Easter Joy and a Facebook Shock.

This morning I went out to buy our weekly newspaper (which has the best TV guide any newspaper can offer) and then went on my daily walks. Such walks being vitally necessary to replace the regular swim and reduced cycling schedules, especially those weekly eight-mile round trips to church and back. And to replace my weekly session at Starbucks with its lovely and creamy, calorie-rich cappuccino coffee. Therefore, whether my health/weight would benefit - gaining the first and losing the second - only time would tell during this lockdown.

It was a beautiful morning. The sunshine bringing out the best in colours, such as the glossy green leaves of the Rhododendron lining either one or both sides of the footpath, various trees in the full bloom of white flowers while others have just budded into leaf, the green lawns matted with a carpet of daisies, and the warmth of the air allowing me to go out in Summer attire, that is, in shorts and a coloured tank-top or vest.

Easter. Or as someone calls it, Resurrection Day. It's perhaps the favourite time of the year, with Spring Equinox not far behind and the days continue to lengthen and the weather bathed in the warm sunshine. And while this coronavirus lockdown continues with no apparent end in sight, I was actually wondering whether God is teasing us. That is to say, giving health and beauty to the rest of his creation whilst our own health remains under threat.

Or could it be, as the Bible indicates, that through the beauty of his creation, God is trying to speak to us, encouraging us to turn to him, having already reconciled himself to us through the Death, Burial and Resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ, to which this public holiday is all about? And so, for the first time since 1973, there is no church I can go to, nowhere to meet together to acknowledge and worship with fellow believers. True enough, throughout the years, there were some when I made off to the coast, particularly in the Bournemouth or Swanage area of East Dorset after finding a suitable hotel on a typical off-the-street walk-in method. And I was never disappointed. 

Indeed, over the years I have questioned whether our Lord Jesus was crucified on a Friday. The Roman Catholic Church has always taught so, and the vast majority of Protestant churches have always done so, too. But if there is any source that would throw the spanner into the works, it had to be the Bible itself. And to add to the apparent frustration, there is only one verse in the entire New Testament, Matthew 12:40, which are words spoken by Jesus himself, and it's not repeated in any other of the four Gospels. He was referring to the prophet Jonah in the Old Testament, who spent three days and three nights inside the belly of an unspecified marine creature after being thrown overboard from a ship whilst running away from God's specific command to visit the city of Ninevah, Jonah 1:17.

Here, Jesus makes a comparison. Just as Jonah was hidden from all life for three days and three nights, so Jesus himself will be "in the bowels of the earth" for the same duration. Of course, I want to go along with all other Christians and remember his crucifixion on Good Friday, as I grew up to believe. And every year, I always made an effort to attend a service on Good Friday But even from boyhood, with the assumption that the Saturday Sabbath is the very next day after his crucifixion, somehow I had an instinctive feeling that not all added up nicely. How I wished it did. Since a Friday crucifixion followed by a Sunday Resurrection does not add up to three days and three nights. Instead, his burial only adds up to two nights - Friday night and Saturday night.

The greater majority of Christians accept this without question. If all the churches taught this for nearly two millennia, then who am I to question it? Perhaps Matthew 12:40 is a copying error? If so, then how can I trust the rest of the Bible for being reliable? Indeed, an error of this kind, a quotation from Jesus, would mean that Jonah himself (or his biographer) erred when he wrote three days and three nights hid undersea. If Jonah had gotten it wrong, so did Jesus. Such doesn't lend much credit for inspiration!

There is always the idea that the High Day of John 19:31 was a reference to a special Sabbath, itself distinct from the normal Saturday Sabbath as being the first day of Unleavened Bread, a Jewish holiday lasting a full week gotten from Exodus 12:1-30. If this special Sabbath fell on a Friday, this would have meant two Sabbaths, Friday and Saturday, one after the other. If that was the case, that would mean that Jesus was Crucified on a Thursday, which was the Day of Preparation, when leaven was removed from every Jewish household across Israel and beyond.

Unleavened Bread.

Jesus died at the same moment when all the Passover lambs were slain, to be roasted and then eaten later that night, which was by then the first day of Unleavened Bread, a special Sabbath or High Day which was a Friday. Maybe that was why the apostle Paul called his Lord Jesus Christ "the Passover Lamb" of 1 Corinthians 5:7.

This seems to be a worthwhile study, and from it, I personally accept that Jesus was crucified on a Thursday, to die shortly before nightfall on that day. But this is something I need to keep for myself - or just share on this blog. I know that such an idea will be resisted by just about every Christian believer who either know me personally or who reads this blog. In the face of universal church authority, I would be perceived as just an oddity, a quack, one of those nerdy types who is off his rocker and therefore fully deserve by them to be ignored and not taken any notice of.

Maybe that is not as bad as it first looks. To God only am I accountable. If advocating a Thursday crucifixion will earn a stern rebuke from Heaven...

