Fundamental Belief

Good afternoon, everybody! See you all survive the snow.

Today is February 15th, and guess what we'll be doing two months from today?

First holy day of unleavened bread. We'll be here before we know it. It always slips up on us. I want to take a topic today that will come into play with regard to the Passover. It's a little bit more of a topic of chronology. We have a world around us that teaches that Jesus was taken dead, or his dead remains taken from the cross late on a Friday afternoon, and then arose from the dead Sunday morning. Yet if we look at what Jesus said, he said three days and three nights. Now, there are those who try to reason around that. They say, well, that was a Jewish idiom, a Hebrew idiom, that allowed them to reckon days by parts of days. And so, in their explanation, a little bit of daylight on Friday means a day, Saturday means a day, and a little daylight on Sunday. There's a problem with that as well, but that counts as three days. But there's no way that you can reckon three nights. Two nights, yes, but not three. Turn with me over to Matthew 12, because when Jesus walks the earth, religious leaders then, the scribes and Pharisees, asked him for a miraculous sign once, as the new international version puts it. But Matthew 12 verse 38, then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, teacher, we want to see a sign from you. They wanted to know, is this the son of David? Is this the promised Messiah? Is this the son of man? They wanted a miracle. And so, he gave them one. He gave them a sign, verse 39, but he answered and said to them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the earth of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Three days and three nights. Now, let's also tie in something that is said over in John chapter 20, because this brings out a problem with the traditional explanation of three days and three nights, as in reality, only being a day and a half. And that's what it gets down to.

John 20, reading verses 1 and 2, now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early. We have other accounts that tell us there were some other women with her as well. Notice, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb, you follow the story on down, and they find that Jesus had already been resurrected. But while it was still dark, so you can't even count a little bit of daylight on Sunday morning. Sorry to the world around us, but Easter sunrise is too late. It's too late.

Now, in the United Church of God, we have a booklet. Actually, it's in our Constitution, a listing of 20 fundamental belief statements. And I want to read the fundamental belief statement we have on the topic of three days and three nights. I'll read the whole statement, then we'll just focus on basically the first half.

We believe that the Father raised Jesus Christ from the dead after His body lay three days and three nights in the grave, thus making immortality possible for mortal man. He thereafter ascended in heaven, where He now sits at the right hand of God the Father as our high priest and advocate. But again, the first part, the Father raised Jesus Christ from the dead after His body lay three days and three nights in the grave. And that's what we want to focus on. If you check commentaries, and I've looked at a number of them on this very topic, this very Scripture, you will generally find them trying to explain three days and three nights away, in one way or the other. Usually they'll say, well, the Hebrew allowed for counting, or rather, not Hebrew, the Jewish practice allowed for counting parts of days and nights to fulfill this. However, in the Church of God, we've always taken it literally 72 hours, three days and three nights. Now, you may be familiar with the companion Bible. The companion Bible, edited by Bullinger, it came out in 1964. It was edited in 1970, and then the version I have was the revision, or the edited in 1974. And in the back of Bullinger's companion Bible, there is a whole set of appendices, some of which is very valuable information. One appendix is on this topic, the three days and three nights of Matthew 12, verse 40. And that is appendix 144, page 170, back in the appendices, because they're numbered, enumerated differently than his Bible. Now, from this, he makes a statement here about what we just read. He agrees that in Jewish practice, they sometimes did reckon days or years by parts. Then he adds, but when the number of nights is stated as well as the number of days, then the expression ceases to be an idiom and becomes a literal statement of fact. And so again, the church, we have always looked at it as being a 72-hour period of time. Now, one of the great rules of Bible study is to allow the Bible to define itself.

Three days and three nights. What or how does the Bible define a day?

