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March 30, 2023
Aaron M. Brewster, President of Evermind Ministries, a Biblical counselor, author, podcaster & conference speaker, who will address:
“A CASE for a THURSDAY CRUCIFIXION”
Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister George Norcross, and sports legend Jim Thorpe, it's Iron Sharpens Iron.
This is a radio platform in which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today. Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better. It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.
And now, here's your host, Chris Arnson.
Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is Chris Arnson, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Thursday on this 30th day of March, 2023.
I'm always delighted to have a frequently returning guest on the program, A .M. Brewster, who is president of Evermind Ministries, a biblical counselor, author, podcaster, and conference speaker, in addition to being a sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
Today, he is going to be addressing something out of the ordinary from what you normally hear from Aaron. Aaron, he typically, on this program, deals with matters that would fall underneath the umbrella of biblical counseling.
But today, we're going to be exploring a different area. In fact, it's an area that I've never before addressed on my program, and the theme of our discussion today is a case for a Thursday crucifixion.
Obviously, since the phrase Good Friday is a phrase that the majority of the citizens of the planet Earth immediately recognize, even if they are not Christian, they know that Good Friday has something to do with commemorating the death of Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross as a payment for sin.
And then the following Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, known as Easter, is something that is celebrated by Christians globally. But there have been different views on the day of the crucifixion that have been supported by different Christians throughout the world and throughout history, and I'm almost certain, and if anybody listening is an expert or is very knowledgeable on a Reformed hero, Lorraine Bettner, I have in the back of my mind somewhere that Lorraine Bettner believed in a Wednesday crucifixion, not a Friday or a Thursday.
And so this is something that should not shock anyone, just because he is taking a different stance than tradition normally holds. Of course, this is not something—Good Friday, that is—is not something that is taught in the Scripture specifically, and there are even some who are Protestants and perhaps even especially either Reformed or Fundamentalists, there are some who don't believe in celebrating a day such as Good Friday because it smacks too much of Roman Catholicism to them, and they believe that honoring the Lord's death and resurrection should be done every day in the life of a Christian and publicly every Lord's Day in some fashion.
But I am not saying that I hold that position, and I'm not saying that I agree with my guest today because, to be perfectly honest, I've never thoroughly researched this issue, so I am sure I am going to find this fascinating, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Trip and Zion Radio, A .M. Burster.
Thanks a lot. I am excited. I am experiencing a little bit of trepidation. I put out on my social media, I was telling people about this opportunity, and I said, you know, submit your questions to ChrisAronson at gmail .com, and then I said, and I put in parentheses, submit your questions, or scathing criticisms.
So, you know, I'm interested in receiving a little bit of pushback here. I'm not going to spend necessarily, I guess, a ton of time, you know, debating the, you know, submitted questions, certain points, but no doubt some questions will come in that might be really valuable to jump on.
And if you just want to call me a tradition-breaking phony, I suppose you can send an email to that effect as well.
Well, we wouldn't want people to encourage slander, because even if you're incorrect on that, I think that that would be an extreme way to identify you.
Oh, I've been called worse, but you're right. No slander allowed.
And so have I. And I'm actually including my own church leaders. No, I'm only kidding. Tell our listeners about Evermind Ministries for the sake of those especially who have not yet heard you on this program.
Yeah, so Evermind Ministries is a collection of ministries. Evermind's focus is to keep God's truth at the center of the human experience. And we all have lots of different experiences that make up our human experience.
And so Truth Love Family was created to keep God's truth at the center of the family. And we have an award-winning podcast called Truth Love Parent associated with that. That was actually one of the first of the ministries to be started and kind of like one of our first websites that we created.
So, I always point people to truthloveparent .com forward slash iron for extra content and for all of yours and my conversations. After that, though, we started the year-long Celebration of God that also has a podcast called the Celebration of God.
Everything that we're going to talk about today actually grows from my experience with the Celebration of God and how the Lord worked in my own heart and pressed me to study this and so on and so forth.
I'll talk a little bit more about that later. But the Celebration of God is about how we can worship God better this year than we did last year by utilizing both the Christian holiday calendar as well as all the other days, the every days we call them.
So, the Celebration of God is a newer ministry, but it's definitely ramping up and getting some more traction. Very excited about this conversation today. And then another of the Evermind Ministries is Faith Tree Biblical Counseling and Discipleship, which focuses primarily on biblical crisis counseling as well as general discipleship from somebody who's in a position where they don't have anyone to really genuinely sharpen them the way they should, either because they're in between churches or they're attending a weak church, which, by the way, if you're in that case, if you don't have somebody in your church who you can be in a discipleship relationship with them, there is something wrong.
There is something wrong. And that really needs to be rectified. That might be finding a new church, but it might just be becoming the person who looks for it and asks for it and engages with it. So those are a couple of them.
Then there's A .M. Brewster Ministries, which specifically is just the traveling and speaking side of things. By the way, just a little note here, if you happen to live in northern Indiana, I will be at a conference, a parenting, one-day parenting conference at Berean Reformed Baptist Church.
I would pronounce, try to pronounce the town they're in, but I think I'm going to get it wrong. It's O-S-C-E-O-L-A. Do you know what it is, Chris?
You know something? I can't remember, but I think that is the former church where Justin Peters was a member and he moved to a different state. I'm thinking Montana. But who is the pastor there?
Well, the gentleman who's putting on the conference is an associate pastor named Pastor Kevin James, and I got connected to that church through Andrew Rappaport, and Andrew's going to be there speaking at this as well as some other guys who are part of Andrew's podcast family.
So yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to be exciting. It's going to be a one-day event there, so we're looking forward to that. So if you're in the area come April 29th, you should definitely check that out.
So I think that would be an encouragement. Anyway, so that's kind of Evermind Ministries, what we've got going on, what we're doing.
Yes, and I think I may have the wrong church in mind. I'm thinking of Kootenai Community Church in Kootenai, Idaho.
Well, that's not the one.
And the pastor there is Jim Osmond, by the way, if anybody listening lives near that city and state. Well, Kevin James is the one running this. I just have to tip my hat to one of the most hilarious comic actors I've ever seen.
Everybody probably remembers the King of Queens, one of the most funny sitcoms that ever aired on television, obviously.
And when I got an email from Kevin James asking me to speak and preach at a parenting conference, I was like, this has got to be a different guy.
Yes, and when Kevin James is sitting in the pew listening to a guest speaker preach, if he thinks that that preacher has gone on too long, he will say, shuddy. Only a fan of the King of Queens would understand that.
Wow.
But, well, I hope that folks will attend that conference, and you can repeat that toward the end of the program. So anybody in that area or anybody who wants to travel to that area can attend. Now, what on earth led you to begin to investigate a Thursday claim for the crucifixion?
Were you someone that held to the traditional view of Friday as being the day? And did you even celebrate Good Friday, as many of us do? And who are the figures involved, if any? The figures from church history, either from long ago or perhaps even contemporary living Christian heroes of yours that may have or may advocate that Thursday view?
Tell us all about that.
So it goes back a long time ago. I'm not sure if you ever, sitting in a church pew as a young person, heard a pastor talking about the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ, and talking about how he was three days and three nights in the grave.
And you kind of start doing the math in your head, okay? So he was buried before Friday night, and then there's Saturday during the day and Saturday night, and then is it Saturday night or is it Sunday morning?
How does that work? But you're counting and you're like, I'm missing something, right? I'm missing something. My family has always attended church, and I've been born again since the age of nine. And so there was always that little seed in there.
I do remember once or twice somebody I've moved 22 times. I've attended a lot of churches, been a member of a lot of churches. I don't remember exactly who they were, but I do remember a couple times having a pastor from the pulpit acknowledge that there's a very good possibility that Jesus was not crucified on a Friday, and they may have spoken to it to some degree.
