I have heard a few things that I had not heard before. My favorite was a quote of the Savior saying, in a new way, that His sheep will hear his voice and they will respond to it. Those that are not His, will not hear it. It will not ring true. I was talking with someone about this phenomenon - and I told them that I have come to the conclusion that it basically boils down to a repentant spirit - and the keeping of the Law of Chastity. Abuse of that law keeps one from hearing the whisper and call to follow the Good Shepherd.
I have talked about this several times - but Jesus was crucified not ON Golgotha, but AT Golgotha. It was done along a Roman road that followed the man-made valley at the food of the escarpment, carved out when the walls of the Judean fortress did not fully compass the whole of Mt. Moriah. Golgotha (place of the skull) is still visible today about 100 feet to the right of the escarpment, and the tomb is about 200 feet the other direction along the escarpment. The "Hill of Calvary" is above the escarpment. It is a hike to get up there - but the people were "wagging their heads as they passed by" precisely because they were walking along a Roman road. Not going for a random hike.
Here is the account from Mark:
21 And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross.
24 And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take.
29 And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days,
31 Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save.
32 Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.
34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
36 And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down.
39 ¶And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.
40 There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;
41 (Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem.
42 ¶And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,
43 Joseph of Arimathæa, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.
44 And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead.
46 And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.
The crucifixion occurred on Friday, April 3rd, 33AD (Passover Friday, prior to the Sabbath) - and the reason I know this is that I have run the lunar calculator and found that there was a total lunar eclipse during those afternoon hours precisely over that part of the world. I was checking it out to see the correlation to the timing of the death of my son on that same day.
If you care to research Ron Wyatt, he said the blood was spilled right above the place where they buried the Ark of the Covenant - and His blood sprinkled onto that holy seat.
The big thing this Christmas season, is that He was born in a remarkable manner, lived in a remarkable manner and died and was raised in a remarkable manner, that ALL may live, if they but look up.
An interesting note to what you said about Jesus' sheep hearing his voice... my parents are on a mission in the Phillipines right now. The general authority that came to speak to the missionaries last month told them not to waste time on people who aren't progressing, or keeping commitments. He said "The blood of Israel will hear your words, they will yearn to read the Book of Mormon, they will desire to commit. We must find these sheep" He made it sound like the time was short..
ReplyDeleteI have longed believed that Christ did not die on a Friday, but on a Wednesday. Christ himself said he would be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.
ReplyDeleteMatthew 12:39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
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.
Here is the reference to the scripture in Jonas.
Jonah 1:17 ¶Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
There isn't any way that you can get three days and three nights from late Friday evening until Sunday morning, as the Sabbath started at sundown on Friday and went until sundown on Saturday. The most you will get is three nights and two days, if you count partial nights as nights. Even when Jesus Christ raised Lazarus from the dead, he waited 4 days. See St. John 11:39. This was one day longer than was specified by Jewish tradition, as the period of time needed to determine if a person was dead or not.
So then how is it possible that Christ could die just before the beginning of the Sabbath, and then be in the tomb three days and three nights, before Sunday morning? To understand the answer to this question, you must first understand that while every Friday at sundown until Saturday at sundown was a Sabbath, there were also high holy days, which were Sabbath days, regardless of the day on which they fell. If you read in Bible Dictionary, it explains that the first and last days of Passover are Sabbaths and days of holy convocation. It didn't matter which day of the week on which Passover occurred, it was a high holy day or a Sabbath day. You can also read about this in Numbers, and in Leviticus 23:24-39.
Numbers 28:16 And in the fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover of the Lord.
17 And in the fifteenth day of this month is the feast: seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten.
18 In the first day shall be an holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of servile work therein:
19 But ye shall offer a sacrifice made by fire for a burnt offering unto the Lord; two young bullocks, and one ram, and seven lambs of the first year: they shall be unto you without blemish:
YOU are absolutely correct about Jesus being crucified on a Wednesday afternoon, the 14th of Nissan. If we are to learn the Truth, we must listen to the Hebrew source/tradition of it by the Spirit of God.
DeleteLittle know of the "Fast of the First Born" that Jesus participated in and don't stop to think Jesus was dying when the lambs were being slaughtered. The Pesach Lamb was eaten at twilight. He was already dead! He couldn't have partaken of the Passover meal. What a "Duh?" moment for the Christian know it all crowd of the Brit Chadashah (New Testament)
We cannot understand the signs of the times or see how things are falling into place unless we understand Hebrew tradition, law, and the structure of the language as it was originally written and intended.
Here..... I invite all to come and learn from someone who can take our understanding of it to a whole new level. "My sheep hear My voice and I KNOW them."
https://youtu.be/bpxIDE3gaFo "In Remembrance of Me: The Seder of Moshiach"
And here, we can test ourselves to see just how committed we are to Jesus Christ. Are we just "fans" or TRUE followers of the Master. I, for one, desire nothing but the TRUTH. Don't stop praying and seeking God's Holy Face. Would our footprints lead others to Jesus Christ?
Shalom.
https://youtu.be/HFry9vcgGTQ "Commitment"
Jeremiah is used as the example of commitment. Could any of us do what he did or at least be willing? He started at the age of 15.
The authentic must be separated from the artificial.
God bless all. Thanks IRAQ for the great posts that get the conversation started and lead people to search deeper and live more dedicated lives to Jesus Christ.
Continued: If you read in Mark 15:42-43, we read that on the day that Christ died, it was a preparation day, before the Sabbath. Now if we read of John's account of the same event we read the following:
ReplyDeleteSt. John 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) ….
John makes a clarification, that is missing from the other gospels. He informs us that the Sabbath day, after Christ was killed, wasn't the weekly Sabbath, but a high day or on the first day of Passover. Once again in St. Mark, but this time in chapter 14:1-2, we learn that the chief priests wanted to make sure that he was put to death on a “feast day”, which in this case was Passover, which is also a Sabbath.
One of the Jewish traditions was to prepare the dead body with spices and ointments. In St. Luke 23:53-56, we see that once Christ was in the sepulchre, that the women prepared spices and ointments, and then rested the Sabbath Day.
53 And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.
54 And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.
55 And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid.
56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
In the case of Christ’s death, there was so little time from the time that he passed away, until Joseph of Arimathæa put the body of Christ in the tomb that there was time to properly prepare the body for burial. So how then could these women go home and do the work of preparing more spices before the Sabbath began? There is a point in St. Marks gospel that the women bought the spices once the Sabbath was past. We read in St. Mark 16:1-2
1 And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.
2 And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.
So they bought their spices when the Sabbath was over, then they prepared their ointments and spices and then rested the Sabbath day. The first Sabbath was the high holy day, as it was the first day of Passover, and then the second Sabbath day, was indeed the weekly Sabbath which is from Friday sundown until Saturday at sundown. When the gospels were written, more than thirty years had passed since the original events occurred. Each of them told part of the story, but didn’t see a reason to explain that there were two Sabbaths that week with a day in between. Assuming this is right, we would have no problem finding the three days and three nights between Jesus’ burial and resurrection. The sequence of events being that he died on a Wednesday before sundown. Wednesday at sundown began Passover, which is a Sabbath, and then he laid in the tomb Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and then he was resurrected Sunday morning.