Let me give you three different passages. I'm not going to turn there. I'll just read the key statement just to save a little time. Jesus gave the sign of Jonah three days and three nights. And as we know, from the very beginning, the day began with sunset. From sunset to sunset, or as close as we can get to it, the Bible doesn't exactly define some of these things, but from roughly sunset to sunset, we have a day. Now, first scripture, make note of John 11, verse 9. John 11, verse 9, that's the chapter that tells the story of the resurrection of Lazarus. And just in passing, Jesus said in that verse, Are there not twelve hours in the day? Now, that speaks to the practice that the Jews had for reckoning time. They didn't worry so much about sunrise, sunset. You know, that, you know, it wanes as now our sunsets are getting later. It's passing 530, and we're glad about that. But basically, roughly, they looked at it ten hours of the day. And when Christ was on the cross, for instance, at about the sixth hour till the ninth hour, so from about noon till 3 p.m., there was darkness over the earth. Not that many weeks back, we looked at the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Some were hired early in the day, some at the third hour, which was around 9 a.m., some at the sixth hour, noon, some as late as the 11th hour, which is five in the afternoon, and quitting times an hour later. So, correspondingly, there were twelve hours of the night making up a 24-hour period of time called a day. Another Scripture. And this is back to the creation story. In Genesis 1, there are six different verses that refer to a con... that are a conclusion to each day's work that God had performed. And each one ends, each day's work ends with a statement, the evening and the morning, were the X day. So, Genesis 1, you have verse 5, the evening and the morning were the first day. You have verse 8, speaking of the second day, verse 13, third day, 19, the fourth day, 23, the fifth day, and then 31, last verse of chapter 1, the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Now, a similar statement is not made regarding the Sabbath in chapter 2, but it doesn't have to. But we see the pattern there. An evening, a night time, a time of dark, followed by a morning, a time of day, forms a day, as God reckons it. And then one more. Let's make a note of Leviticus 23, verse 32. Leviticus 23, verse 32, and that's, of course, a chapter that speaks of the annual Holy Days. This is in the verses that refers to the Day of Atonement. With all of the other Holy Days, it said, well, thus and such, first day, excuse me, first day of the seventh month, the fifteenth day of the first month, that this will be a commanded assembly, etc., etc., you do no customary work, except that which a man shall eat. But this time, talking about the Day of Atonement, you're going to be afflicting your souls. You don't need to put out the effort as far as any kind of food preparation and cleanup. And so verse 32 says, you shall afflict your souls on the ninth day of the month of evening. From evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath. And a few days earlier, a few verses earlier, rather, it talked of the Day of Atonement being a holy convocation on the tenth of that seventh month. Okay, now let's go to Jonah, because Jesus said, this is a sign I'm going to give, and let's reread what we find here in Jonah right at the end of Jonah 1. There we find verse 17.

Jonah 1, reading verse 17.

Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Now this reference is back in the Old Testament, and so it's in Hebrew.

There are things that the Greek might have allowed that Bullinger makes the point that the Hebrew does not allow. So back to the companion Bible, same appendix 144. And in this place, on this verse, Bullinger says, hence when it says that Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, it means exactly what it says, and that this can be the only meaning of the expressions in Matthew 12 verse 40, and then other places where the same statement is made. And so again, he makes the statement, it has to be taken literally. Three days and three nights. Now let's consider the word three.

If a bowl game takes place, and I better not use Alabama and Auburn as examples, if Kentucky beats Tennessee by three points, would anyone think it was only a point and a half that they won by? Three is three is three, isn't it? Well, in the New Testament, the word translated three, as in three days and three nights, is the Greek trace, t-r-e-i-s. And so with this word, let's see how the same word is used in other places in the New Testament, New Testament, because it's a Greek word. And then we can come back and consider, does it allow for parts of three days and parts of three nights? Again, I've got several passages here. Let me just give you these references so we can move quickly. Matthew 13 verse 33.

