The Lord's Day

The Lord's day (the day of Christ's resurrection) is Sunday, not Saturday as some SDA teachers declare! In this study, I shall give convincing proof that these "rogue" SDA teachers do err in their attempt to prove that Jesus rose from the dead on Saturday, instead of Sunday.

Leviticus 23:39     ......on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.

On the following link, please note the writings of the early Church Fathers clearly identified Sunday, the day of Christ's resurrection,  as The Lord's Day! Here is one of them:

 Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, 30-107 A.D.  Ignatius was a personal disciple of St. John and one who should know Christian practice among the early Church.  He wrote, "And after the observance of the sabbath (that the Jews kept), let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's day as a festival, the resurrection day, the queen and chief of all days of the week ... on which our life sprang up again, and victory over death was obtained in Christ."

IN a recent email, it has been brought to my attention, that some deceived SDA's are attempting to teach that Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday, and after 3 days and 3 nights, he rose from the dead on Saturday, which of course, is the 4th day!

Saturday has NEVER been considered "The Lord's Day." This billboard is in Chattanooga, Tennessee!

The term "3 days and 3 nights" is what has baffled these teachers and forced them to reconstruct the events in order to further heighten the Sabbath day (Saturday) as, not only the "official" day of worship, but also the chief of days in which Jesus rose from the dead. Needless to say, the word Sabbath means rest, and if Jesus had, in fact risen from the dead on Saturday, then he would not have been resting on the Sabbath! True?

In reviewing the SDA web pages "Amazing Facts.org" I find that they clearly do not teach the idea that Jesus arose from the dead on Saturday!

"There can be no question but that He arose on Sunday, the first day of the week. Mark emphatically states, "Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene." Mark 16:9. Sunday is the first day of the week, and that is when He was resurrected. Words could be no plainer. Even the original Greek construction of the text will allow no other meaning. He did not rise from the grave on Saturday, as some contend. Neither was He crucified on Wednesday. There is not a scintilla of Bible evidence that He died on the fourth day of the week."  http://www.amazingfacts.org/FreeStuff/OnlineLibrary/tabid/106/ctl/ViewMedia/mid/447/IID/67/LNG/en/7/Three-Days-and-Three-Nights/SC/R/Default.aspx

We can start with Mark 16.

Mark 16:9

  Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.

I trust the above scripture is in agreement and corresponds with Matthew 28. Here, the angel decends from heaven as an earthquake takes place, and the stone is rolled back. This event takes place at the "end of the Sabbath" ON the "first day of the week"! I contend that this event was the very moment of the resurrecton of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Matthew 28:1-2

    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. [2] 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.

On the scripture in Mark 16:9 above,  "John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible" writes:

See Gill on Mat_28:1 though it is true also, that he did appear on that day to Mary Magdalene, it being the same day he rose from the dead. But the true reading and pointing are as here placed; and the phrase belongs to, and points out the day of Christ's rising from the dead; and which ambiguity is removed in the Syriac version, which renders it,

"now early on the first day of the week he rose";

and so the Persic version, "the Messiah", or

"Christ, therefore on the morning of the, first day, rose from the dead":

and that he rose early on that day, is clear from the women, who set out at the end of the Sabbath, when that was past and over; and got to the sepulcher by the time the day dawned; and one of them, while it was dark, and all of them by break of day, at least by sunrising, and he was then risen:

For further proof of the 3rd day "resurrection" being Sunday, not Saturday, lets look at the chronology of events in the book of Luke. The women came to the tomb on Sunday morning, the "first" day of the week! This being true, the following events all took place on Sunday!

Luke 24:1

  Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.

So then, during the "first day of the week", Jesus appears to several men who are walking along the road. Now if Jesus had died on Wednesday, as SDA writers claim, and it is now the "first day of the week", Sunday, it would be the FIFTH day after the crucifixion! True?

1st.  Wed

2nd. Thurs.

3rd.  Fri

4th.  Sat.

5th.  Sund.   The women find the tomb empty - Jesus talks to the 2 men walking

BUT the men do NOT claim it to be the 5th day, but rather the 3rd day!

Luke 24:21

    But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.

If it IS now the FIRST DAY of the week in which Jesus speaks to these men (Sunday) AND these men declare that it is the THIRD day since the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, then WHAT DAY is 3 days prior? ........ Friday!

1st           Fri.

2nd           Sat.

3rd day   Sund

According to Jesus, he would rise on the THIRD day, which in Luke is clearly identified as Sunday!