So be it. At least I can explain why I believe what I believe. But my biggest concern is that thereafter, no one will take my blogs seriously enough to bother reading them. I would be categorised as quackery, probably on the same level as believing that a small phial of water can be classed as holistic medicine, even if there is only one molecule of elixir in the entire phial, to give healing benefits.

Holistic medicine or not, for me, the historicity of the Crucifixion, and the timing of his death, his duration of burial and his Resurrection on that early Sunday morning even before daybreak is very central to my faith. Even Paul knew this by writing that if Christ had not risen, then my faith is in vain, without a purpose - 1 Corinthians 15:14. With our health under threat with a coronavirus infection with my beloved on special high risk, then believing in the historicity of Christ's final moments is absolutely central, allowing everything else to fall into proper perspective. And that includes the possibility that he was crucified on a Thursday, or the fifth day of the week.

It comes in as very supportive and edifying when in such a time when due to the lockdown, all dentists in our area have shut down and shortly after, Alex develops a severe toothache with pain spreading upwards towards her cranium. Earlier in the week, her pain was so severe that she begged me to phone 111. They believed that her condition was severe enough to warrant an ambulance. After the paramedics had found out that she overdosed (slightly) on both Paracetamol and Oramorph, they insisted on a trip to A&E where she will be further assessed. Due to the pandemic, I had to remain at home, for the first time ever. About six hours later she arrived home by taxi after being discharged without treatment, endorsing our opinion that the trip was a waste of time and effort.

Fortunately, her dentist has gotten through to us from his private mobile and prescribed antibiotics. As she gets closer to halfway through her course, the pain still comes and goes, but (with the help of painkillers) it's now less intense. The whole point of this episode is the timing of this entire scenario. It's as if she's a victim of some spiritual trickery or mockery, to make our lives as miserable and stressfully hard as can be. But her own faith in God is to be commended, much having been taught by me over the last twenty years of marriage and her more recent commitment to read the Bible.

Daily reports on nearly a thousand deaths with Coronavirus in intensive care each day, here in the UK, I find so distressing to the spirit. With the world looking so dark and grim, the Easter holidays should be a good time, a reminder that the light of Christ is shining, and God commands that all people everywhere should come to repentance and receive the eternal life which is on offer to all those who believe. If only Easter would shout all the louder! If only people would see the light of Christ with his arms open to receive them, and run to him, even from the fears and anxieties this pandemic is bringing. Yet what do I find?

A discussion about Brexit on Facebook! And that with the typical Brexiteer's insensitive response: To hell with Brussels, we are leaving at the end of the year, end of! This was amid a discussion whether, due to talks delayed by the pandemic, the intermittent period should be extended into next year, or should it still end on schedule without an agreement between London and Brussels? The Brexiteer has expressed his opinion that he couldn't care less about the talks. To him, nationalism is all or nothing. To be honest, I was shocked to read this during these sorrowful times.

Cry! Cry! Cry unto my soul, cry! Somehow, in this present distress, I don't think this is the right time to discuss such an issue. Why not? Well, let's see. Up to a thousand patients confined in intensive care have lost their lives with coronavirus each day here in the UK alone. That alone is very distressing. I think of the many families who have lost their loved one. I try to put myself into their place. I imagine my beloved wife lying in intensive care, unconscious, with a ventilator pipe connecting a machine to the inside of her trachea. She lies there alone, longing for my company had she remained conscious, but the hospital still forbids me to be by her side. Then her liver gives in. Immediately the nurse notices that her cardiac monitor is displaying a straight line and emitting a constant hum. The doctor arrives to give confirmation. Presently, I receive a phone call from the hospital, a very apologetic message to inform me that I'm now a widower.

This could be real. The NHS has informed her that she is on the high-risk category due to having cancer. At present, she remains at home under a shielding programme. But one mistake from me, who is allowed to go out for essentials, could still pass the virus to her.

But thanks to Easter, she would be one of the fortunate ones. At her passing, she would be in the arms of her Lord in Heaven. As she enters glory, all her pains would be over. Over for eternity, along with all the other problems the stresses of life had thrown at her. She would enjoy her final victory. It would soften the terrible blow I would have suffered at the news and the easing of the dread by Christ's presence from a very lonely existence, especially if our church services are still grounded by the pandemic.

Thank you, Lord God, for sending your dear Son as a once-and-for-all-time sacrifice to atone for our sins. And after three days and three nights confined in a rock tomb, you rise victorious from the dead, defeating both sin and death, and enabling us to receive eternal life through faith in your Son.

Thank you, Lord, for Easter.

"Easter Again!" Says the Atheist.