Matthew 13, 33 is one of the parables, the kingdom of heaven is like 11, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until it was all 11. Three measures of meal. Now, we have probably all followed a recipe. And if you're making pancakes, and you've got quite a few family members there, and it's going to call for three cups of flour, or three cups of milk, or three eggs, you know what it means. You also know, maybe like I've learned the hard way, that if you don't follow instructions, you might not care for the end product as much as it, as you would have enjoyed it otherwise. And so, if your recipe calls for three cups, you know, if you're mixing concrete, and it calls for X number of, you know, shovels of sand, and X number of gravel, and then you throw in a shovel full of cement, you know you better follow that. I even forget what the old ratio was, but I used to know that once upon a time. Now, today's a quick read in Saccrete. It's easier. But we know that when it says three, you better put three. Three cups, three shovels, three gallons.

Now, here's another example, another scripture, Matthew 17, verse 4. That is the story of the Transfiguration. Jesus is glorified, or appears as in His glory before Peter, James, and John. Peter connects some of the dots, and they see Moses and Elijah. And Peter said, what say we make three tabernacles? One for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Would anybody think that they had in mind that we'll go build two and a half, or one and a half, or four tabernacles? No! It was clear. One's here as Christ, one's for Moses, and one's for Elijah. So they would have built three of them.

All right. Another passage. Let me just give you one more here. Acts 10, verse 19. Acts 10, verse 19. And this is the chapter that tells of Peter having the vision, the sheet with all types of beasts, including unclean, coming down, rise, Peter, rise, and eat. No, Lord, I've never eaten anything commoner unclean. It came down three times.

Meanwhile, Cornelius has sent three servants to go find this Peter over at the house of this man's household in Java. And so, verse 19, Peter is told, Behold, three men are seeking you.

So when Peter went down to the door, would he have expected to see one man and a boy?

Or would he have expected two men or four men? No, he would have gone down expecting. There were only three men out here waiting for me. And, you know, as the story goes on, he connected the dots, and God showed him the church is not to exclude anyone. So in each of these, the word three is the same Greek word trace, and it literally means three measures or three tabernacles or three men. And no one would logically conclude it could mean anything else but that. So why do they look at three days and three nights and think, oh, well, maybe it took place in a day and a half. There's just no logical reason to follow that. Now, let's go to Esther 4.

Esther 4. This is where things are getting a little hot, little heated, and Esther needed to go and appear before the king, which she was not allowed to do unless she had been called by the king. So notice here at the end of Esther 4, verse 16. She's talking to her relative, her uncle, Mordecai. Verse 16, go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan. That was the capital. That's where the palace was. That's where the whole story is taking place. And fast for me, neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise, and so I will go to the king, which is against the law, and if I perish, I perish. And so they did that. Chapter 5, verse 1. Now it happened on the third day that Esther put on a royal robes, and she went to the court, and you know the rest of the story.

Now let me go back again to Bollinger, his appendix 144, and on this he says, when Esther says, fast you for me, and eat neither eat nor drink, neither eat nor drink three days, she defines her measuring as being three complete days because she adds night or day.

And when it is written that the fast ended on the third day, the third day must have succeeded, included the third night. So probably what happened is the word went out, tell all the Jews the fast. You have that first night, first day, second night, second day, third day, and she goes in to see the king because she's talking, as you read through the story, wanting to invite Haman to this feast is going to be later that evening. And so the three days, three nights. Okay, now let's go back to the New Testament. Let's go to Luke 23. You and I are blessed to see something that it seems those around us are blinded to. They can't see. And the key to understanding how all of this could have transpired over three days and three nights, literally, the key is understanding the annual Sabbath days.

