The Good Friday Myth: And the Prophecy It Conceals

By Cecil W. Davies

This is one Bible study you wont want to miss.

It shows when the Crucifixion really occurred, and how to confirm that from the Old Testament alone. Fresh insights reveal previously unrecognized parallels between the Crucifixion and modern history that illustrate how the Crucifixion timeline is a key to understanding end times prophecy.

Recognizing our place in the procession of last day events will enable those who already know the Lord as their savior to become more efficient in their Christian service. Twelve previously unrecognized patterns illustrate where we are in that schedule of last day events. Even if you disagree with the positions presented, these are issues you need to have answers for.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 23, 2005
• ISBN: 9781463475598

Cecil W. Davies

Cecil Davies is a truck driver, not a pastor or theologian.  He began this study after losing a truck coming down a mountain.  He’s a working man who writes in plain language without the specialized vocabulary most scholars use.   His livelihood isn’t tied to Biblical interpretation.  He doesn’t have to be politically correct.  That leaves him free to raise questions and tackle issues that would get most pastors laughed out of the pulpit.   He believes the Bible is God’s infallible word and each time man has thought they found an error or contradiction, the true short-coming has been in man’s own understanding.  So he’s not afraid to confront big time preachers who’ve been promoting a misunderstanding of God’s word.

Book preview

The Good Friday

Myth

and the Prophecy it

Conceals

Title_Page_Logo.ai

© 2004 Cecil W. Davies. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 06/01/05

ISBN: 1-4208-2616-6 (sc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2005902168

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

All Scriptures are KJV unless otherwise specified.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

The Good Friday Myth

No margin for error.

What Is A ‘Day’?

What Is An ‘Evening’?

Between the Two Evenings

Sabbaths

Day of Preparation

The Passover Feast

Day of Unleavened Bread

Nisan 10

Nisan 14

Not on the Feast Day

A Short Time Line

After Three Days

The Third Day

Three Days and Three Nights

Confirmation

Jesus & Daniel

Crucifixion vs. Tribulation

The Good Friday Myth

Moses and Joshua

The Passover

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

The Feast of Firstfruits

Exodus, the First Week

Clue No. One

Clue No. Two

Clue No. Three

Clue Number Four

Clue No. One: Three Days Rest

Clue No. Two: Crossing Over

Clue No. Three: The Feast of Firstfruits

Manna

Green Ears vs. Old Corn

Eight Reasons to Study Prophecy

World War and Heptadic Patterns

The Prophetic Psalms

and the Resurrection Pattern

in World War II

1942 -1948 Overlay

1938 - 1945 Overlay

1935 – 1941 Overlay

1935 - 1948 Overlay

Heptadic Patterns of World War I

1. The Regathering’s Seventy

Ezekiel 37 - The Valley of Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37: 1-14

The Regathering

Ezekiel 37: 1-14

Ezekiel 37: 1-14

Heptadic Patterns of World War I

1. The Regathering’s Seventy

2. War and Peace

Heptadic Patterns of World War I

1. The Regathering’s Seventy

2. War and Peace

3. This Generation

Heptadic Patterns of World War I

1. The Regathering’s Seventy

2. War and Peace

3. This Generation

4. Alpha – Omega

Four Generations

The Set Time

The Third Day

What is a Generation?

What triggers a Generation?

How long is a Generation?

A New Pattern

In Our Lifetime

Y2K,

The year 2000

2003

The Set Time

2017/18

--- 50-50 ---

2017/18

--- Shortened Days ---

Summary of the Psalms

2003-2017

The New Pattern

2006 - 2007

Ps 106-107

2006 - 2007

30 - 30

2006

The Magog invasion

2006 - 2010

E.L.S.

equidistant letter spacing

2010

...after threescore and two...

2010

...after threescore and two...

2010

...after threescore and two...

2013

Forty and Six

2003-2017

The New Pattern

Supporting Studies

By The Number

By The Number

Mathematical Progression

Mathematical Progression

The Feasts of Moses

The Adjusted Jewish Calendar (AJC)

The Adjusted Jewish Calendar (AJC)

The Adjusted Jewish Calendar (AJC)

Sabbaticals and Jubilees

Sabbaticals and Jubilees

Sabbaticals and Jubilees

Jubilee Cycle

Sabbatical Years

Putting It All Together

A Quick Review

Putting It All Together

A Quick Review

Yet Another

3rd Day Surprise

Seven Days Notice

Post Script

End Notes

About the Author

Acknowledgements

I want to give a special thanks to my pastor, Toby Digrugilliers.

