The RETURN
Movement International
Petah
Tikvah & Scriptural-Truths
Presents
…
The Tabernacle
---Sharing our Lord
and Saviour Yahushua, Yeshua the Messiah to the
World!—
Please Note: On this site we prefer
to use the actual Name of our loving Heavenly Father as it was written in the
Hebrew and thus you will note that we will use the four letter “Memorial
Name” of 
- YHVH, which is pronounced as YaHVaH
or YaHWaH, also we will use our Heavenly Father’s tile - “Elohim”
rather than “God” and we need to remember that “Elohim”
(God) is NOT a name but an attribute, a title! In addition we also love to use
the actual Name of our beloved “Messiah” (written in Hebrew as
“Mashiach” and in Greek as “
- Yahushua (Yeshua in short) for this
is the Messiah’s original Hebrew Name as given to Him in
And was it really on a Sunday?
“May “Elohim (God) … fill you with the knowledge of His will, through all spiritual wisdom and understanding … that you may live a life worthy and please Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of Elohim” Colossians 1: 9-19.
The
three levels of learning & understanding
1. Who was
YHVH Elohim, blessed be His Holy Name speaking to?
Elder & Teacher; Reuben ben Gershom.
“Scriptural Truths”
& “Ha Davar Word Studies”
“The
WORD” of Life!
“In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with Elohim, and the Word was
Elohim. He was with Elohim in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.” Yochannan -
What I am establishing here is that He who is
“the Word” is also the creator of “all things” and it
was He who spoke to Avraham (
You will find that the basis of this study is based on a specific statement our beloved Saviour gave and as you read it, I ask that you read it slowly and prayerfully and then read it again and again and I believe with all my heart that you will see that within the very heart of what our Lord and Saviour said is really a very simple truth, and more so that He meant what He said, for the Hebraic terminology that He used would have been clearly understood in His day. Although the statement, including Him being the Messiah, the Son of Elohim was obviously not accepted by the *disbelievers of Israel, just like today for satan will keep eyes and hearts blackened as long as he possibly can!
*Have you not heard it said by your Church
leaders, and this has been said since the year 353 AD that “The Jews
rejected Christ” or “The Jews killed Christ” etc? Well let me
deal with the first of these statements briefly, for the second will be dealt
with later in the study. If it is true that the Judeans rejected Yahushua the
Messiah, how come we have four Gospels that were written by those who were
Judeans, although one of them had dual citizenship, like Shaul had, for he was
a Pharisee (Priest), yet also a Roman and Luke also had dual citizenship. Thus
they were all Judeans, which the word “Jewish” really means!
However, within
Part One
Dawn
I find it simply unbelievable that hundreds of
millions of “Christians” gather every year at “Easter”
atop a mountain or a hill, or in Church throughout the world to observe what is
known as the “Dawn” or “
But beloved, what I am about to tell you in this study may well shock many, for our beloved Messiah, who is “the Word,” - “through Him all things were made” - His resurrection was NOT on a Sunday as is commonly believed! Now I am sure that I have your attention and that you are shocked! Believe me; the Word of YHVH Elohim backs this up 100%, as does Messiah’s statements!
The problem is this, sadly no one from all those millions of people, learned men, priests, popes, pastors, etc, etc, have ever really sought to check the Holy Word of YHVH Elohim and check when the resurrection really occurred. What the Word tells us, is simply astonishing, but, I can tell you right now, the greater Church is and will not be listening and frankly it does not care! I pray beloved that you do!
However, whilst reading this study it may be likely that it is for the very first time in your life that you are reading the astounding facts of what really occurred during that eventful week when our blessed Messiah gave His life “freely!”
However, before I continue regarding the resurrection, let me cover a few other points that are rather important.
Easter & Christmas:
Did you realise that there is not one Scriptural commandment to celebrate the resurrection of the Yahushua our Messiah! However, there are many commands to solemnly celebrate his death! But most of the “Church,” their pastors and leaders are completely ignorant of this fact.
To the hundreds of millions of professing followers of Church traditions around the world it is “Easter” that is either the MOST important of all the “Christian” holydays, or it could be the second, that is after “Christmas.” The truth is that very few “Christians have ever researched the origins of these two celebrations and they simply have no idea that both of these so-called “Christian feasts” are jam-packed with paganism and customs that are derived from the heathens who were SUN worshipers, and these festivals have no origins from the Word of YHVH Elohim, our Saviour, or the apostles whatsoever. The plain historic truth is simple, they originate thousands of years before Messiah ever walked on this earth as a man, and these festivals were always two of the most evil of satan’s pagan festivals.
Yahushua the Messiah would never have allowed
His chosen disciples to worship Him by using symbols of sex and fertility, such
as rabbits, eggs, mistletoe, trees, wreaths on doors, as well as holly and the
like. Certainly, our Lord and Saviour would have soundly condemned all these
practices, especially the religious service conducted at
Jeremiah ’s warnings:
These services are based on utterly pagan customs and Yahushua, in His pre-human state inspired Yirmyahu (Jeremiah) to write, “Learn not the way of the heathen,” including when He described what has become the Christmas tree to Jeremiah.
“Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky (sun and moon worship), though the nations are terrified by them. For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter (fall).” Yirmyahu (Jeremiah) 10:2-4) NIV.
Make no mistake! The resurrection of Yahushua
was a GREAT EVENT and His resurrection was the very cornerstone of the faith of
the apostles; the reason for their deep conviction and conversion; the
wellspring of their courage in the face of martyrdom! It was the proof of
Messiah’s resurrection that caused them to assemble in
Yet, for all the stupendous significance of the resurrection, there is not one scripture in all of the Word that sets apart the DAY of the resurrection as a day to be appointed for worship.
In spite of this, the entire “Sunday Vs
Saturday” controversy is based on one single thing, and that is: the
Roman Catholic doctrine, which has been sadly adopted by the Roman
Catholic’s Protestants daughters and they clearly state that “Our
Lord rose from the dead on the first day of the week” and sadly as we
will learn in this study, that is a total untruth! I cannot say it is a lie,
for they have been blinded by the tradition of men who have sought to distort
the Word of truth in the ancient time, especially during the evil reign of a
man who never was even a Christian of any kind, but as is clearly recorded,
Emperor Constantine was “a sun god worshipper” until the day on his
death bed. It was he who changed the Sabbath day to a Sunday on March 7, 321
A.D.,
and he commanded the change with these evil words: “On the venerable day of the Sun let the
magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be
closed.” Later the Council of
Laodicea was ordered by
The Faithful in Messiah know there is no command in the Word to observe Sunday. Misguided Christians will say they are doing it in “commemoration of the resurrection.” However, whoever told them that the resurrection was on a SUNday and thus it is not found in the Word, for you need to remember that it was a pagan Roman Emperor who ordered it to be kept on a day that is totally related to the sun god and thus it had nothing to do with our Lord and Saviour, who Constantine did not believe in anyway!
The Word Commands us to Celebrate the Death of our Messiah!
While there is not one single Scripture commanding the Faithful in Messiah (*Messianic believers) to celebrate the moment of our Saviour’s resurrection, there are many plain ones commanding us to observe, in solemn ceremony, His DEATH on the “tree.”
*Rather than using the term “Christian,” the faithful in Messiah, who use the correct Names of our Heavenly Father and Messiah, and keep the Seventh Day Sabbath, etc, prefer to be known as “Messianic believers.” Sadly the term “Christian” has generally lost its full meaning these days, for there are “Christians” who have strayed greatly!
Shaul of Tarsus (
“For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Yahushua the same night in which He was betrayed took bread: And when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, ‘Take, eat: this is My body, which is broken for you: do this in remembrance of Me. After the same manner He took the (third Passover) cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the New Covenant in My blood: this do as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s death till He come” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) NIV.
This meal was not taken on the night of the actual Passover, but it was a Passover style meal held on the evening prior to the Passover, which was on the eve on the day known as the Day of Preparation when all of Israel would clean their homes of leaven. Thus this was the fourteenth of Nissan (also known as Abib), and remember that the Hebrew day commenced in the evening at the appearance of the first star. It was on that night Yahushua partook of the Passover foods and wine and He gave His disciples a whole new and different meaning of the meal, for everything He came to do on the earth was about to be completed. Thus this special meal was conducted some 17 to 24 hours before the actual Feast of the Passover was eaten on the Passover NIGHT, at the commencement of the fifteenth of Nisan. The lamb without spot and blemish (which was a picture or a type of our blessed Messiah) was always killed in the afternoon of the fourteenth of Nissan.
However Yahushua on that special pre Passover evening changed certain Passover symbols showing His disciples the new significance of what the unleavened bread and wine meant prophetically and that the believers should uphold this meal each year at Passover. It is the meal that Shaul of Tarsus (Paul) would much later refer to as “The Lord’s Supper.” To this day we the Messianic faithful in Yahushua continue to partake of this same Passover meal annually to this day and remember that “Messiah, our Passover was sacrificed for us.” 1 Corinthians 5:7.
In ancient
Although the greater Church, as with so many other things has changed the entire meaning of He who is “the Passover slain for us” and has turned it into a regular and in many ways and almost meaningless childish event rather than recreating that very night when Messiah and His disciples came together.
When Messiah Yahushua instituted the new Passover meaning, He commanded His disciples, “For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done unto you!” (John 13:15).
For centuries, Elohim has called, and His chosen servants continued to faithfully observe the “Lord’s Supper,” which the faithful in Messiah of course continue to call “The Passover Kiddush (Meal)” at Passover, once a year.
When an APOSTATE Roman Church began to IMPOSE the ancient pagan custom related to the of god of IShTAR, who was worshipped by Constantine (the “h” is silent, thus the pronunciation being “EASTER”), and commanded Christians to cease and desist from observing the Lord’s Supper on the fourteenth of Nisan, Praise YHVH Elohim, countless thousands of believers continued to do uphold it in defiance of Constantine and the “Council of Nicaea.”
For centuries, the faithful in Messiah who were also known as “The Protestor’s,” kept our Messiah’s commandments and *His example. But they were sought out and persecuted by means of hideous torture and murdered by the Roman Catholic Church. The “Quartodeciman Controversy” is documented through many centuries of history; “Quartodeciman” means “Fourteenth.”