There's no other way to understand it because there are clues here and there in the four accounts, and the only way to piece it together is to realize there had to have been a Thursday annual Sabbath and then the weekly Sabbath. And then they go to the grave the next morning while it was still dark and he was gone. That is the only way because we know it's too late. When you get early first day of the week, he's gone. So it can't be from a weekly Sabbath and go Sunday, Monday, another Sabbath. No, it's got to be counting backward. And that's where we've always looked. The church has always looked to a year on the Hebrew calendar when there is a Wednesday Passover, followed by Thursday, first Holy Day of Unleavened Bread, followed by another preparation day, Friday, and then a weekly Sabbath, and then it was all over. All right, Luke 23. Notice verse 44 speaks of from the sixth hour to the ninth hour the darkness. And so after that, veil of the temples torn in two. Verse 46, Christ's final statement of the seven from the cross, when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last. Now let's skip down to verse 50. Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. Now chapter, or rather verse 51 is going to tell us this is Joseph of Arimathea. Verse 51, he had not consented to their decision, indeed. So he is on the Jewish council, all of Christ's disciples, it says, forsook him and fled. But this man, Joseph of Arimathea, was on the Sanhedrin council, and he couldn't overrule everybody, but he made it clear he did not abide by what they were discussing, what they decided, and what they were going to do. He was from Arimathea, city of the Jews, who himself was also looking for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen. Now we'll see a little later when, or you can read through, and there were those who came to the open tomb later, that first day of the week, and they found some of the linen rolled up there where his head had been laid. But their practice was to take a body, wrap it in linen, put it in a grave, and then come back with spices and aromatic oils, and then more fully, completely prepare the body, seal the tomb, and leave them there. But this is a hurried job, as we're going to see.

Laid in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before, that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew near. Now, if I did not understand the annual Holy Days, and you would read that, we would come to the same conclusion everybody in the world around us comes to. You would say, aha! Clear as a bell! People today would know they were keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, and so this is the preparation days, the day before. It's almost over. Let's hurry and bury Him. And then they go to other statements in the chapters and realize, well, first day of the week, and He's risen. So you can see where, I mean, humanly, you would conclude that and just kind of, you know, out of sight, out of mind, and you know, somehow think, well, it had to take place in the day and a half. But no, when God says something, Christ is the one who said, the Scripture cannot be broken. He's the one who said, three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. That day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew near. Now, we to this day look to the Sabbath, or look to the day before a Sabbath, whether it's a weekly Sabbath or an annual Sabbath. We look at the day before being a day to prepare. That's pretty much always been my routine. We're going to have a long day, usually the next day, so I want to make sure the gas tanks filled up. And there are things, as far as food prep and preparation, that can be done.

We also generally will get our clothes together for the next day. Get them in order, make sure they're all there. So there are things we do in preparing for the Sabbath. And when the Sabbath came, especially back to their day and age, since it was kind of like a national thing, you're not going to have any store open where you can go down and buy spices and oil. Well, let's go on, because we have to consider two Sabbaths in a three-day and three-night period. Now, let's go to John 19, because John added something that is really fascinating. He tells us about this same Sabbath, but he tells us it's a high day. And there's nowhere I know of in the Bible where it talks about the weekly Sabbath as being a high day or a great day. Now, they are, but when it talks about, thus and such, it was a high day. It's talking about the annual Sabbath. So, John 19 verse 31, Therefore, because it was the preparation day, that the body should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath. Notice in parentheses, for that Sabbath was a high day. The Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, that they might be taken away, and that was practice. You have someone being crucified, and they literally, to breathe as they're hanging up, to be able to breathe, they had to lift up on those nails through the feet to be able to breathe. And if the thigh bones are broken, or the leg bones, if those are broken, the person who's crucified cannot do that, and so they will die of asphyxiation.

Jesus was already dead because of the spear and the blood that ran out. And it was important, there was a prophecy that not a bone would be broken. But with the thieves, different story. So, that was a high day. Now, I've got two references that I found that I thought were interesting. First, James and Fawcett and Brown commentary. On this verse, 31, JFB says, a great day, the first day of unleavened bread. Aha! Okay, we've got somebody who's got a clue here. The first day of unleavened bread. Robertson's word pictures, again on this verse, makes his comment. It was a great day since the Sabbath day following synchronized with the first day of unleavened bread, which was a great day. The first day of unleavened bread follows the Passover. The Passover is nice then, or a bit. The 14th, first holiday is the 15th. It is an annual Sabbath.