Easter to me is more than seeing off the end of a cold, miserable winter, and seeing and feeling the weather become warmer, the days become longer, and the sun floating higher in the sky rather than briefly hugging the horizon. It is more than putting away the heavy coat, thick woollen jumpers and wellington boots for the next six months or so. Spring brings promises of warmer days, milder nights and the mental images of barbecues on the beach, swimming in the sea, hiking through glorious nature trails and being out in natural surroundings at its best, with the sun beating down as I pull out a bottle of sun lotion from the rucksack...

Except of course, that here in the UK, we Brits need to first head for the airport to fly south to some foreign country to experience all these things. At least this year, the UK winter is prolonged, it's bitterly cold as we are about to enter the month of April, and there are still snow flurries drifting through the air. And the only source of heat is the gas central heating system in our home, the thick duvet over our bed and, not forgetting, my weekly walk to the public sauna.

To the atheist, Easter originated from some ancient pagan festival celebrating the start of new life - the budding of tree leaves, the blossoming of flowers, the lambing season and the promise of fairer weather ahead - and attributed to some god or deity without the scientific knowledge that the two Poles of the Earth are lopsided by some 23 degrees, and as the planet swings around the Sun on its orbit, its tilt being the cause of the seasons.

Little wonder, that deprived of this scientific truth, the ancients worshipped some deity, with the Sun being reborn each day, seen by them as a deity riding across the sky in a fiery chariot.

 

 

Therefore what the ancients believed fuels the atheist's opinion of the ridiculous. But unfortunately, this applies to the Christian faith as well. As a matter of fact, the Christian faith has become the target for the sceptical arrows above all other faiths. Only today I was reading in the Daily Mail newspaper an essay about the decline of the Christian faith in Britain, based on Archbishop Carey's criticism of the Government's endorsement for our faith to be obliterated by the secularists, the latter being the end result of the writings of such authors as Simon Cowel and Richard Dawkins.

For me, of course, the Easter weekend is all about the crucifixion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, which makes Easter the most important holiday of the whole year, more so than Christmas (although the retail outlets may not agree on this.) I firmly believe in the historicity of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah who died on the cross to atone for our sins. Indeed, this is tremendous news - about the God whose love for us is strong enough to put his Son through such agonising suffering. Furthermore, God had given me the wonderful privilege to spend time in the Holy Land, a total of 23 weeks in five separate visits spanning 24 years, with my last visit together with my wife Alex in the year 2000.

Orthodox Jews ushering the Sabbath, 1993

Visiting the Holy Land had brought the Bible to life in such a way that one has to be there for the experience. Back in 1993 for example, and as a lone backpacker back then, I felt my emotions deepen as I stood just outside the forecourt of the Western Wall on a Friday evening, and watching Orthodox Jews celebrate the ushering in of their Sabbath, on a Friday evening during and after sunset, as with the Hebrew clock, the new day always begins at sunset. To me it was Friday, to them, Saturday. Then as I walked the next day through the deserted streets of West Jerusalem, the area of city occupied by Jews, not a car was to be seen, let alone buses and trucks, and every shop closed, along with offices and every private and Government institution. The whole city being empty of life certainly looked as if the whole of mankind was obliterated, leaving the planet's population of zero (or just one - myself.) It was an extraordinary experience, yet a testimony of the truthfulness of the Bible.  And yet, believe it or not, shortly after sunset Saturday, the whole city was alive and bustling like any Saturday afternoon here in the UK. It also seemed strange to me that Sunday was a normal working day right across Israel and the West Bank alike, yet still attended a church service while the shops were busy trading alongside.

Modern Israel is a testimony of the Bible's truthfulness. But as a Christian, I somehow feel apologetic to the atheist about my firm belief and conviction of the Bible. Richard Dawkins, for one, calls the God of the Old Testament the most savage and cruel, infanticidal bully he had ever known. It would be natural for any Christian to wonder how anyone could address God in such a manner. Yet how would I feel or re-act if Dawkins approached me, aware of his excellent knowledge of the Bible?

Take, for example, Numbers 16. From verses 27 through to 34, there is a narrative of the destruction of the families of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. It was these three men who sinned against the Lord although their wives and adult sons most likely co-operated and gave their blessings. But in verse 27 there were mentioned of "little ones" - most likely their grandchildren. Dawkins can argue that these were far too young to understand any implication of their transgression, yet perished screaming with the rest of the family by pure divine justice.

Another striking example of infanticide can be found in 1 Samuel 15:3 where God through Samuel, instructs King Saul to annihilate the whole of the Amalekite nation, not just adult men and women but also children, infants and sucklings too, along with all their livestock. Although King Saul did sin in sparing the livestock, he did obey the Lord in slaying every human being - including infants and sucklings.