*“Messiah also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps” (1 Peter 2:21).
Thus, history proves that Elohim’s faithful continued to follow the Messiah’s commandments, just as the apostles continued to teach, and they observed our Saviours DEATH at the Passover Meal and partook of the unleavened bread and the three cups of wine, but with the emphasis being on the third cup which always had been known as the “Cup of Redemption.”
Not at any time did the apostles or the faithful celebrate a sunrise service or the dawning of the first day of the week in “celebration of the resurrection.” They certainly did not revel amongst pagan symbols of fertility, such as coloured eggs, little chicks and bunny rabbits!
No the faithful families in Messiah would gathered together in their homes or in fellowships and follow Messiah’s Passover just as He instructed on the “night in which He was betrayed,” each year and not according to the pagan calendar but by the Scriptural one, as was used by our Lord and his disciples, and the Jewish people today!
Part Two
There would be ONLY ONE SIGN that Yahushua / Yeshua was the Messiah:
Unlike the Hebrew (Jewish) followers of Yahushua the Messiah, there were many people especially the Pharisees, just like many professing “Christians” today, who wanted to see a supernatural “sign,” so that Messiah could prove that He indeed had the “official Biblical” Messianic credentials. This is how Mattityahu (Matthew) recorded it:
“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.’ But He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and …
… 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 great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.’” Mattityahu (Matt) 12:38-40. NKJV.
The was tremendous significance in the sign that Yahushua gave to all of us then and today, but sadly it is missed by the vast majority of the faithful and just about 100% of the greater Church. The detail was based on the precise LENGTH OF TIME that our beloved Messiah would be in that tomb of Joseph of Arimathea!
Now think of what this really means! Our Lord and Saviour was NOT saying that the SIGN of His Messiah-ship would be related to the resurrection, NO. Instead He said that it would be the length of the time that He would be dead IN THE TOMB!”
Think and comprehend what He told us and do this without any preconceived ideas as given to us all by the Church and its teachers, but think instead as an individual who can read and understand THE WORD and what our Lord and Saviour said Himself!
Beloved, when you really think about it, we were all born into a “Ready Made World.” And the ready made world has a system, including beliefs that has its preconceived ideologies and theologies, and if anyone dares to challenge any of these they are reprimanded, and even accused of all sorts of things. But, the problem lies with the traditions of that ready made ideology, which seems to make everything that people believe as being right, and who dares to challenge it?
Well, I will, I did it with Judaism, for I oppose the Rabbinic Laws as being manmade and not from the Almighty, and those were the very laws that Shaul (Paul) spoke out against! I stand against the pagan festivals of easter, chistmas and halloween for they are all evil pagan ritualistic festivals that originate from days long before our Lord and Saviour came to the earth! I will stand against all things that the Roman Empire has stolen and turned it in to the “Holy Roman Catholic Church”, they have even dared to make the Vatican – “the “Holy Land” as seen just recently when thousands of Catholics went to Rome for the canonisation of an Australian nun, for on their bright yellow hats it said “Pilgrimage to the Holy Land.” And believe me, not one of them had been to Israel!
“ … no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”
It is hard to believe, but this truth has caused tremendous controversy and there is no end of devious circumventions, as human reasoning, evasions, convoluted explanations and outright falsehoods continue among those so-called “higher critics” and those so-called great “Christian scholars.”
The question is why? It is because they are steeped in the traditions of men and they have clung to their fables that surround traditions of “easter,” and therefore they have willingly REJECTED the ONLY SIGN our Lord and Saviour has given in HIS Word which gave us 100% PROOF that He was in fact, the Son of Elohim! The WORD, who was in the beginning, The WORD who was ELHOHIM, by who all things were made! THE MESSIAH!
None of these would-be scholars will admit he is REJECTING MESSIAH (“CHRIST”)! Never, they will simply use every excuse and every argument, to GET AROUND the plain statement that our MESSIAH Himself HAS GIVEN, and without knowing it, and in doing so they even cling to a FALSE “Messiah” of their own imagination, REJECTING the real Messiah of Nazareth whose Name is Yahushua, for the world worships another, whose name is “Hey-Zeus,” and I may be wrong, but I know I am not, but it sounds more like a Greek god to me, rather than the name of another Hebrew in the Word who has a whole Book named after him, his name is also “Yahushua.” However, we all know him as Joshua. Thus here is the BIG question, why do two people from the Scriptures with the same Hebrew names, with both being recorded in the Greek with the identical Greek name “Isous”, end up with such different names in reality. One, who is not the Messiah retains what sounds like the original, whilst our Lord and Saviour ends up with a name that sounds more like a well known Greek god - Zeus! And then that same Church changes the Passover truth’s into an Ishtar festival, with all of its pagan trimmings, and adds the equally pagan Christmas. Both of these feasts came about a thousand years or so before Yahushua was even born!
Thus the question is why do they do this? What reasons do they put forth to get around Messiah’s statements?