So, we begin to have pieces of the puzzle to put together here. It was, I mean, the church has generally looked at the year 31. Now, the reason 31 AD is if you go back and check the Hebrew calendar for a lot of years, give or take, back each way, on certain years, you've got a Wednesday Passover. There are several reasons, including all 70 weeks' prophecy, the Decree of Art exerts these, and following that forward, you come to 27 AD, three and a half year ministry. The ministry would start in the fall, three and a half years later, you come to spring 31. Now, there are some in the Church of God community who conclude the year 30. It's not a battle to pick, I don't think. But the year 30 also has a Wednesday Passover. But several years before, several years after, you don't have a Wednesday Passover, so it pretty much has narrowed down to 30 or 31. We, for a number of reasons, have usually looked to 31, but like I've told people before, when you write dates in your Bible, use a pencil. You might want to erase it and revise it later on. Not a battle to pick.

The point to be made is, look for a year when you had a Wednesday Passover. Because the 70 weeks' prophecy also said he would be cut off in the midst of the week. And I think that God's precise enough to mean day four of a seven-day week on Wednesday that Messiah would be cut off. Now, I have handouts. I need help from some young person here.

I like people a little older, but you'll work. You'll work.

I didn't mean quite that young, but anyhow, we've got a handout. Now that you have a handout, I know I've lost you as an audience. This appeared, there is a Ministerial Education Workbook. It was given to the ministers in 2007. It's on the fundamental belief. This is a chart that is in that. I believe we have something similar in the Holy Day book, but I did not double check. So, we have Luke's account that we read. Jesus died somewhere middle afternoon, Wednesday, three o'clock-ish. Joseph of Arimathea got control of the remains and hurried to get the body buried. It was a preparation day, meaning a Sabbath is coming. John added that Sabbath was also a high day. Commentaries that we noticed refer to it as being the first day of Unleavened Bread. Now, let's go back to Luke 23. We read in Luke 23 down through verse 54, but I want to notice the next two, last two verses of that chapter. Luke 23 verse 55. We've just read Christ died. Joseph of Arimathea gets the remains. They wrap him in linen. They put him in a tomb, hewn out a rock. No one had laid in before. It was a preparation. The Sabbath came. John added that Sabbath was a high day. Verse 55, the women who had come with him, Christ, from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how his body was laid. Alright, stop thinking right there. I mean, stop following right there, because we're going to have to have a time break before we get to the next verse. The Sabbath is starting. It's going to go on and talk about them in one place buying spices, and there's no place to buy spices on a weekly Sabbath or an annual Sabbath. There's no store it's going to be open. Now let's read verse 56. Then they returned. Now somewhere in between these two verses, they saw the body placed, and then they rested. They kept that annual Sabbath. But then verse 56, they returned, which we could only conclude would be that Friday, that day six of that week, and prepared spices and fragrant oils and rested on the Sabbath, according to the commandment. So here it's like, here's another Sabbath they're going to keep. They're going to rest on. Now let's go to Mark 16, and then we'll look at the chart.

Mark 16, verse 1. Mark 16, verse 1. Now when the Sabbath was passed, well, we're kind of left hanging as far as what Sabbath? But wouldn't it have to have been that high day Sabbath? When it's over, they couldn't have bought anything on that day anyhow. They wouldn't have bought anything. When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Silomi, bought spices that they might come and anoint him. Well, then it's as though we skip over another time, and it goes to what happened early in the morning, the first day of the week.

We read John 20, verse 1 already, that Mary Magdalene came while it was still dark. But let's tie in one more verse, then we'll go to the chart. Matthew 28, verse 1. Matthew 28, verse 1. I think we have something else thrown into the mix here that's fascinating to consider. 28, verse 1.

Now, after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb, the angel, he is risen, and all of that. After the Sabbath. Now, what would we conclude on that? Weekly Sabbath. First day of the week's coming.

I mean, we can count one through seven and start all over again. However, the thing you see in the way it's translated for us, the thing that is easy to skip over, is the word that's translated Sabbath in this verse is not the normal word that's translated Sabbath throughout the New Testament. This one is the word Sabaton. S-A-B-B-A-T-O-N. And Sabaton is a plural form.