You see, I didn’t set out to write a book. After losing control of a semi while coming down an icy mountain, I recognized it was long past time to study God’s word for myself. This study led to many fascinating discoveries in areas that traditional church teaching has neglected. Some of these discoveries were so complex that I had to write them out on paper in order to understand them myself.

It was so hard to accept that a Biblically untutored individual like myself could find such mind boggling discoveries that all the educated pastors, evangelists, and theologians missed; that without my pastor’s constant encouragement, I’d never have had the confidence to write this book. It’s his moral support that supplied the motivation to keep this project going.

Thank you Toby.

Introduction

This book is not written to the unbeliever. It is written for those who have already accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior in order that they may be more efficient in His service.

People joke about how hard it is to get a man to read the instructions before assembling a bicycle or to get him to ask for directions when he’s driving a car. The same thing that gets in his way (pride) also gets in our way when we study the Bible. We don’t want people to know that there is something we don’t understand.

Pride is also why I find it more difficult to present this message to a minister than to the average man on the street. If you ask the average man what day of the week Jesus was crucified, he will usually admit he doesn’t know. The typical pastor, on the other hand, will attempt to defend whatever position he’s already been teaching.

Many times, before we can learn something new, we have to unlearn something that we have gotten wrong. The typical minister has already invested himself in a number of theological positions that this book will challenge. The average man has not.

As I travel across the United States, listening to the radio, I hear pastor after pastor proclaiming that these are the last days. Yet, not one of them can tell you precisely when the last days are. I don’t believe we can know the day and the hour our Lord will return (Mt 24:36), but there are some things we can know about his soon coming (Mt16:1-4). For instance, we know that the anti-Christ will rise to power and the abomination of desolation will occur before our Lord’s second coming. That means there are some things about the last days timetable we can know. Our challenge then, is to find out just what we can learn about the last days time schedule.

When Christians start on the right foundation and apply the correct chronological timeframes to God’s Word, they will be less prone to accepting faulty man-made interpretations.¹ This book lays out one possible timeline for the last days. You’ll have to decide for yourself if what I’ve written is validated by the Scriptures. All I ask is that you consider what I’ve laid out.

If the doctor told you that you had some disease that would kill you in less than a month’s time, you probably wouldn’t make plans to build a new barn to hold next year’s harvest. However, you would be likely to update your will and take your kids to Disney Land. In the same way; if we knew the Lord was going to return next month, we would be more likely to use our church resources to evangelize our neighbors than we would be to embark on a twenty year church property expansion project.

The more we understand, the less likely we are to be deceived into wasting our resources. It is my hope that this book will enable you to better understand where we are on God’s prophetic timeline and become a more efficient servant, because these are indeed the last days in which we live.

Jesus

and the

Crucifixion

The Good Friday Myth

Most of us consider Bible study to be a somewhat daunting task. The Bible contains so much information that we just don’t understand. In many places the Lord spoke in parables specifically to deny understanding to them that are without (Mark 4:11). However, even accounts of everyday events are difficult for us to understand since the Bible was originally written in another language about a radically different culture whose history most of us never really learned.

Over the years, numerous church leaders introduced errors in our understanding in order to further their own goals. Either intentionally or through ignorance, many of these errors have been handed down through the ages as infallible doctrine. Challenging them was branded as heresy.

The basis of Christian faith is that God gave His only begotten Son to die for our sins. Jesus Christ, His Son, was crucified, died, buried, and rose from the grave according to the Scriptures (1 Cor 15:3). For Christianity to be valid, this must have occurred just as the Bible said.

Just one discrepancy in this account would cast doubt on the inerrancy of the whole Bible. Yet Christian scholars cannot agree as to the exact sequence of events surrounding the very foundation of their faith. Most people believe that Jesus was crucified on Friday. Others believe it was Wednesday, and a few even understand it to have been on a Thursday.

It would be easy to say that we can agree that it happened and yet disagree as to the details of how it happened. If we cannot understand and agree on the basics, how can we witness to others and convince them that we, as Christians, have the true faith?

With this in mind, I ask you:

When was the crucifixion?

No margin for error.

The Bible sets Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem almost 500 years beforehand, and was accurate to the very day.

