Title – On what day did our Lord rise from the dead?

Author – I. M. Haldeman, D.D.

Publisher – First Baptist Church, Broadway and 79th Street, New York, N.Y.

Many, many years ago, Pastor Haldeman of today’s historic First Baptist Church in New York City spent a great deal of time countering those who desired to put Christianity back under Mosaic Law.  And in this particular book, he opposed those who stated that the Christ rose from the grave on the seventh day.

There are those who teach our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified on Wednesday, remained in the tomb Wednesday night, Thursday night and Friday night, three nights; that He rose late on Saturday afternoon, the afternoon of the Jewish Sabbath, the seventh day, and not the first day of the week at all.

Argument #1

In support of this proposition a direct appeal is made outside of Holy Scripture to the astronomical records of national observatories that in the year A.D. 31 (which these teachers claim as the year of the crucifixion) the moon became full Tuesday, March 27; and as the law of passover required the paschal lamb to be slain on the day following the night of the first full moon after the vernal or spring equinox it was slain on Wednesday, March 28; and our Lord being the antitype of the passover lamb was crucified and slain on that day, making the third day after Wednesday, Saturday, the Sabbath, the seventh day, to be the day of our Lord’s resurrection instead of the commonly supposed first day of the week.’

Argument #2

And then they move the comma in Scripture:

Instead of “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He cast seven devils.”

They promote “Now when Jesus was risen, early the first day of the week he appeared first to Mary Magdalene.”

Very sneaky.

In this booklet, Haldeman vigorously defends that Jesus was crucified on Thursday and raised from the dead on the first day of the week.

Personal note: I still tend to hold to the biblical sequence of Jesus dying on Friday.

Pastor Haldemon also defends the same thesis from an entirely different angle in his booklet, An Unanswerable Proof, an Inexorable Conclusion, and an Impassable Barrier.