So last night, we attended our first “Passover Seder”. It was totally amazing! But the hours leading up to it, my mind began to think on the Church, and it’s Rome-based theology. I felt a bit of sadness as I considered how this accepted theology, stemming from Rome has caused the Church to err on several fronts. I thought on the “un-asked” questions leading to blind acceptance by many. We as a people are smart as it relates to many things. What I mean, is if you bring some crazy doctrine to a man, be it religious based or even non-religious, he will look at it analytically, looking to see whether it is truth or err. This makes it hard to lure some in to foolishness. Yet, there also those that eagerly want something to believe, and as a result will accept anything that sounds real, so long as there are other like minded people in company. With this in mind, the question asked is, how can both sides, the willingly acceptant and the analytical be both in agreance to a theology that does not stand the test of analysis? The answer, catch them when they are babes, and raise them up in it. Most of our core teachings, to include theology, come from home. In almost every home, there is a degree of religious teaching being instilled. Some families more than others, but nonetheless, it is going on. Things like prayer, going to Church, a basic knowledge of God, as Creator all the way to holidays such as Christmas and Easter are some of the basics of home theology, just to name a few. And although, many of us outgrow the stories of jolly fat men in red suits steering a flying sleigh led by reindeers, and big bunnies carrying baskets full of colored eggs, the foundation of these teachings are accepted as truth.
Catch them when they are babes,
and raise them up in it.
Among these erroneous teachings accepted by nearly all, is the understanding of the Sabbath. According to the teachings of Rome, Yeshua died on Friday, and rose on that Sunday morning. The basis of this comes from the accounts of the crucifixion recorded in the Gospels. The writers all agree that Yeshua was taken off of the cross before the Sabbath, but what is missed is that this was a “High” Sabbath, not the same as a weekly Sabbath. Not understanding Torah, makes it hard to get what is being said when reading the Scriptures. Reading the Gospel account, and seeing it say that He was taken down before the Sabbath would cause one to assume that it had to be on Friday that this took place. As the writers go on, they say that early on the next morning, after the Sabbath, which would be Sunday, that Mary went to the tomb to find Yeshua gone. So based on these statements, yes, it would seem rational that He died Friday and rose Sunday. But, the problem with this is that, this is NOT three days. No matter how you try to calculate and justify it, it does not fit. According to Yeshua, when asked for a sign of His Messiahship, He said that the only sign given would be the sign of Jonah, who was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. He further explained that He would be in the Earth for three days and three nights. So, counting from Friday to Sunday, there is no way you can pull three days and three nights. Yet, almost everyone seems to accept it as being so. It’s not just the church, but non-believers as well. I was at work yesterday, and my supervisor was having a talk with us, just before he released us for the day, du to it being “Good Friday”. Based on how the conversation went, it was obvious that he was not a believer, yet even he recognized it as “Good Friday”.
This was a “High” Sabbath, not the same
as a weekly Sabbath.
Here is where our lack of understanding of Torah comes in. We first need to realize that in the Bible, days are calculated differently than how we do it today. The book of Genesis, in the first chapter records the day as starting at “sunset”. Therefore, days are counted from sunset to sunset. Lets look at the weekly Sabbath. we all agree that Saturday is the seventh day, but, when does Saturday start? In our culture, the days start at midnight, but we see them as morning to morning. For the Bible, it begins at sunset. There is a huge debate on this between not just the church but many of the Hebrew Roots communities. Some say it begins early on Saturday morning, others agree with sunset. But allowing the Bible to speak for itself, Sabbath would actually begin on sunset Friday, and end on sunset Saturday. Now addressing the crucifixion, contrary to common belief, Yeshua was NOT crucified on Friday. Lets reverse engineer this thing. We all agree that the Sabbath was a holy day, and NO work of any kind was to be done on this day. Violation of this was breaking Torah, therefore, if Yeshua rose during the Sabbath, then He is guilty of breaking the very Torah that He came to teach, therefore disproving His claim to be Messiah, because Messiah could NOT break Torah. Also understanding, that what He said was concrete, we take His statement of being in the Earth three days and three nights to end when Sabbath ended, which was sunset Saturday, and count back. Saturday day to Saturday night is “day three”, Friday night to Saturday day is “night three”. Friday day to Friday night is “day two”. Thursday night to Friday day is “night two”. Thursday day to Thursday night is “day one”. And finally, Wednesday night to Thursday day is “night one”. So, this makes Wednesday morning the morning He was put on the cross, 9am to be exact, and by 3pm, He was dead, and taken off of the cross. It also means that Tuesday night was the day of the Last Supper followed by the events at Gethsemane leading to His arrest. So what does all this have to do with Sabbath? Well, what we miss is this, Pesach (Passover), which was basically an evening meal commemorating the Exodus from Egypt was followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which according to Exodus 12 is what’s called a “High” Sabbath. It was this “High” Sabbath, (day one of the Feast of Unleavened Bread), that they wanted Yeshua off of the cross. This would have begun on Wednesday night, concluding the following week. Both the first and seventh day are considered as “High” Sabbaths.
So, He was removed off the cross and put in the tomb before sunset Wednesday. Nothing was done from Sunset Wednesday to Sunset Thursday because of it being a High Sabbath. No shops were open at night, so the women had to wait til Friday morning to gather spices. This took quite a bit of time to do. Most likely they were finished close to sunset, which would be the beginning of the “weekly’ Sabbath, another time of complete rest. This is why the Gospel writers recorded and emphasized the early-ness of the hour that the women went to the tomb. They wanted to go earlier no doubt, but the observance of Torah took precedence, causing days to lapse before they could get there. When they arrived, Yeshua had been long gone, however, angels were still there to give tidings of good news. Whereas many like to believe that Yeshua rose early Sunday morning, the fact is, if indeed He did do this, then He was actually in the grave one night longer than prophesied. When it comes to biblical prophecy, everything is precise, down to the minute. Case in point, Abraham was told that Israel would be in bondage to Egypt 430 years, and it was exactly 430 years when the Exodus took place. Another example was the Babylonian Captivity. It was prophesied that they would be there for 70 years, and exactly 70 years later, they were free. So it is with Yeshua, He said 3 days and 3 nights, so, there is no doubt that on sunset Saturday, the end of the weekly Sabbath that He arose, and NOT the early Sunday theory. This only flows with the esoteric understanding of Roman theology, which is how they correlate the rising of the Son of God with the rising of the sun-god. For this reason Easter, a man made holiday is always on a Sun-day, even though its counterpart, Passover changes days from year to year.
If indeed He did do this, then He
was actually in the grave one night longer
than prophesied.
I hate to be the one kicking over sacred cows, but the truth needs to be told and erroneous theologies exposed for the lies they are. You can believe what ever you chose, but I would suggest at least doing some research before accepting something as the truth. I find it interesting that none of the Apostles nor early church fathers observed the resurrection of the Messiah, yet they did observe Passover. The only thing established by Paul concerning the resurrection of the Messiah was baptism. Some would dare point out the Lord’s Supper, but the fact remains this was done for Passover, not for His death. Why is it we refuse to observe the “God inspired” Feast Days, but gladly observe our own? In any case, I just felt inspired by our Passover Seder to address the misunderstanding of the Sabbaths in light of the countless churches that will be doing sunrise services, Easter egg hunts for the kids, and sermons on Yeshua rising on Sunday. I know a lot of it is tradition, but can a tradition based on a lie be a “God” thing? Between the Easter eggs and the chocolate bunnies, where exactly is YHVH in this, and can this even be pleasing to Him? Israel did some of the same things that we are doing today and look how that worked for them. Just my thoughts, blessing!
