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REPENTANCE DOES NOT START IN THE WHITE HOUSE! IT STARTS IN YOUR HOUSE!
We are in a very real war, a war between Jesus Christ and the anti-Christ, a war between the flesh and the Spirit. In this supernatural war, you will demonstrate either courage or cowardice. Let me hammer the nail in the coffin real tight: God hates cowardice! "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars-they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death" (Revelation 21:8, NIV). Who is first on the list of this ragtag mob? The cowardly!
Today, the churches are filled with kissing cowards who stand at the crossroads of their sinful and pagan past and run back. Orpah kissed Naomi and left! Demas kissed Paul and left! Judas betrayed the Son of God with a kiss and left! Surround yourself with navy seals of God and not people who will cry, cut out, and kiss you goodbye. Do you want to be surrounded by kissing cowards or rock-ribbed soldiers of the cross garmented with obedience who have your back? Cowardly, kissing Christians say, "It is not my place to judge," because they are too cowardly to confront sin. Confronting sin is not judging but loving! To watch someone sin their way to hell is hatred and cowardly to the core!
Look at this supernatural war: People have been scarred by Satan, serial deception, and the surgeons of sin. People are mingled in lifestyles of pantheism, paganism, an exploding satanism, black cat-smooching, crystal-rubbing, and chicken bone-massaging witchcraft, transgenderism, serial fornication, homosexuality, and public schools teach the gender-confusion curriculum. People are involved in corruption in the government that defies description, state-supported and recreational murder (abortion), back-handed and pistol-whipped addictions, and perpetual, pathological hatred and racism.
Law will not stop murder, adultery, stealing, rape, child sex trafficking, and government corruption (the least government is the best government), but Christ can do that! You cannot legislate morality, immorality, and virtue. Law, philosophy, poetry, positive thinking, and psychology cannot change you! Shelley, Keats, Byron, and Shakespeare cannot change you! Jesus can change you! The only solution is a blood transfusion from the veins of the Lamb of God, translated, transformed, and reborn.
This book retards the deliverance ministry, which is the "sneeze," "cough," and "vomit" movement. People are conjuring up, coughing up, and vomiting up Charismatic spirits and looking like utter fools, satanically manifesting like godless pagans, sacrificing themselves to totem poles, a vomiting and manifesting machine, the Manifesting Ministry Movement.
Hijacked retards the hyper-grace movement. If you teach a grace that forgives sin but does not produce repentance, you are preaching from satanic literature. Grace, without repentance, is paganism. The love of God without the wrath of God is Satan's theology. Love without law produces a secular humanist, and law without love produces a Pharisee.
Hijacked retards atheism. Atheism is ruled, riddled, and retarded with ignorance. Atheism has never painted a portrait of a beautiful masterpiece. Atheism has never dispelled hopelessness, worry, and fear. Atheism has never healed nor ever given peace of mind.
Hijacked shares the truth of Christ and the absolute existence of Christ. This book shares the biblical truths about heaven and hell, and if you do not believe in heaven or hell, that is because you worship your own back-porch philosophy and think your intellect supersedes the knowledge of God and the truth.
only pimps, prostitutes, and pROFESSING pagans pEW-WARMERS can commit apostasy? wrong!
Note: The essential purpose of the book of Hebrews was to exhort Christians to persevere in the face of persecution. At this time, certain believers were considering turning back to Judaism and to the Jewish system of law to escape being persecuted for believing Christ to be the Messiah. If believers in Christ cannot commit apostasy, then you might as well rip the book of Hebrews out of the New Testament.
Some OSAS believers have suggested that the book of Hebrews was written for the Hebrews and not the church. It is true that the author is primarily addressing Hebrew believers in Christ, but does that mean it does not apply to us? Aren’t Hebrew believers in Christ Christians? Is Paul a Hebrew Christian? Is Peter a Hebrew Christian? Yes, they are Jewish and a Christian! There are a few reasons to believe the entire book of Hebrews was written to believers.
The author and writer calls the audience holy brethren (Hebrews 3:1). The writer describes himself and his readers “we” as ones who have faith (Hebrews 10:39). This would only be applicable to true believers. The readers are referred to as “sons” who have a relationship with God the Father (Hebrews 12:5, 7, 8). Pagans, unbelievers, and professing believers do not have a “son” relationship with God the Father until they are adopted into the family of God by the efficacy of the blood of Jesus Christ.