And I remember sitting there as a child being like, okay, that makes a whole lot more sense. But that was pretty much lost the time. And fast forward, I'm working at Victory Academy for Boys. Truth Love Family is in full swing, and I'm working with these boys.
And the Lord is just really impressing on me the fact that actually, I take that back. I need to move back a little bit. My children were both born before we moved to Victory Academy for Boys. And my wife and I realized that we needed to do a better job with our kids when it came to, like, their anticipation of Christmas.
Right? My love for Christmas was always the lights and the gifts and the weather and the sweets and all that kind of stuff. And as an adult, I really started to realize, you know, I'm celebrating Christmas to Aaron's honor and glory.
Aaron's you know, I'm consuming these pleasures really for me. I tip my hat and I praise God for, you know, the incarnation, but really the vast majority of the time is for me. And as I reflected on this, my wife and I both came to the conclusion that really of all of the celebrations that we Christians have together as a world body, Easter should be, like, the number one, top of the list, biggest, awesomest celebration, you know, corporate celebration that we have.
And so that was a that took some rethinking, retooling for me because I never really cared that much. I mean, again, as a child, it was more about, you know, candy, but, you know, you're going to church.
It's kind of like, you know, any Christmas that landed on a Sunday was like, oh, you know, but Easter's always on a Sunday, so you're like, oh. Admittedly, I'm saying all of this just to admit the fact that I wasn't really approaching these days, any of these holidays really with God's view in mind.
And when the Lord shook me and helped me realize that I need to set a better example for my children, he deserves better for me. That was the grain ideas of what would eventually become the ministry of the year-long celebration of God.
Now, skip to Victory Academy. I'm working with all these at-risk teens, and they're in my house for up to a year, and Easter and other holidays happen to fall during that time. And I'm realizing this is just a really wonderful time to point these boys to God, again, to help steer them away from doing what I did and just liking the holidays for what we get out of it, but really to give God the preeminence.
And so I started to work on a tool that was for Truth Love Family, for the Truth Love Parent podcast, that basically was a tool for parents to use to disciple their children by using the everydays as well as the holidays.
And as I started to build out that tool, I would focus on individual holidays, and I would talk about traditionally how Christians would approach it, the pitfalls that we fall into as well as the ways that we can truly worship God and give him the preeminence on these days.
And when I got to Easter, I really wanted to dig into it because I and by the way, I'll refer to it as Resurrection Sunday, I'll refer to it as Easter, I'll go back and forth. I actually prefer Resurrection Sunday, but Easter is my habit growing up, so that tends to come out more often than not.
But anyway, so I really wanted to dig into it so that I could grow and better appreciate what this whole tradition, this whole celebration was about. And so I started to dig into it. And as I did that, these questions from my past would come back up, especially as I would encounter certain things in the scriptures.
And I'm like, well, there it is again, three days and three nights, after three days, and all this other kind of stuff. And I'd be like, well, it just doesn't Friday just doesn't seem to make sense.
And so I dug into it deeper and deeper and deeper. And that's kind of how I got on this trajectory. And man, I wish I had the time. I might just even talk about the process of how I came to understand these things, and the study that I did, and the different things that I would find.
All of that to say, just real quick, so the celebration of God became a bigger thing, became its own ministry. Originally, it was created as a tool for families to use in discipleship, but I saw the impact it was having on my life and on my friends' lives, and so it became its own thing.
So you can always check out celebrationofgod .com to learn more about that. So through this process, that's kind of where I came, and I really realized that there were two main things that were significant for me, two things that I gained by recognizing the fact that it's very, very possible I'll leave the door cracked open, then I'm 100 wrong on this, but it's very, very, very possible that God, Jesus, was crucified on a Thursday.
And as I've debated this, I've had a chance to be on Andrew Rappaport's Apologetics Live and debate this a little bit, and I've debated this with other people. I always ask him this question, what do you gain by observing the crucifixion on Friday?
What do you gain? And the general answers that I've gotten, sometimes I don't really have an answer, they don't give me an answer, but sometimes the answers that I've received are basically, well, you know, we don't have to change our calendars, and these are all said tongue-in-cheek because they realize it's not really a good answer.
You know, well, we celebrate it with all the other Christians across the world who celebrate on Good Friday and things like that. Those are really the only answers that I receive when I ask so, if one of your listeners has an answer to this, what do you gain by saying, no, we will observe this on a Friday, and here's the reason why we gain X, Y, and Z?
For me, I gained something by starting to observe Good Thursday, we'll call it that, the crucifixion on a Thursday, and I want to kind of share those things with you guys and talk about them as we unfold this.
How much time do you think I should take? Because I want to kind of start just looking at the traditional view, a couple quotes from some people we respect.
You have about 15 minutes.
Oh, perfect, good. I wanted to start with just two quotes from men that we likely know and respect about what I'm going to call the traditional view. It's kind of hard to call it that because I don't know if it was always held, especially earlier on.
But one of those men is Scott Anuel. Scott Anuel is a friend of mine. I grew up going to church with him, and he works for G3 Ministries now.
Oh, yeah.
But somebody that you you know Scott? Okay, good. And somebody else you might have heard of, John MacArthur. And I'm going to start with John MacArthur's, and I want you guys to know, I respect and love both of these men.
I listen to what they put out. I read what they put out. I promote them. I encourage people to listen to what they have to say, okay? I love both of these men. But we're going to disagree on some points, and I'm reading this just to kind of set the stage.
I just went online, and I just searched, you know, grace to you or John MacArthur, Thursday crucifixion. I did the same thing. Scott Anuel's stuff came up. This is what John MacArthur said. Quote, some people have difficulty reconciling what Jesus said in Matthew 12, 40 about the length of his stay in the grave.
And he quotes him. He says, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He goes on to say, does that mean Jesus had to be in the earth three full days and nights?
And he answers his own question, no. Many commentators take the view and back the sorry, many commentators take that view and back the crucifixion to Thursday. So the three days and three nights are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with his rising on Sunday.
And then he says the obvious problem with that view is that we are left with a fourth day resurrection. And he finishes off by saying, yet all the passages in Scripture dealing with this issue indicate he was to rise on the third day.
That eliminates the need for interpreting Matthew 12, 40 as referring to three 24-hour periods. The phrase three days and three nights was simply an idiom of the Jewish people referring to a three-day period.
And, you know, you hear John MacArthur say that, right? And you're like, okay, you know, you don't even have to do your own study. If John MacArthur said that, you're like, well, I'm done, you know? And yet I am going to continue with this interview.
I'm not giving up. And then Scott Anuel said this. He actually refers to the Wednesday crucifixion that you mentioned earlier. And that's right. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are the more common views.
Most people fall into Friday. The next largest group falls into Thursday. And the third largest group falls into Wednesday. And he says the Wednesday crucifixion requires that Jesus have risen into sorry, have ridden into Jerusalem on the Saturday, which would have been another Sabbath violation, as would the cutting down of palm branches.
It was Christ rising on the fourth day it has Christ rising on the fourth day if the quote-unquote third day is also the first day of the week. And then he says there is simply no evidence that Nisan 15, that is the just so you guys know, that is the Jewish month and date for the sorry, the day after the Passover.
He says there was simply no evidence that Nisan 15, the day after Passover, was a day on which no one worked. This is essentially a theory held only by those who hold to the Thursday crucifixion. There is no real case for a Passover Sabbath which occurred the day before the regular weekly Sabbath.
The expression day of preparation is usually used to mean Friday. Mark makes this especially clear, not when evening had come because it was the preparation day, that is the day before the Sabbath. And then he says the great consensus of interpreters and scholars is that Jesus died on Friday.
And then he has a closing remark. He says, yes, to keep the strict chronology and typology of the examination of the Passover lamb, we probably have to accept that it was really Palm Monday, he says. Perhaps the complicated harmonizing of Galilean and Judean timekeeping might allow us to keep that one since we have no scripture telling us exactly what day of the week was the triumphal entry.
