Day Jesus was
crucified (SDA)
“Some argue, not based on any
command from God found in the Bible, that Jesus' resurrection on Sunday changed
everything about the Sabbath. Do followers of Jesus have any reason to think
that is true?
What
day was Jesus crucified? (Read Mark 15:42-44. Friday.)
Read
Matthew 27:50-52. Is there any reason why Jesus could not have immediately come
to life, and in plain sight of everyone lifted off from the cross in
extraordinary power and glory to be with His Father?
If you,
as a parent, saw your child tortured and beaten, would you not want to come
immediately to the rescue?
If
you, as a parent, saw your child win the most important contest in the
universe, would you want to wait a minute, much less a whole day, to put your
arms around your child in praise and congratulations?
Why
did Jesus wait? Against all natural instinct, why did He and the Father wait?
(Jesus rested on Sabbath for the same reason He rested on Sabbath after He
created the world. He was memorializing His original work of creation and now
His latest work to rescue His creation from destruction.)”
Consider:
“Some
argue, not based on any command from God found in the Bible, that Jesus'
resurrection on Sunday changed everything about the Sabbath. Do followers of
Jesus have any reason to think that is true?”
Re:
“Some
argue, not based on any command from God found in the Bible ....”
Answer:
All right, it is true they are wrong
who “argue, not based on any command from
God found in the Bible ....”. Can
the pot blame the kettle? What have you
been doing how often ‘arguing’ for the Sabbath’s validity from Gn2:2-3 for all
men before Sinai and the Law’s giving to
But I do not ‘argue’ “that Jesus' resurrection on Sunday” is based on any command from God found in the
Bible— no sir! You, are the one that
“argue, not based on any command from God
found in the Bible”, “Jesus’
resurrection on Sunday”! You, assume
and you, argue “Jesus' resurrection on
Sunday”— despite no command or
statement of whatever nature or implication to the effect, is to be found in
the whole of the Bible. Where have you ‘found’ – where have you read
– any command or any statement “from God
found in the Bible”, of “Jesus'
resurrection on Sunday”? Baseless
audacity! “Jesus' resurrection on Sunday” is a precluded, pretentious, deliberated
trick to persuade against better knowledge and beguile the trusting of their
reward in Christ.
Do
followers of Jesus have any reason to think that, is true ....
that
Jesus' resurrection — supposedly “on Sunday” — ‘changed
everything about the Sabbath’ ?
God would never have made statement or
have given command to the effect Jesus would or did rise from the dead on
Sunday. It totally is a concept strange to, irreconcilable with and contrary
every given ‘found in the Bible’ —
right through the Scriptures — concerning God’s works of salvation through
Jesus Christ : whether used by Sundayworshippers or by Sabbath-keepers.
The OPPOSITE is true, that every
statement or command God has made or given promised or indicated or guaranteed
concerning the Sabbath and / or Jesus’ resurrection ‘found in the Bible’ and throughout history, collated to and
concluded in Jesus’ resurrection on the Sabbath Day and so therein and thereby
confirmed and established once for all “the Seventh Day (Sabbath of the LORD
God) in that God the Seventh Day from all his works, RESTED”. Hb4:4-5.
Nevertheless, Is it true .... that Jesus' resurrection — “according to the
Scriptures the third day” (1Cor15:3-4) “on the Sabbath Day”
(Mt28:1-4) — ‘changed everything about the
Sabbath’ ? Ah! It is!
THEN, “WHEN GOD” “by
the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according the
working of his mighty power which He wrought IN CHRIST WHEN HE RAISED / WHILE
RAISING Him from the dead and setting Him at his own Right hand in heavenly
glory”— then Jesus' resurrection changed everything about the Sabbath absolutely! Ah! “that ye may know” what the difference, what the change, what “the glory of the Father” “concerning His Son Jesus Christ
our Lord when declared the Son of God
with power according to the Spirit of Holiness BY HIS RESURRECTION FROM THE
DEAD” : “in Sabbath’s-time”!
What change, not from the Sabbath to Sunday, but from Old Testament
Sabbath to New Testament Sabbath; from
the Sabbath for
Question:
“What
day was Jesus crucified? (Read Mark 15:42-44. Friday.)”
Answer:
“Read
Mark 15:42-44. Friday”.....?
First make sure you read a correct
Translation, like the KJV.
Then ‘read’, “Friday”.....? ..... Friday
..... here I read where Friday began ..... verse 42 ..... Friday ..... don’t
the Bible’s days begin with the evening of night? Well ..... let me make sure.
