Crackpot Prophet Keeps Gloating Over His So-called Evangelists Poaching Members From Other COG Groups

The second biggest thorn in Crackpot Bob's side (after Banned) is the group that split off from him in Malawi, Hope of Israel Church of God. When they originally broke away from the abusive tactics of Crackpot Bob's henchmen in Malawi, he was not a happy camper. This particularly irked his paid henchmen in Malawi, who have made it their mission to destroy the Hope of Israel groups that operate in Malawi. Radson Mulozowa and Evans Ochieng ply people in these groups, and especially the leaders, with money, computers, sheet metal for roofs, etc., and the second they can draw people away, they crow to Crackpot Bob and he falls for it.

0e 7/18/26 p.m. Got a report today that the rest of those I once knew in Serbia have left Hope of Israel for COGWA. It seems like Hope of Israel no longer has any in Serbia.

Various ones in Malawi and Mozambique left Hope of Israel for the CCOG this year.

Hope of Israel had this to say about Crackpot Bob's poaching:

Hope of Israel was formed in early 2023 primarily by people who left CCOG, including Aleksandar Veljic (Sasha), Terry Nelson, Randy Freeze, and others. They publicly accused CCOG’s African leadership (especially Kenyan “evangelist” Evans Ochieng and Malawian leader Radson Mulozowa) of corruption, financial impropriety, moral failures (including adultery allegations), and even involvement with witchcraft/local practices. They said they presented evidence to Thiel, who dismissed it, labeled the critics “accusers of the brethren”/talebearers, and continued supporting the African leaders.

Cracpot Bob then lashed out and claimed thatTerry Nelson disfellowshipped himself, helped start the rival group in Malawi, which Thiel claims is hostile, makes false accusations of corruption, and targets CCOG members/congregations. HOI is portrayed as having chosen a wrong direction on governance by not recognizing Bob's supreme authority, and as not being Philadelphian.

HOI’s own 2023 declaration states that Thiel and his African associates have targeted them for destruction from the start, that Thiel finances and tolerates lawlessness for the sake of claimed membership numbers in Africa, and that he makes false statements about them (e.g., claiming one of their founders was arrested). They also reject Thiel’s claims that CCOG is the sole Philadelphia remnant and that he has prophetic status.

Recent critical reports (2026, drawing on HOI Malawi statements and people like Priscilla Mulozowa, Radson’s ex-wife) allege that Thiel’s African associates (Evans Ochieng and Radson Mulozowa) have been actively trying to pull members and local leaders from HOI groups in Malawi. Accusations include:

• Offering money, material goods, motorcycles, phones, etc.
• Pressuring for public “reconciliations” (including attempts to get Priscilla back with Radson despite the long-standing separation and adultery claims).
• Staging or publicizing meetings/photos that HOI says misrepresent the situation.

Thiel always is highlighting these in communications as successes. The deceived returning to the one true faith. God's remnant, the TRUE Philadelphians.

HOI and its defenders describe this as aggressive poaching and gloating driven by animosity. CCOG frames its African work as legitimate outreach, growth reporting, and reclaiming people, and has posted attendance claims and notes about people coming over or HOI having limited/no presence in certain places. Both sides accuse the other of dishonesty about numbers and motives.

In these groups, the stakes are high because certain leaders claim unique prophetic insight, remnant status, and that supporting the “right” organization matters for salvation/end-time protection. A breakaway founded by former insiders who publicly document alleged corruption undercuts Thiel’s narrative that CCOG is the faithful Philadelphia work and that its African expansion is blessed. From HOI’s perspective, Thiel’s refusal to address the African issues + continued financial support for the leaders they exposed explains the ongoing campaign against them. From Thiel/CCOG’s perspective, the leavers are rebellious accusers undermining the Work, so competition for members is expected and justified.

If it wasn't for Loma and Herbert Armstrong you would all still be singing The Old Rugged Cross and be holy rollers....

It is always fascinating to see how people in the Churches of God need to feel special. God has supposedly called them into a secret organization that few will ever know about—one where the chosen few are being trained to become gods and goddesses in some mythical Mickey Mouse kingdom their dear leaders have invented for them. Some will defend that fantasy to the death. But even the fantasy comes with fine print. Unless you believe Herbert W. Armstrong was the end-time apostle who restored “all things,” you are excluded from the inner circle. Otherwise you might as well go back to being a Pentecostal, running down the aisle while belting out “The Old Rugged Cross.” (Yes, certain ministers actually taught that emotional worship was proof of spiritual inferiority back in the late ’60s and early ’70s.)This isn’t just quirky theology. It is a system built on exclusivity, hierarchy, and the absolute necessity of one man’s apostolic credentials. And today’s splinter groups have turned that system into a self-devouring contradiction.

the general attitude of todays COGs
They’re excluding the Authority - Mr Armstrong as an apostle  The Truth is HWA in his sermons warned to avoid them so their legitimacy totally depends on discrediting the apostle otherwise they become their own contradiction. You and I both know if not for Loma and Herbert Armstrong they’d all still be singing The Old Rugged Cross and the holy rollers would be jumping around the altar like jackasses, thinking they have the Holy Ghost yet these same folk forgot where they came from and more importantly, who brought them here, To deny Isa 40 changes EVERYTHING especially the duel part of prophecy in the spiritual and physical sense. Today, they believe God is accepting all as long as they have COG in their title BUT first they must teach. Mr Armstrong was a fake.

And their splinter pastor general is the one God appointed to lead them to the world tomorrow. 

 

Some of today's Churches of God routinely downplay or sideline Herbert Armstrong’s unique authority while still claiming to be the faithful continuation of “the Work” he started. Their legitimacy, however, rests entirely on the premise that Armstrong restored lost truth that the rest of Christianity had abandoned. If he was not the apostle who did that restoring, then what exactly are they preserving? Nothing more than their own brand of Armstrongism with extra holy days and a stricter diet.

HWA himself repeatedly warned against false ministers, competing organizations, and anyone who would dilute the truth he claimed to have recovered. So when today’s groups treat his apostleship as optional, negotiable, or even something that must be quietly revised so their pastor general can claim the mantle, they step on their own foundation. 

Here is where the New Covenant becomes lethal to this kind of mentality.

The New Covenant, ratified in Jesus’ blood, renders the old covenant “obsolete” (Hebrews 8:13). The law written on stone has been replaced by the law written on hearts (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:10). Justification is by faith in Christ, not by Sabbath-keeping, holy-day observance, tithing to a central organization, or dietary regulations (Galatians 2:16, 3:24-25; Romans 10:4; Colossians 2:16-17). The ceremonial shadows have given way to the reality found in Christ.

