From: allan-sv@algonet.se   
      
                  Was Jesus crucified on a Friday?   
      
   Some Pharisees and teachers of the law said to Jesus, "Teacher,   
   we want to see a miraculous sign from you." He answered,   
   "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign!   
   But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.   
   For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a   
   huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights   
   in the heart of the earth ..." Matt.12:39.   
      
   If Jesus was laid in the grave at the sunset on the Friday and him   
   risen at the sunrise on the Sunday, it is only one day and two nights,   
   or 36 hours. But Jesus said three days and three nights, it is 72   
   hours. If we count 72 hours back from the sunrise on the Sunday,   
   then we come to the sunrise on the Thursday. This is neither right,   
   for in Matt. 27:57-60 and in Mark. 15:42 we see that the body of   
   Jesus was laid in the grave at the sunset.   
      
   We must still count 12 hours back, and we come to Wednesday   
   sunset. Could it have possibly been on a Wednesday that Jesus was   
   crucified? Yet, according to Mark. 15:42, it was the day before the   
   Sabbath. Could the Thursday have been a Sabbath? Yes, Thursday   
   was a Sabbath!   
      
   This is the very fact that has confused people. A fact that has   
   completely been overlooked because Christians have lost sight of   
   the meaning of the sacred feast days and what they really typified.   
   This Sabbath holds the key to the whole mystery!   
      
   We can read in John 19:31 that the Sabbath was a High day.   
   This, the annual Sabbath, they always celebrated on the 15th day   
   of the Jewish month of Abib (Nisan), irrespective of which day of   
   the week this occurred. It had nothing to do with the creation   
   Sabbath which is a weekly Sabbath. It could be two Sabbath days   
   on the same week. The Passover day they celebrated the 14th Abib,   
   and next day was a Sabbath. You can read this in Exodus 12:1-14.   
   Leviticus 23:5. Numbers 9:1-5, 28:16-18. Deuteronomy 16:1.   
      
   This Sabbath was instituted at the first Passover in Egypt. It was seven   
   Sabbaths that they celebrated once in the year (Leviticus 23:15, 24, 27,   
   34 and 39), which could occur on any day of the week.   
      
   The Passover lamb would be slaughtered on the 14th day, at the sunset   
   of the Passover day. "And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of   
   the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel   
   shall kill it in the evening." "And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins   
   girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall   
   eat it in haste: it is the LORD's passover." Exodus 12:6, 11.   
      
   When God was so strictly that the Passover lamb was slaughtered at the   
   certain time, then he ought to be still more strictly that the real Passover   
   Lamb, Jesus Christ, was sacrificed at the exact time. Jesus was crucified   
   at the exact time of the year and that is why He IS our Passover Lamb!   
   If Jesus had been crucified on the Friday, then he had come two days   
   too later with his sacrifice.   
      
   Consider please, the tremendous importance of this SIGN OF JONAH.   
   Jesus proved that he is the true Messiah through fulfilling the sign of   
   Jonah. His body was in the grave THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS.   
   If we count from the sunset on the Wednesday and 72 hours ahead, then   
   we come to the sunset of Saturday. Then Jesus had fulfilled the sign of   
   Jonah, and proved that he is the true Messiah. Accordingly, Jesus could   
   have resurrected already in the Saturday evening. The Bible does not say   
   what time Jesus resurrected, but early at the sunrise when the women   
   came to the grave he was risen. Mark. 16:2, Luke 24:1.   
      
   Jonah was a "type" of the Saviour to come. After 3 days and 3 nights in   
   the belly of the fish, he became the 'saviour' of the gentile city, Nineveh.   
   By referring to Jonah as a sign, Jesus was pointing out to us that Jonah   
   was a "type" of the Saviour who would come for the whole world. If the   
   Jews took the trouble to look up the scriptural reference, then they would   
   have believed Jesus to be the Saviour, the promised Messiah. If you study   
   the Bible careful, you cannot deny that Jesus was in the grave all the 72   
   hours he had foretold.   
      
   Learned theologians and church leaders do not study the Bible. They do   
   not know what the Bible teaches, for they do not read it, but follow   
   doctrines and traditions of man. They believe that Jesus was crucified   
   on a Friday, and Good Friday has been celebrated. Satan exploits this   
   ignorance, and the celebrating of Good Friday as a memory of the   
   crucifixion. He uses it as "a proof" that Jesus did not fulfil the sign of   
   Jonah. "He was in the grave only the half time."   
      
   Nowhere in the Bible can we read that Jesus was crucified on a Friday.   
   Jesus warns against "making the Word of God of none effect through   
   your tradition" (Mark 7:13). We shall be guided by the Bible, not by   
   tradition.   
      
   The chief priests and the elders had the courage to invent a lie! For a   
   large sum of money the soldiers were bribed into saying that the disciples   
   had stolen His Body from the grave! "The soldiers took the money and   
   carried out their instructions, and to this day that is the story among the   
   Jews" (Matt. 28:12-15).   
      
   Allan Svensson   
      
      
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