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A Synopsis of The Third Day Bible Code
by Kermit Zarley
Chapter 1: Introduction
The apostle Paul wrote that God raised Jesus from the dead “on the third day
according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15.4b). According to what (Old
Testament) scriptures? Paul does not say. Some scholars answer that he didn’t
mean any specific texts because there are none. But these scholars either do
not consider types or reject the idea. Yet Jesus cited one text as indicating
his resurrection on the third day—Jonah being in a big fish for three
days—which is a type. This should alert us to look for others.
Thus, this book’s thesis is that certain Old Testament texts contain a third
day motif that prefigures Jesus’ resurrection on the third day. As types,
these texts are obscure because they are not didactic but merely narratives
of some of the most important events in the history of Israel. Jews have
recognized the significance of this third day motif in their scriptures, and
they have partially understood their meaning. Christians have done neither,
yet they have all the more reason to do so because Jesus arose from the dead
on the third day. Moreover, these types containing the third day motif serve
as a code that unlocks God’s timetable for the future.
Chapter 2: “Raised the Third Day”
This book regards the Bible as historically reliable and God’s written
self-revelation to human beings. This chapter briefly analyzes the New
Testament gospel accounts of Jesus’ predictions of his sufferings, death and
resurrection on the third day. The expressions “third day” and “after three
days” in these texts are explained as being synonymous. Each of Jesus’
predictions about his being scourged, spit upon, mocked, and the chief
priest, scribes and elders rejecting him and turning him over to the Gentiles
to be crucified, are linked to specific Old Testament predictions of the same
about him, showing that Jesus foreknew these things from scripture. It was
likely the same regarding his resurrection on the third day.
Chapter 3: “According to the Scriptures”
By accepting “good Friday” as the traditional day of Jesus’ crucifixion and
death, and the following Sunday as the traditional day of his resurrection,
Jesus was resurrected “on the third day” following his death. This historical
fact quickly became a fixed part of Christian tradition. It is attested by
the early Jewish Christians making Sunday their foremost day of the week for
worship, rather than the Jewish sabbath, in celebration of Jesus’
resurrection on that day of the week as the third day.
It is now shown that Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day, and not
on some other day, because it is forecast in the Old Testament. That is what
the risen Jesus says, as recorded in Luke 24. And we have seen that Paul says
likewise in 1 Corinthians 15.4b. But where?
Acts 2.31 and 13.35 record that Peter and Paul, on separate occasions,
preached about Jesus’ resurrection being prophesied in Ps 16.10. This text,
which is not a type and was written by King David, portrays Jesus as saying
to God, “you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One
see decay.” Paul explains it means that God raised Jesus before his body
could begin to decompose (Acts 13.37). Jews believed that deceased flesh does
not begin to decay in their climate until the third or fourth day, and that
apparently is the meaning behind the idea of “decay” in Ps 16.10.
Chapter 4: Biblical Typology
This chapter affirms the validity of biblical typology, which is the study of
types in the Bible. A type is a person, object, historical event or
institution that prefigures a corresponding antitype that will occur in the
future. Antitypes therefore are fulfillments of types.
Typology and prophecy are similar in that they require a future fulfillment.
Typology is unique to Judaism and Christianity. Jews and Christians have
always believed strongly in types in their religion and that they are an
integral part of their scriptures. For the past two centuries, however,
biblical criticism has largely denigrated typology. Nevertheless, a
renaissance of interest in Bible typology has recently emerged. Ironically,
it is happening especially among secular sources. This chapter explains how
typology works.
Chapter 5: Interpreting “the Signs of the Times”
The Bible is full of prophecies about the endtimes that will signal the End
of the Age and, simultaneously, what Jews call “the Advent of Messiah” and
Christians call “the Second Coming of Christ.” Jesus often revealed that he
would be killed, rise from the dead, ascend into heaven and someday return to
earth in manifested glory, bringing the promised kingdom of God with him.
Both Jews and Christians have engaged themselves in trying to calculate the
End of the Age and, for Christians, Christ’s simultaneous return as depicted
in these endtimes prophecies. Several examples are considered, along with
their miscalculations.
Jesus exhorted people to “interpret the signs of the times” (Mt 16.3). But he
also cautioned against predicting the precise time of his second coming by
saying, “But about that day and/or hour no one knows, neither the angels
of/in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mt24.36/Mk 13.32).