Under this covenant, there is no secret inner circle that only the truly enlightened can enter by acknowledging a 20th-century American as God’s final apostle. There is no requirement that believers be trained to become literal gods and goddesses ruling planets in some future Mickey Mouse kingdom. Believers are already adopted as children of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:15-17; Galatians 4:5-7). They are being conformed to the image of the Son (Romans 8:29), partakers of the divine nature through the indwelling Spirit (2 Peter 1:4)—not earning divinity through law-keeping or organizational loyalty.

The gospel is not a hidden mystery reserved for a tiny remnant. It is to be proclaimed openly to every creature (Mark 16:15). The New Covenant does not produce competing “Churches of God” each claiming their pastor general is the one God has appointed to lead everyone into “the World Tomorrow.” It produces one body with Christ as Head (Ephesians 4:4-6; Colossians 1:18).

When today’s groups insist that God is now “accepting all” as long as the name includes “Church of God,” provided they first teach that Mr. Armstrong was a fake or at least not uniquely authoritative, they reveal the game. They must discredit the very apostle whose work they claim to continue—otherwise their existence as separate organizations becomes an obvious contradiction. And every new splinter’s leader then steps forward as the new anointed one for the final era. It is an endless cycle of self-authentication that the New Covenant simply does not need or authorize.

The people who once mocked emotional Pentecostals for thinking they had the Holy Ghost now find themselves in dozens of competing organizations, each convinced it alone has the correct understanding of the “truth” restored by one man. They mock mainstream Christianity for being lawless while quietly reinterpreting the New Covenant to keep as much of the Old Covenant ceremonial system as possible. They speak of dual fulfillments of prophecy while the New Testament repeatedly shows the primary, spiritual fulfillments occurring in Christ and His church.

The New Covenant does not produce secret societies training future gods under the authority of a modern apostle. It produces forgiven sinners who are already seated with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6), already citizens of the Kingdom (Colossians 1:13), already indwelt by the Spirit who writes God’s law on their hearts. No special badge, no required belief in Herbert Armstrong’s apostleship, no future deification program required.

The quote—or rather the entire attitude—that one must belong to the right splinter, acknowledge the right apostle, and keep the right list of Old Covenant practices to be truly special… that attitude is not merely outdated. In light of the New Covenant, it is exposed as unnecessary, unbiblical, and ultimately self-contradictory.

The splinters can keep arguing over who gets to wear the apostolic mantle. The New Covenant has already moved on. Christ is sufficient. The work is finished. And the only “inner circle” that matters is the one open to everyone who comes to the Father through the Son.

Herbert Armstrong's Son-in-Law Drops the Bomb: "It's True. You Can Believe It."

Herbert Armstrong's Son-in-Law Drops the Bomb: "It's True. You Can Believe It." 

The Incest Scandal That PCG and the HWA Worshippers Can't Erase

Article is by an ex-PCG member

In the twisted carnival of Armstrongism, where failed prophecies pile up like unpaid tithes and "God's Apostle" Herbert W. Armstrong is still treated like some untouchable saint by the splinter groups, every so often a voice from the past punches through the denial. This time, it's coming straight from the family. Not some bitter ex-member with an axe to grind, but the husband of Armstrong's own daughter Dorothy—Vern Mattson himself.

Back in 2010, a PCG member (yes, one of Gerald Flurry's loyal tithers) picked up the phone and dialed Sun City, Arizona. What followed was a conversation that should have nuked any remaining illusions about the "one true church" founded by a man who allegedly molested his own daughter for years. But of course, in Armstrong-land, facts are just "attacks from Satan" and reality is whatever the current "leader" says it is.

Here's the letter excerpt from that former COG member, left intact as a raw, unfiltered quote:

They found that at this time, Vern Mattson resided in Sun City, AZ., the year being 2010. Upon finding their number, my dad simply called them. Vern Mattson picked up. Dad just told him that he was a member of the Philadelphia Church of God and had been for a few years, raising his children in the Worldwide and in the PCG. Then, he just told him what my mom had heard and could these things be true? And, if they were, our dad's big question was, to Vern Mattson, why didn't someone, somebody in their family come out years ago, and tell the WCG, the truth?

First thing out of Vern Mattson's mouth was that he couldn't believe that there was now an actual college named after Herbert Armstrong in Oklahoma, and why would they do that? My dad's answer was, starting with Gerald Flurry, right on down, they firmly believed that he (Herbert W. Armstrong) was God's man. Whatever, over the years, that the leaders or members have heard or seen, no way would it or could it be believed! He told him, it's who they are, it's their lives, just like it was ours. 

 

It's what our fathers have taught us and on down the line it goes!! My dad said it was pretty quiet on the other end there, for a bit. Then he heard the words, "Well, it's true. You can believe it." 

 

He said he really had no problem talking about it now, because his wife Dottie [Dorothy], had just recently passed. He said it made him angry, sickened them for a long time, because of the thousands of people out there, in the WCG, that really had no idea! He told my dad things that evening, on the phone, that my dad felt responsible to tell me. 

 

Vern Mattson said, over the years, with all that's out there now, on these computers, David Robinson's book, and plenty others written by his top ministers; he said, you got the Ambassador Report, full of documented facts and dates, exposing all the lies, mishandling of money, the incest with his own daughter. When I found out what he had done to my wife when she was just a young girl, you see we raised a daughter too, this was his own daughter, scaring and hurting her like that, over and over again, I was going to kill him! 

 

I won't forget her words, years ago, when she asked me, how could a great and loving God go against Himself like that, by calling a man to raise up His "one and only true Church," a man that would hurt his own daughter like that? 

 

To all the fathers out there who have a daughter, your little girl, how would you answer that? 

 

I can tell you how Herbert Armstrong answered that, because of the last thing Vern Mattson told my dad on the phone that day, something he said, he has never forgotten. His wife, Dottie [Dorothy], told him of an incident that had happened back in the late `30s or so, that he could never ever repeat, but what he could say, was that she was pleading with her father one night, she wanted it to stop. (Herbert Armstrong had her in a hotel room, and her voice was overheard by others, and a person who worked there came knocking on their door, wondering if anything was wrong?) His reply, his answer--the man we so strongly believed in--his answer when my wife, his daughter, his little girl, cried out to him, was: "God gave you to me and it is my job to teach you. This will help you to be a better wife someday." 

  

So there you are. Shocking Words That Herbert Armstrong Told His Daughter Dorothy

There you are, indeed. Straight from the mouth of the man who was married to Dorothy Armstrong Mattson. Not hearsay from some disgruntled employee, but confirmation from the guy who lived with the victim and raised a daughter of his own. Vern Mattson was ready to kill HWA when he found out. Can you blame him?