First, it is obvious that “Good Friday” to “Easter Sunday Morning” cannot fit into our Saviour’s simple statement that He would be in the tomb not only for “three days” but also for “three nights.” For, if He was entombed late on that man named day called “Good Friday,” then Friday sunset to Sabbath (Saturday) sunset is one night and one day; Sabbath sunset to Sunday sunset is two nights and two days, and Sunday sunset to Monday sunset is THREE NIGHTS AND THREE DAYS!
Now it would not take a rocket scientist to figure out that something is very wrong with the reckoning that He died on Good Friday and rose again on a Sunday! Therefore if that is wrong, then surely we may also well find that other things have been tempered with by the newly formed Church of Rome, which came out of paganism and not out of the faith of the apostles! The truth is, and it is documented it was Rome who persecuted them!
But many so-called brilliant scholars have decided to use something called “tact,” and agreed on the following, that Messiah’s statement was based on a “Greek idiom,” which meant only “part” of three days and “part” of three nights, or, in other words, just TWO nights, and ONE DAY! Thus, since they claim Messiah was buried on “Good Friday” just before sunset, He would have been in the tomb only all night Friday night (which is really not “Friday” at all, but “the Sabbath,” since the days began at sunset), all day “Saturday,” all night “Saturday night” and would have arisen AT SUNRISE on “Easter Sunday Morning!”
But beloved the truth is this, Yahushua never spoke in Greek to His disciples for they were Galileans, and the country people round about only spoke the local Aramaic dialect of the day, but when in prayer and reading any of the Scripture studies, they would ONLY use the Hebrew language, just as it is done in every Orthodox Jewish Synagogue to this very day, and every Jew continues to say all his blessings and prayers in Hebrew, not in the language of the country he lives in!
Also, Yahushua said specifically that He would be in the tomb “... AS JONAH WAS three days and three nights!” We need to remember that the Book of Jonah was written in HEBREW and certainly not in Greek or Aramaic! The only Scriptures that were in existence during the days of Messiah and the disciples were the Hebrew Scriptures the Tanach (the Old Testament)! The first book of the Brit Chadashah (the New Testament) the book containing Messiah’s words about the sign of Jonah, being the book of Matthew, was not written until many years later, and as we now know the Gospels were also written in Hebrew and only later translated into Greek!
There is no “Greek idiom” contained in Jonah!
Thus, if we listen to those so-called “Christian scholars” and your pastors and teachers, ask yourself this question - did Messiah not know the difference between a day and a night when He presented the ONLY SIGN that He would leave as a perpetual sign of His Divine origins; being His Messiah-ship, would He have used confusing language, something that the people who were listening to Him at that time did not understand? Was He attempting to confuse you and me today? The answer is simple - NO!
Yahushua said, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walks in the day, he stumbles not, because he sees the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbles, because there is no light in him” Yochannan (John) 11:9, 10.
Clearly, Yahushua stated there are twelve hours of daylight, and an equal time of darkness! At this occasion He was using a spiritual analogy, but it is absolutely PROVED that when Yahushua said “three DAYS” He meant three periods of twelve hour daylight, and three periods of equal darkness, three days and three nights! There are not three periods of twelve hours of daylight between “Good Friday” at sunset and Ishtar (pronounced “Easter” today) Sunday morning! Instead, there are only TWELVE HOURS of daylight, ONE twelve-hour day, the day we call “Saturday!”
The so-called “higher critics” admit that Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for seventy-two hours. Yahushua said He would be in the tomb for the exact same amount of time! WHY?
For the very important reason that to remain in the tomb for such a protracted period of time would remove any last vestige of doubt about whether Messiah had truly DIED or not! When Yahushua resurrected Lazarus, He was warned that Lazarus had been in the grave for four days and nights, and warned that there would be a terrible odour, for his body would have begun to decompose by this time!
Notice the account. Messiah had arrived at the tomb where Lazarus had been buried when “Yahushua said, Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said unto him, Lord, by this time he stinks: for he has been dead for four days” Yochannan (John) 11:39).
All knew that Yahushua had been mercilessly, horribly beaten with a “scourge,” like a “cat o’ nine tails,” or a lash with bits of stone or metal woven into the tips! His flesh had been ripped and torn! Thus the Word of YHVH Elohim states …
“See, My servant will act wisely; He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at Him, His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and His form marred beyond human likeness (so much so that He almost did not look human!), so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of Him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.” Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 52:13-15.
In the moving prophecy about Messiah’s sufferings is also found in Tehillim (Psalms) 22, where it says,
“My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and My tongue cleaves to My jaws; and You have brought Me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed Me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed Me: they pierced My hands and my feet. I may tell (count) all My bones (they had flayed His flesh from His ribs!): they look and stare upon Me. They part My garments among them, and cast lots upon My vesture. But be not thou far from Me, O YHVH: O My strength, haste thee to help Me” Tehillim (Psalms) 22:15- 19.
Before our beloved gave His life freely, for no man could take His life, Yochannan - John 19:34 states: “One of the soldiers pierced Yahushua’s side with a spear (fulfilling Zech12:10), … The man who saw it gave testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” The truth is normally the Romans would break the legs of those on the stake, but they did not do this with our Lord and Saviour, thus unknowingly they were fulfilling yet another prophecy from Tehillim – Psalm 34:20.