But it seems the evidence does point fairly clearly to a Friday crucifixion. Now, I read those two extended quotes for a very important reason. One, to sum up the main view, obviously, but also because these both address their criticisms of the Thursday view.
And so what I'm going to do is, as we have time, I'm going to go through some of these points. I'm actually going to come back and I'm going to, because I know I read through those quickly, but I'm going to come back and I'm going to kind of address some of the things that they said and debate with them a little bit, even though they're not here to do it live.
So, let's just jump into this with the time we have before the first break. One of the big issues that people have is the fact that we're not Jews. I mean, most of us aren't Jews. In addition, we Gentiles don't truly understand all of the Jewish traditions the way we should.
And I'm just going to say that this adds some hurdles to our understanding of the course of events because the details God includes to help us navigate the Passion Week are really, they're foreign to us.
So, we have to acknowledge our own blind spots about some of this. And we also have to say that we have to recognize that we have our own cherished traditions. I'm confident to assert that the vast majority of you have observed Good Friday as the day of the Lord's death since you were very little.
I've done the same. But though we may have our traditions and habits, okay, we need to be willing to push those aside in light of the biblical material. Our traditions should no more supersede God's Word than our own opinions, right?
Now, so I've already said this a little bit, but I'm going to say the main argument for the Friday crucifixion, Scott Anuel alluded to this, comes from Mark 15, 42. And now, when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, and then it goes on to describe what happened.
Then the passage talks about Jesus being taken from the cross and so on and so forth. And this means that Jesus was crucified the day before the Sabbath. Okay? And everyone knows that the Jewish Sabbath is on Saturday.
That's why the majority of Christians observe the crucifixion on Friday. I don't want to oversimplify this, but some of the very first people who said that Jesus was crucified on a Friday said so for this reason.
Clearly right there, Sabbath is on Saturday. Jesus was crucified on the day of preparation before the Sabbath. He had to have been crucified on Friday. It's the majority opinion. Now, Mark 15, 42 says that Jesus was crucified on the day of preparation, like we just read.
With that evidence alone, it would be easy to assume that Jesus was crucified during the day on Friday. But there are a number of issues with that, and those issues are going to be really the focus of what I'm going to share with you guys today.
And here's one of the things well, I'll get to that in a minute. Here's one thing that we need to understand. The Jews didn't just have 52 Sabbaths. They actually had oftentimes more than one Sabbath a week, depending on the year.
There were the 50 to 54 weekly Sabbaths, but there were also two Sabbaths in the Feast of Unleavened Bread. There's the Sabbath of Pentecost, one Feast of Trumpets, one Day of Atonement, two Sabbaths during the Feast of Tabernacles.
That's over 60 Sabbaths in one year. Now, if we assume that the Mark 15, 42 Sabbath is Saturday, then a Friday crucifixion makes sense. But what if there were another Sabbath that week that landed before Saturday?
Now, I say what if, like, you know, well, Aaron, that sounds like a lot of, you know, hypothetical conjecture. Well, it's not, because there actually was another Sabbath that landed before the Passover.
I'm sorry, before that Saturday Sabbath. The seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread is preceded by the Feast of the Passover. So, the Passover happens and then starts the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was celebrated in remembrance of the Israelites being delivered from Egypt.
This Passover, okay, just so everyone knows, the Passover falls on the 14th of Nisan, or Nisan. I don't know that I always pronounce that correctly. And the Feast of Unleavened Bread officially started on the 15th.
Okay. Now, with that said, I want to go back to something that Scott Anuel said. This is his quote. There is simply no evidence that Nisan 15, the day after the Passover, was a day on which no one worked.
This is essentially a theory held only by those who hold to the Thursday Crucifixion. There's no real case for a Passover Sabbath which occurred the day before the regular weekly Sabbath. Now, in that statement, he admits that, you know, Nisan 15, the day after the Passover, okay, and he says that there's no evidence.
Again, I love Scott, and I honestly believe this was just a mistake on his part because in Leviticus 23, 5 through 8, we read this. In the first month, on the 14th day of the month at twilight is the Lord's Passover.
Then on the 15th day of the same month, there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. Listen to verse 7. On the first day, this would be the 15th, you shall have a holy convocation.
You shall not do any laborious work. Exodus 12, 14 through 16. Now, this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.
Seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your homes. Then, skipping to verse 16, on the first day you shall have a holy assembly. And another holy assembly on the seventh day.
No work at all shall be done on them except what must be eaten by every person, that alone you may be prepared by you. And then numbers 28, 17 through 18. On the 15th day of this month shall be a feast.
Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days. On the first day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. And it's in Mark 14, 1 where we read, now the Passover and unleavened bread were two days away, and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to seize him by stealth and kill him.
So, even though Scott says that there's no evidence, I'm not sure how he came to that conclusion, that no one worked on the 15th day of Nisan, and that this is just a theory held by those who hold to the Thursday Crucifixion, I'm pretty sure Leviticus 23, Exodus 12, and Numbers 28, all talking about the feast of unleavened bread, make it perfectly clear that no, the 15th actually was unequivocally a day, a Sabbath, that no one was supposed to work.
It was actually referred to as a high Sabbath, which means that, again, Jesus couldn't have been crucified on that Friday simply for this one reason, because that day was a Sabbath day, and we're specifically told that he was crucified on the preparation day before the Sabbath, and the first day of unleavened bread would have had its own preparation day before it.
So, that would have been on a Thursday, he was taken off the cross before the beginning of the Sabbath that evening, that would have been the first day of unleavened bread, followed by the regular Saturday Sabbath, and then followed by the resurrection on Sunday.
And I'll leave it there so that you can say something, Chris, and we can go to break.
Well, I'm just finding this all fascinating, and we have to go right to the break now, and we will resume right where you left off there. Our email address, if anybody would like to ask a question of Aaron in regard to a case for a Thursday crucifixion, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail dot com, chrisarnson at gmail dot com, give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence, only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.
Let's say you disagree with your pastors over this issue, or you're a pastor, you disagree with your own fellow elders, or your denomination, or whatever the case is that would compel you to remain anonymous, I understand.
But if it's a general question, please give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence. We'll be right back with A .M. Brewster after these messages, so don't go away.
James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here. I'm very excited to announce that my longtime friend Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and I are heading down to Atlanta, Georgia again for the G3 National Conference.
That's Thursday, September 21st through Saturday the 23rd on a theme that I've been preaching, teaching, writing about, and defending in live public debates for most of my life, the sovereignty of God.
I'll be joined on the speaking roster by Steve Lawson, Voti Baucom, Paul Washer, Virgil Walker, Scott Anuel, and Josh Bice, founder of G3 Ministries. And there's more great news. Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio can get you a 30 discount off the registration fee.
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Getting a driver's license, running a cash register, flipping burgers, passing sixth grade. Do you know what they all have in common? They all require training, assessments, and certifications. But do you know what requires no training at all?
Becoming a parent. My name is A .M. Brewster. I'm the president of Truth, Love, Parent, and host of its award-winning podcast. I've been a biblical family counselor since the early 2000s, and what I've discovered is that the majority of Christian parents have never been biblically equipped to do the work of the ministry in their homes.
That's why Truth, Love, Parent exists. We serve God by equipping dads and moms to be the ambassador parents God called and created them to be. We produce free parenting resources, train church leaders, and offer biblical counseling so that the next generation of dads and moms can use the scriptures to parent their children for life and godliness.
Please visit us at truthloveparent .com.
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We're now back with our guest, A .M. Brewster, and we are discussing a case for a Thursday crucifixion. Our email address is chrisarnzen at gmail .com, chrisarnzen at gmail .com. And perhaps before you continue, we should clarify some things.