Think about that for a second! The same Herbert W. Armstrong who screamed about British Israelism, the "lost ten tribes," Saturday-only salvation, and tithing your way into the Kingdom allegedly took his own young daughter into a hotel room and "taught" her in ways that left her pleading for it to stop. When hotel staff heard her distress and knocked, Papa Herbert's pious response was essentially: "God gave her to me. This is for her own good. Future wife training."

How convenient. The Apostle of Incest turns divine calling into a license for familial rape. And this is the guy whose name still graces Herbert W. Armstrong College in Edmond, Oklahoma, where Flurry's crew indoctrinates the next generation of tithe-payers.

Vern Mattson couldn't believe they named a college after the man. Yeah, Vern, join the club. The cognitive dissonance in these groups is thicker than the Ambassador Auditorium's wool carpet. They heard the rumors for decades—David Robinson's book, the Ambassador Report with its documented facts, ex-ministers spilling the beans—and still doubled down: "No way could it be true! He's God's man!"

Meanwhile, Dorothy lived with the trauma. She questioned how a loving God could anoint such a monster to lead "His one and only true Church." Good question, Dottie. The answer, of course, is that He didn't. Armstrong was a charismatic grifter with a god complex, a serial adulterer (by his own admission in some accounts), and, according to his own son-in-law, an incestuous predator who used theology as a grooming tool.

This isn't ancient history to be swept under the "persecution" rug. This is the rotten foundation of the entire Armstrong empire—WCG, PCG, LCG, RCG, CCOG, and every other acronym still peddling the same legalistic poison while ignoring (or outright denying) the founder's personal corruption.

To all the current members and "ministers" still defending HWA: Vern Mattson, the man who married the victim and heard it from her own lips, said "It's true. You can believe it." Your wives, your daughters, your sons—how do you look them in the eye and keep sending in those tithes to prop up the legacy of a man who allegedly violated his own child?

The New Covenant offers real freedom from this garbage. No more idolizing dead false apostles. No more covering up evil with "don't judge God's servant" nonsense. Just Christ, grace, and the truth that sets people free.

Vern Mattson is gone now. Dorothy too. But the testimony remains. The wackiness, the hypocrisy, and the human wreckage of Armstrongism continue to be exposed—one phone call, one letter, one article at a time.

So there you are.

Satan’s Pasadena Crash Landing: How God’s Apostle Died and the Devil Got Evicted on the Exact Same Day (Coincidence? Nah, It’s Prophecy!)

There he is, folks — the Prince of Darkness, the Accuser of the Brethren, the ancient serpent… face-planting into the Pasadena pavement right on cue. Because nothing says “divine timing” like coordinating the fall of the ultimate evil with one elderly man’s death. 

And of course, the second his cloven hooves hit California soil, he doesn’t waste a second. No sightseeing. No Disneyland. Straight to work conquering 95 percent of God’s true Church!  According to this airtight logic, while HWA was still breathing, Satan already had a “synagogue of Satan” operating inside the church — a church within a church, a beachhead in the strong Philadelphia era. But somehow the big guy upstairs waited until Armstrong had died before giving the dragon the final eviction notice. 

Then, boom — 1986: cast down. 

1989, he influences Flurry to start a new church. One of the first church splits. Perfect prophecy fulfillment, if you ignore the minor detail that the church has been splitting, fighting, and forming committees since the Book of Acts.

Flurry’s version is pure comedy gold: Satan took the “key of David” (whatever that mystical remote control is this week), conquered 95 percent of the members, turned them into Laodiceans, and now only the tiny remnant who buy his magazines and send him the tithes are still conquering the devil the way Jesus did in Matthew 4. Everyone else? Doomed to miss out on the Jerusalem headquarters real estate deal.

And the follower’s commentary seals it: “Remember 1979? Receivership attempt! Ten years later — wait, three years after his death — Satan succeeded!” Yes, because a 1979 state receivership battle and a 1989 doctrinal shift are clearly the same event as Revelation 12:13, where the dragon goes after the woman the instant he’s thrown down. Timing so precise it would make a Swiss watch jealous… if Swiss watches ran on pure confirmation bias.

Let’s review the official timeline of cosmic drama: 

• Satan is already inside the church while HWA lives. 
• HWA dies → Satan is cast down. 
• Satan immediately uses the people who were already there to conquer 95 percent of the church. 
• Therefore, only the Philadelphia Church of God is still conquering Satan. (Bob Thiel and Samuel Kitchen have been seen whimpering in the corner.)

It’s almost as if the doctrine was reverse-engineered to explain why nearly the entire Worldwide Church of God rejected Flurry’s claims after 1986. “It’s not that we changed doctrines or people disagreed — no, no. Satan got kicked out of heaven the day the old man died and personally orchestrated every board meeting!”  Brilliant. Absolutely unfalsifiable. And the perfect excuse for why your tiny group is the only one left with “the key of David vision” while everyone else is busy being Laodicean losers who won’t get to rule from headquarters.

So next time you’re in Pasadena, take a moment of silence near the old Ambassador Auditorium. Somewhere under that California sun, a very irritated fallen angel is still nursing his bruises from the landing… and plotting his next hostile takeover of whichever splinter group has the best mailing list.

Conquer or be conquered, folks. Or just, you know… maybe consider that church politics, human ambition, and doctrinal drift don’t actually require a mid-1980s eviction notice from heaven.  But where’s the fun in that?

