was living in the sun and had become the sun god. This was the beginning of sun worship. She also got pregnant and claimed that it was Nimrod who was now a god impregnated her. This was a master plan from the devil as he inspired her to imitate Jesus’ conception. Her son Tammuz was born on the twenty fifth of the tenth month (December). When her son Tammuz died, she proclaimed a forty days annual sorrowing period. Today this is the period we call Lent.
Semiramis is also called Astarte, who is the goddess of fertility. For this reason, during this pagan period there are Easter eggs and bunnies and the festivity of carnival. When Israel began to engage in the pagan worship of Astarte, God spoke about it to Jeremiah, the prophet.
Jeremiah 7:18-19, The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire and the women knead the dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods that they may provoke me to anger. Do they provoke Me to anger saith the Lord; do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces.
The cake which they usually bake is now modernized and called bun.
When Was Jesus Crucified?
Jesus was crucified during the Week of Unleavened Bread. The first day of this Feast is on the fifteenth of Abib and it is called the High Day Sabbath. (John 19:31) The weekly Sabbath comes after it.
Therefore there were two Sabbaths in the week in which Jesus was crucified. The two Sabbaths are the 15th of Abib which is the first day of the Week of Unleavened Bread and the weekly Sabbath. Jesus had two meals with His Disciples on the fourteenth of Abib. He had the Passover with the twelve and the Lord Supper with the eleven because Judas had gone to complete the plan to betray Him.
Jesus was crucified in the midst of the week according to the two-fold prophecy in Daniel 9:27, ‘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.’
The midst of the week is Wednesday. Wednesday begins on the night that we call Tuesday night and end Wednesday evening when the sun is setting. God’s day begin at sunset. Gen. 1:5, and the evening and the morning was the first day.
Today many do not know this because of the changes that were made by false teachers. Daniel 7:25, and he shall speak great words against the Most High and think to change times and laws and they shall be given into his hand until time and times and dividing of time.
When was Jesus placed on the cross? Mark 15:25, 33-34 tells us, and it was the third hour and they crucified Him. When did he die? And when the sixth hour was come there was darkness over the land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabach-thani. Which is being interpreted, My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken Me. (Matthew 27:45-46)
Jesus became accursed for us. Not only was He hung on a tree as a common sinner but He was placed on the Roman’s pagan symbol of worship. The cross is a pagan symbol and in Jesus’ context it is referred to as a tree. Deut. 21:22-23, and if a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he be put to death and thou hang him on a tree. His body shall not remain on the tree but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day, for he that is hanged is accursed of God, that thy land be not defiled which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
The Jewish law forbids dead bodies to remain on trees/cross not only on the sacred days but any day. If the accused is not dead by sunset the bones would be broken to speed up death. Jesus’ bones were not broken as was prophesied by David in Psalm 34:20, He keepeth all His bones not one of them is broken.
John 19:33 tells us, But, when they came to Jesus and saw that He was dead already, they break not His legs.
Having looked at the length of time Jesus said that He would have been in the grave; let us now use identify the time of death and resurrection.
Time of Jesus’ Death & Resurrection
Bible time is divided in hours or watch. Every watch lasts for three hours namely 6 o’clock to 9 o’clock, 9 o’clock to 12 o’clock, 12 o’clock to 3 o’clock, 3 o’clock to 6 o’clock. The first hour in the watch is referred to as the first hour. Therefore, the first hour would be approximately 6 o’clock. Jesus went on the cross at the third hour which would be about 9 o’clock; He died at the ninth hour which is about 3 o’clock. Jesus was laid in the grave and remained there for three days and three nights. Let us accept that the 9rd hour is 3:00p.m. and calculate His resurrection.
Wednesday 3:00p.m.- Thursday 3:00p.m = 24 hrs.
Thursday 3:00p.m- Friday = 24 hrs.
Friday 3:00p.m – Sabbath 3:00p.m = 24 hrs.
Total 72 hours
Remember to calculate the night before the day
Let us now summarise the lesson. Jesus ate the Passover and the Lord Supper on a Wednesday night (Bible time) Tuesday night (Roman time)
He was taken in after the Supper. They interrogated and abused Him throughout the night. On Wednesday morning he was led to the hill to be crucified. He died in the afternoon.
Thursday was the fifteenth of Abib, the High Day Sabbath. The first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Friday – preparation day for the weekly Sabbath. The followers of Christ also prepared spice to anoint His body.
Saturday (7th day) – weekly Sabbath. As soon as Sabbath was ending the women ran to the tomb to embalm Jesus. When they came, He was already risen.
Previously the word dawn meant going towards and not early morning. Jesus was resurrected on the Sabbath (Saturday) before the beginning of Sunday night (Bible time) and Saturday night (Roman time). When the women came to the tomb Sabbath afternoon, Jesus was already resurrected. After a restless night Mary Magdalene returned to the tomb a second time early Sunday morning. At this time, she met the resurrected Jesus. (Matthew 28:1-6; John 20: 1-18)
Think carefully about this Bible truth.
Writer- A. E. Fisher
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