Truth About The Crucifixion — Page 50
given to it but the sign of Jonah, the prophet. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. . Now it is an admitted fact that Jonah entered alive into the whale's belly and also came out alive. Jesus tells us that he shall be in the heart of the earth in the same manner as Jonah was in the whale's belly. In other words, he would enter alive into the heart of the earth and come out alive. No other interpretation can establish a similarity between the two. In citing his resemblance with the prophet Jonah, Jesus foretold his own end, indicating that he would not die on the cross but would, like. Jonah, be only in a state of unconsciousness. 2. The Old Testament says that “a person who dies on the cross is accursed of God”. Such a death is inconceivable for a righteous prophet of God and the occurrence of such an event deserves to be rejected out of hand on that score alone. 3. After Jesus was taken down from the cross, his body was handed over to Joseph of Arimathaea-a respectable, noble man of the neighbourhood commanding great influence with everyone, including the Romans. He was a secret disciple of. Jesus. The handing over of the body of Jesus to him was part of the design of Pilate to save Jesus, since Pilate, both under the influence of his wife's dream and his own conviction, was favourably disposed toward Jesus, and whatever hostile action he took against Jesus was only out of fear of the Jews. Joseph found that Jesus was in fact not dead but only unconscious and removed him to a large new sepulchre in a garden close by. 4. The Gospels afford further proof that it was not in a celestial body but in the same body of flesh and bone which had been nailed to the cross that Jesus appeared to his disciples after his supposed death. Thus we read that Jesus appeared to the eleven disciples as they sat at a meal (Mark 16:9,14). And when they saw him they supposed that they had seen a spirit but he showed them his hands and feet and asked them to handle him saying,. A spirit hath not bones and flesh as ye see me have. Then he took from them a piece of broiled fish and honeycomb and ate it before them (Luke 24:39-43). It is evident that the acts which. Jesus performed, like eating, drinking, sleeping, holding conversations and taking a long journey, were performed with a human body and not with a celestial body. This proves irrefutably that Jesus did not bodily rise to Heaven. 52