THE KEY OF DAVID-IT UNLOCKS YOUR WONDERFUL AND IMMEDIATE FUTURE
THE OPEN DOOR
CONQUER OR BE CONQUERD
"Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie, behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee" (Revelation 3:9). This verse reveals that there was a "synagogue of Satan" right in God's Church---a church within a church. Even while Mr. Was still there, Satan conquered a great many members (understand the difference between the many and the few). Satan was right there even while God's apostle was on this Earth! He had a synagogue! Those in this synagogue did not keep God's Word, and they denied God's government. Consequently, they lost the key of David vision and we're conquerd by the devil. Satan established a beach head in the strong Philadelphia ear. These rebels were conquerd by the devil, instead of conquering him.
So when Mr. Armstrong died, Satan used his synagogue to conquer 95 percent of God's Church (now comprised of several different churches). It became the Laodicean era. Unless those Church members repent before the Tribulation, they cannot qualify to rule in the Jerusalem headquarters.
Do you see why we must overcome? (The word conquer as used in the Revised Standard Version is better.) Either we conquer Satan as Christ did (Matthew 4; Luke4), or we can't qualify to rule at headquarters with Christ.
The Laodiceans will not rule from headquarters because they are not qualified.
Satan is still alive today. He wants to take over the Philadelphia Church of God in these latter days. We must do all we can to make sure that doesn't happen. God expects us to CONQUER the devil as Christ did so we can SHARE DAVID'S THRONE! (verse 21).
Satan took the key of David from the Church of God, and 95 percent of the members became Laodicean. The fruits show who conquered Satan and who didn't.
We won a bitter six-year court battle with Satan the devil. We have had to fight and conquer Satan in many battles. With God's very elect, that is a way of life.
Satan was cast down around the time Mr. Armstrong died, perhaps on that very day. He knows that his time is short (Revelation 12:12). He is on a violent rampage of spiritual and physical destruction.
We have God's power to conquer the devil because we cling to the key of David vision.
By Gerald Flurry
After HWA died Satan was cast down and by this God is testing His people to see who is still faithful. There are many groups that are scattered. He is seeing who in thesis Laodicean era understand where His presence is. He is truly calling for them that have errors to hear and eyes to see the difference

Confidence is not probably or may have.

Remember in 1979 what happened to the church, an attempt to take over it's receivership.

Ten years later which is three years after his death, Satan was successful in splitting the Church.

This is exactly what Revelation 12:13 is saying.

As soon as the dragon realizes that he was thrown out of heaven, he went after the woman.

He didn't wait, he went straight after her.

That's exactly what happened beginning 1989

Why is the COG filled with so many Jezebels? They are EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sometimes what COG members write on Facebook is so ludicrous it does not even deserve to be mocked. They do a wonderful job all by themselves. 

Repent from wicked man made pagan traditions like xmas, easter etc and follow Yeshua the one and only Son of God the capital P Prophet in Deut 18 in our Father Yahovah! Stop wearing a crosses of Tammuz jewelery they are graven images/idolatry and an abomination to God! Stop wearing makeup, jewellery and outward adornments that is lying and coveting a look you don't have to beguile/allure men. That is the spirit of Jezabel working in you and not of God and it is wicked. Go read about the punishment to Jezabels in revelation 2:20-23. Why would you want to cause a man of God to stumble and sin...When just looking at someone with lust is committing adultery... A sin that leads to death. CHRISTIAN WOMEN SHOULDN’T WEAR MAKEUP, FAKE NAILS, DYE HAIR, GET FILLSDS, PLASTIC SURGERY ETC NOR USURP THE AUTHORITY OF MEN, OR TEACH MEN! IF YOU DONT LIKE IT THEN YOU DONT LOVE GOD SO STOP PROCLAIMING YOU ARE A GODLY WOMAN OR EVEN A CHRISTIANYOU GOTTA OBEY YAH WHICH REQUIRES YOU TO ACTION WHAT HE SAYS THE LOVE OF GOD IS ..

Three Days and Three Nights - Proclamation Magazine

The following is reprinted by permission of Proclamation Magazine/Life Assurance Ministries, Colleen Tinker. Serving former Adventists. Inquiring Adventists, Sabbatarians and Concerned Christians.

Three Days and Three Nights

JULY 16, 2026 PROCLAMATION! 2003-5,6 PROCLAMATION!, DOCTRINE, FEATURE, VERLE STREIFLING

VERLE STREIFLING, PhD | Minister, Author, and Missionary | 

Editors note: We have received several letters in response to the timing of the resurrection. Some of these letters were of great length and went into great detail why we should believe that Christ was crucified on Thursday and raised on Saturday. For some of us this may not be an important issue in that we are more concerned that Christ died for our sins and He was raised from the dead and believe that this fact is the foundation of Christian faith, however, for others of our readers this issue holds major importance. They have been taught that THE SIGN that Christ is the Messiah of the O.T. is that he was in the heart of the earth THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS. They claim that this could not mean from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. Dr. Verle Streifling has prepared a paper to answer this question. We hope our readers will find this study useful.

---

Today, everything historic Christianity has taught is being tested, and anything that can be shaken, is being shaken. One such historic Christian teaching is the historic view that Jesus died on Friday and rose Sunday. Some say that Jesus died on Wednesday and was raised on the Sabbath. We must evaluate this, for a number of seventh day sects endorse it such as some groups of the World Wide Church of God. Others, including the Churches of God Seventh Day and some Assemblies of God Seventh Day have also held this for a half-century. This teaching is used to strip the historic church of the reason for celebrating the Lord’s day, saying Jesus rose ‘late on the Sabbath’—not the first day! On this basis, they also hold Pentecost was on a Sabbath, so the church was birthed on a Sabbath as well. Some of this has also filtered into the Companion Study Bible and Dake’s Study Bible.

Those who’ve written studies on this don’t all agree that Jesus rose on Saturday. Only the seventh day sects hold this, while others as the Christian Jew Foundation hold He was raised on Sunday,1 thus they celebrate our Lord’s day. But the seventh day sects strain Matthew’s account to their advantage for Sabbath resurrection. One such article is well written by E. E. Franke, and it relies entirely on Jesus’ crucifixion being in 31 AD, while another written by Rev. Garver C. Gray, a historian and pastor, proves it was 30 AD, showing Jesus was born BC 4, the year Herod died. These studies differ in the events preceding the crucifixion, so some harmonize on Saturday resurrection, some on Wednesday crucifixion, but not all on any one point—except that Christians are wrong about the Friday crucifixion! Yet we must commend them for well-written articles that convince the reader so that he won’t even think he needs to do deeper study.

Twenty years ago, I believed and defended this view for almost six years, until I found S. E. Anderson’s book Armstrongism’s Thirty Errors Exposed. Knowing he’d say something on this, and not finding anyone to show its errors, I got the book, which changed my opinion about the historic view on this subject. Though Anderson didn’t say much, he really didn’t need to, for what he said was like a little bullet that stops a charging elephant in his tracks! He reopened my blinded eyes in this, forcing me to more study to find where these writers and study Bibles that adopted their views got derailed. How could they seem so right, yet be so wrong? Where had I and so many others been misled?

For brevity I’ll refer to E. E. Franke’s booklet (the most thorough), to share some Bible answers I found that would convince any who believe the whole Bible.2

Error repeated often enough will sound true, so its followers will believe and recite it until God confronts them with His Word. Misinterpreted Scripture is often girded by misquoting scholars, to appear authoritative. This occurs in Franke’s selectively citing scriptures, authorities, and Bible versions.

Resurrection: ‘on the Sabbath’ or ‘after the Sabbath’?