I'm assuming that you are not taking this Thursday crucifixion belief to a militant extent where you disfellowship people who don't agree with you, where you might even label someone as a heretic for not agreeing with you.
I actually know a man, and I don't want to sound like I'm mocking him or anything, but he takes an extreme view on a Wednesday crucifixion, so much so that he insists that they have the Lord's Supper on Tuesday nights when they have that meal as a church.
And he has disfellowshipped people that disagreed with him, so I'm assuming that church is very isolated with not much connection to other churches, because I don't know how large that belief is or how popular or widespread.
But this brother is a landmark Baptist, and I don't even believe or know whether or not that's a popular view amongst the landmark Baptists either. So I'm assuming this is not the case with you as far as your Thursday theory.
Yeah, so as I stated earlier, it's not a sin, and I'm going to leave the door open for me to be wrong on this. And I will say that no, I definitely do not disassociate. I mean, I think pretty much almost everybody in my church that I'm currently going to, my pastor refers to it as Good Friday and so on and so forth.
I actually sent my current pastor my notes on this, and I didn't hear back from him. But that's not to say he didn't read them. But anyway, also, I mean, you and I had a conversation recently about biblical unity, and this is just not one of those things that Christians can glorify God by refusing to fellowship with each other over.
That would be ridiculous.
So no, not going to do that.
Well, that's good to know. And I'm assuming the other thing that I'm assuming, and you can clarify or confirm if I'm right or wrong in my assumption, that one of the reasons why this is at all important to you is because you believe it is important, at least at some level, to believe that Christ was in the tomb for three literal 24-hour days.
Tangently, yes. I do believe that's important, and that's really one of the two. And I'll mention the first one right now. One of the two things that I believe I gain and those of us who hold to a Thursday crucifixion that we gain, as a biblical counselor, I work with people all of the time who make excuses for their disobedience.
And let's be honest, we all do, right? That particular verse doesn't apply to me right here, right now, or we disobey out of ignorance. If we ignorance it like we're not thinking about it in the moment, but if we gave it five seconds thought, we'd be like, oh, yeah, this is a sin, right?
But a lot of people are, you know, they say, yeah, I know the Bible says I shouldn't be anxious, but, and part of my issue is the fact that if the Bible's going to say, and we're about to look at this, but if the Bible's going to keep mentioning these three days, and it's going to mention it in lots of different ways, using different prepositions and different concepts, in three days, after three days, for three days, and yet, in the back of our minds, like I, as that little child sitting in the pew, think to myself, well, if he was crucified on Friday, then he wasn't, it wasn't three days.
You can't, there's no way that you can account for that to be three days. Then there's going to, then that plants just a tiny little seed in the back of our minds. There's a little bit of doubt there.
And I'm saying, not saying everyone doubts the scriptures because they believe that Christ was crucified on Friday. That's not at all what I'm saying. I'm just saying that one of the benefits that I receive is the fact that I get to look to the scriptures.
I get to read these passages and understand them literally, understand them naturally. And that, you know, a natural hermeneutic, I think, is a very important hermeneutic for Christians and Reformed Christians in particular to have.
I think we would all hold to a natural hermeneutic for the most part. And why don't we do that for this? Well, we do it because we've allowed tradition and we've allowed other things to kind of cloud our minds, I think, a little bit.
That maybe clouds unfortunate use of terminology to maybe keep us from being diligent, being Bereans, as you like to say, in studying this out. So before I continue, a lot of the things I'm going to say today, first of all, I want your audience to know, truthloveparent .com forward slash iron.
I've got a number of resources there, things that I've done, other things that other people have done. I have a very handy-dandy, helpful Easter week, actually the week before and the week after, breakdown so you can see visually what I'm talking about.
In fact, if you're in a place where you can open up that PDF and look at that while I'm talking, it's going to make so much more sense to you. I'll try to do a good job to explain it, so if you can't see it just yet, you can picture it in your mind.
But I also have my notes. My notes that I'm working off of today are there too, so you guys can go back and check this out because I really think you should be a Berean. I think you should do your due diligence on this and come to a concrete decision, not just because you dismiss it and say, oh, well, Friday's okay with me, but that because you actually think about it.
And with that, I want to pick up kind of where I left off, observing the fact that we were talking about the scriptures in particular referring to this Feast of Unleavened Bread and the fact that there was a Sabbath before the Sabbath, and this is a really important concept.
One of the passages I did not get to, and I'm sorry, I'm trying to pull it up right now. I moved my notes. So Nisan 15, okay, that's the day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That can fall on multiple days, multiple days, different days, just like December 25th can fall on any day of the week.
But regardless of on what day it falls, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is considered actually a high Sabbath, called simply a high day. As a high Sabbath, it too, again, was preceded by its own day of preparation, which would have been on the 14th, which that also is the Passover.
And in John 19 .31, it says, then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, and it specifies for that Sabbath was a high day. That specification would not have been given had the next day been Saturday.
That Saturday would not have been a high day necessarily. But it specifies that this was a high day. It's because it was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a special Sabbath, that would have happened before the regular weekly Sabbath.
That's what occurred on a Friday. So I want to just kind of tie up that last point by bringing that all together. Yes, the Feast of Unleavened Bread started and ended with a high Sabbath that would have required no work and would have had a preparation before it.
So therefore, the argument that Jesus had to have been crucified on a Friday because it was the day before the regular weekly Sabbath doesn't hold any water because we know categorically that the Friday, that the first day of Unleavened Bread would have been this high Sabbath that would have also required its own preparation day.
But then I want to just talk really quickly about the fact that Jesus himself gives us a timeline of three days and three nights. I quoted it earlier, the passage where Jesus refers to Jonah being in the belly of the whale for three days, the big fish, for three days and three nights.
He made it very clear that he would be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. And I know it may be weird to say, but it's completely appropriate to take Christ literally here. We know for certain that Jesus was raised from the dead on Sunday, the first day of the week, which the Bible says happened.
In order to have been in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights, Jesus would have had to have been buried during the day on Thursday. Now, there's likely, at the moment I say something like that, there's a question goes off in the head of most American Christians because they're doing the math and they're like, well, Aaron, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, three days, right?
Here's the big blind spot that we need to be careful of. This is where you need to have a good imagination or you're going to have to go to truthloveparent .com forward slash iron and look at the Easter week PDF.
The Jews did not account for their days the same way we do. Back at the creation of the world, God said, you know, there was night and there was day. Sorry, goodness, I just messed up my quote there. He refers to the night first and then the morning as being the first day.
And the Jews kept that tradition. They still do to this day. Their day begins in the evening on the previous day. So let me put it to you this way. Today happens to be Thursday. So this morning, Thursday, 12 a .m., we said Thursday started and at 12 a .m., 1159 p .m., Thursday is going to end.
Well, really, for the Jews, they don't say it this way, but for the Jews, the moment our sun goes down today, on Thursday, begins their Friday. And it doesn't start with their Friday day. It actually starts with their Friday night.
They observe the Friday first. 12 a .m. will go past, then it will transition into their, excuse me, after sunrise, it will transition into their Friday day. And that will be, for us, also our Friday day.
But come our Friday evening, all right, when the sun sets, that's actually their Saturday night, all right? And then their Saturday day doesn't start until after sunrise on our Saturday. So with that said, it changes the dynamic of how we understand how the scriptures talk about the days and the nights that Jesus was in the grave, and it's a really important thing for us to think of it in the first-century way of understanding this.
In fact, if you could pick up where you left off there, when we return from our midway break. And, folks, please be patient with us, as always, especially during the midway break, because it is a bit longer than the other breaks in the show, because Grace Life Radio, 90 .1 FM in Lake City, Florida, requires of us a longer break in the middle of the show, because they are required by the FCC to localize Iron Trip and Zion Radio geographically to Lake City, Florida, and they do that with their own public service announcements and other local things that they air during this midway break.