Dawkins would have the perfect right to ask me where is the justification in such innocent infants to be slain. He would ask, how was it possible for such children to be slain for the sins their ancestors had committed against Israel? All they were concerned were for their mother's maternal love and comfort and to be breastfed. What does the suckling know about some transgression committed by some great grandfather? It is like saying that both my wife, daughters and myself be punished for the crimes of the Crusaders committed 900 years ago, who happen to be my Mum's ancestors. How would I answer Dawkins?

Then American atheist Sam Harris takes up the issue in questioning the validity of the Bible being God's word by calling into question the measurements of the huge circular bath, or sea, constructed by King Solomon to be set up by the Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 7:23, 2 Chronicles 4:2.) Both narratives gives the measurements as ten cubits from rim to rim and thirty cubits in circumference. To Harris, this was the most crudest approximation for PI as it could have ever gotten, a strange thing for Almighty God to give through his inspired writer. Even the ancient Babylonians, a thousand years before Solomon, had a far more accurate approximation for PI than what the Bible allows, according to Harris.

Indeed, Harris would be right. Ten cubits times PI would give a result of over 31.4 cubits, nearly one and a half cubits more than what the Bible had given. But if you look carefully at the above pic, (I know it's rather small - there is little I can do about this) - you will notice a recess just below the rim. If this recess was four inches deep, then the diameter would have been eight inches less than the actual rim. Considering that the measurement would be made much easier if taken at the recess than from the rim itself, assuming that one cubit was 18 inches, this would have given a circumference a tad over 540 inches, or almost exactly thirty cubits. The Bible wasn't too far out after all.

I perhaps can give a plausible answer to Harris on the approximation of PI, but in the New Testament there are issues that would have thrown me back, even to this day. For example, Matthew quotes a prophecy which he says that it was from Jeremiah, but it is actually from Zechariah (Matthew 27:9-10 with Zechariah 11:12-13.) If Matthew wasn't able to check his resources properly, then how could this piece of Scripture be inspired of God? So Harris also asks. True enough, Jeremiah did buy a field (Jeremiah 32:6-9, also 19:1) which might have given enough inspiration for Matthew to quote, nevertheless, the actual quote was from Zechariah, not Jeremiah.

Then there seems to be a disagreement between Mark's and John's accounts on the timing of the crucifixion, an issue which bothers me to this day. Mark has Jesus being nailed on the cross by nine in the morning (15:25) while John has Jesus still before Pilate by noon (19:14) when Pilate cries out, "Behold your king!" According to John, by noon Jesus was still with Pilate, while Luke, like Mark, has Jesus not only on the cross by noon, but also the start of the darkness which was to last three hours, i.e. until three in the afternoon. Luke also recorded the meeting of Jesus with Herod. Even if Herod was in Jerusalem at the time, if Jesus was already on the cross by nine in the morning, then his meeting with Herod must have been brief indeed. Atheists by the likes of Dawkins would have a field day. Given credit that the Sanhedrin had delivered the Lord to Pilate as early as six in the morning, with an hour spent with Herod, both quite plausible, it does not solve the discrepancy between Mark's and John's accounts.

I'll be honest here: If Dawkins, Harris or for that matter, Cowel, confronts me with these issues, I must admit that I'll be at a loss on how to answer them. For me, these are serious issues on which my faith in Christ rests upon. In fact, the Bible is the sole authority on which the whole of the credibility of the Christian faith rests. Our salvation depends on it.

In my blog, Good Friday? I'm Confused, written two years ago, I dealt on when Jesus was crucified, and I advocated a Thursday Crucifixion, based on one sole verse, found in Matthew 12:40. It was Jesus' own saying, tying his duration of his burial to that of the prophet Jonas, who was in the belly of a whale for three days and three nights. At the Good Friday service, one of the Elders mentioned in his sermon that in two days time we would be back here (in the church building) to celebrate his resurrection. Two days from Friday. In Hebrew numeracy, there is no zero. Therefore Friday itself would have been counted as day one, Saturday as day two, and Sunday as day three, even if the day began at sundown Saturday, giving a complete first twelve hours of Sunday for Jesus to remain entombed. But even with no zero in Hebrew counting, this does not add up to three nights as well, as there would have been only Friday night and Saturday night (or Saturday morning and Sunday morning, both before sunrise.) A Thursday crucifixion makes better sense, but this does not only go against the grain of my church at Ascot, but the whole of Christian tradition. Another area where the atheist would have had his day.

But also in the Bible there is much to credit for its inspiration. Just read Psalm 22, Isaiah 53 along with Zechariah 9:9 and others. There was no way that these writers imagined the future from their standpoint without divine inspiration. Despite some difficult bits, the Bible is still trustworthy and the Holy Word of God. And because of it we can trust the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our salvation and celebrate Easter as well.

Happy Easter to you all.

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Any comments shedding light to the issues mentioned above would be most welcome. True, I have a modification system set up, but this is to keep out advertisers (e.g. Click on this link to see my great product etc.) and it's is not to discourage discussion. God bless.