Beloved, the ABSOLUTE PROOF that Yahushua was the Messiah and the Son of Elohim He simply had to go into the “heart of the earth” for exactly “three days and three nights” or to be precise seventy-two hours! WHY - for Yahushua our beloved Messiah clearly stated this!
Definition of Days and Nights as found in The Word of YHVH Elohim!:
Yahushua the Messiah told His disciples that He would “rise the THIRD DAY!” Now, the question is quite simple; what is the Scriptural definition of the third day?
“And Elohim said, Let there be light: and there was light. And Elohim saw the light, that it was good: and Elohim divided the light from the darkness. And Elohim called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening (darkness) and the morning (light) were (together!) the first day (or One Day).” Bereshis (Genesis) 1:3-5).
The Hebrew word for “day” is “Yom”. It means a normal twenty-four hour day, but in the Hebrew Scriptural context as written and spoken by Yahushua it always commences at sunset, or at seeing the first star, with approximately twelve hours of darkness, and twelve hours of light, pending on the season.
Notice further Scriptural proof about the meaning of “days” as found in the Word available at the time when Messiah made His prediction from the book of Jonah. Esther asked all the Hebrews to fast for “three days.” Now notice what she said:
“Go, gather together all the Judeans who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish." So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther's instructions. On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king's hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall, facing the entrance.” Esther 4:16-17 & 5:1.
Just as in Messiah’s day, the expression “on the third day”, which meant when the full period of three days and three nights had been completed!
Now you have the Scriptural definition of the meaning of the “three days and three nights”! Even a little child in the first few grades of primary school would be able understand such a simple definition, yet the so-called great Christian scholar cannot, why, because they are deceivers, it is as simple as that and it is the god of the world who rules over the greater church and them, even though they may not be aware of it, for the deceived usually are not!
Yahushua had said, “After three days I will rise again!” When His Roman *murderers reminded their authorities of this statement, His tomb was not only sealed, but they placed an armed guard and made sure that they would remain there!
“The next day, the day after the Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘we remember that while He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, His disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that He has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.’ – ‘Take a guard,’ Pilate answered. ‘Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.’ So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.” Mattityahu (Matthew) 27:62-66.
Notice that statement carefully! It was the DAY AFTER THE PREPARATION, obviously most have mistakenly assumed that it was the weekly Sabbath (Saturday)! As you shall see, it was NOT the day before the weekly Sabbath, but “the preparation day” that occurred prior to an ANNUAL High Sabbath Day of “The Feast of Unleavened Bread” that commenced in that year on a (Thursday, or Wednesday evening), being the first day of the seven day feast. Then there was the weekly Sabbath on the Saturday. The question is thus how do we really know that our Lord was in that Tomb on a Wednesday night? There is a very simple answer to this, your very own Word of YHVH Elohim (Bible) tells you this, although it does take a little knowledge of Hebrew understanding of the time, and dumping of your current traditions and what has been taught, for sadly it hinders, and that is just how the devil likes it. But, we are to be over-comers and in the Name of Yahushua, we can overcome and learn His Word and His truth!
Yahushua had also said, “Destroy this temple (referring to His body), and IN THREE DAYS I will raise it up ... But He spoke of the temple of His body” Yochannan (John) 2:19-21.
Obviously, from several absolute proofs, the expression “in three days” does NOT mean AFTER ONLY TWO DAYS, but during a part of the third day. No, it means “after three full days” as we have already seen, and I know that I could be accused of labouring the subject a little, but there are good reasons for this!
The so-called “higher critics” make little to no mention regarding the appeal by the priests to Pilate! WHY? Because they did not ask that the sepulchre be made secure for just a day or so, but for the full “three days and three nights!” Is it not amazing, they did not speak using a “Greek idiom either!” No, they remembered that Yahushua had specifically stated that He would be three days and three nights in the tomb! They believed that, but our priests, pastors and scholars past and present certainly won’t!
*Just a reminder: Although technically the
Romans placed our Saviour on that tree to die, it was they who decided to nail
Him, whilst others were not, it was the Romans who pierced Him, and these
things were not done by the Judeans. Yes the Judeans at the gathering earlier
did say “Kill Him”, etc, but they never evoked the scourging with the
cat of nine tails, nor the way the execution was carried out. That was 100%
What Was The TIME OF DAY When Messiah Was Buried?
Can we know the time of day when Messiah was entombed? For if we can determine the time of day, all we need do is count seventy two hours from that time to determine the exact time of the resurrection!
We have seen, from Messiah’s own words; from the Scriptural definition of the number of hours in a day; from The Hebrews’ (the priests) own fears and determination to set a watch for a full three days and nights over the tomb, for Messiah did NOT say He would be only TWO NIGHTS AND ONE DAY in the tomb, but THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS!
Anyone who refuses to accept this ONLY SIGN of Him being the true Messiah is in fact rejecting real Yahushua who is the Messiah of Nazareth and accepting a false “Messiah” who may be even known by another name and who never existed; in fact a Roman pagan myth with a name that was derived from a well known Greek god!
Now, notice what Mark wrote:
“For He taught His disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill Him; and after that He is killed, He shall rise the third day” (Mark 9:31).
