Biblical teaching and instruction

THE "GOOD FRIDAY" MYTH? Why the Greek Text Tells a Different Story

Most people assume Jesus was crucified on a Friday and rose on a Sunday. But if you do the math—and look at the original Greek—the "Friday Tradition" hits some major snags.

Here is the Exegetical Case for a Mid-Week Crucifixion:

1. The "Sabbaths" (Plural) Mystery
In Matthew 28:1, the Greek word used isn’t "Sabbath" (singular). It’s σαββάτων (sabbaton)—which is PLURAL.
The Text: "After the Sabbaths..."
The Logic: If Jesus died on Friday and rose on Sunday, there’s only one Sabbath. But the Bible points to two: An "Annual High Sabbath" (Passover) AND the "Weekly Sabbath" (Saturday). The plural text proves more than one rest day passed!

2. The "Sign of Jonah" Challenge
Jesus gave only ONE sign of His authority: "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish..." (Matt 12:40).
The Friday Math: Friday night (1) + Saturday night (2). That’s it. Where is the 3rd night?
The Mid-Week Math: A Wednesday/Thursday crucifixion gives you 3 full days AND 3 full nights. Exactly 72 hours.

3. The "Spice" Timeline Logic
The Gospels seem to contradict each other—unless there were two Sabbaths:
Mark 16:1: The women bought spices AFTER the Sabbath.
Luke 23:56: The women prepared spices BEFORE resting on the Sabbath.
The Resolution: They rested on the High Sabbath (Thursday), bought spices on the Workday (Friday), and rested again on the Weekly Sabbath (Saturday). The "Friday Crucifixion" makes this timeline impossible!

4. Prophetic Precision
Daniel 9:27 says the Messiah would be "cut off" in the middle of the week.
What is the middle of a 7-day week? Wednesday.
If He was "cut off" Wednesday afternoon and stayed in the tomb for 72 hours, He would rise at the end of the Saturday Sabbath—meaning the tomb was already empty by Sunday morning!

THE VERDICT:
The "Friday" tradition is eisegesis (reading tradition into the text). The Wednesday/Thursday view is exegesis (letting the literal Greek and the "Sign of Jonah" speak for themselves).

The Superiority of the Melchizedekian Priesthood in Hebrews 7

1. Introduction
Hebrews 7 presents a sustained and internally coherent argument for the superiority of Christ’s priesthood over the Levitical priesthood. Rather than rejecting the Mosaic system outright, the author employs Jewish covenantal logic, drawing upon Genesis 14 and Psalm 110 to demonstrate that the Levitical priesthood is neither ultimate nor final. The argument proceeds by establishing the precedence, superiority, and permanence of the Melchizedekian priesthood, culminating in the necessity of a change in priesthood and, correspondingly, a change in law.

2. The Superiority of Melchizedek to Abraham
Premise 1: In Jewish covenantal thought, the act of paying tithes signifies acknowledgment of superiority or authority on the part of the recipient (cf. Num 18).
Premise 2: Scripture records that Abraham gave a tithe to Melchizedek (Gen 14:20).
Conclusion 1: Abraham acknowledged Melchizedek as his superior.
Premise 3: In biblical tradition, blessings are conferred by the greater upon the lesser.
Premise 4: Melchizedek blessed Abraham (Gen 14:19).
Conclusion 2: Melchizedek is greater than Abraham.
The cumulative force of these premises establishes Melchizedek’s superiority to Abraham, the patriarch and covenantal head of Israel.

3. The Subordination of the Levitical Priesthood
Premise 5: Abraham functions as the federal representative of his descendants within covenantal reasoning.
Premise 6: Levi, the ancestor of the Levitical priesthood, was genealogically “in the loins” of Abraham at the time of Abraham’s encounter with Melchizedek (Heb 7:9–10).
Conclusion 3: The Levitical priesthood, in Abraham, acknowledged Melchizedek’s superiority.
Conclusion 4: Therefore, the Levitical priesthood is subordinate to the Melchizedekian priesthood.
This reasoning reflects accepted Jewish corporate identity logic and does not depend on speculative metaphysics.

4. The Inferiority and Limitations of the Levitical Priesthood
Premise 7: The Levitical priesthood derives its legitimacy from genealogical descent and operates within the constraints of mortality (Heb 7:23).
Premise 8: Scripture records no genealogy, birth, or death for Melchizedek (Heb 7:3).
Conclusion 5: Melchizedek’s priesthood, as presented in Scripture, is not dependent upon lineage or succession.
Premise 9: A priesthood characterized by succession and mortality cannot provide permanent mediation.
Conclusion 6: The Levitical priesthood is inherently limited and incapable of achieving perfection (Heb 7:11).

5. The Necessity of a New Priesthood
Premise 10: If perfection were attainable through the Levitical priesthood, there would be no need for another priesthood.
Premise 11: Psalm 110:4 declares the rise of a priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,” spoken by divine oath.
Conclusion 7: Scripture itself anticipates the inadequacy of the Levitical priesthood and announces a superior priesthood.
Conclusion 8: The emergence of a new priesthood necessitates a corresponding change in law (Heb 7:12).

6. Christ as the Fulfillment of the Melchizedekian Priesthood
Premise 12: Jesus does not qualify for priesthood under the Mosaic Law due to tribal lineage (Heb 7:14).
Premise 13: Jesus is appointed priest by divine oath and possesses an indestructible life (Heb 7:16–17).
Conclusion 9: Jesus’ priesthood is legitimate, superior, and permanent.
Premise 14: A permanent priesthood guarantees continuous intercession.
Conclusion 10: Christ is able to save completely those who approach God through Him (Heb 7:25).

