The Fallacy of the Good Friday - Easter Tradition

Last night, during dinner, James brought up the subject of Good Friday & Easter. The one thing that I am ever so grateful about James is that he keeps an open mind about my faith. James is not a PBCM follower but he has never, ever, condemned my beliefs or my Master. James has never stopped me from taking my children with me to the PBCM Compound. I can have a neutral conversation with him about my beliefs without feeling ridiculed. I dread to think of what would've happened to me had I married someone else, someone who scoffs at my faith and my Master. James is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986) in his publication, The Plain Truth - The Resurrection Was Not on Sunday (1972), brilliantly explained the fallacy of the "Good-Friday-Easter" tradition. The reader may have read his publications about this but I shall reproduce excerpts of it here, for the benefit of the younger generation. I hope the reader will keep an open, unprejudiced mind and look up the verses in The Bible (any version will do) yourself first, before judging for yourself the truth of the matter.

"It is commonly supposed today that Jesus was crucified on Friday, and that the resurrection occurred about sunrise on Easter Sunday morning.

...The doubting Pharisees were asking Jesus for a sign - supernatural evidence - in proof of His Messiahship. Jesus answered:"It is an evil and disloyal generation that craves a Sign, but 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 whale, so the Son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" Matthew 12:39-40 (James Moffatt translation).

Jesus offered but one evidence. That evidence was not the fact of the resurrection itself. It was the length of time He would repose in His grave, before being resurrected."

According to Armstrong, some people erroneously explain the expression 'three days and three nights' as being three periods, either of day or of night - which is exactly what James said last night.

"Jesus, they say, was placed in the tomb shortly before sunset Friday, and rose at sunrise Sunday morning - two nights and one day.

But the Bible definition of the duration of "nights and days" is simple.

In Jonah 1:17(James Moffatt translation), " Now the Eternal ordered a great fish to swallow Jonah, and for three days and three nights Jonah lay in the belly of the fish."

Did Jesus know how much time was in a "day" and in a "night"? John 11:9 - 10 Jesus replied," Are there not twelve hours in the day? If one walks during the day he does not stumble, for he sees the light of this world: but if one walks during the night he does stumble, for he lacks light."

Genesis 1:4-13 God "divided the light from darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening [darkness] and the morning [light] were the first day....And the evening [darkness] and the morning [light] were the second day....And the evening [now three periods of darkness called night - three nights] and the morning [now three periods of light called day - three days] were the third day...."

The Bible's definition of "the third day" includes three dark periods called "night", and three light periods called "day" - three days and three nights, and Jesus said they contained twelve hours for each period - a total of 72 hours.

4 other scriptural witnesses that prove the same thing:

Mark 8:31, "...after three days rise again."
Mark 9:31, "...he shall rise the third day."
Matthew 27:63, "After three days I will rise again."
John 2:19-21, "...and in three days I will raise it up.."

To be raised from the dead IN three days after being destroyed, or crucified, could not be more (or less) than 72 hours. If Jesus died at sunset Friday, three days and three nights or 72 hours would be sunset Monday!

The Hebrew calendar shows that in the year Jesus was crucified (A.D. 31), the 14th day of Abib, Passover day, the day Jesus was crucified, was Wednesday, April 25th. And the annual Sabbath was Thursday. This was the Sabbath that drew on as Joseph of Arimathea hastened to bury the body of Jesus late that Wednesday afternoon (Luke 23:52-54). There were two separate Sabbaths that week!

The first investigators, Mary Magdalene and her companions, came to the sepulcher on the first day of the week (Sunday) very early, while it was yet dark, as the sun was beginning to rise, at dawn (Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1).

Now here are the texts most people have supposed stated the resurrection was at sunrise Sunday morning. But they do not say that!

When the women arrived, the tomb was already open! At that time Sunday morning while it was yet dark, Jesus was not there! Notice how the angel says, "He is not here, but is risen" (see Mark 16:6; Luke 24:6; Matthew 28:5-6). The expression "was risen" in Mark 16:9 is in the perfect tense. Jesus was risen at sunrise Sunday morning, as He appreared to Mary Magdalene. The scripture didn't say He "was rising" or the He "did rise" from the grave.

Jesus was already risen at sunrise Sunday morning! Of course He was. He rose from the grave near sunset the previous evening - Saturday!

Jesus warns against "making the word of God of none effect through your tradition" (Mark 7:13).

It was not, then, a Sunday resurrection at all. It was a Sabbath resurrection from the dead! Jesus' death, burial and ressurection were according to the scriptures - not contrary to them.