The duration of time Messiah expressed could not be one second PAST 72 hours for Messiah to rise from the dead “the third day!” Therefore, it could not have been from Friday sunset to “Sunday” sunrise, which would be only 36 hours; two nights, and one day!
Messiah was quoted by the Hebrews (who were obviously speaking HEBREW, not in idiomatic Greek!) as having said, “After three days I will rise again!” Thus this cannot possibly be figured in less than 72 hours!
Yochannan (John) wrote, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Judeans, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and will You tear it up in three days? But He spoke of the temple of His body. When therefore He was risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this unto them; and they believed the Scripture, and the Word which Yahushua had said” Yochannan (John) 2:19-22.
This conversation was in Hebrew; and NOT in “Greek idiom!”
Unlike those rather unlearned “higher critics,” who are a product of a “Ready Made World” that is filled with preconceived traditions of men that do not agree with the Holy Word of YHVH Elohim! The disciples REMEMBERED exactly what Yahushua had said, and it was because of this and His many appearances to them after His resurrection that “they BELIEVED.”
Beloved in Messiah let me you assure you that our Saviour was indeed in that tomb for 72 hours, EXACTLY!
Now, THINK! For the resurrection to have been AT SUNRISE as is generally believed, would have meant that the BURIAL had to be AT SUNRISE, 72 hours earlier! But the Word states that Messiah was NOT buried at sunrise, but just before SUNSET on the day that was still called “the preparation,” for that evening was Passover Mattityahu (Matthew) 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54.
It was soon after the “ninth hour” or at about three o’clock in the afternoon when Yahushua “cried out” loudly Mattityahu (Matthew) 27:46-50; Mark 15:34-37; Luke 23:44-46). The preparation day would end at sunset, according to Bible reckoning, Vayikra (Leviticus) 23:32.
Joseph of Arimathea came to claim the body of Yahushua and accomplish the burial at some time after 3:00 PM, but before sunset on that “preparation” day, which was the day before A Sabbath!
“As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Yoseph, who had himself become a disciple of Yahushua. Going to Pilate, he asked for Yahushua’s body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Yoseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Miriam (Mary) Magdalene and the other Miriam (Mary) were sitting there opposite the tomb. The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘we remember that while He was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.’” Mattityahu (Matthew) 27:57-63.
Now notice the parallel account in Luke’s chronology:
“This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Yahushua.
And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.
And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath (Passover) drew on.
And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how His body was laid.
And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment” Luke 23:52-56.
The laws required the Hebrews to bury a dead body BEFORE A SABBATH DAY began! Therefore, haste was made to bury the body of Yahushua BEFORE SUNSET on that preparation day. John wrote,
“There laid they Yahushua therefore because of the Judean’ preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand” Yochannan (John) 19:42.
Yahushua the Messiah was buried before sunset on the same day He died, in a tomb very near to the “place of the skull”, which is also known as “Golgotha.” Since the burial of Yahushua the Messiah occurred some time after 3:00 P.M., and before sunset on the “preparation day,” it follows that He was resurrected at the very SAME TIME OF DAY exactly 72 hours later!
If He was buried on a “Friday,” (which He was not, as we shall soon see) then He would have remained in the tomb all of Friday night, all of Saturday daytime, all of Saturday night, all of Sunday daytime, all of Sunday night, until late in the afternoon on a MONDAY!
But Messiah did not remain in the tomb until Monday! Clearly, the tomb was EMPTY when the disciples came to see it while it was YET DARK, “as it BEGAN TO DAWN toward the first day of the week!” IN other words, early on the First day, or what we now call after the calendar change, a SUNday morning.
Notice Luke’s account of the resurrection:
“Now upon the first day of the week (being a Hebrew he uses the Hebrew calendar and day system, for they knew no other), 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 Yahushua. 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 (obviously, this is past tense; He had already risen!): remember how He spoke to you when He was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again’” Luke 24:1-7.
It was in the pre-dawn darkness when Messiah’s followers first approached the empty tomb! It was not at sunrise! Notice Yochannan’s (John’s) account:
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Miriam (Mary) Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Chefa (Peter) and the other disciple, the one Yahushua loved, and said, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put Him!’ So Chefa (Peter) and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Chefa (Peter) and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Chefa (Peter), who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Yahushua’s head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Yahushua had to rise from the dead.)” Yochannan (John) 20:1-9. Words in italics were added by translators and writers later and in reality have no validity whatsoever! Yet many “Bibles” have them as fact!
Since Messiah was buried on a late afternoon, some time just prior to sunset on the day of “preparation” and since He plainly staked His claim to divine office; His very Messiah-ship, on the precise length of time He would be in the tomb, and since He HAD ALREADY RISEN prior to the time the disciples came to the empty tomb while it was dark, then Yahushua MUST have been placed in the tomb late in the afternoon on the Forth Day, being Wednesday!
But wait! How is this possible?
Haven’t we read, time and again, that it was the “preparation” day? And isn’t the “preparation” day the day before the SABBATH? And this Sabbath was obviously not the weekly or Saturday.
