When the sincere truth seeker begins to read the Bible carefully to discover sound doctrine, he soon discovers that in many crucial doctrines, plainly spoken passages clearly contradict the doctrines of ch-rchianity. What can be the reason for these discrepancies? Isn’t the Bible message plain for all to understand? Why should not everybody who professes a faith in the Bible be in doctrinal harmony? Shouldn’t the power of the Holy Spirit produce universal unity? Why must people explain away forthright and plain-spoken passages from the Bible?

For example, the very words of our Savior, Yahshua, the Messiah, tell us that His dead body would rest entombed three days and three nights. He used the term "in the heart of the earth." The heart of the earth is an idiomatic expression meaning "in the tomb." Shouldn’t we accept that statement at face value because it represents a forthright statement? Should we not allow the other passages of Scripture to harmonize with it? The obvious answer is: We must follow the truth of the sacred Scriptures—nominal ch-rchianity, ecclesiastical councils, established dogmas, or theological declarations notwithstanding.

A Different Approach

The Assemblies of Yahweh diligently strives to achieve complete harmony within the Word of Yahweh. Yahshua the Messiah taught the unadulterated truth of Yahweh’s Word. "Sanctify them in the truth: your word is truth." (John 17:17) The Messianic teaching brought into doctrinal accord all those who heard Yahshua speak and who humbly and sincerely allowed the Bible to correct them.

Yahshua the Messiah prayed for doctrinal unity among His followers. "That they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that you did send me." (John 17:21). Was His prayer answered—or was it not? Surely Yahweh answered His prayer!

The Apostolic Assembly followed these noble guidelines. "For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit." (1 Corinthians 12:13). "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you were also called in one hope of your calling." (Ephesians 4:4-5).

Consequently, we must logically conclude that if there is only one Holy Spirit, coming from one Heavenly Father, and one Messiah Yahshua, then those True Worshipers who faithfully follow that inspired Word will be drawn together in one accord, into perfect unity.

What about those people who persist in defending doctrines that plainly contradict biblical teachings? Can they also have the Holy Spirit of Almighty Yahweh? Are they really in the one spiritual body founded by the Messiah? Does sound doctrine actually matter all that much?

Jonah’s Sign Vitally Important

Many times people try to minimize or ignore the importance of what Yahshua intended to teach us. They somehow conclude that it just doesn’t matter how long Yahshua was in the tomb. Only the fact of His resurrection is significant, they protest. By viewing the impalement of Yahshua the Messiah and His resurrection in a much shorter period of time, they fail to perceive the lessons Yahshua the Messiah evidently sought to convey. The sign of Jonah was to be Yahshua’s one and only, absolute and certain sign of His Messiahship. The time element is of vital importance, Yahshua intended us to understand. If the time He would spend in the tomb is in any way shortened, Yahshua would not be the Messiah! We shall soon comprehend how highly important this sign really becomes.

Even at the very beginning of His ministry, Yahshua already referred to this exclusive sign that would prove Him to be the true Messiah. Turn to John 2:19-22. "Yahshua answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews therefore said, Forty-six years was this temple in building, and will you raise it up in three days? But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he spoke this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Yahshua had said."

Yahshua obviously desired that the Jews understand an important lesson. Yahshua the Messiah emphasized to the Jews that they could not destroy His eternal life, established by His resurrection. Now, take into consideration what Yahshua said in Matthew 10:28. "And be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna."

It is relatively easy for someone to take the life of another human. By inflicting a serious, mortal wound upon another person, life will soon ebb away. No human being can of himself restore a dead body to life once that spark of vitality and life that cannot be duplicated has ceased to exist in the body.

Yahshua’s Resurrection Power

Almighty Yahweh, within His realm of authority, holds the power to give life. There is no other being on the face of the earth or in the universe who can create life—but Father Yahweh. The Sacred Name of Yahweh comes very forcefully into focus in this instance. The Name of the Almighty is derived from the Hebrew verb of existence (the form is the third masculine singular imperfect Hip’il stem, causative). The Name of the Father in Heaven means "He who was, He who is, He who ever shall be." See Revelation 1:8. Because He exists, He can confer existence, human life, and eventually, eternal life upon those who please Him.