..... Mk15:42, “And now when the even was come ....” That is, after sunset, not
so? Evening starts as soon as the sun has set. ..... So, Friday proceeded from
here on ..... I see ..... up to verse ..... 47! Not “Mark 15:42-44”. It is Mark 15, verses 42 to 47 ..... “Friday”.
That’s clear and easy enough!
Compare John 19:31/38 .....
It tells how Joseph first asked
Pilate, and was given the body, verse 45. Then in verse 46 – well past verse 44
– Joseph bought fine linen, only then, wrapped the body. ..... So Joseph
received permission, then bought linen, then wrapped the body. Did he take the body down first? I think it’s Lk23:53a that mentions that he
did. Matthew in fact tells us Pilate ordered that the body should be
‘delivered’ to Joseph! That explains a
lot! And then? Did Joseph leave the body
on the ground while he went to buy the linen? Matthew here – verse 59 – says
Joseph “had taken the body”; of course after it had been delivered to him
somewhere. At the cross or away from the cross?
It’s obvious, the body was ‘delivered’, away from the cross to somewhere
else. What does John say? Let me check ..... John says, Joseph asked
Pilate if he “might take away the
body”. So that confirms what Matthew has said.
Mark’s story does not follow an exact chronological sequence here.
Joseph went to buy linen. Then – John states – he “came” (back, it must be) and
he “took the body”. Joseph ‘handled the body’, that is, ‘treated’ it.
John says at this stage, “There came also Nicodemus.... and he brought a
mixture of myrrh and aloes” --- to help Joseph of course, to “prepare” the body
for interment. This must have gone on all through the night! Then next morning – Friday morning – they
must have let the two Marys know they were going to entomb Jesus. The two women
turned up, and “followed after” in the procession to the grave later on during
the day. Mark 15:47 and Mt27:54-56 imply that; Luke 23:55 tells us that; also
John tells us that.
Where actually verse 46 of Mark 15
implies the end of the day’s activities (verse 47 is a ‘parenthesis’), Luke
informs us, “That (virtually spent) day (now, Lk23:54a), was the Preparation
(“that is the Fore-Sabbath”, Mk15:42), “mid-afternoon” (23:54b). John 19:42
confirms: “There (because the sepulchre was nigh at hand) laid they Jesus
therefore because of the Jew’s (time for the Sabbath’s) preparations (has
begun).” Luke mentions exactly Mark and
John’s (corresponding) time of day, when “the women returned (home) and
prepared spices and ointments” while it was the time of “the Jews’
preparations” for the Sabbath – 3 p.m. until 6 p.m.. Joseph at last closed the tomb, and the women
present sat in front of the grave and looked into it and saw what Joseph did.
That is how ‘Friday’, according to all four Gospels, in essence, ended. It reminds me of Luke, who mentioned that
these things happened while it was “mid-afternoon towards the Sabbath”. So, according to Mk15:42/Mt27:57 and
Jn19:31/38, the day ‘Friday’ had begun
the previous “evening” already, and eventually ended, “mid-afternoon towards
the Sabbath”, Lk23:54-56b.
But where during all these procedures
and in the exact text-allocations you supplied and that fully agree with the
beginning and ending of the Sixth Day in Bible-economy of days do you read once
of the crucifixion?! “What day was Jesus crucified? (Read Mark
15:42-44. Friday.)” is what you
wrote, not what is “found in the Bible”.
So something serious is amiss.
Is this just a blunder? Or meant to
misinform?
Consider:
“Why
did Jesus wait? Against all natural instinct, why did He and the Father wait?
(Jesus rested on Sabbath for the same reason He rested on Sabbath after He
created the world. He was memorializing His original work of creation and now
His latest work to rescue His creation from destruction.)” ”
Answer:
Incredible, wicked answer! “Why
did Jesus wait? Against all natural instinct, why did He and the Father wait?”
The Father and Jesus
supposedly immediately after He died ‘waited’
to raise Him from death so that He might “memorializ(e) His original work of creation”? “Now” : while dead and buried? Ludicrous! “.... and
now His latest work to rescue His creation from destruction” but He not
being resurrected from death yet?
So that the Resurrection comes as useless, meaningless appendix to “Jesus’ completed work” of
redemption! “Why did He and the Father wait? ....” This is the most blatant derision and nullifying of Jesus’
resurrection I have thus far encountered in SDA theology. Blasphemous denial of
Christ’s resurrection! Over ten / twenty? million people this Sabbath and every
Sabbath of their lives will be taught this sacrilege? May God forgive you
because you do not know what you are doing!