To exhort (Hebrews 13:22) unbelievers to “press on to maturity” makes no sense whatsoever. Pagans cannot mature in Christ until they have a relationship with Christ. The message is not that the professing churchgoer must prove their faith by commitment and perseverance, but rather that the true, born-again believers are to move on to spiritual maturity even if that means tears, trials, and turmoil. What is the point of telling a fake, causal, cotton-candy Christian that they must stand firm and persevere? They can’t even stand up; now you are asking them to persevere? One huff and puff from the big bad wolf, and they will collapse like straw. If Christians cannot commit apostasy, then why is the book of Hebrews a “letter of exhortation” and a warning against apostasy?
The author uses first-person plural pronouns (us or we); he includes himself with the readers. Because the author (many believe the authorship belongs to Paul) was a believer in Jesus Christ, this should be noted. He views the warnings as applicable to both himself, as a believer, and to his audience, also believers. Had the warnings been for professing believers/unbelievers, he would not have included himself.
Also, look at what John says in 1 John 1:6: “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (NKJV). John is including himself, when he says, “If we.” John is saying he could walk in darkness and not practice the truth, as well as to the other believers he is writing to. There is no clear evidence in this atomic text to indicate the switching of the audience between true believers and professing believers. It is logical to assume that the writer is writing to a gathering of Jewish believers unless a change is clearly indicated by Scripture.
The powerful, penetrating letter of the book of Hebrews is a “word of exhortation” written to Jewish believers who were experiencing persecution and considered returning to Judaism, including animal sacrifices for sins. This letter showed that the new covenant, established by Christ, was far better than the old covenant that came by Moses that they had been under. Christianity offered a better sacrifice and was built on better promises.
These converted Jewish Christians were going back to a system inferior and insufficient to save and that could not produce repentance and forgiveness. This system could not redeem anyone from sin. The author exhorts these believers to persevere in their faith, despite severe persecution. This was the whole premise of the Hebrew letter—Christ is better than Caesar!
MINUTES IN HELL!
To the unbelieving: You better hope that the millions of Christians who claim to be born again and have an eternal, internal, and personal relationship with Jesus Christ are loons, lunatics, and liars. You better hope that the millions of ex-dope addicts and ex-alcoholics who were delivered by the blood of Jesus Christ are lying. You better hope that all those who were delivered from real demonic possession are lying.
You better hope that the millions of Muslims who received dreams and visions of Jesus and were radically saved from Islam are lying. You better hope that all those who were once Buddhists and now have a personal, eternal relationship with the Son of heaven, Jesus Christ, are lying. You better hope that all those who were once satanists, witches, and warlocks who have been translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light are pathological liars.
You better hope that the millions of accounts of God's miracles and healings are fabrications and nothing more than sinister myths. These people are healing monuments of God's power. You better hope that every Christian who loves the Lord is just a religious nut and needs to be in an insane asylum. For the sake of your soul, you better hope from the bowels of your godless existence that every Christian is brainwashed, has psychological mass hysteria, and is completely delusional about their ever-loving, unconditional love for Jesus Christ.
Billions of Christian testimonies would have to be a lie in order for you to never have to worry about a place called hell, a place of gripping, gothic, and gut-wrenching horror. That means that there are billions of chances that you could end up in hell forever if any of these testimonials are true. That means that the chances of you ending up in a very real hell, in a very real eternal fire with very real maggots, are a figure of one followed by countless zeros.
If just one of these Christian testimonies is true, you will spend eternity in a real fire forever. Hold a lit lighter with a flame to your feeble, fragile hand for just twenty seconds and see if you are willing to take that chance, an eternal, irreversible gamble of your soul. You, unbeliever, I don't think it; I don't believe it; I know it; that without a very real Savior, you will perish in a very real hell.
SNAKES OF SENSATION!
“They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their lips.”—Psalm 140:3
To the false apostles, soothsayers, seers, prophets and prophetesses, deliverance ministers, and Sozo specialists, why should God trust you with an inner voice when He cannot trust you with His written voice? These so-called Christians are like toddlers when it comes to hearing God. They hear two noises, a baby rattle, and a rattlesnake, but they can’t begin to discern the difference. One will kill you!