7. Conclusion
Hebrews 7 constructs a cumulative argument demonstrating that the Levitical priesthood is subordinate, temporary, and ultimately insufficient. By contrast, the Melchizedekian priesthood—fulfilled in Christ—is prior, superior, divinely sworn, and eternal. The transition from the Levitical to the Melchizedekian priesthood does not represent discontinuity with Scripture but its divinely intended consummation. Consequently, Christ’s priesthood provides definitive and complete mediation between God and humanity.

What is the gift spoken in Acts 2: 38?

Acts 2:38-39

38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

Exposition
Peter is in the midst of answering his deeply concerned hearers by pointing out five things that must happen (Acts 2:38). He tells them both what they are to do, and what God will freely give — so that they might enter into new life in Christ. Which is why this verse can be called ‘the gospel call to salvation’.

Having been ‘cut to the heart’ (convicted of sin v37) they are to ‘repent’ (turn around and face the other direction and forsake) of their sinful condition of heart before God, together with the comprehensive range of their actual sins.
They are to be ‘baptized’ — ie they are to receive the ‘external’ sign and seal of entrance into new life in Christ. Waster baptism ‘outwardly’ symbolizes the washing of regeneration — the ‘inward’ renewal wrought by the Holy Spirit.
This must be ‘in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ’. The baptism is the seal of what Christ has already done for them in making them right with God.
It is ‘for the forgiveness of your sins’. Assurance that their sins were forgiven was bound up with the reality of their repentance and faith. Baptism ‘outwardly’ sealed the promise of forgiveness to ‘inward’ repentance. An unbaptized Christian is therefore a contradiction in terms. Hence the close connection of repentance, baptism and forgiveness here.
As a result they will ‘receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We need to notice that it is the ‘gift’ and not the ‘gifts’ ; and the ‘gift’ of the Spirit is the Holy Spirit himself bestowed by the Father through the Messiah. The ‘gifts’ of the Spirit are those spiritual faculties which the Spirit imparts “giving to everyone just as he will” (1 Corinthians 12:11). All believers receive the Holy Spirit when they believe. No later, so-called ‘second-blessing’ experience is required in order for Christians to receive him.

God promises to save all who repent and call upon the name of the Lord, both in the line of generations (‘you and your children’) and from all the nations of the world ( ‘ those who are afar off’ are the gentiles and their children, Isaiah 57:19). This promise extends to “all whom the Lord our God will call” through the preaching of the gospel.

What is incarnation and why does it matter

Christmas is about the incarnation of Jesus. Strip away the season’s hustle and bustle, the trees, the cookies, the extra pounds, and what remains is a humble birth story and a simultaneously stunning reality — the incarnation of the eternal Son of God.

This incarnation, God himself becoming human, is a glorious fact that is too often neglected, or forgotten, amidst all the gifts, get-togethers, pageants, and presents. Therefore, we would do well to think deeply about the incarnation, especially on this day.

Here are five biblical truths of the incarnation.

1. The Incarnation Was Not the Divine Son’s Beginning
The virgin conception and birth in Bethlehem does not mark the beginning of the Son of God. Rather, it marks the eternal Son entering physically into our world and becoming one of us. John Murray writes, “The doctrine of the incarnation is vitiated if it is conceived of as the beginning to be of the person of Christ. The incarnation means that he who never began to be in his specific identity as Son of God, began to be what he eternally was not” (quoted in John Frame, Systematic Theology, 883).

2. The Incarnation Shows Jesus’s Humility
Jesus is no typical king. Jesus didn’t come to be served. Instead, Jesus came to serve (Mark 10:45). His humility was on full display from the beginning to the end, from Bethlehem to Golgotha. Paul glories in the humility of Christ when he writes that, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6–8).

3. The Incarnation Fulfills Prophecy
The incarnation wasn’t random or accidental. It was predicted in the Old Testament and in accordance with God’s eternal plan. Perhaps the clearest text predicting the Messiah would be both human and God is Isaiah 9:6: “To us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

In this verse, Isaiah sees a son that is to be born, and yet he is no ordinary son. His extraordinary names — Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace — point to his deity. And taken together — the son being born and his names — point to him being the God-man, Jesus Christ.

4. The Incarnation Is Mysterious
The Scriptures do not give us answers to all of our questions. Some things remain mysterious. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God,” Moses wrote, “but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Answering how it could be that one person could be both fully God and fully man is not a question that the Scriptures focus on. The early church fathers preserved this mystery at the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.) when they wrote that Jesus is “recognized in two natures [God and man], without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ.”

5. The Incarnation Is Necessary for Salvation
The incarnation of Jesus does not save by itself, but it is an essential link in God’s plan of redemption.

And the author to the Hebrews likewise writes that Jesus “had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17).

The incarnation displays the greatness of God. Our God is the eternal God who was born in a stable, not a distant, withdrawn God; our God is a humble, giving God, not a selfish, grabbing God; our God is a purposeful, planning God, not a random, reactionary God; our God is a God who is far above us and whose ways are not our ways, not a God we can put in a box and control; and our God is a God who redeems us by his blood, not a God who leaves us in our sin. Our God is great indeed!