He begins at Matt 28:1 KJV, “In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week…” (the women found He had risen). He notes Jesus arose on a Sabbath as Matthew says it was ‘IN the end of the Sabbath’; and it was not yet the first day, for the text says “toward the first day…” Citing four versions with ‘In the Sabbath’, he quotes the Siniatic Palmiset “the oldest Greek text known”, saying “And on the evening of the Sabbath…” 

Jewish Holy days3 reckon the night as the first part of a Sabbath, and the day as the last. Yet here the translator did not mean this, for he continues “as the first day of the week dawned.” Thus the Palmiset means it was the evening after the Sabbath. But does the Greek have in or after? The Received Text has after, so Franke’s words, “No man can accept the inspiration of Matthew and not believe that Jesus was risen on the Sabbath” are unwarranted disjunction, placing inspiration in the KJV , but not in the Greek text!

The first Greek word in Matt 28:1 is Opse. Strong’s Dictionary defines it: “Late in the day; by extension after the close of the day”. Thayer’s Lexicon gives the correct use in Matthew, which Franke only partially quotes, omitting what’s most significant, “Opse, an adverb of time, after a long time, long after, late, with a genitive ‘Opse sabbaton’ the Sabbath having just passed, after the Sabbath, i.e. at the dawn of the first day of the week—an interpretation absolutely demanded by the added specification “the dawning of the first day of the week” Matt 28:1”4 

Thayer shows Franke’s error, and his next in saying “Thus in every case the Greek word opse means late on or in”. Thayer shows it with the adjective equivalent as meaning ‘late…evening, either from our 3 pm to 6 pm and with four examples, or from 6 pm to the beginning of night” with ten examples). Other scholars agree5 on opse as either early or late evening, and its meaning after the Sabbath in Matt 28:1. Most Bibles agree.6 Goodspeed says “The plain sense of the passage is, “After the Sabbath as the first day of the week was dawning.” 

‘Dawning’ or ‘drawing on’?

Next, Franke affirms the Greek epiphosko (dawning) must mean ‘drawing on’ in Matthew, as that’s its meaning in Luke 23:54. But Greek converts a word from infinitive to verb, noun, adjective or even participle with the use of prefixes or suffixes, or both, changing the meaning or use of the word.7 To say that the true use for a word in Matthew is found from its use in Luke errs, unless both have the same spelling, grammatical construct, and the same context. We compare them in Greek:

Luke 23:54 has epephosken using the prefix ‘epe’ and the suffix ‘en’; but Matt 28:1 epiphoskouse with prefix ‘epi’ and suffix ‘ouse’. Their prefixes and suffixes are different, so they cannot bear the same use and meaning. Reinecher shows the distinctions.8 In Luke it’s the figurative, inceptive imperfect verb, but Matthew uses a participle literally meaning dawning or breaking forth of dawn.

Rotherham has ‘when it was on the point of dawning’. Thayer also notes that in Matthew it’s followed by ‘eis’, explaining, “It denotes entrance into a period which is penetrated, as it were, i.e., duration through a time…dawning into the first day of the week”. (p. 183). Their distinctions appear in most Bibles.9 

Greek ‘eis’ as ‘toward’ or ‘into’?

One Monday morning a church janitor found the pastor’s notes on the pulpit and was amazed to read in the margin, “Point weak: Shout loudly!” It seems Franke was doing this when he wrote: “The word ‘Toward’ is the mighty obstacle in the way of the resurrection on Sunday…for as long as it was dawning or drawing on toward the first day of the week, it is certain that the first day had not arrived. Sure indeed is the fact that while you are going toward anything or object, you have not reached it… If this is not true, then the English language, and the Greek from which it is taken, have lost their meaning.” He stressed the English toward—not the Greek word it is from.

This word is ‘eis,’ which most often means ‘into’ but only rarely ‘toward’. As Thayer said “It denotes entrance into a period which is penetrated…duration through a time…‘dawning into the first day of the week’ Matt 28:1”. Berry’s Lexicon says “Preposition governing accusative “Into to (the interior)…motion into.” Goodrick’s prepositional chart10 has ‘eis’ with the accusative, as in Matt 28:1, meaning ‘into’. Young’s Analytical Concordance shows ‘eis’ as ‘into,’ over 500 times; but as ‘toward’ only 27. Strong’s Dictionary on ‘eis,’ “A primary preposition: to or into…the point reached and entered…” Rotherham, who Franke uses for the “correct reading” of Matthew, uses ‘into’.

From the above, scholarship and translators agree Matt 28:1 says, “After the Sabbath, as it was dawning into the first day of the week…” as compared to the KJV. Matthew does not say Jesus was raised on the Sabbath, as Franke etc., affirm, but rather as the TR shows, it was ‘after the Sabbath…dawning into the first day of the week’, which only means “Sunday, at daybreak”.

‘Move the comma’ trick at Mark 16:9

Franke now wrestles other texts to uphold his error. He begins with Mark 16:9 which says, ‘Now when Jesus was risen early on the first day of the week…’ As this contradicts him at Matt 28:1, he works punctuation magic in Mark, moving the comma11 from the word ‘week’ to the word ‘risen’, making it say “early on the first day of the week He appeared to Mary…” 

You can do this in English, but in Greek it doesn’t work, for the rules of syntax and declensions show which words apply to which others, and how they’re being used. We need to learn the emphasis and word order in the Greek sentence. Goodrick’s Everybody’s Guide tells us, “The most important part of the sentence is put first. The secondary emphatic position is last. What is not so important is buried in the middle of the sentence…usually the order is verb, subject, and direct object; or subject, verb and direct object.” (5:3) 

Mark follows the first precisely, as seen from the literal translation “(He) having risen early (the) first day of the week, (He) appeared first to Mary the Magdalene”. Of the use of modifiers Goodrick tells us, “Sometimes modifiers belonging to the word come between (it and its article). The adjective usually follows the word to which it belongs.” So in Mark the modifier ‘early on the first day of the week’ follows the verb to which it belongs, ‘He having risen’. We see the most important emphasis in Mark 16, (coming first in the sentence) is the fact of Jesus’ resurrection ‘on the first day of the week’. Mark is correctly punctuated in the KJV saying Jesus arose ‘early on the first day of the week’, and Mark 16:9 is in concord with Matt 28:1, correctly translated!