Consequently, Yahshua the Messiah employed this sign of the prophet Jonah as His only sign of Messiahship. The prophet Jonah had experienced a symbolic death and resurrection in his experience of being swallowed by the great fish. Similarly, with Yahshua dead in the tomb, there would be no hope except insofar as the Father Yahweh would resurrect Him. Certainly at His death, Yahshua the Messiah had to trust His Father Yahweh completely to restore Him to life. Consequently, those who deny the resurrection, and especially the specific time it happened, actually deny the Word, the power, and the authority of the Most High! This doctrine takes on a most significant importance! One might compare its level of importance to the keeping of the biblical seventh-day Sabbath, which recognizes the creative authority of the most High, when His people worship on that specific day. Read Exodus 31:12-18.

Only a Theory?

Sometimes people come across articles written by leaders or members of Chr-stian denominations who desperately try to defend their untenable Friday impalement and Sunday resurrection doctrine. In the course of so doing, they attempt to minimize the clear statement regarding the three days and three nights in the tomb by calling it merely "a theory." There is no way that anyone can harmonize the plain statement—72 hours, three days and three nights in the tomb, with the faulty doctrine Chr-stianity teaches—that Yahshua was in the tomb only approximately 36 hours. That shortened period allows for only about half the time that He Himself had declared.

Proving the Doctrine

Can we truly prove the veracity of a full three days, three nights, stay in the tomb by Yahshua the Messiah? Upon the authority of the Word of Almighty Yahweh, we certainly can do so! Every related Scripture will harmonize.

To believe in a doctrine of a shorter stay in the tomb demands a deliberate TWISTING of the biblical text of the Bible. The simple reason why popular religion in ancient times went in this direction was undoubtedly the influence of the widespread devotion to sun worship. The sun experienced its resurrection at the beginning of each day. When remnants of the Apostolic Assembly apostatized and the Messianic worship was appropriated by the Babylonian priesthood to lend it credence, the doctrines of popular pagan religion were applied to the message of the Bible and proof-texted from the inspired Word.

How Much Evidence?

Frequently, those who try to undermine Yahshua’s sign of Messiahship, expressed in the three days and three nights doctrine, will insist that it is built on a very tenuous foundation. Some even claim that only two Scriptures prove it. (But in this they neglect to tell you that those two witnesses are firm and sure, Deuteronomy 17:6, 19:15-20, and Matthew 18:16.) However, under close examination the false assertions of the critics will indeed forthwith disintegrate.

Yahshua’s Passion Week

It is our contention that one cannot understand the truth about the doctrine of three days and three nights (from the death of Yahshua the Messiah to His resurrection, the time He spent in the tomb), unless he is familiar with the feast days of Leviticus 23. Not keeping the feast days causes people to fabricate a flawed doctrine. Remember that the Holy Spirit of Yahweh is given to those who OBEY Him (Acts 5:32). Keeping the feast days of Yahweh is quite necessary and significant for many reasons, and here is yet another one of them.

Almighty Yahweh told Israel to select their Passover lamb on the tenth day of the first scriptural month (Exodus 12:3). Then on the evening of the fourteenth of Abib, which means at dusk, sundown (in Hebrew the term is bo’—the GOING IN of the sun, Deuteronomy 16:6), Israel was instructed to kill the lamb. Over the years the Jews changed these instructions by combining the Passover observance with the first holy day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the First High Day of the feast. It is the opinion of the author that this was a contrived distortion to deny the veracity of the true Messiah.

Confusion of Sabbaths

Yahshua the Messiah was impaled on the preparation for the Passover (as the Jews now keep it, John 19:31-42). You will notice how John clarifies this point by saying that the day, the Sabbath following the preparation was a HIGH DAY. This term indicates that the preparation for the Sabbath means the preparation for one of Yahweh’s ANNUAL Sabbaths. It was not the Sabbath of the seventh day of the week. Nor were these two Sabbaths, the annual and the weekly, combined in this particular year, as some misguided people believe. We shall prove that the annual holy days and the weekly Sabbaths fell on different days.

