When I began preaching in 1969, for many years I closed my sermons
with something like..
"One Friday, they nailed him to an old rugged cross!"
or
"One Friday he died for all my sins!"
I had the whoop and everything. I really pushed it hard.
"Does anybody know about Friday?"
"One Friday!"
"ooooh Friday!"
I took a seminary class and learned that I had been wrong about Friday. The instructor painstakingly showed us that despite the old tradition that Christ was not crucified on Friday, but Wednesday.
That really upset me because it meant I had been teaching and preaching the wrong information for about three years. I was so troubled because in my zeal I did not seek knowledge and mislead hundreds of people in the process.
The key to understanding the error is Matthew 12:40. Jesus said he would remain in the grave for three days AND three nights (72 hours).
I tried all of the fancy explanations the old preachers gave me to make sundown Friday to early morning Sunday three days and three nights but none of them would work.
Have you heard the explanations? "They had a different calendar or they
counted days differently or it was not literally three days."
As I studied, I realized my professor was right. I had to change my message to fit the truth I found.
If you are interested in this topic there is a website that gives the same information my professor gave me.
As I learned better I changed. It's worth a look.
http://members.aol.com/member888/goodfriday.htm