While we simultaneously air our globally heard commercials. Please use this time wisely. Write down as much of the contact information as you possibly can for as many of our advertisers as you can, so that you can more frequently and successfully respond to our advertisers.
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Don't go away.
James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here. I'm very excited to announce that my longtime friend Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and I are heading down to Atlanta, Georgia, again for the G3 National Conference.
That's Thursday, September 21st through Saturday the 23rd. On a theme that I've been preaching, teaching, writing about, and defending in live public debates for most of my life, the sovereignty of God.
Go to g3min .org, that's g3min .org, and enter promo code G3ISIR. That's G3ISIR for the 30 discount. Chris Arnson, I look forward to seeing you all Thursday, September 21st through Saturday the 23rd at the G3 National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, on the sovereignty of God.
It's such a blessing to hear from Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners.
From all over the world.
Here's Joe Riley, a listener in Ireland who wants you to know about a guest on the show he really loves hearing interviewed, Dr. Joe Moorcraft.
I'm Joe Riley, a faithful Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listener here in Atai in County Kildare, Ireland. Going back to 2005, one of my very favorite guests on Iron Sharpens Iron is Dr. Joe Moorcraft. If you've been blessed by Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Dr. Moorcraft and Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, are largely to thank since they are one of the program's largest financial supporters.
Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming is in Forsyth County, a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. Heritage is a thoroughly biblical church, unwaveringly committed to Westminster standards, and Dr. Joe Moorcraft is the author of an eight-volume commentary on the larger catechism.
Heritage is a member of the Hanover Presbytery, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, and tracing its roots and heritage back to the great Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.
Heritage maintains and follows the biblical truth and principles proclaimed by the reformers, scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, and God's glory alone. Their primary goal is the worship of the Triune God that continues in eternity.
For more details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com. That's HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com. Or call 678 -954 -7831. That's 678 -954 -7831. If you visit, tell them Joe Roiligan, Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listener, from Ottawa in County Kildare, Ireland, sent you.
As host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, I frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations. The church I've been strongly recommending as far back as the 1980s is Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey, pastored by Alan Dunn.
Grace Covenant Baptist Church believes it's God's prerogative to determine how he shall be worshipped and how he shall be represented in the world. They believe churches need to turn to the Bible to discover what to include in worship and how to worship God in spirit and truth.
Grace Covenant Baptist Church endeavors to maintain a God-centered focus. Reading, preaching, and hearing the Word of God, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, baptism, and communion are the scriptural elements of their corporate worship, performed with faith, joy, and sobriety.
Discover more about Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey at gcbcnj .squarespace .com. That's gcbcnj .squarespace .com. Or call them at 908 -996 -7654. That's 908 -996 -7654. Tell Pastor Dunn that you heard about Grace Covenant Baptist Church on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
If you love Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, one of the best ways you can help keep the show on the air is by supporting our advertisers. One such faithful advertiser, who really believes in what Chris Arnton is doing, is Daniel P. Patafuco, serious injury lawyer and Christian apologist.
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Visit historicalbiblesociety .org. That's historicalbiblesociety .org. Thanks for helping to keep Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air.
This is Pastor Bill Sousa, Grace Church at Franklin, here in the beautiful state of Tennessee. Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support Iron Sharpens Iron Radio financially.
Grace Church at Franklin is an independent, autonomous body of believers which strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in Scripture through the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And, of course, the end for which we strive is the glory of God. If you live near Franklin, Tennessee, and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe 10 minutes, or you are visiting this area, or you have friends and loved ones nearby, we hope you will join us some Lord's Day in worshiping our God and Savior.
Please feel free to contact me if you have more questions about Grace Church at Franklin. Our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org. That's gracechurchatfranklin .org. This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our sovereign Lord, God, Savior, and King Jesus Christ today and always.
Getting a driver's license. Running a cash register. Flipping burgers. Passing sixth grade. Do you know what they all have in common? They all require training, assessments, and certifications. But do you know what requires no training at all?
Becoming a parent. My name is A .M. Brewster. I'm the president of Truth, Love, Parent and host of its award-winning podcast. I've been a biblical family counselor since the early 2000s. And what I've discovered is that the majority of Christian parents have never been biblically equipped to do the work of the ministry in their homes.
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Long Island Youth for Christ has been a stalwart bedrock ministry since 1959. We have a world-class staff and a proven track record of bringing consistent love and encouragement to youths in need all over the country and around the world.
Help honor our history by becoming a part of our future. Volunteer, donate, pray, or all of the above. For details, call Long Island Youth for Christ at 631 -385 -8333. That's 631 -385 -8333. Or visit liyfc .org.
That's liyfc .org.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own.
You need to read. Solid Ground Christian Books is a publisher and book distributor who takes these words of the Prince of Preachers to heart. The mission of Solid Ground Christian Books is to bring back treasures of the past to minister to Christians in the present and future and to publish new titles that address burning issues in the church and the world.
Since its beginning in 2001, Solid Ground has been committed to publish God-centered, Christ-exalting books for all ages. We invite you to go treasure hunting at Solid-Ground-Books .com. That's Solid-Ground-Books .com and see what priceless literary gems from the past or present you can unearth from Solid Ground.
Solid Ground Christian Books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
And always remember folks, make Solid-Ground-Books .com your very first stop for all your gift-giving needs. They bring back into print and publish for the first time, nothing but the finest in Christian literature dating back to the Protestant Reformation and also extending forward to our modern day including such contemporary authors as Dr. James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries.
So visit Solid-Ground-Books .com frequently, purchased generously and always mention that you heard about them from Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Before I return to my guest A .M. Brewster and his discussion on making a case for a Thursday crucifixion, I just have some very important announcements to make.
Please folks, if you love the show, you don't want it to disappear, go to IronSharpensIronRadio .com, click support, then click, click to donate now. You can donate instantly with a debit or credit card in that fashion.
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So send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com and put advertising in the subject line. Always remember that I never want anybody in the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio audience to give your own church where you are a member less money than you are accustomed to giving your church on the Lord's Day in order to give a financial gift to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
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Two things are clear in the Bible about finances is that we are commanded by God to support our churches and our families. Supporting Iron Sharpens Iron Radio is not a command of God, obviously, but if you love the show, you don't want it to disappear, and you have extra money above and beyond your ability to support church and family, you have extra money collecting interest in the bank, and you have extra money for benevolent, recreational, and trivial purposes, please, if you love the show and you don't want it to disappear, share some of that money with us.
Go to ironsharpensironradio .com, click support, then click to donate now. Also, if you are a man in ministry leadership, don't forget that the next Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Free Pastors Luncheon is being held on Thursday, April 13th, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m. at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania.
We've got people coming from all over the United States to this luncheon, as we typically do. The registrations keep coming in. I just received one minutes ago from Virginia. We have people coming in from North Carolina, from Georgia, from Long Island, New York, from New Jersey, from New York City, upstate New York.
I am just so blessed that people are traveling so far because they think that these events are so special. They have been very special to me because they began as a brainchild of my precious late wife, Julie, in the 1990s.
I continued to conduct them after she has gone home to be with Christ for eternity in honor of her and in loving memory of her and in tribute to her. The two speakers at this luncheon this time around are Dr. William Webster, who is a pastor in Battleground, Washington and a Banner of Truth author, and Rev. David T. King, who is also one of Dr. Webster's co-authors.
He is a pastor in Katy, Texas. This is not only absolutely free where you get fed physically and spiritually for free. Every man attending will leave that place with a heavy sack of brand new free books, personally selected by me and donated by Christian publishers all over the United States and the United Kingdom.
That should be a deal breaker if you are able to get to Loisville, Pennsylvania, on Thursday, April 13th, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m. Remember, this is for men in ministry leadership only. The events that are taking place the three days following that luncheon also feature Dr. William Webster and Rev. David T. King.