The answer is found in the fact that YHVH Elohim also instituted a good number of Annual Sabbaths, or “high Holy Days,” all being a picture of His plan of Salvation. All these are clearly laid out in Leviticus 23, where the “Seven Feasts of YHVH” also known to many as the “Seven Feasts of Israel” are clearly described. Notice what Elohim’s Word says about these feast days of Elohim:
“And YHVH spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, concerning the feasts of YHVH, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts. Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of YHVH in all your dwellings. These are the feasts of YHVH, even holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto YHVH: seven days you must eat unleavened bread. In the first day you shall have a holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein” Vayikra (Leviticus) 23:1-7.
This holy day could fall on whichever day of the week happened to be the fifteenth day of the month called “Abib” or also known as "Nissan" whether or not it was the seventh day, or the weekly Sabbath. It was called one of Elohim’s “Sabbaths,” and was celebrated as a special “high day” Sabbath.
Notice another example:
“Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets (the Shofar) a holy convocation” Vayikra (Leviticus) 23:24.
Regardless as to which day of the week upon which the first day of the seventh month fell; whether a Monday or a Thursday, it was called a “Sabbath!”
Messiah Our Passover Is
Sacrificed For Us!
For centuries, Elohim’s TRUE believers,
the messianic faithful observed the annual “Passover” and Seven
Days of “Unleavened Bread” in the form of a special meal as shown
by our Lord and Saviour, with unleavened bread and wine, etc and this is the
most important event in the believer’s calendar, for Yahushua commanded
for us to uphold it each year! The paschal lamb, which typified Messiah, was
sacrificed in the afternoon, which was as we know from the Word on the
“preparation” day for the Feast. This annual high day Sabbath is
the first annual Holy Day of the year.
Our beloved Messiah had a spear’s thrust in him, followed a horrible beating, in which skin and flesh was flayed from His body!
Our beloved Messiah suffered greatly for us, as He was mocked and received a horrible beating, in which skin and flesh was flayed from His body. Then having to carry that cross beam up the hill He was nailed to that tree and He did hang there until a spear was trust into His side. He died at the same moment the High Priest was slaughtering the first sacrificial lamb!
From the time of the Exodus, this ceremony had been accomplished on the fourteenth of Abib “at even,” meaning just before sunset “at the going away of the sun.” The lamb was then roasted, and the Feast was eaten in the night time of the fifteenth of Abib/Nissan. All this happened just as Elohim commanded Moshe in Shemot – (Exodus) 12:5 to 10.
Tragically millions of people who observe that pagan feast of Ishtar (pronounced “Easter”) are absolutely IGNORANT of the events surrounding the death, burial, and resurrection of our beloved Messiah. They know NOTHING about the Days of “Passover” and “Unleavened Bread” that immediately followed! It is because of this, they do not know that the “Sabbath” which was coming after Messiah’s death that caused the haste with which He was buried, did in fact occur late on a Wednesday!
It was on that Wednesday evening and on that Thursday which was the first annual Sabbath of that year; the first Feast day of “Unleavened Bread” after the Hebrews slaughtered the lambs and kids in the ancient Passover ceremony! The lambs and kids were slaughtered in the afternoon of the FOURTEENTH of the first month!
Now, notice Yochannan’s (John’s) eyewitness account of which day of the week it was when Messiah was slain:
“When Yahushua therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the spirit (exhaled; breathed His last). The Judeans therefore, because it was the (day of) preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the tree on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away” Yochannan (John) 19:30,31.
Of course! This HIGH day Sabbath was the ANNUAL Sabbath; the first day of Unleavened Bread! It was followed by the day we call “Friday,” then “Saturday,” or the WEEKLY Sabbath!
Count back from the time of Messiah’s resurrection, late on a weekly Sabbath afternoon, and you come to late Wednesday afternoon! Wednesday was the “preparation day” prior to the FEAST day on that Thursday, which was the fifteenth of Nisan, or Abib!
The calendar proves that the only year in a sequence of years when the first day of Unleavened Bread fell on a Thursday was in 31 AD! But the so-called “scholars” WILL NOT ever choose 31 AD, even though it is the ONLY year in which all the parameters FIT!
Instead, they will choose the years 29, 30, 32 or 33, deliberately avoiding 31 AD!
A little simple research proves that Messiah was born in “4 BC” according to the flawed pagan and satanic inspired Roman calendar. He was exactly 33 1/2 when He was killed. He was thirty when His public ministry began. The prophecies stated He was to perform a seven year ministry, and was to be “cut off in the middle of the week!” Thus, not only was He cut off in the exact middle of His seven year ministry, leaving another three and one half years to be fulfilled AFTER His second coming - See Yeshayahu – (Isaiah) 66:19-23, and He was also cut off in the MIDDLE OF THE WEEK!
The prophecy says;
“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 9:27).
The sacrifices and oblations CEASED for believers when Messiah rose from the dead, for now the reality which had cast the shadow had come. There was no longer any need for a “schoolmaster” to lead toward Messiah, for Messiah had now come in the flesh!
Messiah came to “confirm the covenant” by preaching repentance and salvation for three and one half years.