Let us consider Luke 23:54-56. "And it was the day of the PREPARATION [the Passover], and the SABBATH [the feast holy day] drew on. And the women, who had come with him out of Galilee, followed after, and beheld the tomb, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments.

"And on the SABBATH [the weekly seventh day] they rested according to the commandment."

By taking these steps in sequence, you will perceive that the day of Yahshua’s impalement was the PREPARATION for a Sabbath.

Yahshua the Messiah died at approximately 3 o’clock in the afternoon. According to the Jewish time reckoning, this was the ninth hour of the day (Luke 23:44-49).

The Women Prepare to Embalm the Body

Consequently, it was necessary on the day after the annual Sabbath, for the women to go out and purchase spices and ointments and then prepare them, and then to rest on the following day which was also a Sabbath—the weekly, seventh-day Sabbath.

How frequently do we see people trying to defend the Friday impalement and Sunday resurrection, while neglecting these vitally important, yet very plain points in the sacred Scriptures.

But, how many people will read over these passages and even question why the women did not then embalm the body of Yahshua on the day between the high day Sabbath and the weekly Sabbath? The answer becomes obvious by turning to Matthew 27:62-66. "Now on the next day, which is the day after the Preparation [the annual First High Day of the feast], the chief priests and the Pharisees were gathered together to Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said while he was yet alive, After three days I rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest might his disciples come and steal him away, and say to the people, He is risen from the dead: and the last error will be worse than the first. Pilate said to them, You have a guard: go, make it as sure as you can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, the guard being with them."

It was evidently late on the afternoon of the high day (Thursday) when the leaders of Judaism felt compelled to take action to ensure the security of the tomb. Even though it was a high day, a day reserved for worship, they had to be sure that the body of Yahshua the Messiah would not be stolen by His loyal disciples, and a resurrection counterfeited. Therefore, they asked Pilate to post a guard of Roman soldiers until after the third day so no contrived resurrection could be possible. Furthermore, an official Roman seal was affixed to the stone.

Statement that Confounds Theologians—Now Harmonized

Not harmonizing the Bible throughout, from Genesis to Revelation, as we have seen, sometimes causes people to make grave errors in doctrine. Even within a passage there are times when significant facts are overlooked by theologians who form doctrines to support the status quo (perhaps intentionally). Such is clearly the case with the explanation they give of Luke 24 concerning the account of the two men traveling from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

As these men were walking along and discussing the events that had occurred in Jerusalem, a stranger joined their company. They were traveling about 60 furlongs (slightly less than eight miles), from Jerusalem to Emmaus. After the stranger expressed interest in the events that had occurred in Jerusalem, Cleopas (one of the travelers) recapitulated for him what had happened, concluding with, "…Yes and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things came to pass." (Luke 24:21).

Seizing upon this seemingly foolproof Scripture to prove their faulty theory of a Friday impalement and Sunday resurrection, people then begin counting backwards. "The third day since" would SEEM to indicate the veracity of a Friday impalement and a Sunday resurrection. But, will this idea really prove out?

Scrutinizing the context carefully, we discover that the two men, as they walked, communed with each other of ALL (note this term) these things which had happened, verse 14. If they discussed each event in specifics during their conversation, examining each incident that had happened during the suffering and death of Yahshua the Messiah, and finally explaining how His body had been placed in the tomb, they would have also discussed how the Roman guard was placed and the sealing of the tomb described in Matthew 27:62-66. As we pointed out previously, this decision by Pilate to assign soldiers to guard the tomb, at the urging of the religious authorities in Jerusalem, took place late on Thursday afternoon. The soldiers were to remain in place until after the third day of Yahshua’s entombment.

Old Testament Provides Precedent

When Yahshua the Messiah had heard the travelers to Emmaus describing the events of the previous week, He said to them, "…O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning from MOSES and from all the prophets he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." (Luke 24:25-27).

Later, Yahshua the Messiah appeared to His disciples, and said: "And he said to them, These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms, concerning me. Then he opened their mind, that they might understand the Scriptures; and he said to them, In this manner it is written, that the Messiah should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem." (Luke 24:44-46).