Dan 9:1,2 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; in the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

Dan 9:24-26 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself...

Note that the time is to be measured from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, not from the rebuilding of the temple under Zerubbabel.

Neh 2:1-8 And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king,...Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request?...And I said unto the king,...that thou wouldst send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it....So it pleased the king to send me;...Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me...And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

There was more than one Artaxerxes, but only Artaxerxes Longimanus’s monarchy exceeded twenty years. His reign began in 465 BC and his twentieth year would be 445 BC. Since Nehemiah did not specify another day in the month, custom indicates he was referring to the first day of the month, Nisan 1, 445 BC (Mar 14 per Sir Isaac Newton). Sixty-nine weeks of years at 360 days per year (69x7x360 or 173,880 days) bring us to Sunday April 6

(Nisan 10) 32AD as the very day Jesus entered Jerusalem.², ³

What Is A ‘Day’?

In today’s usage, a day can refer to either a complete period (24 hrs) of both light and darkness or just the daylight portion (12 hrs) thereof. What did the term ‘day’ mean in Bible times? Again it could mean either one.

24hr day And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy

Deu 16:4 coast seven days;

12hr day And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three

Jonah 1:17 nights.

Summing up the different reckonings among people in his time, Pliney wrote:

The Babylonians count the period between two sunrises, the Athenians that between two sunsets, the Umbrians from midday to midday, the common people everywhere from dawn to dark, the Roman priests and the authorities who fixed the official day, and also the Egyptians and Hipparchus, the period from midnight to midnight.⁴

In the modern world we usually follow the Roman reckoning, but not always. Our 24 hour day is typically measured from midnight to midnight. However, in some cases, such as for certain truck drivers, it can be legally considered to be from noon to noon. In other cases, although it is figured from midnight to midnight, it is not figured from midnight at your locality, but from midnight in Greenwich, England.

In the Old Testament the earlier practice seems to have been to consider that the day began in the morning. Later practice was to count the day as beginning in the evening.

In Genesis 19:34, the morrow (ASV) or next day (RSV) clearly begins with the morning after the preceding night.

Genesis 19:34 (KJV) (NIV)

And it came to pass on the morrow, The next day the older daughter said

that the firstborn said unto the younger, to the younger, "Last night I lay with

Behold I lay yesternight with my father: my father.

In Leviticus 23:27 it is stated that the Day of Atonement is to be observed on the tenth day of the seventh month. In verse 32 it is said that the observance is to be on the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening,

Leviticus 23:27,28 Leviticus 23:32

Also on the tenth day of this seventh It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest,

month there shall be a day of atonement: and ye shall afflict your souls: in the

It shall be an holy convocation unto you; ninth day of the month at even,

and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer from even unto even, shall ye celebrate

an offering made by fire unto the Lord. your sabbath.

And ye shall do no work in that same day; Note: At even is at day’s end.

for it is a day of atonement, to make an The 9th ‘at even’ begins the 10th.

atonement for you before the Lord your God. ‘From even unto even’ is on the 10th.

(Note that Leviticus just gave an example of a sabbath other than that of the Shabbat - or seventh day.)

In Biblical times (Ps 55:17), the day was generally divided into morning, evening, and noon, which was also known as midday (Acts 26:13). In much the same way we use the term lunch hour, some parts of the day were often described by the task at hand, such as the time for animals to be gathered together (Gen 29:7) or the time when women go out to draw water (Gen 24:11). Other parts of the day were referred to by their descriptions, such as the heat of the day (1Sam 11:11) or the cool of the day (Gen 3:8).

The darkness of night could be divided into three watches or four. The Old Testament refers to the beginning of the watches (Lam 2:19), the middle watch (Judges 7:19) and the morning watch (Ex 14:24). Reflecting the influence Egyptian and Roman captivity had on the Jews, the New Testament gives reference to a fourth watch (Mat 14:25). The four divisions were known as evening, midnight, cockcrow, and morning watch (Mk 13:35).

In Mesopotamia the entire day was divided into twelve periods of two hours each. Herodotus refers to these twelve divisions of the day, and observes that the Greeks learned of them from the Babylonians. Among the Greeks themselves, the day and night were each divided into twelve hours.⁵

The New Testament typically divides each day into 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. That’s why John 11:9 asks, Are there not twelve hours in the day? Matthew 20:1-12 goes further and gives an account of workers hired at the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 11th hour of the day, where the last men hired had only