These events, this three-day Bible conference, unlike the pastor's luncheon that is open only to men, the three-day Bible conference is open to everyone, men, women, and children. It's going to be held at a different church, Grace Bible Fellowship Church of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The theme of this three-day conference on April 14th, 15th, and 16th, which is a Friday through Sunday, the theme is The Gospel, Removed by Rome, Rescued by the Reformers, and Rejected by Modern Evangelicals.
If you'd like to register for that, send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com and put conference in the subject line. If you're registering for both the luncheon and the conference, put luncheon and conference in the subject line and let me know how many people will be joining you at both of those events.
And lastly, if you are not a member of a Christ honoring, biblically faithful, theologically sound, and doctrinally solid church, no matter where you live on the planet Earth, I have extensive lists spanning the globe of biblically faithful churches, and I've helped many people all over the world find churches in our audience, sometimes within just a couple of minutes from where they live, and that could be you too if you are without a church home.
Send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com and put I need a church in the subject line. That's also the email address where you can send in a question to our guest A .M. Brewster, who is making a case for a Thursday crucifixion.
That's chrisarnsen at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence. And Aaron, before the break, you were talking about the different ways in which the people of Israel recognized a day and the distinction between sunrise and sunset and all of that, and if you could pick up where you left off.
Real quick, three things. Number one, it is actually my intention to do everything I can to be at that luncheon myself, so I look forward to meeting anyone who might be there. I'm excited about that.
I'm excited too, to know that. I'm really thrilled about that.
Yeah, I was just convinced right here just hearing you talk about it. The other thing is, the conference I mentioned, the Berean Reformed Baptist Church, I looked it up online. It's Osceola. Osceola is how do you pronounce that word?
Osceola. And everyone in Indiana is now happy I got it right. And then the third thing I was going to say is, I'm recognizing the fact that I cannot do this topic due diligence in the time frame that we have.
So again, I want to encourage people to go to truthloveapparent .com forward slash iron, where I have a lot of resources and you can take your time and you can work through it, and that way I won't be rushing through things unnecessarily, trying to cram in what I literally can't and shouldn't try to cram in.
But to your point, Chris, what I was talking about was the fact that Jesus talks about a timeline of three days and three nights. He also talks about a timeline of three total days in John 2 and in Mark 8.
And the road, the disciples on the road to Emmaus referred to, it's been three days since these things happened. So this idea of three keeps popping up. And I want to go back to what I quoted from John MacArthur earlier.
He said that the obvious problem with the idea of Jesus being crucified on a Thursday and buried on a Thursday is that since he rose on a Sunday, that would be a fourth day resurrection. And again, I love John MacArthur.
I think he's desperately more wise than I am. But from a Gentile, modern American, Gregorian calendar perspective, is 100 right. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. However, and this is what I was about to explain, if you can picture it in your mind, if not, go to TruthLoveParent .com forward slash iron and check out the PDF I have there.
Jesus is crucified on Thursday. The scriptures tell us that he was taken off of the cross before the evening so that before the Passover started. That is our Thursday day. It's before 6 p .m. And that would be Nisan 14, the day of the Passover.
As soon as 6 p .m. rolled around, for the Jews, it's no longer Nisan 14. It's now Nisan 15. The night comes before the day. That's our Friday day comes next. Friday evening for us is actually the next day for the Jews.
That's their Nisan 16. Okay? All of this to say that when you look at it, Jesus was in the ground for three days and three nights. Now, not every single second, every single minute of the entire day, but the Thursday day followed by the Friday night, first day and first night, Friday day followed by the Saturday night, which would be the second day and the second night, followed by the Saturday day, and then the Saturday night would be the third day and the third night in total.
And we know, most scholars believe, that Jesus rose from the dead before daybreak, before dawn, before it was actually what we would consider the Sunday day, or specifically the Jews would have referred to it as the Nisan 17.
He rose before that time, and so he was in the grave for three days and three nights, which, again, is an extremely important concept to me, from my perspective, because that's what the Bible claims, and I want to be able to take Jesus literally.
I want to be able to appreciate a natural hermeneutic as I approach this. So I can't go into all the scriptures and all the arguments for the three days. I really just want to jump to my final point, the second main thing that this does, how this benefits me, and I believe anyone who holds to this particular position.
The entire Reformed Baptists, I mean everyone, Fundamentalists, Baptists, everyone appreciates the fact that Jesus Christ, the sacrificial lamb, was crucified on the Sabbath, right? And that was the day that the lamb was crucified, and the blood was put on the doorpost, and it was celebrated by the Jewish people, and the typology, the imagery, the significance of all that is hugely important to all of us, but the Sabbath is not the only part of that.
There's actually far more that Jesus fulfills in that time frame, which is so beautiful and so amazing, but only if He were crucified on the Thursday. Remember what I said earlier when I was quoting Scott Anuel, he said that technically a Friday crucifixion, if we want to hold to the typology and the imagery of Jesus Christ as the Passover lamb from beginning to end, would have to put the Palm Sunday actually on a Monday.
And why is that, people might be wondering. Well, I'll explain it to you. Palm Sunday, okay, that number of days before the Passover was a very specific day when the lambs were presented to be inspected so that they were pure and could be a Passover lamb.
So, they were selected on that Sunday and they were presented for inspection that same day, and Jesus did the exact same thing when he presented himself and he rode into Jerusalem. Then the lambs were taken home and inspected over the next four days to be sure that they were pure and spotless.
It's interesting to note that the next few days Jesus also was questioned and tested extensively by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. This tradition of taking the lamb home was done so that the family would feel the impact of sacrificing this adorable lamb that had lived in their house as a member of the family for the better part of a week.
And then on the 14th of Nisan, Passover lambs were killed and their blood was spilled. So, that's the first half of this concept, that Jesus actually was the Passover lamb, not just on Passover imagery, but for the entire time leading up to that.
He followed all of the procedures that had been put in place by the Trinity, by God the Father at Mount Sinai much earlier. And so, but just like the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem had multiple levels of significance, the day of his death was no coincidence either.
We know about the significance of that. But it continues beyond that because he would have been crucified on the Passover, the 14th of Nisan, right, and we're suggesting that's Thursday. So, he's buried before Thursday evening, which would have been the 15th and the High Sabbath of the Unleavened Bread.
Now, normally the Feast of Firstfruits would have been the very next day after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but the waving of the sheafs was not allowed to take place on a Sabbath. So, since the High Sabbath of Unleavened Bread happened right before the regular weekly Sabbath, the Feast of Firstfruits had to wait until Sunday.
Now, the 17th of Nisan obviously would have started on Saturday evening for us, but during the daytime hours on Sunday morning, the priest would wave a sheaf of grain before the Lord as an act of recognizing the provision of the Lord in the barley harvest.
Jesus had to raise on this day. Just as Jesus fulfilled the sacrifice of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, he also fulfilled the Feast of Firstfruits when he rose from the grave and ascended to his Father.
His ascension was a type of wave offering, and just as the firstfruits of the harvest were waved as an offering to the Lord, Jesus ascended to the Father as the firstfruits of the resurrection. So, Jesus was the Lamb of the meat offering, and his blood was the wine of the drink offering.
With his resurrection before the Father on Sunday morning, the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the Feast of Firstfruits. So, with the selection of the Lamb on the tenth day of Nisan, which would be a Sunday if he's crucified on Thursday, which is the day he entered Jerusalem, and the wave, meat, and drink offerings of the Feast of Firstfruits, Jesus was the fulfillment of the entire Passover.
Now, again, I rushed through that. Lots of documentation you guys can see at the website. But it really, it fits perfectly. The people who claim that Jesus was crucified on Wednesday have some issues because you have Jesus traveling to Bethany on the Sabbath.
He wouldn't have done that. I explain on the calendar that I provide what day that happened and how it happened when Jesus was anointed by Mary when he traveled to Jerusalem, as well as all of the details that I just shared, as well as his arising from the dead on the 17th.