Babes in Christ, be careful of the rattling and the hissing coming from the cult of the false apostles, prophets, and seers; the snakes of sensationalism. Like a squirrel on the trunk of a slanted oak tree, the squirrel pops its tail and chirps furiously. Attracted to a seduction at the base of a tree, there is a snake moving its head back and forth, hypnotically seducing the squirrel. The squirrel innocently moves closer and closer, bam, in a flash of lightning, the snake sinks its venomous fangs into its flesh; the venom surges through the body of the squirrel, embalmed by venom, the squirrel’s life is over in minutes, killed by a fatal attraction.
YOU ARE NOT AN APOSTLE, PROPHET, OR SEER!!!!
Is a servant of God not enough? People picture a servant as a pathetic cretin without will or purpose, bent over, crushed in spirit, dirty, wrinkled, and weary-an exploited human mule without meaning in a desolate life. Say the word servant, and the word hangs in the throats of twenty-first-century Christians. Say the word servant and watch as nostrils flare, heads shake, and people start using words like fanaticism. Saying the word servant will create a stampede toward the back door.
Many are willing to serve God but only in the capacity of a consultant. In these circles, people would rather be a monument of taco flower power than a bondservant to the Lord Jesus Christ. These people have so much pride; they are blowing up like cocoa puffs. Most churches are filled with pompous toads, carrying a Bible, and full of hot air, choosing symbolism over substance. Our souls should weep in secret for these people's pride. It's better to stay with the lowly than share plunder with the proud. Are we thriving to serve popularity and not Jesus Christ? If people could, they would add apostle or prophet to their driver's licenses. I would rather limp into heaven as a servant than strut like a peacock into hell. Those who have truly encountered the Lord walk with a limp, not a strut.
One of the last pictures Jesus gave the church of Himself was that of a servant in the upper room. The disciples are returning from the journey and preparing to celebrate Passover. Their feet are dirty, and the Servant of the world takes a towel, kneels, and washes them. Why? Because He was strong enough to kneel-you have to be strong enough to kneel.
"The greatest among you is the Servant of all!" We are like men when we curse one another. We are like criminals when we hate one another. We are like beasts when we devour one another. We are like Christ when we serve one another.
1250 YEARS OLDER THAN THE KING JAMES BIBLE
Contains The New Testament Only (Matthew-Revelation)... This has been translated into English... See how certain verses were later added by the Scribes to the most modern Manuscripts of God's Word. This Bible is a great tool to compare the Oldest Manuscript with the Newer Manuscripts... God bless all of you!
What the Codex Sinaiticus is:
It is a manuscript of the Christian Bible, written in Greek in the middle of the fourth century.
It's one of the oldest and most complete manuscripts of the Bible and contains the earliest complete copy of the Christian New Testament.
It also contains portions of the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) and two early Christian texts: the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas.
The manuscript is written on parchment (prepared animal skin).
Discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus:
It was discovered in the 19th century at St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt.
German biblical scholar Constantin von Tischendorf found parts of the manuscript in 1844 and again in 1859.
The story surrounding its discovery, particularly Tischendorf's claim of finding it in a basket of discarded manuscripts, has been questioned by modern scholars.
Significance of the Codex Sinaiticus:
It's a crucial resource for understanding the history of the Christian Bible's text.
It provides insights into ancient book production and scribal practices.
Its presence in the Codex indicates that certain books, like the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas, were considered scripture by some Christians in the 4th century.
Where to view the Codex Sinaiticus:
The manuscript's leaves are now spread across four institutions: the British Library, the University of Leipzig, the National Library of Russia, and Saint Catherine's Monastery.
ARE YOU A COSMETIC, PLAYTEX CHRISTIAN OR A BORN-AGAIN CHRISTIAN?
The word truth from the Girdle of Truth is ἀληθείᾳ (alētheia), meaning sincerity or not being hidden. Sincerity comes from two Latin words, "sine" & "cera," meaning "without wax." In the time of Paul, statues that did not have a hairline crack were priceless. When a crack developed in a statue, the owner took wax and rock dust and poured them into the cracks of the statue, making the statue appear perfect. The solution for the purchaser of the statue was to take the statue outside and let it sit in the sun until all the wax ran out of the cracks of the statue, obviously manifesting the hidden imperfections. Many of you look great on the outside, but have hairline cracks with wax and underneath the cosmetology of the heart, there is hidden, secret sin. God is turning up the heat and exposing the fakes, the phony, the pompous, and the religious stuffed shirts. Many Christians are covered in wax; put them in the heat and see how sincere they are.