Luke 24:21 also gives Franke problems. The two disciples going to Emaeus say that first day of the week, “is the third day” (since He was crucified). Literally,l “It brings today, this third day, since all these things came to pass”. Diagrammed, the sentence looks like this:

‘It’ is subject; ‘brings’ is the verb; ‘today this third day’ is all direct object, for all four words are in accusative declension. We may literally translate the accusative as ‘This day (is) the Third day’ since one part of the direct object is a subjunctive to the other. The KJV rightly equated today with the third day. But Franke failed to discern between translation and paraphrase— taking Dr. Murdock’s paraphrase of the Peshitto Syriac “Three days have passed…” to be an accurate translation of Luke! Irrespective, Luke underscores that very day was the ‘third day’—just as Jesus had prophesied!

‘The third day’ biblically defined

So we must Biblically define ‘the third day’. The Jewish Encyclopedia says, “In Jewish communal life, part of a day is sometimes counted as a full day”. This is what is called “Inclusive Time Reckoning”, as seen in 2 Kg 18: 9-10 where ‘three years’ is given for what our Western culture would count as 2 years. In 13 places, as in Matt 16:21, we’re told He’d be crucified and ‘raised again the Third day’. The Jews to whom He spoke equated this with ‘After three days’. But we err to literalize the Greek idiom ‘Three days and three nights’, to be exactly 72 hours, instead of being equal to ‘the third day’ as the Jews knew He meant, having a guard placed at the tomb on the Sabbath, before the third day arrived. No idiom can be literally interpreted in any language. Franke implies that Orthodoxy makes Jesus a liar by not teaching He was entombed a full 72 hrs. But this is question begging, for the Bible defines ‘the third day’, as S.E. Anderson showed:

1 Sam 20:12: “O Lord God of Israel, when I have sounded my father about tomorrow any time or on the third day…” third day is the day after ‘tomorrow’.

Luke 13:32 “And He said to them, ‘Go tell that fox (Herod) “Behold I cast out demons and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be finished.” ‘ “ Here Jesus uses ‘the third day’ as the day after ‘tomorrow.’

Acts 27:18-19: “And we, being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship; and the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackle of the ship.” Acts confirms Luke’s same use of ‘the third day’.

Alford Edersheim says, “It was the first day of the week, according to Jewish reckoning, ‘the third day’ from His death”, (his footnote said ‘Friday, Saturday, Sunday’ Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, p.630-631).

A. T. Robertson at Mk 16:2: “The body of Jesus was buried late on Friday before the Sabbath (our Saturday) which began at sunset…The women rested on the Sabbath (Luke 23:56). This visit of the women was in the early morning of our Sunday, the first day of the week…Some people are greatly disturbed over the fact that Jesus did not remain in the grave the full 72 hours. But he repeatedly said that He would rise on ‘the third day’, and that is precisely what happened. If he had really remained in the tomb full three days and then risen after that, it would have been the fourth day, not the third. The occasional phrase ‘after three days’ is merely a vernacular idiom common in all languages and not meant to be exact and precise like ‘on the third day’. (Word Pictures in the NT, vol I, p.399+400).

Robertson’s point is confirmed by a parallel idiom ‘after eight days’ as the same as ‘the eighth day’ which we read of in the Apostolic fathers. Barnabas, 75 AD, says “We keep the eighth day with rejoicing, in the which Jesus rose from the dead”. Then in Constitutions of the Holy Apostles is this instruction: “Break your fast the first day of the week, which is the Lord’s day…after eight days let there be another feast observed with honor, the eighth day itself.” As ‘after eight days’ equals ‘the eighth day’, so too ‘after three days’ equals ‘the third day.’

Matthew: ‘in the sepulcher’ or ‘in the heart of the earth’?

 These teachers get so boxed into their ‘72 hours of entombment’, they overlook that Matthew doesn’t mention the grave at all, rather he writes of how long Jesus would be ‘in the heart of the earth’.

 The Greek kardia (heart) is figurative for ‘hades’, but not ‘sepulcher’12 as the literal place for which it speaks, as hell in the center of the earth.13

 So Matthew spoke of how long Jesus was to be in hell—not His body in the tomb! And this time began the ninth hour (3 p.m.) when ‘He dismissed His spirit’, the earth shook, and the temple veil was rent in two on Friday afternoon!

The crucial factor: the year Jesus died!

 This teaching hangs on the year of Jesus’ death. He died Nisan 14, which is on a different day of the week from year to year, but always the day of the full moon after the Spring Equinox. It’s easily shown astronomically when Nisan 14 began in any given year. Franke got a U.S. Naval Observatory chart showing the week day for Nisan 14, and the hour of full moon from the years 24 to 38 AD. We show their findings for the years 27 to 34 AD.

The chart above shows 31 AD as the only year near when Christ died, that Nisan 14 began on Tuesday, so he’d be impaled at Passover on Wednesday. Franke needs to show this is the year He died, to validate his theory. It seems easily shown from Luke 3:1, for His baptism was in the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar, whose reign began AD 12, so counting 15 years from 12 AD, adding three and a half years (Jesus ministry), makes 31 AD, the year He was crucified. Yet there are serious problems with this calculation:

1. Very few Scholars will agree with Franke that Jesus was born not before 3 BC,14 (an essential for His death in 31 AD). Born in 4 BC, the year Herod died, Jesus wouldn’t have been crucified in 31 AD, as E. E. Franke holds, but rather He was crucified in 30 AD (as marked (+) on the US Naval’s chart). This agrees with the Scriptures, for Passover began Thursday evening, and He was crucified on Friday as the historic church always held.
2. The chart has Nisan 14 in 30 AD beginning April 6, so the crucifixion on April 7 is of special note in view of a quote from Hales that Franke supplied, recording the darkening of the sun at “about April 8”. 15
3. Also Hales records 784 UC as when the above event occurred. It was then 34 years after Herod died (in 750 UC, our 4 BC). This places 784 UC as the year 30 AD—the year Christ died, so Hales and the chart both historically agree with the Biblical evidence.
4. Added evidence of the year He died is correctly calculating Luke 3:1, and Jesus’ baptism in the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar.16 We must apply the Bible’s Jewish Inclusive Reckoning to compute the year of Jesus’ baptism in the 15th year of Tiberius. To do this we may not add 15 years to 12 AD, but rather we must add 14 actual years to the year of His accession, so 26 AD17 was when Jesus was baptized, to which we may now add the three and a half years of Jesus’ ministry, making it 30 AD when He died.
5. More evidence for 30 AD as the year Christ died is in John 2:18-22,18 where the Jews disputed Jesus’ authority. This was the first Passover of His ministry, and the 46th year since temple building began, in Herod’s 18th year, which was 20/19 BC. Forty-six years after 20 BC brings us to 27 AD, since there was no ‘0’ year from 1 BC to 1 AD. And this was the Passover week, exactly three years before Jesus death, which would then be 30 AD.
6. Evidence Jesus died in 30 AD comes from Daniel 9:25-27, the prophecy of the Messiah. No one has a problem using the ‘year-day principle’ interpreting this prophecy of 70 weeks. The command it speaks of is from Ezra 7:11-28, which is in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes (458-457 BC), and being written on the first day of the first month, makes it 458 BC.19

The 69 weeks until the anointing the Most Holy are 483 days, each for a year. Counting 383 years from 458 BC, we arrive at 25 AD, but we must add 1 more for there was no ‘0’ year, making it 26 AD, the year when Christ, the ‘Most Holy One’ was anointed for His ministry.20 From 26 AD as fulfilling Daniel 9:25-27, we add His three and a half years of ministry to find His death in 30 AD.

