Posted on 03/31/2018 8:57:29 AM PDT by Salvation
Christ Preaching to the Dead, Duccio (1308-11)
Where is Christ after He dies on Friday afternoon and before He rises on Easter Sunday? Both Scripture and Tradition answer this question. Consider the following excerpt from a second century sermon as well as this meditation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday (ca. 2nd century A.D.):
Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. … He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with him—He who is both their God and the son of Eve. … “I am your God, who for your sake have become your Son. … I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead.”
Nothing could be more beautiful than that line addressed to Adam and Eve: “I am your God, who for your sake have become your Son.”
St Ephrem the Deacon also attests to this descent among the dead and describes it rather colorfully:
Death could not devour our Lord unless he possessed a body, neither could hell swallow him up unless he bore our flesh; and so he came in search of a chariot in which to ride to the underworld. This chariot was the body which he received from the Virgin; in it he invaded death’s fortress, broke open its strongroom and scattered all its treasure. (Sermo de Domino nostro, 3-4. 9: Opera edit. Lamy, 1, 152-158. 166-168)
Scripture also testifies to Christ’s descent to the dead and what He did: For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison. … For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does (1 Peter 3:18; 1 Peter 4:6).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church on Christ’s descent to the dead (excerpts from CCC # 632-635):
[The] first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ’s descent into hell [is] that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead.
But he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there [cf. 1 Pet 3:18-19]. Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, “hell”—Sheol in Hebrew, or Hades in Greek—because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God [cf. Phil 2:10; Acts 2:24; Rev 1:18; Eph 4:9; Pss 6:6; 88:11-13].
Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they await the Redeemer [cf. Ps 89:49; 1 Sam 28:19; Ezek 32:17-32; Luke 16:22-26]. “It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Savior … whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell” [Roman Catechism I, 6, 3].
Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.
[So] the gospel was preached even to the dead. The descent into hell brings the Gospel message of salvation to complete fulfillment. This is the last phase of Jesus’ messianic mission, a phase which is condensed in time but vast in its real significance: the spread of Christ’s redemptive work to all men of all times and all places, for all who are saved have been made sharers in the redemption.
Christ went down into the depths of death so that “the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” [1 Peter 4:6]. Jesus, “the Author of life”, by dying, destroyed “him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage” [Heb 2:14-15; cf. Acts 3:15].
Henceforth the risen Christ holds “the keys of Death and Hades”, so that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” [Rev 1:18; Phil 2:10].
Here is a recording of a sermon I preached on this topic: Where is Jesus Now.
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I’m ashamed of yourself!
Out, standing in his fIeld?
Nope, your fake history is not in the Word, what bizarro cult teaches you that bile?
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Clearly you know absolutely nothing of the word of Yehova.
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Your rejection of the written word is stunning, but typical of your cult.
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I’ve always figured he made a quick stop in Satan’s office in hell, waved and said “I’m baaaack!”
Salvation and I don’t always agree but on this she is correct. Jewish reckoning of a day counts even a portion of a day as a day.
It is vital we understand that Christ rose “on the third day”, and not that he rose “after 3 full days”.
A day is 24 hours long. To rise on the third day could mean as little as 25 hours, not necessarily 36 hours.
So assume as conventionally taught that Christ died on Friday at 3 pm and rose on the third day.
So at 3 PM, Christ dies at the close of the first day, Friday. At sundown on Friday, be that 4 PM or whenever, that begins the second day, which ends at Sundown on Saturday. The third day begins Saturday at sundown, and ends Sunday at sundown. So Christ could have arisen anytime from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon, and he would have arisen “on the third day.
Friday is not day zero, it is day one. Christ did not rise “three days later”, he arose “on the third day, “which is as little as 2 days and one second later.”
What am I missing here?
To say Christ died on a Wednesday is to say that he had to have let three full days pass before he arose. And that is not what the bible says. It says “on the third day” not “after three days.
Dying on day 1 Friday at 3 PM, being in a dead state all day 2 from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown, and then rising “on the third day”, any time between Saturday sundown and Sunday sundown.
What am I missing here? I’m not seeing it.
Dear lord I pray this doesn’t become yet another Christian bashing thread where we go at each other’s throats and Christian bashes Christian. Please, not on Easter. I can’t stand these threads where different Christian denominations tear each other’s throats out in the name of God. I can’t stand it. I don’t think he likes it either, and PLEASE NOT on Easter.
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Not on Easter?
Are you worried that Satan would be offended to have his holiday tarnished with discussion of the word of Yehova?
Christianity and Judaism are among the most common diversions from the word of Yehova, and it really is not a denominational contest when viewed in the broad sense.
Departure from Yehova’s one and only covenant is not a thing to cherish. Its all a question of following men, or following Yehova.
The well known holidays to which men cling are all defiance of Yehova’s commandments that are plainly printed in even the most deeply corrupted “modern” translations.
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Balderdash! - That is exactly what the word demands.
That is precisely what Yeshua meant when he referenced “The Sign of the Prophet Jonah.”
Yeshua was indeed crucified on Rome's “wednesday” afternoon, and definitely arose as the sun set on Rome's “saturday.”