And this is where I want to end this off. I was doing a debate once and I said that this last imagery, the symbolism of Christ as the perfect totality of fulfilling the Old Testament law for the Passover Lamb was the most significant thing that the Thursday crucifiers gain that you don't really have on that Friday unless you're going to do what Scott Daniels said and believe that it's really Palm Monday and not Palm Sunday, right?
You just can't do it. It doesn't work out mathematically. And somebody in the comments of that debate said that, well, the symbolic element to him was the least important. He said that, well, who cares about the symbolism, right?
Well, God does. God does. And I want to share just one more thing with you guys that will show the significance that our God has, that God has put on the symbolism that he has worked into the very fabric of his redemptive plan.
Interestingly enough, the 17th of Nisan, the day on which we know Christ rose from the dead, nobody debates that. We're moving past the Thursday crucifixion. The 17th of Nisan is also the exact same day that Noah's Ark safely rested on Mount Ararat.
It's the same day that the Hebrews entered Egypt. It's the same day that Moses led the Israelites through the parting of the Red Sea. It's the same day that Israel entered and ate the first fruit of the Promised Land.
It's the same day that the cleansing of the temple happened by Hezekiah 800 years after entering the Promised Land. It's the same day that Queen Esther saved the Jews from elimination. It's the same day as the resurrection of the Messiah.
God has miraculously used Nisan 17 to be a day of new beginnings. What more perfect day could there have been for Christ to rise? God is deeply symbolic. The whole imagery of the temple and the tabernacle and the whole sacrificial system was a symbol, was a picture.
The whole concept of the original Passover was a picture of what Christ was coming to do. Of course, Christ needed to fulfill, just like He needed to fulfill every prophecy, He needed to fulfill every part of the responsibility and the plan of these feasts, the Passover lamb, all of it.
It was all pointing toward Him, and for Him to not fulfill a part of it would completely go against the character of God. And so, with all of that, to sum up and say, I believe that when we look at this Thursday crucifixion, we gain something as believers.
We gain a natural understanding, a literal understanding of Jesus' words and all throughout the scripture of His being three days and three nights in the grave. We also gain the beauty of being able to understand the fact of really the role that Jesus played.
He didn't just die on the cross, and He didn't just raise again. Yes, those are important, and we must believe those things in order to be born again. But He did so much more, so many more beautiful things, and when we truly understand the course of events and how it all unfolded, it really is a gorgeous study that unfortunately I've had to ramble through and rush through here too quickly.
I just want to encourage all of your listeners to do their own study, to dig into this and to be amazed by what Christ did for us as our sacrificial lamb.
Okay, we have Christopher in western Suffolk County, Long Island, who says, sorry I tuned in late, but I was wondering how many literal hours does your theme add up to?
Does my theme?
Well, I guess he's talking about the three days in the grave, I'm assuming.
Yeah, so I admit, I'm not sure when your audience member started listening, I admitted before that it was not a complete full day, like every single second of every single moment of that day in the Friday view, nor is it in the Thursday view, which is why some people like the Wednesday view.
Understanding the Jewish calculation, they can say that it was an absolute three 24-hour periods.
I was actually in error then, when I said that earlier on, that that was I was assuming that was why this was important to you, and I was incorrect on that, because it's not literal. Go ahead.
Yeah, I guess the question maybe you were asking is, does it have to be 72 hours? And I suppose to that specific question, the full 72 hours is not the question. The difficulties extends in the fact that the person who approaches it from a Wednesday perspective, they're saying the 72 hours, every single minute, every single second of those 72 hours has to be there.
The person who approaches it from the Thursday perspective recognizes that, grammatically speaking, Jesus Christ, from a Jewish context, was in the grave three days and three nights. It fulfills all of those requirements.
From the Friday perspective, we have to look at it from a modern Gentile understanding of calendar times to really be able to say Jesus was in the grave three days and three nights. I don't like that Friday understanding because it requires it to be interpreted from our modern minds.
And I don't like the Wednesday one for other reasons, mainly because it has some other time issues on the front end that has Jesus breaking the Sabbath, which obviously he wouldn't have done. I mean, not in that way.
He broke the Pharisees' understanding of the Sabbath. He did not break the Old Testament understanding of the Sabbath at any point.
We have Robert in White Plains, New York, who asks, Do you have a special Thursday before Easter that you set aside to recognize a Thursday crucifixion, just as the majority of Christians do in regard to Good Friday?
Yeah, great question. So actually, to be honest, again, maybe you'll think I play a little loosey-goosey on this. Maybe I'm not as hardline as you would imagine I would be. Within the celebration of God, we do acknowledge Good Thursday.
We don't discourage anyone from celebrating Good Friday, and if they want to celebrate Good Friday within the celebration of God, praise God, that's awesome. My family, I'll just kind of limit it even to my family, we observe the crucifixion on Good Thursday.
That's what we do.
However,.
Another push to the website to go check it out, because a lot of my research actually brought me to the point where I think, by God's grace and the intelligence of a lot of really important scientists, have been able to identify the day on which the actual calendar day on which Jesus Christ was crucified and then which He rose from the dead.
And so, we actually celebrate Easter, excuse me, we celebrate Resurrection Sunday on two days. We celebrate it on the traditional, like the one that rotates every year according to the Jewish calendar, as we will on the upcoming April 9th, but then we also celebrate it on another day, which we refer to as the historical Easter, the day that we believe that Jesus Christ actually rose from the dead, in the same way that we would celebrate a birthday.
It's more tied to a date than it is a particular day. So yeah, we actually want to make a big deal in my family about this time of year. We want to, because, as I mentioned earlier, we want to help our children to really appreciate and give God the glory He deserves.
So we step through every day of the Passion Week, talking about the significance of it, and we continue that discussion through Resurrection, we continue that discussion out through Ascension.
So when you were saying that we do this, have this celebration, this would not be the congregation where you're a member? They're not in agreement with you on that?
Oh yeah, for the most part. I don't think our church actually does a special Good Friday. I mean, we've been at this particular church now for about three years or so, and a lot of that was during the lockdowns.
So I don't believe that we've actually done anything Good Friday here, but if my church did, I would go. Why would I not meet together with God's people to celebrate and to reflect on what He did for us?
I believe that every Sunday, as you said earlier, Chris, is a celebration of the Resurrection. So yes, of course, obviously I'm going to meet with people who are gathering to uplift the name of the Lord for what He did for us on the cross.
And again, it doesn't, for me, I believe it was on a Thursday, but that doesn't stop me from meeting together with loved ones on Friday.
Yeah, because you are commemorating the act, the perfect finishment of Christ on the cross, not necessarily commemorating the day specifically as far as the day of the week is concerned.
Yeah, it's just like Christmas. I mean, was Jesus Christ born on December 25th? Likely not. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with God's people coming together to corporately across the entire world worship Him and praise Him for the Incarnation, and that's just a really great day to do it.
And again, to repeat what I said earlier, this is a liberty for Christians to celebrate any of those day theories as far as Good Friday, Good Thursday, or Good Wednesday, because the Bible doesn't command us to set aside a certain day to honor and remember and commemorate the day that Jesus died.
That is something that we should be doing every day as Christians. It certainly is to be a part of a Lord's Supper observance, and it should be a part of our weekly Sunday.
Worship. That's right.
So this is not something that can be imposed on the faithful.
If you check out celebrationofgod .com and you listen to our introductory episodes about who we are and what we're trying to do, we deal with that idea in great specificity. People should not be your judge in regard to these festivals and new moons and so on and so forth.
But the point I like to make is this, any true believer is going to celebrate God because of the Incarnation. They're going to celebrate Him because of what He did on the cross and His resurrection. They're going to celebrate Him for the works that He did.