In Deuteronomy 18:15-19 we find a passage quoted by Peter and John in Acts 3:22-26. Pay close attention also to verse 24.

"Yahweh your Elohim will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brethren, like to me; to him you shall listen; according to all that you desired of Yahweh your Elohim in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my Elohim, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I do not die, and Yahweh said to me, They have well said that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like you; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." (Deuteronomy 18:15-19).

The Prophet Daniel Speaks

The prophet Daniel also makes a very revealing statement, regarding how and when the Messiah was to die. Verse 26 of chapter 9 reads, "And after the sixty-two sevens shall the anointed one [the Messiah] be cut off…" According to the prophecy in the ninth chapter of Daniel, 70 weeks (Hebrew—sevens) are determined upon Jerusalem. The first seven weeks, or 49 years (since the seven refers to a Sabbatical cycle), pointed toward the reconstruction of the Temple, as we find in the books of Zechariah, Haggai, and Zephaniah. The wall and the city were rebuilt in very troublous times, which can be proven by reading the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. After the next 62 sevens (after the cycles totaling 434 years), the Messiah was to be cut off.

Much confusion has taken place regarding the correct interpretation of the Book of Revelation. Specified there is a period of 42 months, 1,260 days, comprising 3 1/2-years. Other prophecies of the Bible concur with this 3 1/2-year time period at the end of the age.

Consequently, Yahshua the Messiah was to die AFTER 69 weeks of years (sevens), which would indicate that He was to fulfill the first half of the last seven-year Sabbatical time cycle (3 1/2 years). Yahshua the Messiah caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease after 3 1/2 years, in the middle of the week of years, verse 27. In addition, Yahshua the Messiah’s death occurred in the middle of a literal week. He died on the middle day of the week, on what is now called Wednesday. The anti-Messiah, or man of sin, will fulfill the last half of the week of sevens, as predicted in the book of Revelation. This time period will occur after the seventieth Jubilee.

Sun Worship Influence

Celebrating the resurrection of Yahshua the Messiah at sunrise on Sunday morning is derived directly from paganism. With few exceptions, the ancient nations regularly worshiped the sun. The average person, in his ignorance, was steeped in superstition, therefore, the ancient peoples went in the direction of worshiping nature to illustrate the supernatural (Romans 1). The ancient religion, simply stated, was "father sun lying on mother earth and that produced fruit." This concept the pagans believed wholeheartedly, along with a host of different variations and they depicted these in their religion.

Such abominable sun worship practices in which the Canaanites indulged, served as an enticement to lead astray ancient Israel. Many times the Israelites yielded to the influence of their idolatrous neighbors. They placed the horses and chariots of the sun in the Temple (2 Kings 23:11), in one recorded assimilation of the idolatry practiced by surrounding nations.

Yahweh announced to Ezekiel, the prophet, that any worship of the sun constitutes an abomination (meaning something most repulsive) in His eyes. Ezekiel was to take this message to Israel. "And he brought me into the inner court of Yahweh’s house; and behold, at the door of the temple of Yahweh, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs toward the temple of Yahweh, and their faces toward the east; and they were worshiping the sun toward the east." (Ezekiel 8:16).

Counting Correct Pentecost Date

We learn that the Holy Spirit of Almighty Yahweh is given to those who obey the commandments of Yahweh (Acts 5:32 and John 14:15-26). To receive the Holy Spirit we must obey the sound doctrines of the sacred Scriptures, and worship on the correct day specified by the Almighty, as Yahweh instructs us. Yahweh will reject those who maintain false doctrine. Pentecost day must be COUNTED from the day the sickle is put to the standing grain.

"And you shall roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your Elohim shall choose: and you shall turn in the morning, and go to your tents. Six days you shall eat unleavened bread; and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your Elohim; you shall do no work in it.

"Seven weeks shall you number to yourself: from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain shall you begin to number seven weeks. And you shall keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your Elohim with a tribute of the free-will-offering of your hand, which you shall give, according as Yahweh your Elohim blesses you: and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your Elohim, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite that is within your gates, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are in the middle of you, in the place which Yahweh your Elohim shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. And you shall remember that you were a bondman in Egypt: and you shall observe and do these statutes." (Deuteronomy 16:7-12).