All things happen on Yehova’s time, and his days are from sunset to sunset.
What you have been taught is lies from start to finish.
Yeshua was in the tomb for 3 24 hour Biblical days.
Where the bible says that the disciples “came together on the First Day of the week,” it means that they gathered at sunset on “Saturday” for Havdalah, a tradition that had been followed for centuries,and it had absolutely nothing to do with “Sunday.”
This is what you, and everyone else that has scratched their head on this have missed.
This confusion is what Jeremiah spoke of to The House of Judah:
Jeremiah 16:19
O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
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Anywhere He wants to be?
5.56mm
5 And entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, arrayed in a white robe; and they were amazed. ... 3 And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. ... 7 saying that the Son of man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. From Luke 24.
So it wasn’t a full 72 hours since the angel says...”on the third day rise again”...not “after the third day”!
Did not I not say that I don’t care? Stop bothering me with this pedantic crap.
I said my peace.
What you continue to argue is not the least bit interesting or relevant to me. Sunday? Thursday? It doesn’t matter.
You need to believe this silly fairy tale in order to believe the message? I don’t.
Shut it down and eat your ham.
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Standard nonsense from your confused mind.
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I’ll go with Pastrami, and its better too! :o)
You just don’t believe the message!
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Do you think he “wanted to be” on the cross?
Read more!
He was where his Father sent him to be.
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Hey...who would I believe and understand with common sense language?....some modern day Judaizer who continually insults other Freepers with his tag line or an angel saying...”and on the third day rise again”. And from THE BIBLE containing the expressed Torah of God, no less!
I mean call me confused if you must get your holy jollies off doing so...but I just used a direct quotation from Luke 24 and you call me confused?
The thing is I have no problem with a literal 3 days and 3 nights death to resurrection(based on Christ’s citation of Jonah’s experience) but a reading thru of the actual events (and considering what other scholars way smarter than both of us have to say about how the Hebrews/Jews reckoned time) suggests that Christ may have indeed come back sometime on the third day/night and not after.
The Bible record speaks of the priests wanting the bodies off the crosses and of Joseph of Aramathea and others asking for the body of Christ so that it could be entombed before the Sabbath started.The Sabbath starts Friday at Sundown and ends Saturday at Sundown. So do you start the three days going from night to night...or do you start from day to day....as in the early hours of Friday AM when according Luke 24...”He must be delivered into the hands of sinful men,to be crucified and then to rise again ON THE THIRD DAY as he said!” Going from Early Friday morning to sometime in the wee hours of Monday morning(to fit the full three days) fits better with your opinion on the matter (and I have no problems with that)as long as one includes the part about Jesus being delivered into the hands of the Sanhedrin and of Pilate as being part of the 3 days and three nights “experience”.
If one includes about 3-4 oclock in the morning Friday AM(Peter had to hear the cock crow thrice and Go a full 72 hours...it does take you out to early AM Monday...which is a problem because the women who came to apply spices came in the Early morning of the “first day of the week” which would be Sunday.(but not a full 72 hours) unless we start reckoning from say Thursday morning which would allow for enough time for Christ to be judged in the San Hedrin, sent to Pilate, Sent across Town(depending on where he was, could have been miles away)to be judged by Herod and then sent back to Pilate for final judgment(Barrabus...Barrabus!)...so that it probably all took considerable time before they actually got around to hanging him on the cross. Which is fine there still is that pesky...” we need to get him down and buried because the Sabbath is coming and they didn’t want him “hanging” around(mostly on their consciences) after the Sabbath began.
So we’re stuck back on a Friday crucifixion with no time for a complete 72 hour period between his death and burial and the First day of the week. If you go back to Wednesday...you still get stuck with the problem of the timing of Christ’s burial as needing to happen before the Sabbath began(as per the record in the Bible)
Hence that is why Luke 24 makes better sense concerning the timing of the death and resurrection as to what the angel said to the ladies “He was to be delivered into the hands of sinful men, then to be crucified and to rise again ON THE THIRD DAY!”
In modern vernacular then....over a three day period: Jesus was judged and convicted, beaten, crucified but then buried before the Sabbath began and sometime on the third day/night rose again just as any simple confused person like myself would understand it as coming from angel who might speak to me if I went to the tomb myself looking for Christ.
He then at some point presented himself first to the ladies and later on to two disciples on the Emmaus Road all on the first day of the week (which was also on the day of “First Fruits”).
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Enough of your nonsense.
You wish to rely on self-appointed “scholars” (of nonsense) to deny what the writings of the Notzerim themselves made clear, not to mention the importance of prophetic types that hold true throughout the scriptures (the real scriptures that the Notzerim called scripture), and all this to justify the obviously frivolous rantings of the “church” that denies 90% of Tanach to justify their pagan constructs.
I reject all the insanity to which you cling, and that will remain so until you can embrace scripture without changing it.
Please waste no more of your time and mine responding to my posts with fairy gas.
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The scriptures and daily readings are so important - the Navarre Bible Commentaries... the Divine Lamp...
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