The chart Franke received from the US Naval Observatory shows Nisan 14 began on Thursday in 30 AD, so He was crucified on Friday and raised on Sunday as the Bible says. Only 30 AD, from 24 to 36 AD, Nisan 14 begins on Thursday, showing this the only option, when He could be crucified on Friday and raised on Sunday.21 

Defining ‘preparation day’ and ‘high day’

The Bible’s meaning of ‘High day’ isn’t found in Ex 12 nor Lev 23, but in a holy week, as in the feasts of Unleavened Bread or Tabernacles, the first and last days of these feast-weeks were holy Sabbaths, above the other days of their feast week, and ‘holy convocations’ when ‘you shall do no servile work’. It was usual to call these days ‘high days’ or ‘great days’ (Greek. megaleh) which John used to denote this distinction. This word only appears twice in the NT re. Jewish feasts. Vine’s Expository Dictionary says, “Here the meaning is virtually equivalent to ‘Holy’; and Thayer’s Lexicon says of megaleh in this use “Solemn, sacred, or feast days, John 7:37; 19:31”.22

Franke redefines ‘Preparation Day’, to be only a one-day-per-year event when the Jews prepared their Passover to be eaten. But the Greek word for Preparation day is ‘paraskueh’. Strong defines it as “Preparation for the weekly Sabbath” Other scholars concur.23 This word is used five times referring to the weekly Sabbath, while it’s used once of the Passover. From this we know Jn 19:14 can’t mean preparing the passover, especially as the Gk ‘etoimadzo’ is used for preparing the passover 3 times in the Gospels. Josephus (p344) shows Friday was preparation day for each Sabbath, citing Caesar Augustus’ edict that Jews ‘be not obliged to go before any judge on the Sabbath day, nor the day of Preparation to it, after the ninth hour’. What historic proof!

Preparation day defined in Mark

God gave the first preparation day in Ex 16; and Mark 15:42 gives this definition “It was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath”. From this, scholars agree that the expression ‘the preparation of the passover’ literally means ‘the preparation day of the passover (week),’ for the word passover can also mean ‘passover week’. In this, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, is correct, as seen in Acts 12:3-4.24 Herod arrested Peter during the days of Unleavened Bread “intending to bring him before the people after the passover”. As the Passover feast is before the days of unleavened bread, it’s obvious Luke didn’t intend its technical use here. Rather, ‘passover’ is used for the Passover week, including the Passover and Unleavened Bread, together. 

Two sabbaths in Passover week?

Sabbath-resurrection teachers do leave another puzzle. Comparing Lk 23: 54-56 with Mk 16:1-2 they contend there were two Sabbaths in Holy week: the first, that of Unleavened bread (a Thursday); the second was the weekly Sabbath. They note Matt 28:1 says “After the Sabbaths” (plural), and shows two separate Sabbaths. But the Greek idiom uses plural spelling for singular feast days. In Ex 20:8 God says “Remember the Sabbaths day (singular)…” LXX, as in Col 2:16 taking sabbatwv (plural) from Ex 20:8.

The grammatical construction of Luke 23:56 solves the difficulty as the NKJV has, “Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath, according to the commandment”. In Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, Archer shows that in a grammatical construction where ‘de’ appears, followed by ‘kai to men’, we are to understand the second part of the sentence as happening first, and the first part of the sentence as following the second. So the sequence of events would be: 1. they observed where His body was laid; 2. They rested on the Sabbath; 3. Then they prepared spices to anoint Him.

The reason number three is placed before number two in the text is to continue the thought concerning Jesus’ body and burial. Using ‘de…kai to men’ the ‘de’ means ‘but (though the latter),’ and the ‘kai to men’ means ‘and indeed’. Thus it would read that they observed the tomb where He was laid, (then later on) prepared spices and fragrant oils, (but indeed) they rested on the Sabbath”. Correctly understanding the sequence of Luke 23:56, there’s no discord with Mk 16:1-2 telling the same events, but in direct chronological order. After the Sabbath (after sunset, Saturday) they bought these spices that they might anoint His body. They both bought and prepared spices after the one and same Sabbath ended.

Thus, as the historic Church has always taught, Christ was crucified on Friday, and raised on Sunday27 the ‘third day’ according to the Scriptures. If you, beloved, were taught differently, as I had been, why not leave these errors which we’ve exposed in this article, and ask God the Holy Spirit to be your teacher, according to John 14:26 and 1 John 2:20-27? 

How we thank God today, that thousands are leaving many of the errors Armstrong taught, and are moving into more historic evangelical churches. The fact of Jesus’ Sunday resurrection was the basis on which the early church began celebrating that day with rejoicing, being so enjoined by the Scriptures, as taught by Jesus Himself in Luke 24, which we show in Bible Answers for Sabbath Questions, chapter 19. †