The Jews today count Pentecost from the sixteenth day of the first scriptural month, making their feast of Pentecost observance fall on different days around the week from one year to the next. Leviticus 23:9 tells us that it must be counted from the day after the weekly Sabbath, and we must end our count on a Sabbath day. Pentecost day always falls on the first day of the week. In other words, seven full weeks must be counted. The fiftieth day is the first day of the week, and begins a new cycle of sevens. It represents a new harvest.

Roman Calendar Days Confuse

Remember, we cannot have Yahweh’s Holy Spirit if we do not worship in thanksgiving on the same day it was given.

In reading over various items of literature that contend for the Friday impalement and Sunday resurrection, one is almost immediately impressed by the fact that the writers NEGLECT to understand the difference between the biblical day and the Roman day under which we are presently living. The biblical days begin and end with sunset. Genesis 1 proves this fact conclusively. Leviticus 23:32 and Mark 1:32 support it.

The Roman day begins at midnight, or generally speaking, at dawn when a person arises. He thinks of the day being from sunrise to bedtime that night or up to the following sunrise, rather than as Yahweh instituted at Creation—from evening to evening (Leviticus 23:32).

By not keeping Yahweh’s holy days of Leviticus 23, the theologians, who should take into account the firm statements of the Bible, neglect to perceive that importance. They wrest the Scriptures to support the keeping of Sunday, rather than keeping the biblical seventh-day Sabbath which Almighty Yahweh has enjoined. They keep holidays which were once pagan observances, rather than keeping the feast days of Leviticus 23, days which portray the plan of salvation and picture Yahshua the Messiah and His atonement sacrifice for the sins (transgressions of the law) of the people of the entire world.

When Yahshua predicted that He would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (the tomb), he meant precisely three full days and three full nights. He did not mean parts of three days! In no way can anyone ever count 72 hours from a Friday impalement to a Sunday morning resurrection. Nevertheless, when the passages are encountered which say "the third day," such a term does not in any way alter the expressed, specific statement that Yahshua made, "three days and three nights," which reflects the prophecy of Jonah. Three days and three nights represents 72 hours, no less or no more.

Summary

As we have seen, by harmonizing the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, we discover that Yahshua the Messiah was impaled on what is now called Wednesday, the day in the very middle of the seven-day week. Yahshua’s ministry extended for 3 1/2 years, proving again that He was the true Messiah.

When Yahshua died, at the end of the day called Wednesday at sundown, His body was placed in the tomb, and the stone rolled before the door. Very soon thereafter (at sundown), the first holy day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread arrived when no work could be done. At the end of that High Day, the priests went to Pilate, and requested that a guard be posted at Yahshua’s sepulchre and the stone sealed. The guard would have been withdrawn after the three days and three nights during which Yahshua had specified He would be in the tomb.

During the day of labor falling between the annual High Day and the weekly Sabbath, the women prepared their embalming spices and ointments to finish the burial of Yahshua. Unable to enter the tomb because of the Roman guard and affixed seal, they had to wait until the guard would be withdrawn. Therefore, they returned at early dawn on the first day of the week, but found the tomb empty. At that time they saw a vision of angels telling them that Yahshua was alive, resurrected from the dead, and no longer there. No one saw Yahshua until some time after His resurrection.

You must make a decision. The strong, conclusive evidence has now been presented. This evidence you have just studied completely refutes the keeping of Sunday as honoring Yahshua’s resurrection. It clearly refutes the association of the sun with the sacrifice of Yahshua the Messiah. It separates between pagan worship and the True Worship of Almighty Yahweh. It absolutely proves Yahshua’s Messiahship. It demonstrates the true sacrifice of the Messiah and His atonement. It specifies the day the Holy Spirit was given on the Feast of Weeks. We hope you will study this subject carefully, and see what we have seen. Then, accept what the Bible plainly teaches so you may be obedient to the Most High. He will not bless you with salvation unless you withdraw from the false doctrines of the worldly religious system. Do so without delay!