Jesus and other New Testament characters made it clear that God long ago
fixed an exact time for the End, so that it is irrevocable. And the Bible
predicts many things that will occur during the endtimes that will serve as
signs that the End is near. While we can never know the exact time of the
End, the Bible also provides veiled hints about its approximate timing. Those
who live during the endtimes will witness some of these signs and thereby
perceive that the End is drawing very near. The Bible’s third day motif is
one of those hints.
Chapter 6: The Thousand Year-Day Principle
This chapter begins with some history about Jews wrongly calculating the
Advent of Messiah and Christians erroneously date-setting the Second Coming
of Christ. Jesus cautioned that neither he nor the angels know the day of his
return but that only God the Father knows. Yet so many signs pertaining to
the endtimes are provided in scripture, some by Jesus. It is next shown that
many church fathers believed in what I call “the Thousand Year-Day
Principle.” They equated one day with a thousand years, citing Psalm 90.4 and
2 Peter 3.8 for support. Many of them applied this principle to all of human
history up to the future return of Christ and correlated it with the week of
Creation. Thus, they believed in what came to be called “the Week of a
Thousand Years.” That is, 6,000 years of human history would transpire from
the time of the creation of Adam and Eve to the Second Coming of Christ.
Without endorsing this Week of a Thousand Year hypothesis, I nevertheless
subscribe to its underlying Thousand Year-Day Principle and apply it to the
several instances of the third day motif in scripture. In the remainder of
this book, each of these third day motif events is considered in their own
chapters and the Thousand Year-Day Principle is applied to them.
Chapter 7: Raised “Early” the Third Day
This chapter begins with the subhead, “A Sundown or Sunrise Day?” It explains
that scholarly authorities now generally regard that ancient Israel observed
a cultic sundown-to-sundown day but a civil sunrise-to-sunrise day. Contrary
to popular opinion, this is confirmed in the Genesis account of the Week of
Creation.
Next, it is explained that what kind of day the Jews observed affects the
application of The Thousand Year-Day Principle to the third day motif in
scripture. For example, Jesus arose from the dead soon after sunrise, at
about 6:00 AM, which was at the beginning of the Jewish day and not during
midday. It is asserted that the Messiah is called “the Sun of Righteousness”
in Malachi 4.2 and that this refers to Jesus’ resurrection occurring about
the time that the sun becomes visible from Jerusalem above the horizon of
Mount Olivet, which is the beginning of the Jewish day and not midday.
It is further asserted that Jesus’ resurrection is a type of the future
resurrection of the righteous dead. By applying the Thousand Year-Day
Principle to Jesus’ resurrection, which occurred very early on the third day,
this indicates that the resurrection of the righteous, which will occur
simultaneously with the return of Christ, will happen early during the third
millennium following Jesus’ resurrection.
Chapter 8: The Sign of Jonah the Prophet
This rather humorous chapter is about the prophet Jonah disobeying God and
being swallowed by a large fish, spewed out alive on the third day and living
to tell about it. Jesus apparently accepted this story as historically
authentic and cited this “sign” (=type) as prefiguring his being raised from
the dead on the third day. Then Jonah obeyed God by going to the great and
wicked city of Nineveh, walking throughout it and preaching, “Forty days
more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
It is now asserted that Jonah is a type of Jesus in more ways than his
resurrection. Jonah preaching doom to Nineveh foreshadows Jesus do likewise
with Jerusalem. Since Jerusalem refused, by applying a Year-Day Principle,
God destroyed Jerusalem by means of the Roman armies forty years later, in
A.D. 70 (assuming Jesus died in A.D. 30), just as he would have destroyed
Nineveh in forty days. But Nineveh repented and thereby escaped divine
judgment, which prefigures the Jews’ repentance and divine deliverance at the
end of the age.
Chapter 9: “Christ Our Passover” and “First Fruits”
The apostle Paul writes about “Christ our Passover” and “Christ the first
fruits.” These expressions refer to Jesus fulfilling certain elements of the
feasts of Israel. These feasts are now examined, paying particular attention
to Jesus being the first fruits of the resurrection. First fruits signify
life because no one can live without food.