I say, here Seventh Day Adventism
underscores the inevitable, that God – the Father and the Son – in truth
through Jesus “was memorializing His
original work of creation and now His latest work to rescue His creation from
destruction”, but NOT “now”,
“with the scene” while “Jesus lay at rest in Joseph’s tomb”,
but in and by Jesus’ resurrection FROM
death and the dead and the grave— the truth of which and the credit of which
truth should be the Sabbath’s due. But they for the lives of them shall
not admit or accept because of Mrs E.G. White’s and their sophisms— such as
that an angel in the Father's absence raised Jesus from the dead! No wonder his
resurrection is "no more than a bare fact that has no meaning for the
day on which He arose from the dead"! Just right that Jesus' death and
buried state has meaning for the sanctity of the God's Sabbath Day and his
resurrection, none whatsoever!
Since when can mortals attribute
attributes to God? What entitles you to ascribe to God, “all natural
instinct”? What ‘natural instinct’ would
God have had to succumb to? Is God a
finite being to have to wait against his own will? Was God confronted by
unforeseen difficulties? Could He not
overcome all obstacles?
Far more serious, do you imply – or
say – God nor Jesus WILLED every minute of every day of Christ’s
suffering? Was everything not planned
and determined on Christ’s way to his death or resurrection?
Yes,
1)
The age of Jesus’ life in the
form of a Man, God revealed “in the fullness of time”, “in these last days”;
2)
the year of Christ’s death
and resurrection was determined, according to prophecy and promise (70 weeks
Dn9:24-29);
3)
the month was commanded:
“Observe the month of Abib!” Dt16:1;
4)
Each date was set, to the
last week of Christ’ life as a Human Being: Abib 10 to Abib 16, Ex12, Dt23;
5)
the very days of his dying
and death, and burial and resurrection were appointed days : appointed in the
Council of the Almighty, commanded in the Law, made known and followed,
“according to the Scriptures” 1Cor15:3-4;
6)
the hours of Jesus’ dying and
death (Ex12:6c), of his entombment (Ex12:39), and of his resurrection were made
known since the exodus (Ex14:14-32, 15:16c-17a); yea, of his resurrection since
the creation (Gn3:8a);
7)
and from before the creation of the world God planned the Seventh Day of his creating, blessing
and completion of all things and sanctification and perfection and rest
(Gn2:2-3, Ex15:17b)— for the day of Christ’s resurrection by “the exceeding greatness
of God’s power which He worked when He raised Christ from the dead”.
Each event, and each step, and every
fulfilling of God’s Eternal Purpose the Father and the Son were the first to
obey and fulfill.
But you allege, ‘Jesus and the Father waited against all natural instinct?’ No! according to God’s own divine nature,
God created what we mortals can only call attributes of God in his faithfulness
and truthfulness, ‘characteristics’ of God while He in deed of act showed and
proved his grace and love for us, to us.
Ja, we could say I think, that Jesus “was memorializing” God’s “original”
plan of creation and salvation – that He made it fast – so that it ‘naturally’
according to the nature of God Almighty Himself, would allow for no ‘waiting’
in the least.
God is never idle; God never ‘waits’.
God waits for no one; for Himself by own ‘nature’, most assuredly not. What God determined shall be done. Therefore, why did you come up with a remark
such as this, “Why did Jesus wait?
Against all natural instinct, why did He and the Father wait?”? Humanly speaking to ‘all natural instinct’, to be able to come up with an answer such as
this: “Jesus rested on Sabbath for the same reason He rested on Sabbath after
He created the world. He was memorializing His original work of creation and
now His latest work to rescue His creation from destruction.”
Let me first ask, if so – and indeed
it was so that Jesus in the end “was
memorializing ..... His latest work to rescue His creation from destruction”
– why did Jesus not (according to you) ‘memorialize’, his “latest”, “work to rescue His
creation from destruction”? Why
would Jesus against all natural instinct
be in such a hurry to “now”, ‘memorialize’ his penultimate “work” – his being dead in the tomb – and
not ‘His latest work to rescue His
creation from destruction’, his resurrection from the dead?
Has this question been posed to find
out truth, or to cover a lie?
Concerning, “Jesus rested on Sabbath for the same reason He rested on Sabbath after
He created the world.” Consult attachment, please.