What is the difference between a Playtex girdle and the Girdle of Truth? One is cosmetic, and the other is the real deal. Are you a cosmetic, Playtex Christian, or are you the real deal? Are you wearing a miracle, Playtex girdle or the Girdle of Truth? Are you real? Are you sincere? Are you rebellious, or are you righteous? Are you a counterfeit or consecrated? Are you artificial, or are you actual? Are you a pretender, or are you a possessor? Are you a buff for flakes and fruit theology? Are you a cookie-cutter, counterfeit Charismatic? Are you attracted to the ritual, or are you redeemed? Are you attracted to the ceremony, or are you attracted to Jesus Christ? Are you singing about a heaven you are never going to see? Do you want to feel good without being good? Are you trying to get into heaven while trying to live like hell?
Do you receive the truth with sincerity? Sincerity without truth is deception. Many are sincere about their false doctrine but are leading the hordes to hell. Deliverance ministers dialoguing with fake, made-up Charismatic spirits are sincere but are in the blows of deception. Charismatics looking for plastic in each other's ears are sincere but are in deception. Spiritual people blowing bubbles trying to communicate with goldfish are sincere but are in a watery deception.
Secular humanism is a doctrine of deception; man is not the answer. New age is deception. You can't hum into crystals and commune with God. Harmonizing with a glass of crystals will get you laryngitis, not the Lord of glory. Neo-paganism and flower-sniffing environmentalism, the worship of mother earth with all her earth spirits and dream catchers, is a demonic deception. Pagan momma earth and momma nature dupes the biblical illiterates and is deception. Eastern philosophies where man is god is deception.
Do you receive the truth with sincerity? Sincerity without truth is deception. Many are sincere about their false doctrine but are leading the hordes to hell. Deliverance ministers dialoguing with fake, made-up Charismatic spirits are sincere but are in the blows of deception. Charismatics looking for plastic in each other's ears are sincere but are in deception. Spiritual people blowing bubbles trying to communicate with goldfish are sincere but are in a watery deception.
Secular humanism is a doctrine of deception; man is not the answer. New age is deception. You can't hum into crystals and commune with God. Harmonizing with a glass of crystals will get you laryngitis, not the Lord of glory. Neo-paganism and flower-sniffing environmentalism, the worship of mother earth with all her earth spirits and dream catchers, is a demonic deception. Pagan momma earth and momma nature dupes the biblical illiterates and is deception. Eastern philosophies where man is god is deception.
THthe MANIFESTING, MONUMENTAL MINISTRY MOVEMENT: COUGH UP, CONJURE UP, VOMIT UP!
"There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them."-C. S. Lewis
This book retards the deliverance ministry, which is the "sneeze," "cough," and "vomit" movement. People are conjuring up, coughing up, and vomiting up Charismatic spirits and looking like utter fools, satanically manifesting like godless pagans, sacrificing themselves to totem poles, a vomiting and manifesting machine-the Manifesting Ministry Movement.
You don't have to watch William Peter Blatty's movie, The Exorcist, or see Rob Zombie's movie, The Lords of Salem, to see demonized witches manifesting. You can go to the nearest deliverance freak show and watch a bunch of professing pagans manifest to a crucifix and a beatbox. Conjure up demons and watch them manifest and fall out like an addict when black-tar heroin touches their lips, needing a New Testament autopsy.
Hold up a plastic crucifix and watch the bodies hit the floor. Hold a metallic Catholic crucifix to their foreheads and watch them vomit hog and frog spirits. Say the name of Legion and watch heads twerk around 360°. Mention a Charismatic Jezebel spirit and watch them translate into go-go dancers for the kingdom of darkness. Have them sneeze and watch Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, come thundering out of their nostrils, causing a postnasal drip.
Call up, conjure up, and summon up the spirit of Ahab and watch them act like lobotomized primates and orangutans playing with live hand grenades. Mention a Charismatic Delilah spirit and watch them waver like a wailing, whining, wounded whale. Conjure up a Charismatic Lilith and watch them become catatonic. Summon a Charismatic Leviathan spirit and watch them bunny-hop, pop, flip and flop, and act like barnyard animals during mating season. Say a memorized prayer mantra and watch their eyes swing to the back of their heads. Hold up an NIV translation and watch them gargle up spiritual spouses.