Do they have to do it on the calendar days that we as a culture have chosen? No, of course not. But can a true born-again believer not at some point during the year at all ever worship God and praise Him for those things?
No. I would have a hard time saying that that person's a born-again believer who is not praising God and thanking Him for those works. Again, I agree with you. It should be an everyday thing. But just because it's an everyday thing doesn't mean that we can't set aside specific days where we corporately, as God's people across the world, get together and worship.
Not a sin to not participate, but I would say it would be a sin for us not to praise God for the Incarnation and for the Crucifixion and the Resurrection because He did those, and those things are at the very core of our ability to have a relationship with Him.
So of course a genuine born-again believer is going to praise Him for that, even if it's just in their own heart, their own prayer closets.
And we are going to our final break right now. It's going to be a lot more brief than the other breaks. If you have a question, I would send it in immediately because we're rapidly running out of time.
ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence. Don't go away, we'll be right back with more of A .M. Brewster.
James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here. I'm very excited to announce that my longtime friend Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and I are heading down to Atlanta, Georgia again for the G3 National Conference that's Thursday, September 21st through Saturday the 23rd on a theme that I have been preaching, teaching, writing about, and defending in live public debates for most of my life, the sovereignty of God.
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Scott Brown here. I hope you can join me and Chris Arnson at the Chief End of Man Conference in Ridgecrest, May 4 -6. The Chief End of Man Conference is a national conference of church and family life which exists to proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture.
At this conference, you'll hear Paul Washer, Joel Beeky, Scott Aniel, Josh Bice, and lots of other great preachers, some of my favorite preachers. And also, we're having a pre-conference. It's a singles conference, May 3 and 4, just before our big national conference.
I hope you can come. For more information, go to churchandfamilylife .com. Churchandfamilylife .com. Hope to see you there. Yeah, I hope that as many of you as possible can join me there in Ridgecrest, North Carolina, for that conference which looks like a really, really excellent one.
We're now back with A .M. Brewster. We have been discussing a case for a Thursday crucifixion. And we have an anonymous listener for you, Aaron. And the anonymous listener says, I find your discussion absolutely fascinating.
And believe me, what I am about to say is not to be taken as my personal view, but I'm wondering how you would respond to critics who say not something in opposition to your Thursday view, but the fact that you care about it at all with such intensity.
And they may charge you with trying to count the number of angels who can dance on the head of a pin and use such slogans as, while people are dying and going to hell, you are spending far too much time considering something like this, which is trivial and obscure.
How do.
You respond to those kinds of critics? That's a great question, because they are out there, for sure. Well, that argument can be levied against anybody, and it has. It's been leveled.
Against Calvinists just for thinking it's important that God is in total control of everything, including the salvation of lost sinners.
Well, and the farther to the left you go, the farther to the liberal extreme, the farther you get to the, you know, your hermeneutic is no more, it's not literal or natural anymore, it's just figurative and so on and so forth.
I mean, people have made that same argument about the individuals who try to stand up for a legitimate six-day creation, you know, or the actual age of the earth. And so I don't really put a lot of stock into that.
Yes, the scriptures do talk about people who are, you know, get involved in worthless arguments, but I guess for me personally, I would just go back to the fact that I'm not a numerologist, I'm not a biblical numerologist, but I recognize the fact that God in his sovereignty specifically included these numbers there for a reason.
And whether it was the six days of creation, or all of the genealogies we can add up and we can come to a conclusion about the age of the earth, or how long Jesus was in the grave, he said this. And at the beginning of this, of our time together, Chris made the observation that as a biblical counselor, this is not the normal thing that I talk about on this show.
But this grows from that. It grows from the fact that God's word is sufficient, that it has everything that we need for life and godliness. And I believe that every ounce, every word in the scriptures is relevant to God's people today, and it's our responsibility to be Bereans, to study it, to know it, to rightly divide the word of truth.
And we need to do that with everything. And this isn't too hard for me. Again, as a small child, I would count it up in my head and I'd be like, that doesn't make sense. He wasn't in the grave three days and three nights if he was crucified on Friday.
And so, we need to be able to answer those questions if people have a question.
Pete Well, I'd like you to take about three minutes to summarize your case for a Thursday crucifixion.
Jared. Well, first of all, go to truthloveparent .com forward slash iron to see a lot more resources and my notes that will give you far more interesting or a more robust approach to it. But I believe that really the Thursday crucifixion is the most biblically accurate from the perspective of the fact that that's what the Bible says it is, three days.
And I also believe that it's important to fully appreciate Jesus' role as the Passover lamb and the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament feasts and festivals and requirements that God had put in the Old Testament.
I think it's definitely a big part of that. And that's what I gain as somebody who recognizes or observes the crucifixion on the Thursday. So, I think it's a fantastic study. Again, I would encourage anyone to do it, and I think you'd be excited at what you're going to find.
Pete.
Great. Now, why don't you repeat the details about that Bible conference where you will be the featured speaker? Jared.
Well, I won't be the featured speaker. Actually, I'll be sharing the stage with a number of gentlemen. Andrew Rappaport is going to be there, for example. But I will say that on April 29th in northern Indiana at Green Reformed— Pete.
You could tell Andrew. I said you were the featured speaker.
Jared I will do, yeah. I'll tell Andrew I'm the featured speaker because I'm one of the last guys to speak. So, obviously, I saved the best for last, right? Green Reformed Baptist Church in—oh, I just lost how to pronounce that in northern Indiana.
Yeah, I said it earlier on the show. Go back and listen to it. And then, actually, that following weekend, May 6th, I'm going to be at Bible Baptist Church in Howell, Michigan, and I will be the featured speaker that day.
I'll be having a one-day parenting conference. The Green Reformed Baptist Church is actually a family conference. Everyone, every age, is invited to go to that on April 29th. On May 6th in Bible Baptist Church in Howell, Michigan, I will be the keynote speaker for a one-day parenting conference, and I encourage anyone in that area who would want to travel to check those things out.
Now, are both of those events listed at ambruster .com?
So, I don't have the links or anything like that specifically for registering for those, but if they wanted to write teamTLP at truthloveparent .com or go to truthloveparent .com and do all the contact things, I can definitely get them more information if they're having a hard time finding it on the web.
I don't have that as of yet. We're still about a month out, but I think they have opened up registration for both of those, if I'm not mistaken.
And don't forget, folks, about my Iron Sherpa's Iron Radio free pastor's luncheon on Thursday, April 13th, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m. featuring Dr. William Webster and Rev. David T. King to be held at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania, which is in Perry County, Pennsylvania.
It's a free event, and it's open to all men in ministry leadership, whether you're a pastor, an elder, a deacon, or the leader of a parachurch organization. Send me an email to register for free at chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com.
And also don't forget about the three-day Bible conference following that, April 14th, 15th, and 16th at a different church, Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Both Dr. Webster and Rev. King will be speaking at that three-day event as well on the theme, The Gospel, Removed by Rome, Rescued by the Reformers, and Rejected by Modern Evangelicals.
If you want to register for that event as well, send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com, and put conference in the subject line, and if you're going to both events, put luncheon and conference in the subject line.
And last but not least, don't forget, if you are attending or planning to attend the G3 conference this September in Atlanta, Georgia, go to g3men .org and use promo code G3ISIR, that's my promo code, and you'll get 30 off the registration fee.
That's g3men .org, it's the website where you register, and the promo code is G3ISIR. You don't want to miss this conference if you're able to come this September in Atlanta, Georgia, and I will be there manning an exhibitor's booth, as I have done for many years at the G3 conference, and I look forward to seeing you there.
You'll be amazed by the incredible lineup of phenomenal speakers if you go to g3men .org, including Vody Baucom, Ken Ham, James White, and many, many more. And I want to thank my guest again, A .M. Brewster, for doing such a phenomenal job with his case for a Thursday crucifixion.
I want to thank everybody who listened, and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are a sinner.