Earth Day. Good Friday—Easter Sunday. Christ Died on Wednesday.

This fragile Earth deserves a voice. It needs solutions. It needs change. It needs you.

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Celebrate Earth Day on Florida Bay - YOU'RE INVITED

"NPCA and the Florida Bay Stewardship Fund are gearing up for the Third Annual Earth Day for Florida Bay, on Saturday, April 23, 2011, from noon to 5 pm at the NPCA Florida Keys Field Office in Islamorada, mile marker 81, Bayside. This free, daylong event will feature kayak and Hammock trail trips, boater education from ecomariner.org, and educational booths from more than two dozen environmental organizations. Join us for fun, food, and all things Florida Bay. Call the Florida Keys Field Office at 305.664.0070 or email rclift@npca.org for more details. "
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Let's celebrate Earth Day, not a man-made holy day, as today is also considered "Good Friday?"




WHEN WAS CHRIST CRUCIFIED?

"Next, we find that Christ did not die on Friday, but on Wednesday. We have already found that the resurrection took place late Saturday just as the new Jewish week was beginning. Well, if we go back three days and three nights, the length of time that our Lord was in the grave, we come to Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday is the only day on which our Lord could have been crucified. No other day will fit the known facts.

Now let us see exactly when Christ was crucified. According to John 19:31, our Lord was crucified on the Day of Preparation, that is, the preparation of the Jewish Passover.  Notice,
"The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for the Sabbath day was a high day) besought Pilate that their legs would be broken, and that they might be taken away."

The Passover always began on the l4th day of the Jewish month of Nisan   (Leviticus 23:6), and the day following or the l5th, was always a High Day Sabbath. This was not the weekly 7th day Sabbath, but the annual Passover Sabbath. Please notice,
“On the fourteenth day of the first month at evening is the Lord’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of the unleavened bread unto the Lord; Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. In the first day (the fifteenth) you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no secular work therein.” Leviticus 23:5-7

Thus it is fixed that this 15th day was ALWAYS a Sabbath regardless of the day of the week. This is the High Day Sabbath mentioned in John 19:31. Now the Scripture makes it plain that Christ was crucified on the day preceding this High Day Sabbath. This was called the PREPARATION DAY. Here it is in a "nutshell."  Jesus ate the Passover in the first hours of Wednesday the l4th--just after 6 P.M. (We would call this Tuesday night.) Then He went to the Garden was arrested, tried, and the next day, crucified, still Wednesday the l4th. He was crucified on the same day in which He ate the Passover.  Jesus, therefore, as the Lamb of God, died for our sins on the l4th day of the Jewish month of Nisan (which corresponds with our April.)  This had to be on a Wednesday, if we go back three days and three nights from Saturday evening, the time when our Lord came out of the tomb."
From: GOOD NEWS MESSENGERS CHURCH    http://www.gnmc.us/TheFallaciesOfEaster.htm
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Good Friday—Easter Sunday: It Didn't Happen That Way!

"Do you remember when you learned that Santa Claus wasn't real? Guess what? Good Friday and a Sunday resurrection aren't either. Discover the real story from the pages of the Bible itself!

"The preparation day"

"Why do most churches assume and teach that Christ died and was buried on Good Friday? Tradition, for one thing! That's what most people have always been taught.
Also, they assume this is what the Bible teaches. The Scriptures do say that He was buried on "the preparation day," the day before a Sabbath.

Heavy cooking and housecleaning were done on the day before a Sabbath in preparation for it. And the weekly Sabbath falls on Saturday, the seventh day of the week.
Also, according to Bible reckoning days begin at sunset (Leviticus 23:32; compare Genesis 1:5, 8, 13), so all weekly Sabbaths start Friday evening at sunset.

Mark 15:42-46 does tell us plainly that Jesus was entombed late in the afternoon on the "preparation day," just before the Sabbath began at sunset: "Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent council member, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, coming and taking courage, went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
"Pilate marveled that He was already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him if He had been dead for some time. So when he found out from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. Then he [Joseph] bought fine linen, took Him down, and wrapped Him in the linen. And he laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock, and rolled a stone against the door of the tomb."

Two kinds of Sabbaths—weekly and "high day"

What few people realize is that the Sabbath spoken of here was not the weekly Sabbath day, which begins on Friday at sunset and lasts until Saturday sunset.

The apostle John specifically tells us that the day on which Jesus was crucified immediately preceded a special Sabbath, not the regular weekly Sabbath. "Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away" (John 19:31).