Luke 24:46

   And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:

So then, if the 2 men spoke to Jesus ON the 3rd day, which is now Sunday, then Jesus clearly rose from the dead on Sunday, not Saturday as the SDA teachers declare.

Therefore, the LORD'S DAY is Sunday, NOT Saturday!

3 DAYS AND 3 NIGHTS

The contest by the SDA teachers, is that Jesus claimed he would be in the grave for 3 days and 3 nights. Obviously, the above explination would indicate 3 days, and 2 nights. Here are some commentators on this topic:

"John Gill's

Exposition of the Entire Bible"

"To solve this difficulty, and set the matter in a clear light, let it be

observed, that the three days and three nights, mean three natural days,

consisting of day and night, or twenty four hours, and are what the Greeks

call, "night days"; but the Jews have no other way of expressing

them, but as here; and with them it is a well known rule, and used on all

occasions, as in the computation of their feasts and times of mourning, in

the observance of the passover, circumcision, and divers purifications,

that, "a part of a day is as the whole" (n): and so, whatever was done

before sun setting, or after, if but an hour, or ever so small a time,

before or after it, it was reckoned as the whole preceding, or following

day; and whether this was in the night part, or day part of the night day,

or natural day, it mattered not, it was accounted as the whole night day: by

this rule, the case here is easily adjusted; Christ was laid in the grave

towards the close of the sixth day, a little before sun setting, and this

being a part of the night day preceding, is reckoned as the whole; he

continued there the whole night day following, being the seventh day; and

rose again early on the first day, which being after sun setting, though it

might be even before sun rising, yet being a part of the night day

following, is to be esteemed as the whole; and thus the son of man was to

be, and was three days and three nights in the grave; and which was very

easy to be understood by the Jews"

And this one is from "Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible"

Three days and three nights - It will be seen in the account of the

resurrection of Christ that he was in the grave but two nights and a part of

three days. See Mat_18:6. This computation is, however, strictly in

accordance with the Jewish mode of reckoning. If it had “not” been, the Jews

would have understood it, and would have charged our Saviour as being a

false prophet, for it was well known to them that he had spoken this

prophecy, Mat_27:63. Such a charge, however, was never made; and it is

plain, therefore, that what was “meant” by the prediction was accomplished.

It was a maxim, also, among the Jews, in computing time, that a part of a

day was to be received as the whole. Many instances of this kind occur in

both sacred and profane history. See 2Ch_10:5, 2Ch_10:12; Gen_42:17-18.

Compare Est_4:16 with Est_5:1.

HIGH DAY

The SDA writer gives a very convincing arguement for the high day explination, that the Passover was on a Thursday. In detail, they have explained that there were TWO Sabbaths that took place that week, one on Thursday for the Passover, and the second on Saturday. They claim that Jesus died on Wednesday, was in the grave until Saturday morning, which would be the second Sabbath while being in the grave on the Passover Sabbath which was on Thursday. But this would not be possible with the scripture in Luke in which the two men on the road declared that Sunday was the 3rd day since the cricifixian, not the 5th day which would take us back to Wednesday!

Other researchers do not declare the "High Day" to be a seperate Sabbath that week, but rather they declare that the Saturday Sabbath itself was the "High Day" because it was ALSO the Passover, which made it an even greater Sabbath!

Here are some explinations as to the "High day"

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible:

Was an high day - It was:

1. The Sabbath.

2. It was the day on which the paschal feast properly commenced.

It was called a high day because that year the feast of the Passover

commenced on the Sabbath. Greek: “Great day.”

Lightfoot.

It might be properly called a high day, because the passover fell on that

Sabbath.

John Gill

for that sabbath day was an high day; it was not only a sabbath, and a

sabbath in the passover week, but it was the day in which all the people

appeared and presented themselves before the Lord in the temple, and the

sheaf of the first fruits was offered up; all which solemnities meeting

together made it a very celebrated day: it is in the original text, "it was

the great day of the sabbath"; which is the language of the Talmudists, and

who say (d), "is called the great sabbath", on account of the miracle or

sign of the passover;'' and in the Jewish Liturgy (e) there is a collect

for the "great sabbath": hence the Jews pretending a great concern lest that

day should be polluted, though they made no conscience of shedding innocent

blood,

I'm sure that the SDA teachers would want to argue this to no end, but the scriptures, I believe, clearly show that Jesus was raised from the dead on Sunday, not Saturday!

Mark 16:9

  Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.

Luke 24:1, 21

  Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.  ....    But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.