Attachment:
Rested in the tomb
“Now Jesus rested
from the work of redemption; and though there was grief among those who loved
Him upon earth, yet there was joy in heaven. Glorious to the eyes of heavenly
beings was the promise of the future. A restored creation, a redeemed race
that, having conquered sin could never fail— this, the result to flow from
Jesus’ completed work, God and angels saw. With the scene the day upon which Jesus rested is forever linked. “For His work is
perfect;” and “whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever.” Deut.
32:4; Eccl. 3:14. When there shall be a
“restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy
prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21), the creation Sabbath, the day on which Jesus lay at rest in
Joseph’s tomb, will still be a day of rest and rejoicing. Heaven and earth will
unite in praise, as “from one Sabbath to another” (Isa. 66:23) the nations of
the saved shall bow
in joyful worship to God and the Lamb.” p 80, §2.
Keep in mind
three things: (1) Mrs White supposed the whole period of the Sabbath Day. (2) She intended the full hours of the
Sabbath that “Jesus was at rest”, “in the tomb”. (3)
Mrs White
‘links’
these two aspects in order to validate
the Sabbath as Day of Christian Worship-Rest. :— “Now Jesus rested from the work of
redemption; ... — this, the result to flow
from Jesus’ completed work, God and angels, saw. With the scene, the day upon which Jesus rested, is forever linked. ... the creation Sabbath, the day on which Jesus lay at rest in Joseph’s
tomb, will still be a day of rest
and rejoicing. .... When there shall be
a “restitution of all things .. “from one Sabbath to another” the nations of
the saved shall bow in joyful worship to God and the Lamb.”
(I had to insert a comma or two for emphasis.)
“This”
– Jesus’ “rest in the tomb”,
according to Mrs White – is of such virtue
and consequence that, without it, “redemption” could not have been; in
fact, according to her, Jesus’ ‘rest in
the
tomb’ completes
(or completed) ‘redemption’ and ‘restoration’. Jesus’ ‘rest in the tomb’ meant much more than a doing of nothing. Jesus’ ‘rest in the tomb’ in itself, was of such tremendous value and power even
angels would see and adore it. “The scene” had such “result”
that “flowed” from it, “the day
upon which Jesus rested”, i.e., “the
day on which Jesus lay at rest in Joseph’s tomb” – the Sabbath Day –, “is
forever linked”, with, “the
creation Sabbath” and “the
restitution of all things”.
What does
Mrs White herself, do here? The same passage, emphasized from yet another angle
– from the perspective of ‘finished / completed / perfected’ — “Now Jesus rested from the work of redemption; and though there was grief
among those who loved Him upon earth, yet there was joy in heaven. Glorious
to the eyes of heavenly beings was the promise of the future. A
restored creation, a redeemed
race that, having conquered sin
could never fail— this,
the result to flow from
Jesus’ completed work, God
and angels saw. With the
scene (of such ‘completed work’), the day upon which Jesus rested, is forever linked. “For His
work is perfect;” ... the creation
Sabbath, the day on which Jesus lay at
rest in Joseph’s tomb, will still be a day of rest and rejoicing.”
She allows herself the principle of association; of connection and
relationship. A valid and applicable and indeed an
absolutely
relevant and necessary principle! Mrs White without questioning –‘a priori’–
decides on the principle of cause and
effect; she brings into effect the principle of merit and ‘result’. And
she does so with respect to Jesus’ ‘rest in the tomb’, for, the
sanctity and
validity of the Sabbath Day for Christian
Worship.
Is it not precisely the principle from which the Church departed when
it based its argument for the validity of the Christian Day of Worship-Rest on
the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Why may the
Church not
have argued, ‘The result to flow’
from Jesus’ ‘completed work’ in resurrection, God and angels saw? Why
not, ‘The day upon
which’ Jesus ‘conquered’
through resurrection, ‘is forever linked’,
‘with the scene’, of his ‘rest’, by feat of resurrection from the
dead? Why not, could the Church have reckoned, “For his work is perfect” ... ‘the
day on which’ Jesus went out of
Joseph’s tomb, ‘will for ever be’ for
the Church of Christ The Day of Rest and Rejoicing? – Why not? Why indeed,
because what is it ‘to rest in the tomb’
against to ‘Rest’ in Victory of Resurrection and Completion of all the Works of
God? Why not, if the Seventh Day Adventists may as above think of Jesus’
‘rest
in the tomb’, may the Church not think the same of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead as Jesus’ rest FROM the tomb and FROM the dead”? Why may the Church not with regard to the
Resurrection, do just that which
Mrs White and the Seventh Day Adventists with regard to their supposed ‘rest
in the tomb’ of Jesus do, namely, to “link together” or associate it as motive, reason, and basis, with the Christian Day of
Worship-Rest? Which honour and glory
Christianity most regrettably gave to the First Day of the week and day of
pagan idolatry, Sunday, instead of to the Day of God’s determination for these
gifts of His from the merits of Christ, the Seventh Day of God’s Rest!