That Sabbath, we see from Scripture, was "a high day." In addition to the weekly Sabbaths, God also commanded seven Holy Days or annual Sabbaths (see Leviticus 23), most of which could fall on different days of the week. A number of commentaries and Bible helps will tell you that John is here referring to one of these annual Sabbaths rather than the weekly Sabbath.

Jesus Christ, like the Passover lamb that was killed to spare the ancient Israelites from the death angel, was slain on Passover day (read John 19). The Passover is observed on the 14th day of the first month of the Hebrew calendar. The next day begins the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The first day of Unleavened Bread, the 15th of Abib, is an annual Sabbath.
"On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the LORD's Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it" (Leviticus 23:5-7).

The Jews were rushing to finish the burials of the condemned men before the annual Sabbath began at sunset. This preparation day was the day before the first day of Unleavened Bread, a high day or annual Sabbath. The "Preparation Day" referred to in Mark 15:42 and John 19:31 was the day before the Holy Day that began the Feast of Unleavened Bread."
More at:  http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn51/goodfriday.htm
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Jesus crucified on Wednesday, not Friday

"Several computer software programs exist that enable us to calculate when the Passover and God's other festivals fall in any given year. Those programs show that in A.D. 31, the year of these events, the Passover meal was eaten on Tuesday night and Wednesday sundown marked the beginning of the "high day," the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Jesus, then, was crucified and entombed on a Wednesday afternoon, not on Friday.
Can we find further proof of this in the Gospels? Yes, indeed we can!

Let's turn to a seldom-noticed detail in Mark 16:1: "Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him."
In that time, if the body of a loved one was placed in a tomb rather than being buried directly in the ground, friends and family would commonly place aromatic spices in the tomb alongside the body to reduce the smell as the remains decayed.

Since Jesus' body was placed in the tomb just before that high-day Sabbath began, the women had no time to buy those spices before the Sabbath. Also, they could not have purchased them on the Sabbath day, as shops were closed. Thus, Mark says, they bought the spices after the Sabbath— "when the Sabbath was past."

But notice another revealing detail in Luke 23:55-56: "And the women who had come with [Christ] from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment."

Do you see a problem here? Mark clearly states that the women bought the spices after the Sabbath—"when the Sabbath was past." Luke tells us that the women prepared the spices and fragrant oils, after which "they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment."
So they bought the spices after the Sabbath, and then they prepared the spices before resting on the Sabbath. This is a clear contradiction between these two Gospel accounts—unless two Sabbaths were involved!

Indeed when we understand that two different Sabbaths are mentioned, the problem goes away.
Mark tells us that after the "high day" Sabbath, which began Wednesday evening at sundown and ended Thursday evening at sundown, the women bought the spices to anoint Jesus' body. Luke then tells us that the women prepared the spices—activity which would have taken place on Friday—and that afterward "they rested on the Sabbath [the normal weekly Sabbath day, observed Friday sunset to Saturday sunset] according to the commandment." "
More at: http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn63/jesus.htm
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The Chronology of Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection

Tuesday: Jesus Christ ate an evening Passover meal with His disciples and instituted the New Covenant symbols (Matthew 26:26-28). Jesus was then betrayed by Judas, arrested and during the night brought before the high priest.

Wednesday: Jesus died after 3 p.m. (Matthew 27:46-50). This was the preparation day for the annual, not weekly, Sabbath, which began at sunset (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31). Jesus' body was placed in the tomb at twilight (Matthew 27:57-60).

Thursday: Wednesday sunset to Thursday sunset was the high-day Sabbath, the first day of Unleavened Bread (John 19:31; Leviticus 23:4-7). It is described as the day after the Day of Preparation (Matthew 27:62).

Friday: The high-day Sabbath now past, the women bought and prepared spices for anointing Jesus' body before resting on the weekly Sabbath day, which began at Friday sunset (Mark 16:1; Luke 23:56).

Saturday: The women rested on the weekly Sabbath, according to the Fourth Commandment (Luke 23:56; Exodus 20:8-11). Jesus rose near sunset, exactly three days and three nights after burial, fulfilling the sign of Jonah and authenticating the sign He gave of His messiahship.

Sunday: The women brought the spices early in the morning while it was still dark (Luke 24:1; John 20:1), finding that Jesus had already risen (Matthew 28:1-6; Mark 16:2-6; Luke 24:2-3; John 20:1). He did not rise on Sunday morning, but near sunset the day before.
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That's enough for today.