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Endnotes

1. Charles Haff of the Christian Jew foundation, holds the Sunday resurrection, but stresses Thursday crucifixion to evade the pagan Good Friday.
2. Often cults will use only selectively cited proof-texts as a grid to filter out what the other Scriptures say. In this they may also use poetic writings to refute didactic, or OT texts to overturn the NT, or sometimes both in the same rash act. They may also use a historic event which creates a non-sequitir to overturn direct Biblical teaching.
3. Some teach all Jewish days were calculated “from even to even”, but this is based on fallacious interpretation of creation days, as TWBOT shows under ‘ereb’, while Lev 23: 32 limits this to Sabbaths. John 20:19 proves this point, for the same day as Jesus rose, still the first day of the week, but at least 2 hours after sunset, when He revealed himself to the two at Emaeus, Jesus appeared to His disciples. See added detail re. Jewish days and creation days in Bible Answers for Sabbath Questions.
4. The Greek phrase is translated for the reader’s benefit.
5. Vines Expository Dictionary gives “Opse: Adverb. Long after, late, late in the day, at evening…in Matt 28:1 it is rendered ‘late on’ RV or AV ‘in the end of’. Here, however, the meaning seems to be ‘After’, a sense in which it is used by late Greek writers”. Again on Opsia Vine says :Late…the word really signifies the late evening, the latter of the two evenings as reckoned by the Jews… after sunset”. Berry’s Short Lexicon of NT Words concurs, and Reinecher’s Linguistic Key to the NT, vol 1, p.86 says “Opse, with genitive, After the Sabbath”, citing Bauer’s Greek English Lexicon of the NT. Moulton’s Grammar of the Greek NT says “After the Sabbath…”
6. As RSV, NIV, Amplified, NKJV, Good News, Moffatt, Byington’s Living English, JB Phillips, EG Goodspeed, Emphatic Diglott, The Interlinear Bible, etc.
7. As a noun the word can have 8 cases, 3 genders, 2 numbers; as a verb, 3 persons, 2 numbers, 3 voices, 2 aspects, 8 tenses, and at least 4 moods. A participle that may combine a noun and verb together, the possibilities are phenomenal.
8. At Lk 23:54 “Epephosken—imperfect tense of epiphosko (to dawn) to give light. In a figurative way ‘to approach’ (F.W.Arndt, Bible Commentary, “inceptive imperfect”, ‘began to approach’)”. At Matt 28:1 “epiphoskouse—present participle of epiphosko, ‘to shine forth’, ‘to dawn’.” (Linguistic Key to the NT)
9. As KJV, Amplified, RSV, NIV, NASV, NKJV, Alford’s NIV Interlinear, Berry’s Interlinear, Good News, Byingtons NT, Living NT, Moffat, JB Phillips, NEB, NWT, Emphatic Diglott, New American Bible, Jerusalem Bible, and Young’s Literal Trans.
10. The Kingdom Interlinear’s prepositional chart concurs. 
11. SDA, WWCOG and some others moved the comma to change Lk 23:43 to read “Verily I say unto you today, you shall be with me in Paradise”. As few could call them on this, they’ve promoted this, without challenge, for years.
12. Greek, ‘mnameon’. Matt 27:57 shows Jesus’ burial wasn’t finished until the sun was setting, using opsias (usually the late evening), with the aorist tense ‘had come’. This construction is used 10 times with this meaning, sometimes with the addition “when the sun did set” (as Mk 1:32).
13. Jesus had told the thief “today you shall be with me in Paradise”, which in Lk 16 was also called ‘Abraham’s bosom’ and is the place for the departed spirits of the just. Peter says when Jesus died, He went down into hell and ‘preached to the spirits in prison’, and Eph 4:8-11 concurs ‘He descended into the lower parts of the Earth’ before He ascended to the Father. This subject is thoroughly exegeted by Dr Robert Morey, in his Death and the Afterlife, Bethany house pub.
14. In 526 AD, when the monk Dionysius Exiguus calculated our present calendar, he made an error of 4 years, placing Jesus’ birth in the ‘year of Rome’ (UC) 754. It was later proved Herod died in UC 750, four years earlier—ie in 4 BC. Jesus was born before Herod died, so this couldn’t be later than 4 BC.
15. Here Franke added in brackets “25th of March” to prevent the reader identifying by the chart the year 30 AD when Jesus died ‘about April 8’. Only 30 AD comes close, with Passover Friday being April 7, while 31 AD is 11 days out. (The day difference from Apr 7 and 8 is easily accounted as calendar differences, as the Jew’s sacred calendar is one day different from the Babylonian, adding greater disparage between their Sabbath, and the Babylonian Shappatu—a full moon feast, held twice a year.)
16. Franke added 15 yrs to 12 AD, arriving at 27 AD as the year of Jesus’ baptism, but he failed to allow for the Jew’s inclusive time reckoning. Jewish historians didn’t use ‘accession year’ reckoning as we do today, but ‘ante-dating’ or ‘non-accession year’ method where year 1 was the year he became king, and the first complete year of his reign, beginning on New Year’s day after he ascended was called ‘year 2’.
17. Luke says Jesus began to be 30 years of age when baptised. Counting back from 26 AD, with no ‘0’ year, this places Jesus’ birth at 4 to 5BC, if age be counted from birth or conception. From Rome’s census records, (Luke 2) Christians recorded and honored both Jesus’ birthday, and Annunciation day, when He was conceived.
18. Here the Jews disputed Jesus’ authority. When He gave the sign “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”, they chose to take this as Herod’s temple (instead of His body which they knew He meant). “Forty six years this temple was being built, and you will raise it up in 3 days?”
19. But not 457 as SDA use for their ‘2300 day prophecy’, ending in 1844. From 458 BC, with no 0 yr, 2300 yrs end in 1843 as Miller taught and Ellen White endorsed.
20. In baptism with water by John and with the Holy Spirit, as we read in Lk 4:18, and fulfilling Isa 61:1-2.
21. This chart also shows that many, as SDA who date this event in 33 AD err, for in that year the moon fulled at 5 PM Friday, so Passover was Friday night, and Jesus’ death on Nisan 14 would be Sabbath, against Roman Law, and his resurrection on Monday, and Pentecost would have been Monday.
22. The fist of these is on the last day, the 8th day and “great day” of the feast of Tabernacles, when Jesus stood up and offered to all the Living Water, speaking of the Holy Spirit who would be poured out on a Sunday, the 8th day. The other ‘high day’ is John 19:31, which was the first day of the week of Unleavened Bread, and so considered an holy day, compared to the other days in which work could be done—except the last day which also was a ‘sabbath’. Thus Nisan 14 was not the only high day, but one of 4 high days that occurred in the Jew’s yearly feast cycle.
23. Berry’s Lexicon says of ‘paraskueh’ “a preparation, ie, the day immediately before the Sabbath or other festival”.  Thayer agrees saying “the day of preparation, ie the day on which the Jews made necessary preparation to celebrate a Sabbath or a feast”. Reinecher’s Linguistic Key to the NT says “Here used technically of the day of preparation for a Sabbath or Passover (Taylor) used with prosabbaton the day before the Sabbath: that is, Friday” (p.133)
24. Here Herod arrested Peter during the days of unleavened bread “intending to bring him before the people after the Passover”. Since the Passover feast itself occurred before the days of unleavened bread, it’s obvious Luke wouldn’t intend the technical use here. Rather passover is here being used for the whole Passover week, including the Passover and Unleavened Bread, together.
25. This being re-established, so also the wave sheaf offering was on Resurrection Sunday, pointing to Jesus as the First fruits, and subsequently Pentecost was also on a Sunday, as the Birth day of the Church.