Good Friday. April 3rd. Repeat.

Down in the Crypt half the week mopping floors and scrubbing wine racks. It is the time of the year for a man and a woman to put their Souls in order. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, but of the Soul, despite the adage claiming it is about rooms and floors. It was a messy day that this day commemorates.

We so easily forget what Easter is about and Good Friday's message. A lot can happen in three days. The Nature of the World can change.

Some resist change.

"Follow me and you will be reviled", was a dire message Christ gave us. Not that we deserve reviling, but we will get it nonetheless bacause of all the evil in the world. Our evil. 

Evil hates Christ and it hates Christians. It even hates easter eggs. 

So Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Two years after the event, here we are with some omens repeating.  That event being the Crucifixion. The torture the persecution. The killing of the Good. And the reviling goes on.

Bill pointed out that we have lost the plot. Even many Christians have sought a message not given: 

All over the world Christians are being persecuted for their faith. They are being imprisoned. They are being tortured. They are being killed. They are being horrifically assaulted, persecuted, attacked and targeted by various anti-Christian groups, chief of which is Islam.

Consider just one example which we are just now getting all the details on: around 150 people – mostly Christians – have been massacred in yet another Islamic terror attack. At least one online headline and opening sentence spelled out the exact truth about this: “Christians targeted in uni massacre – Islamic terrorists have murdered at least 147 people – mostly Christians – in a pre-dawn attack on a Kenyan university after blasting in the gates with grenades.”

Many other reports are refusing to mention how Islam is involved, or how the targets were specifically Christians.

Indeed, while all this is going on overseas, and while in the West anti-Christian bigotry and persecution is increasing at an exponential rate, we have false shepherds peddling their false gospels of happiness, success and prosperity. We have so-called Christian leaders who will never even mention these persecutions, trials, hardships and difficulties, which are in fact part of the normal Christian life.

 http://billmuehlenberg.com/2015/04/03/your-best-life-now-not/

They certainly never talk about sin, judgment, hell or the holiness of God either. All they talk about is me, me, me. They peddle an entirely me-centred gospel. It is all about how I can be rich, happy, have a good career, have the best car, have a terrific self-image, and lose weight for Jesus. 

Christ was never 'me, me'. He was 'My Father in Heaven'. He was 'repent of your sins'. He was 'do NOT go to Hell'. 

He made it clear we would not like Hell one little bit.  

But we have Easter eggs.

Some will argue that we cannot know if and when the Crucifixion occurred. But that was settled a long time ago for any who care to read.  Fr. John Zuhlsdorf gave some esoteric pointers.

Friday 3 April AD 33 

 Lunar and Solar Eclipses as Christ died on the Cross

The fellow {mentioned below} who made the video about the Star of Bethlehem (a compelling argument, I might add), also did some research about what happened in the heavens on Good Friday.

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2015/04/friday-3-april-ad-33-lunar-and-solar-eclipses-as-christ-died-on-the-cross/ 

Let’s break it down.

Passover begins on the 14th day of the Jewish lunar month of Nisan. Moreover, Passover begins at twilight, dividing 14 Nisan and 15 Nissan. The Gospels say the Lord was crucified on Preparation Day, a Friday.  14 Nisan 14 fell on a Friday Preparation Day, twice: 7 April AD 30 and 3 April AD 33. 

 Daniel in 444 BC prophesied (Daniel 9:21–26) that the Anointed one would be cut off in 476 years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem: AD 33.

At the time of the crucifixion and death of the Lord, there was signs, including a “blood moon” or lunar eclipse.

 

Only one Passover lunar eclipse was visible from Jerusalem while Pilate was in office. 

It occurred on 3 April 33.

On 3 April the Moon rose already in eclipse.  It rose the color of blood.  That means that the eclipse began before it rose, in the constellation of the Virgin (at the time of Christ’s birth there was a New Moon, in the constellation of the Virgin).

The eclipse started at 3 pm when Christ was breathing His last.

This peculiar set.

But remember that a lunar eclipse is a syzygy.  If there is an eclipse in one direction there is an eclipse in the other direction too.   If you were standing on the Moon during that syzygy of 3 April 33, you would see a total eclipse of the Sun.  And the blotted Sun would be in the heart of the constellation of the Ram (cf. Lamb who was slain).

Interesting observations, especially as this Good Friday is 3rd April and a Blood Moon is due.

The 'fellow' he mentioned had this to say:

The celestial dirge

The answer to the question of the bloody moon fixes the date of the crucifixion with precision. 

 http://www.bethlehemstar.net/the-day-of-the-cross/the-celestial-dirge/

Beyond reasonable doubt, in fact, because a “blood moon” has a specific meaning. In ancient literature, not only the Bible, it means a lunar eclipse. Why bloody? Because when the moon is in eclipse it is in the Earth’s shadow. It receives no direct light from the sun, but is lit only by the dim light refracted and reddened by the Earth’s atmosphere. The moon in eclipse does glow a dull red, as you know if you have seen it.

This matters, because with Kepler’s equations we can determine exactly when historical eclipses occurred. Perhaps it will not surprise you to learn that only one Passover lunar eclipse was visible from Jerusalem while Pilate was in office . It occurred on April 3, 33 AD, the Day of the Cross.

That day followed a night of horrors predicted by the prophet Isaiah. 

In place of sleep for Jesus there were torch-lit hours of interrogation and mockery, spittle in the face and beatings, barbed lashes tearing flesh from his back and thorns pressed into his scalp. 

Isaiah wrote that the messiah would be beaten until “marred beyond human likeness” . And so, Jesus was brutalized during multiple “trials” and retrials before priests Annas and Caiaphas, King Herod and Roman prefect Pontius Pilate. 

In the end, his fate was decided by a mob. He was marched to Golgotha, the “place of the skull,” and crucified. 

He would die within six hours.

The gospels tell the chronology. 

Hammers thudded spikes through Jesus and into the cross at 9 AM . He was raised up. At noon and for three hours the sky was darkened. In the Temple at Jerusalem, only priests were permitted to enter the presence of God—a thick curtain excluded common men. During the crucifixion, this veil was torn apart, top to bottom, as a shattering earthquake split rocks and broke open tombs. In the darkness and tumult of these signs, even the Roman guards regretted their part in the killing. 

Jesus died at 3 PM. 

He was removed from the cross before nightfall to preserve the sanctity of the impending Passover. But the signs and wonders did not end. 

When the moon rose that evening, it was blood red. 

We can imagine the wonder of those who were present through all of this, and their increasing dread as the signs kept coming.

But there is more which they could not see. Kepler’s equations indicate that the moon rose already in eclipse, already bloody, fulfilling Joel’s vision. Necessarily, this means that the eclipse commenced before moonrise. With software we can look below the horizon and see Earth’s shadow begin the eclipse. When we do, we find that at 3 PM, as Jesus was breathing his last on the cross, the moon was going to blood.

The sky at Christ’s birth can be viewed as a kind of visual poetry, with the new moon symbolically “birthed” at the foot of Virgo, the virgin. 

To complete that celestial poem, on the night of Jesus’ death the moon had returned to the foot of the virgin. But now it was a full moon. A life fully lived, blotted out in blood.

The Christian and the Jew will know of the prophesies of old (although the Jewish will not acknowledge that they were fulfilled). 

Christ also made it clear that despite dying for us, He would come again.

There would be signs in the skies.

Clean your Souls.

Christ will bring His Peace AFTER he has cleaned the joint up. 

And THAT may be messy, especially for all the false christians (from whom much was expected and are in for a shock) and all those martyr-makers who are in for a sound smacking.

A Reminder:

Pray.