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                       Well, my dear Mr. Dankenbring -- it's not as elementary as you would like to think! A little
               further research beyond the superficial would reveal the fact that phrases or figures of speech in
               the ancient Greek and Hebrew cannot always be understood and applied in today's English with
               the same apparent meaning.


                       Jonah was one of the prophets of Israel, and he had been called by God to warn the Assyr-
               ian city of Nineveh of its impending doom unless it repented and turned to God. However, Jonah
               didn't want the job and fled on a ship to Tarshish. During the voyage a great storm began to
               threaten the ship, and he was thrown overboard by the crew in an attempt to calm the waves. Jonah
               was swallowed by a great fish and, after three days, was brought up alive to travel on to Nineveh.

                       Jesus spoke of this three day internment in the stomach of the fish as "the SIGN of Jonah"
               and said that it was the ONLY sign He was prepared to give to the unbelieving Jews.

                       So EXACTLY what is this "sign of Jonah" that Christ gave to His unbelieving generation
               as a proof of His Messiahship? Most churches today suppose Christ was crucified on a Friday and
               was resurrected around sunrise on the following Sunday morning -- hence the Good Friday, Easter
               Sunday tradition. Wednesday crucifixionists firmly believe that the sign consisted not only of the
               resurrection itself which Christ, like Jonah, would experience after a temporary burial, but
               primarily of an EXACT PERIOD of 72 hours in the grave after His death.

                                               Three Days and Three Nights


                       This conviction can also be found in the pages of a booklet published by Ambassador Col-
               lege in the early 1950s. Entitled The Resurrection Was Not on Sunday, this booklet proceeds to
               say that "Jesus offered but one evidence [of His Messiahship]. That evidence was not the fact of
               the resurrection itself. It was the length of time He would repose in His grave, before being resur-
               rected" (p.4).

                       The implication of this statement is clearly underscored in the very next paragraph which
               reads: "Jesus staked His claim to being your Savior and mine upon remaining exactly three days
               and three nights in the tomb. If He remained just three days and three nights inside the earth, He
               would prove Himself the Savior -- if He failed in this sign, He must be rejected as an imposter."


                       Statements such as these clearly reveal the fundamental importance many people attach to a
               72-hour entombment of Christ. "This conviction," states Samuele Bacchiocchi, "rests on the as-
               sumption that when 'days and nights' are explicitly mentioned in the Bible, they represent LIT-
               ERAL 24 HOUR DAYS. Appeal is made to the creation week where each day consists of 'evening
               and morning' that is, of a day and a night" (The Time of the Crucifixion and Resurrection).

                       Those who believe in the 72 hour entombment argue that in the "Good Friday-Easter Sun-
               day" scenario there was only one day in which Jesus was in the grave -- namely Saturday -- and
               that this period covered only two nights, namely Friday night and Saturday night. They thus en-
               deavor to show that the "Good Friday-Easter Sunday" tradition violates the Sign of Jonah in re-
               spect of the time factor that Jesus mentioned.





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