Lay a crucifix to their noisy foreheads, conjure up Ariel, the mermaid spirit, and watch these professed Christian pagans choke on green-pea soup. Their heads will twist, and their chests will beat like a Blacksmith's Bellows. Their hearts will start pounding like a trip hammer. The Charismatic horde, Jezebel, Merman, Python, and Leviathan, will seize their vocal cords, causing them to speak in a deep voice like in a gospel quartet, and screaming obscenities like a spider-monkey madman. Gather all the deliverance ministers under the canopy of the deliverance ministry, and they will act like they have funny cigarettes and inhaled, blurry-eyed and cross-eyed with a transfixed look.
Say that Christians can't have demons and watch these deliverance dupes become pale, turn frigged-air blue, and start screaming at the top of their lungs like a rioting, protesting, and billboard-holding LGBTQ member when you say there are only two genders: male and female. Go to an LGBTQ parade and a deliverance conference, and you will see that they both act the same. Homosexuals pervert the name of God under the banner of the rainbow, and deliverance fanatics manifest and pervert the name of God under the banner of the cross.
THE PURPLE, SCARLET HARLOT
Most people are confused about the character of Roman Catholicism, which is a complete misrepresentation of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. This will surely offend those who are devout Catholics. Many people could see this as unkind and unloving, but nothing is more loving than the truth. To let someone perish in a false system isn't loving at all. To rescue people from a damning and false religion is the most loving thing anyone can do. Catholicism is a man-made, pagan, counterfeit Christian religion. Get out now! There are some genuine followers of Christ within Roman Catholicism, no doubt, but they certainly do not represent the majority.
Jesus did not come to start a tear-jerking pagan religion but to restore a Father-and-son relationship. Jesus Christ did not come to the earth to start thirty-three thousand fractured religious franchises fighting over religious turfs. A fragmented franchise is not a church but a pack of religious pugs fighting, feuding, and fussing with each other. God couldn't care less what religious franchise you are in. He cares if you know Jesus Christ; and that you are born again and washed clean because of the blood atonement of the Champion of Calvary.
If the Son of God died for all of us, why is there all this complaining among each denomination? The blood is not a respecter of persons and does not discriminate between denominations.The blood of Jesus is what redeems our unity; just as a person's blood circulates every twenty-three seconds, the blood holds everything together. Every twenty-three seconds, the blood carries the complete loop connecting members of the human body. Physically, our bones are stationary. Our muscles and tendons are stationary; the only moving part of our anatomy is the blood, carrying oxygen and nutrients to our physical body. Without the movement of the blood, a person is dead, totally and absolutely. The light of the menorah of the Catholic Church is snuffed out; it is driven by pompous reason and not revelation. It is all about ritual, rosary, and religion, not a RELATIONSHIP!
THE SURGEONS OF SIN
Have you been marked and scarred by Satan and the surgeons of sin? It is time to discover God’s presence and His love, which is a divine flood that will crush the fetters of sin and drown them in the sea of forgetfulness, never to be remembered anymore. The dawn of hope will begin to explode in your soul while despair and depression retreat. Delight will thunder through the door of your heart, and out of your mouth will flow rivers of unspeakable joy.
Today is the day to stop being a slave to sin and Satan and attack the gates of hell! Attack! Attack! Attack him until you drive him out of your life! How? Prayer! And remember, obedience, locked and loaded, is one of the most powerful atomic weapons for every believer. Warning, if you regard iniquity in your heart, the Lord does not hear you. Secret sin short-circuits your prayers! “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2, NIV).
Today, the churches are filled with kissing cowards who stand at the crossroads of their sinful and pagan past and run back. Orpah kissed Naomi and left! Demas kissed Paul and left! Judas betrayed the Son of God with a kiss and left! Surround yourself with navy seals of God and not people who will cry, cut out, and kiss you goodbye. Do you want to be surrounded by kissing cowards or rock-ribbed soldiers of the cross garmented with obedience who have your back? Cowardly, kissing Christians say, "It is not my place to judge," because they are too cowardly to confront sin. Confronting sin is not judging but loving! To watch someone sin their way to hell is hatred and cowardly to the core!