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Notice what Dr. Bullinger says in his Appendix concerning the events surrounding the crucifixion:
“That Sabbath and the high day of John 19:31, was the ‘holy convocation,’ the first day of the feast, which quite overshadowed the ordinary weekly Sabbath ... this great Sabbath, having been mistaken from the earliest times for the weekly Sabbath, has led to all the confusion ... We have therefore the following facts furnished for our sure guidance:
“1. The
‘high day’ of John 19:31 was the first day of the feast.
“2. The
‘first day of the feast’ was on the 15th day of Nisan.
“3. The 15th
day of Nisan commenced at sunset on what we should call the 14th.
“4. ‘Six
days before the Passover’ [
“5. After two days is the Passover’ [Matt. 26:2;
“6. ‘The
first day of the week,’ was the day of the resurrection [Matt. 28:1,
&c.], was from our Saturday sunset to our Sunday sunset. This fixes the
days of the week, just as the above fix the days of the month, for,
“7. Reckoning back
from this, ‘three days and three nights’ [Matt. 12:40], we arrive
at the day of the burial, which must have been before sunset, on the 14th of
Nisan; i.e. before our Wednesday sunset.
“Therefore Wednesday, Nisan 14th [commencing on the Tuesday at sunset], was ‘the preparation day’, on which the crucifixion took place: for all four Gospels definitely say that this was the day on which the Lord was buried [before our Wednesday sunset], because it was the preparation [day] that the bodies should not remain on the cross [Greek: Stauro, meaning an upright pale] on the Sabbath day, ‘for that Sabbath day was a high day,’ and, therefore, not the ordinary seventh day, or weekly Sabbath. See John 19:31” (The Companion Bible, Bullinger, Appendix 156, p. 180).
***************************
It is because people have blindly assumed that the “preparation day” was a Friday that they thought Messiah was not buried until late on a Friday, and thus remained in the tomb only two nights and one daylight period!
Did Yahushua Messiah Fulfil His Sign?
Unless Yahushua the Messiah was in the tomb EXACTLY as long as He said he would be, you have no Saviour! Yahushua staked His claim on being the Messiah on being exactly three days and three nights in the tomb!
For centuries, because fallible men, many of whom were smitten with anti-Semitism, who desperately wanted to rid the apostate Church of all things that were even remotely “Jewish,” claimed they were worshiping on SUNDAY in “honour of the resurrection!”
But, if you have been reading this very rather lengthy study very carefully you should already know the answer, for Messiah DID NOT RISE ON SUNDAY! The angels told the two Miriam’s (Marys), “He is NOT HERE!” They said “HE IS RISEN!” They did not use the present tense that He was just then “rising,” but the past tense, saying He had already risen! There is simply no question about the days of the month, the days of the week, or the hours of those days in which these MOST IMPORTANT events occurred!
Saul (Paul) wrote, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Good News which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein you stand; By which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Messiah died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures: And that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, He was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all He was seen by me also, as of one born out of due time” 1 Corinthians 15:1-8.
Shaul (Paul) said “...according to the Scriptures.”
Thus, remember, the only “scriptures” available during Paul’s days were those of the “Tanach” or the “Old Testament” and thus he had to be including Messiah’s reference to Jonah, and the fact that he was exactly “three days and three nights” in the belly of the great fish, as well as referring to Messiah’s statements which were so faithfully recorded by the apostles.
The apostles believed because they saw the living proof, Yahushua Messiah of Nazareth, now GLORIFIED; able to appear and disappear at will; able to materialize within a room enclosed by stone walls! They were so CONVICTED by the proofs they saw that many of them were martyred for their faith! Men do not go willingly to their deaths by crucifixion, burning, or beheading because they believe in a hoax!
Now, notice one final proof! Only the Fenton translation of the English from the Greek takes note of the fact that the word for “Sabbath” in Matthew 28:1 is in the plural! In a footnote to this text in his translation, he says, “The Greek original is in the plural; Sabbaths” for there were more than one Sabbath’s that week!
Yes, believe it or not, the simple truth is that the resurrection was NOT on a Sunday but at the very same time that Yahushua, our beloved Messiah was placed in that tomb, but 72 hours later, and that was late in the afternoon, close to the ‘EREV” or “EVE” – “BEGINNING” of the first day, but it will have still been on the actual Sabbath day, which happened to be the “Seventh Day” or as we know it - “Saturday”!
Yahushua Messiah commanded His disciples, and He commands US, today, to observe the symbols of His DEATH each year (1 Corinthians 11:23-30) at the “Lord’s Supper.” He told His disciples, “HAPPY are ye if ye do these things.”
Beloved the faithful in Him uphold Passover
& Unleavened Bread annually as commanded by our Lord and Saviour. The
greater church has changed it into a weekly or bi-weekly ritual which is not
what he commanded and has taken certain Scriptures out of context. To take
“Bread” together in the Middle Eastern idiom, even in the Greek,
simply means to eat, or have a meal together! Nothing more or less!
Shalom in
Messiah - Yahushua.
May YHVH Elohim bless and keep you in the palm of His hand always, in Messiah Yahushua’s loving Name!
Ministry Elder & teacher:
***********************************************
“Teach me Your way, O YHVH. I will
walk in Your truth.
Unite my heart to fear Your Name!”
Tehillim (Psalms) 86:11
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