Karl Barth,
when he weighed the authority by which the Church changed the Christian Day of Worship-Rest
from the Sabbath to the First Day of the week, asked, “Was it not innovation
when the primitive Church (so) decided?” He of course reckoned, No, it was no
innovation, because the Church changed its Sabbath Day from the Sabbath to the
First Day of the week on her conviction of the worthiness and merit of Jesus’ resurrection
from the dead --- ‘on that day’
the First Day of the week (meaning Sunday! “What is it that gives this day its special meaning?” asked Barth; “That which happened on
it an to it”, answered Barth.) There was – the Church might have thought –, ‘the result
from Jesus’ completed work’ through
resurrection from the grave; There was – the Church might have thought –, ‘the scene of the day’, which ‘forever would be linked with’ when ‘Jesus at last rested’ in resurrection from the dead! “For His work is perfected” – the Church
might have thought –, .... the
Redemption-Sabbath, the Day on which Jesus broke
the bonds of Joseph’s grave. The Church might have thought “It is the Day
the Lord has made”, ‘day of rest and
rejoicing’. And that’s why Barth
did not think it ‘innovation’. So
the Church must have reasoned (but—
mistakenly, reasoned concerning the wrong
day, Sunday).
While
Seventh Day Adventistism has always with regard to Sunday sanctity held the
idea (or principle), the event makes the day, not the day the event, for
authoritarian audacity, they have nevertheless taken opportunistic advantage of the principle — only for far less worthy
and glorious a reason, having instead of His resurrection preferred Jesus’ humiliated state in death and grave for that ‘work of redemption’ and ‘restitution of all things’ – for ‘Jesus’ completed work’ – for in fact,
his, and God’s ultimate “rest”. They have taken Jesus’ ‘rest in the tomb’, for their
sanctification and remembrance of the Christian Day of Worship.
So we find
fault to the left as well as to the right. To the left the Seventh Day
Adventists have opted for Jesus’ ‘rest in the tomb’ – the wrong, invalid, event of ‘rest’ – a
non-event, ‘in fact’ – for the ‘principle of association’ to finding
and defining the Christian Day of Worship-Rest.
To the right, the Christian Church General has opted for Jesus’ resurrection from, the tomb –
the correct, in fact, no non-event, but the most valid and energetic event of act of God for basis and content of the
Christian Day of Worship-Rest! But,
unfortunately, the Church opportunistically and irregularly has hit upon the wrong, most invalid and least Scriptural
day of Sunday for, and to, this
end.
The General
Church at least does not disregard and ignore the Resurrection – God’s ultimate Work of Rest in the Completion of all
His Works –, where the Seventh Day Adventists deliberately gloss over and ignore it, as were the Resurrection “a bare fact of no importance for the
day upon which it happened” (A most commonly used
phrase by them! I also have in my possession a personal letter from the “Voice
of Prophecy” School, for proof.),
staring themselves blind against and favouring a ‘rest in the tomb’, which was not God’s Completing Act, or, the
Working of his Rest, but a ‘rest’ of
their imagination, for them, of determinative importance for the day upon
which, according to them, it, Jesus’ ‘rest’ happened in that it happened “in the grave”! (This page, 80, chapter 7, paragraph
2).
Death and
the grave are the wages for sin; and Jesus’ death in the grave was ‘the second
death’ – ‘hell’. Death and grave are not God’s rest, but the devil’s
punishment. If we as God’s children should keep the Sabbath properly for reason
of Jesus’ final, all-completing death and grave payment for our sins, we should
this coming Sabbath Day all commit suicide and see to it that we get buried.
Please do not blame me for this ugly thought; I am blaming you, dear Seventhday
Adventist brothers in Christ, for it.
May God forgive me, nevertheless, but it had to be said, for we must
take the right course where we at this moment are at the cross-roads of our
eternal destiny, either of a destiny of rest in the tomb and death, or, of
God’s rest of “the Seventh Day Sabbath Day of the LORD your God” in the glory
of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead – even “by the glory of the Father”.
3 June 2009