The Day That Christ
Died
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There are 3 different views that believers
take on the day that Christ died. Two of them teach that he rose again
on the morning of the first day of the week which is Sunday, but the
day he died is different. Some teach he died on a Friday, some a Thursday,
and some others a Wednesday. Does it matter? Not really. As long as
you believe he died and paid for your sins was buried and rose again
the third day and trust Jesus as your Saviour, it really doesn't matter.
But it does make excellent bible study though.
Our first view will be the most common of all of them, the Friday view.
There are many scriptures that say that Christ was going to rise again
on the third day but we will pick just one. In Luke 18:33 it says,
“33 And they shall scourge him, and put him to death:
and the third day he shall rise again.”
Now this is fairly simple to figure out. Let's just see what day he
rose again which would be the third day and back up 2 days and we'll
get our answer. In Matthew chapter 28:1 it says,
“In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward
the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to
see the sepulchre.”
So we see here as Matthew chapter 28 starts out that it is the first
day of the week and as you read the rest of the chapter you see this
is when Christ rose from the dead. We also see that the day before it
was the Jewish sabbath day which is on the last day of the week. It
all lines up.
So what we have is Christ dying on a Friday, which would be the first
day, then Saturday comes, the sabbath day, which would be the second
day, then Sunday he rose again from the dead which would be the third
day. NO PROBLEMO! Everything matches. This is the most common way of
seeing the day that Christ died.
But there is a hitch.
In John 10:35, Jesus said,
“35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God
came, AND THE SCRIPTURE CANNOT BE BROKEN; “
One of the main things when you are teaching is this, “ The scripture
CANNOT be broken.” If you are teaching on a particular subject,
but your teaching breaks scripture, then your teaching must be reconsidered.
Now before we put any of these teachings to the test, let's go into
the scripture and see some basic fundamentals about the passover.
In Genesis chapter 1 it says,
“5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called
Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”
Now we start our new day at midnight, but the Lord starts the new day
at dusk. As you read the rest of Genesis chapter 1 you will see that
the rest of the days of the creation were the same way, the evening
first and then the morning.
In Leviticus 23 it says,
“5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is
the LORD'S passover."
So what we have is the Lord's passover starting in the evening. This
shows us that Jesus died on the 14th day of the first month. The Apostle
Paul said in 1st Corinthians 5:7,
“7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be
a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed
for us:”
Jesus was sacrificed on the 14th day of the first month. He was the
passover Lamb. He was not the day after passover Lamb or the day before
passover Lamb.
Now according to the scriptures, Jesus died at the ninth hour of the
day which is about 3:00 in the afternoon, which was getting real close
to the next day starting.
So let's take this teaching of Christ dying on a Friday and put it to
the test to see if it breaks scripture. In Matthew chapter 12 it says,
“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.”
Notice it says here that Jesus said he would be three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth. So what we will do is put the Friday
view to the test and put all this info on a time chart and we'll call
this chart the Friday Death.
As you can see on the chart if you count Friday as the first day, you
can clearly see that Jesus was not in the heart of the earth three days
and three nights. There is not enough time between Friday afternoon
and Sunday at sunrise to squeeze in three days and three nights, but
only two days and two nights, so this view breaks scripture.
A lot of people see this and say, “Three days and three nights
is seventy-two hours, so Jesus had to be in the heart of the earth seventy-two
hours.” From this line of thinking comes the Wednesday death view.
In order to put Christ in the heart of the earth for seventy-two hours
you have to put his death on a Wednesday. It's the only way it will
fit. Putting his death on a Thursday will not get you the seventy-two
hours that you are looking for. The problem with this is, that it also
breaks scripture.
In Luke chapter 24 it talks about 2 people that were walking from Jerusalem
on the day of the resurrection and Jesus walked with them but they did
not know who he was. After they had talked a while one of them said,
“21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have
redeemed Israel: and beside all this, TO DAY IS THE THIRD DAY SINCE
THESE THINGS WERE DONE.”
So what we have here is the holy scriptures telling us that the first
day of the week, Sunday, was the THIRD DAY SINCE THESE THINGS WERE DONE,
which would make Saturday the second day SINCE these things were done,
which would make Friday the first day SINCE these things were done,
which would make Thursday THE SAME DAY SINCE THESE THINGS WERE DONE.
This leaves no room for the Wednesday view.
Some of the people that take the Wednesday view actually put the resurrection
on Saturday afternoon to make the 72 hour thing fit, but this breaks
scripture also. And if they keep the resurrection on Sunday it puts
Christ being in the heart of the earth 4 days and 4 nights. Now let's
look at this chart to see the flaws in the Wednesday
Death.
So this leaves us only one choice, the Thursday
Death. As you can see on this chart, Luke 21 fits, Matthew 12 fits
and all the other scriptures fit. What about the 72 hour thing? The
bible never said Christ was going to be in the heart of the earth 72
hours, but rather three days and three nights.
So I ask people, “Did you work today?” and they say yes.
“How many hours did you work?” and they say, “Eight.”
Then I say, “You didn't work today because you have to work twelve
hours to make a day.” Then they say, “But I did work today!”
Was Jesus in the heart of the earth on Thursday? Yes. What about Friday
and Saturday? Yes.
Now Christ died on the 14th day of the first month, but the very next
day was the 15th, which was the feast of unleavened bread, which was
a High Sabbath day. So what we had was two sabbath days in a row. The
high Sabbath which was Friday, then the regular sabbath which was Saturday.
The women that came to the sepulchre early Sunday morning were going
to anoint the body of the Lord. They did not have time to do it on Thursday
and they could not do it Friday or Saturday because they were sabbath
days so they had to wait till Sunday morning.
Also here's a little math problem for you. What is 14 + 3? Answer: 17.
Christ died on the 14th day of the first month, was three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth, and rose again on the 17th. The Thursday
view is the only one that keeps all scriptures intact.
Once again, does it matter? No, not really, as long as you believe Christ
died for your sins, was buried and rose again from the dead, that's
what counts.
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