Sunday or Saturday?

Greetings in the name of Jesus. Thank you for clicking, for another session of #OnlineBibleBootCamp. This week we want to deal with the day of worship, Saturday or Sunday. Now before we begin let me assure you, that this will not be like most debates of this sort; therefore, for Part I we want to focus in on some very basic questions that are often overlooked:

1. What day was Jesus raised from the dead?
2. What is the spiritual significance of the Sabbath Day?
3. Does Sunday have ANY significance at all whatsoever? If so what?
4. If Sunday is not the Lord's Day, when is it?

For readers that may be unfamiliar, the 'Lord's Day,' is commonly thought of by most 'Christians,' as Sunday. Most will cite the reason Sunday is called the Lord's Day, is because Sunday is the day that Jesus was raised from the dead. They may even seem like the same question, but we will find as the Bible speaks that these two days are very different, and very far apart.

Let's Begin:

First things first, let us find some grounding in the Word. Some reassurance that these simple topics are covered in the Bible. 

"Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." Amos 3:7

This is not talking about the secrets of the internet, it says he reveals HIS secret to the prophets. So what the Bible is telling us here, is any mystery or secret (even if it is only a mystery to you) about God that you would like to know about, the prophets wrote about it. Notice it did not say/include priests. Nor did it include Apostles! Secrets are revealed to the prophets!

Everything Jesus said and did was written about in the books of the prophets. The book of Luke is over 75% plagiarism of the Old Testament. As it should be because new testament was to "testify," that what Moses and the prophets wrote was the truth!

So just remember for the rest of your life, anything you read written by an Apostle, if you can't find a prophet that wrote about it also, you are most likely misunderstanding what the Apostle is saying.

Next when we talk days and times, we have to understand that our Creator's days and times do not always neatly fit with our days and times. Besides if you do a little research, you'll find 99.9% of our days and times were established by pagans. 

So what about God's times? Let's go to the beginning:

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."

So the first day was characterized by the evening and the morning. Notice ho the evening occurs before the morning in God's day..

"And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day." v.8

"And the evening and the morning were the third day." v. 13

"And the evening and the morning were the fourth day." v.19

"And the evening and the morning were the fifth day." v. 23

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." v. 26-27

"And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." v. 31 Genesis 2:1-31

So, the same demonstration through out the creation. Notice that if you continue to read through chapter 3, there is no explanation of an evening and the morning were the sixth day. This will be discussed further in subsequent chapters.

Now we understand that in the Bible, the day begins in the evening and the latter part of the day is while the sun is visible in the sky.

So, straight to the point then, let's look at the Gospels , one-by-one and see what they say concerning the resurrection of Jesus, The Messiah.

"In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto 
the woman, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was 
crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see 
the place where the Lord lay." Matthew 28:1-6

Our first witness, Matthew has written that by the time it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, (what we call Sunday), the angel had to come down to tell them that Jesus wasn't there. For the record there are 2 definitions to the word 'Dawn.'

1: noun - the first appearance of light in the sky before sunrise.

2: verb - to come into existence. 

Whichever definition you choose, as it began to happen (not after it happened), at the beginning He wasn't there!

"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. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. 

And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? 

And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. 

And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.

And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him." Mark 16:1-6

Again, according to the Gospel of Mark, the disciples arrived "at the rising of the sun," it didn't say 

Jesus was just waking up, or just leaving, or even just left. He wasn't even there!

Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.

 And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.  And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:  And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee." Luke 24:1-6

Same story, and finally,

"The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him." 

John 20:1-2

Now that the Bible has established that Jesus  was all the way out of the grave by the time the First day of the week began. Now let us turn to the holy prophets to explain the secrets of when the messiah died and was resurrected. 

In Daniel Chapter 9, the prophet understood that the Lord would make Jerusalem desolate, but afterwards He would deliver the children of Israel out of their oppression AND He would usher in the Kingdom of God. Contrary to popular belief Daniel knew this! If you read any prophecy about the children of Israel being returned to the land of Israel, 99% of the prophecies also include the destruction of the world.

Let us therefore pick up Daniel at the end of his prayer (you should read the entire chapter of Daniel 9 on your own).

"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.  And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." Daniel 9:24-27

Focusing on the part of the prophecy that deals with Jesus (highlighted in orange). We know this is speaking of Jesus because of all his characteristics in verse 24.  [ reconciliation - Colossians 1:21 Romans 5:10; everlasting righteousness Matthew 25:40-46; seal up prophecy/anoint the Most Holy-
Matthew 3:13-17 ]

 In verse 27, it says that he (Messiah) will confirm the covenant with many for one week...
Before we go any further we must understand that we are talking prophecy here, so we must needs, have the Bible (the Word) explain itself.

I will not detail them here, but for #OnlineBibleBootCamp homework everyone should visit the following set of scriptures to see why a week in prophecy means 7 years. 
{Jacob worked 7 years to marry a woman, he was deceived, and in order to marry the woman he wanted he had to 'fulfill her week,' at which time he worked an additional 7 years.Genesis 29:1-28



So, Jesus came in the flesh, to to confirm the new covenant. And in the middle of His week, He was cut-off. If a week is 7 years, and Messiah was cut-off in the midst, simple math will tell us how long the Messiah's ministry will be before He is killed. 7 divided by 2 equals 3 1/2 ( 7 / 2 = 3.5 ). And we know through history that Jesus lived 33.5 years.
However, His ministy did not begin until his Baptism, in order to give us a message, of the importance of Baptism.

"Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli," Luke 3:21-23

It was at this point He 'became,' the Christ. 

Lastly, the prophecy informs us that Jesus died in the middle (midst) of a literal week.

The only 'sign,' that Jesus gave us that He was the Christ was recorded as:  " Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.  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:  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." Matthew 12:38-40 & Matthew 16:4

If you still believe (or have been told/taught) that Jesus died Good Friday, and was resurrected early Easter-Sunday morning, ask yourself or your teacher: What about the 3rd night? 

Now, if we believe the prophets, Jesus went into the Grave on Wednesday...

This is not rocket-science, this is kindergarten counting to 3.

Below is an aid to help you count. Remember, when God created Life, and the Earth the evening came first, then the morning.

This should give us Jesus in the grave Wednesday night, Thursday night, and Friday night; Also covering Thursday morning, Friday morning, and Saturday morning. Thru simple reasoning we see that in order for Jesus himself to Not be a liar, he HAD to have resurrected at SUN-DOWN on Saturday night!
No wonder by the time the Apostles got to the tomb early the next morning Jesus was all the way gone and angles were sitting there to tell what happened. 

In our next installment we will explore the spiritual significance of both the Sabbath Day as well as Sunday concerning the Bible (the Word). However, some people (if you are like me) will be shocked at this information about Jesus and Sunday. Therefore, I will end with this scripture that most of us have heard in one context but if applied here, may make it more understandable. 

"And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:  Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath." Mark 2:27-28

Homework:

Notice also that back In Genesis the evening and the morning was the 1st day; the evening and the morning was the 2nd day etc until the 7th. It never says the evening and the morning was the 7th day... Can you guess why not?
Leave a comment answering this question. If you're not sure, keep studying I will reveal before BootCamp is over!