Now, it's curious to figure out what it denotes. It might some places denote a plurality or more than one, and it might denote a singularity, just one. But here it is, and in Matthew specifically, chose after the Sabaton, which is fascinating. Not sure how much we can prove from that, but in the way we've understood it, Wednesday death, Thursday holy day, preparation day, and then a weekly Sabbath, it would make sense.

After the Sabbaths are over, then first day of the week they're going to go and finish the job of preparing the body for being finally sealed. Okay. From the chart, starting the left-hand column, Wednesday Christ is crucified at nine o'clock in the morning.

It has scriptural notes here. We refer it earlier to three hours of darkness, noon to three p.m. Christ dies about that time when the darkness ends, and Christ is buried before sunset. Again, Joseph of Arimathea getting permission, taking possession of the remains, hurrying to wrap Him and linen, placing Him in the tomb. The women were there. They saw it happen. Now, if we want to start marking off three days and three nights, we'll make some tally marks here. Jesus is just put in the tomb Wednesday, as we would call it today, ends, and we're into Thursday, which is also the first day of Unleavened Bread.

So, first day, the night column, Wednesday night, that's tally number one for night. Jewish Passover meal is eaten. Again, a topic for another day. Jesus and the disciples had kept Passover a day earlier. There were those among the Jews who kept it, and they killed it late on the 14th, and they were eating it into the 15th, which I believe is contrary to what the Old Testament Scriptures say as far as everything to do with Passover has to be done on the 14th, not at the end of the 14th and end of the 15th, but be that as it may, some come to other conclusions.

Beginning of days of Unleavened Bread, that we can agree on. Even the commentaries, this high day was the first day of Unleavened Bread. So, Christ's first night in the tomb, the belly of the earth. Then, Thursday, daylight portion, first day of Unleavened Bread. Guard is placed at the tomb. You've got the Scripture there, Matthew 27. Go back and read that sometime. Start at verse 62 to 64. Some of these Jewish leaders go to the Romans to get permission. And it's on the first holy day.

I mean, you follow the hypocrisy throughout, but I guess if you're going to plot somebody's murder and get false witnesses, you just as well throughout all of the law. So, they go to get permission for the guard. And that Thursday day portion, there we can tally one day. So, we've got one night and now one day. Second day starts with Thursday night. The holy day ends. The high Sabbath ends. This is our second tally for the nights. Second night in the tomb. Friday. Again, the women, it said, went and bought spices. They couldn't have done it on Thursday. Their world was shut down.

So, on Friday, you've got another preparation day for the weekly Sabbath. They buy spices, and we can tally a second day that he was in the tomb. And then we come to the right two columns. The third day, Friday night, it said the women got and prepared the spices, and then they rested on the Sabbath. And so, the women rest. It's a weekly Sabbath. And so, here we can tally a third night in the tomb. And then we have the daytime portion of the weekly Sabbath, and we can count three days, the third day.

And late that day, he is resurrected. Now, think in terms of two different 72-hour periods of time. Because he died around three o'clock Wednesday afternoon, three days, three nights later, you come to three o'clock weekly Sabbath afternoon. Go back to Wednesday. They hurried to wrap the body, get permission to wrap the body, and place it in the tomb. So, that's a couple hours.

Maybe a little more later. That he's in the tomb, and Jesus said he's going to be in the belly of the earth three days and three nights. So, three days later, Saturday, Sabbath, late, almost sundown, the tomb would have been opened. 72 hours he was dead, placed in the tomb a bit later. 72 hours he's in the belly of the earth. Probably, as you read in the one account where the linens that had been wrapped around his face was rolled up and placed where his head had been, probably he's resurrected, he's back to life, and he's unwrapping himself and folding them and laying them back down there. Then later, God opens the tomb. Hence, as we look at all of this, the Jews ask for a sign, and boy, did they ever get a sign. The world around us can't see that sign, but as we write, we believe that the Father raised Jesus Christ from the dead after his body lay three days and three nights in the grave.