We, as the church, are guilty of avoiding taking a stand on tough issues. The cross should bring you to your knees and then to your feet to take bold action. You must be bold enough to stand up, bold enough to speak up, and determined enough to stay up. Boldness is what the pulpits need: divine, Holy-Ghost-inspired, supernatural boldness that will cause the people in the pews to rise up above the moral compromise.
If you are too much of a coward to confront the problem, you will never solve the problem. When you confront the problem and recognize the problem, you can solve the problem. We will never solve the problem until we recognize it as a sin problem. This country's problems, the church's problems, your rebellious teenager's problems, and the marital problems are because of sin. In the annals of God, sin is still the thing that separates God from man, man from man, and man from himself. The Bible says, "Sin is fun for a season," but it's a blast that doesn't last. "Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season..." (Hebrews 11:25, KJV).
Sin is a blast until you find yourself in a padded cell banging your head against the wall from a drug-comatose mind.
Sin is a blast until you hear the cold-steel doors of the prison slam behind you.
Sin is a blast until you are in rehab or a jail cell, suffering from the DTs, cold sweats, hallucinations, and restless legs.
Sin is a blast until you have a gun to your head, contemplating suicide because of drug addiction or alcoholism.
Sin is a blast until you put a needle in your arm and shoot yourself into the dominion of death from an accidental, suicidal drug overdose..
Sin is a blast until you are lying on your back in an abortion clinic to slaughter the innocent in your womb and the fruit of your lust.
Sin is a blast until you stand before God as a rotten ruin, and He says, "Depart from Me, pleaser and worker of iniquity," and angels escort you into the chambers of the damned.
We now call sin a mistake, a blunder, or a psychiatric abnormality. People pay psychiatrists to give sin a new name. Sin is not a neurosis or a complex; it is a sin. For some of you, it's easier for a therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist to tell you you have a sexual disorder and need some medication than for a Bible-believing, God-fearing preacher to tell you that you are a sexually driven, lustful creature that needs to be liberated or perish.
Stop trying to get someone to explain your sin and confess your sin. Stop trying to chicken-noodle-soup your sin, and repent of your sin. Quit trying to get a church counselor to rationalize your sin. Quit trying to get a manifest minister to cast out your sin. Too many people are trying to get adjusted to their sin instead of being converted from their sin. Confess your sin and walk away from your sin! If you do not confront your sin, you cannot confess your sin, which means you cannot get converted from your sin.
THE GREATEST NEWS THE WORLD HAS EVER HEARD HAPPEND AT THE COMPOUND OF DEATH, THE CEMETERY!
The greatest event in human history was the resurrection of Christ. The death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ split the calendar of time between those two events of years BC and AD. Anno Domini, in Latin, is the year of our Lord. The entire calendar we are on right now is split between these two events. So, anytime a Christian, pagan, atheist, or satanist writes the year down, they are acknowledging that Christ was resurrected that many years ago. Every time you write the date, you acknowledge the resurrection of Christ.
The followers of Jesus took His blood-soaked corpse and clothed Him with hundreds of pounds of spices and laid Him in a borrowed tomb. All day Friday and all day Saturday, the Giver of life laid dead. Demons who feared Him thought He was dead; it was party time in the kingdom of darkness. Politicians gloated and said, “We silenced that troublemaker from Galilee and His boasting about an eternal kingdom. How dare this embalmed Rabbi in the presence of the Roman Empire!” Disciples were scattered in terror, feeling defeated and delusional, haunted by the memory of a blood-soaked Savior, powerless and pathetic, naked and needy, silent and submissive, a portrait of scandal, suffering, and shame.
The Roman soldiers strutted about the tomb with a Roman seal. In the eyes of the world, Rome had killed the Nazarene; they were overtaken with spasms of demonic joy. Death was still all-powerful. The grave was still a dark, gloomy, unconquered pit, but then came the rosy dawn of the third day. The third day of hope itself. The third day, the resurrection morning, that would glow in the eyes of every future child of God. The third day, when the angels of heaven swooped from the patios of heaven and rolled the stone away, not to let Him out but let us in, to see that He has risen and our sins are forgiven. On the third day, in the damp and dark tomb, walked out the Light of the world, Jesus Christ. The empty tomb is the only place in the world where people line up for blocks to see something that isn’t there when they get there. The best news ever came from the cemetery! The resurrection!