The Jews performed their first fruits ritual on two occasions. The priests
offered stalks of barley first fruits on the third day after Passover and the
wheat first fruits, in the form of two baked loafs, on the Day of Pentecost,
fifty days after Passover. Jesus’ death on Friday, on Nisan 14, fulfilled the
sacrifice of the Passover lamb. It is now shown that the offering of the
barley first fruits on the third day after Passover, on Sunday, Nisan 16,
foreshadows Jesus’ resurrection being on the third day.
Chapter 10: Decay on the Third Day
This chapter begins with an overview of the different sacrificial offerings
Jewish priests made at the temple in Jerusalem during Israel’s festivals. It
is shown that the Torah requires that the thanksgiving peace offerings can
only be eaten the day they were offered. If any of this cooked meat was left
over on the next day, it had to be totally consumed by fire on the altar. In
contrast, both the votive and freewill peace offerings could be eaten on both
the day they were offered and the day after. But if any of this cooked meat
remained on the third day, it was prohibited that it be eaten and the priests
had to burn all of it on the altar on that third day. Why? A speculative
answer is that Jews believed that flesh did not begin decaying in their
climate until either the third or fourth day. This belief is correlated with
Ps 16.10, which states that God will not abandon his Messiah (=”Holy One”) in
the grave or let his flesh decay.
Regardless of the reason for this prohibition, about not eating the meat on
the third day, it is concluded that these votive and freewill peace offerings
prefigured Jesus’ resurrection being early on the third day. Why? Israel’s
entire sacrificial system prefigures Jesus Christ.
Chapter 11: Hosea and the Third Day Motif
Moses and Hosea, more than any other prophets, depict God’s future withdrawal
from Israel due to its sins. Both predict that a significant Jewish remnant
will repent at the end of the age, at which time God will turn with favor to
his people Israel. Hosea seems to depict priests at this time being
representative of the penitent remnant, saying, “Come, let us return to the
LORD, for it is he who has torn us, and he will heal us;… After two days he
will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up” (Hosea 6.1-2). Jews
have generally believed that this prophecy refers to the resurrection,
especially because of two verbs used. It is shown that this passage, while it
may refer to Jesus’ resurrection being on the third day, more obviously
portrays the attitude of the penitent Jewish remnant of the latter days and
the resurrection of the saints occurring at the End of Days. But the “two
days” and “third day” have been somewhat of a mystery to interpreters, both
Jewish and Christian. This difficulty is solved by applying the Thousand
Year-Day Principle to these two days and third day. It shows that this text
means that early during the third millennium following either the Christ
event or the Fall of Jerusalem, the latter in A.D. 70, when God most
decisively withdrew from Israel, God will return to the Jewish people by
means of his agent—Jesus Christ.
Chapter 12: Abraham’s Offering of Isaac on the Third Day
As with Hosea 6.1-2 in the last chapter, this chapter also helps establish
the validity of applying the Thousand Year-Day Principle to scriptures
containing the third day motif. It does so by analyzing the first occurrence
in the Bible of the third day motif. All subsequent chapters in this book
focus on the other foremost third day motifs in scripture as they occurred
chronologically in history and therefore as they are recorded in the Bible.
Christians have believed that God’s calling of Abraham to go to Mount Moriah
(=Jerusalem) and offer his only son, Isaac, as a burnt offering is a type of
God the Father offering his only Son, Jesus Christ, there as well. (Jews
claim that Mt. Moriah is where Jerusalem is located.) Several details of this
story are correlated with those regarding Jesus’ death. At the very moment
that Abraham lifted the knife to slay his son, God provided a ram for the
offering. The author of Hebrews says this provision is a type of Jesus’
resurrection.
But before all this, when Abraham and his party were on their way to Mount
Moriah, we read, “On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far
away” (Genesis 22.4). Christians have failed to comprehend both the
significance of this detail as well as its typology. By applying the Thousand
Year-Day Principle to this third day motif, it indicates that Jesus would
live during the early part of the third millennium following this
Abraham-Isaac saga. It is shown that, from a conservative viewpoint of
biblical chronology, Abraham lived slightly more than 2,000 years before the
time of Jesus. Thus, when Jesus came preaching, “The time is fulfilled, and
the kingdom of God has come near” (Mark 1.15), this Abraham-Isaac saga and
the application of the Thousand Year-Day Principle to it indicate the
approximate time when the kingdom of God would come near in the person of
Jesus of Nazareth.
Chapter 13: Joseph’s Brothers Imprisoned for Three Days
This chapter involves stories about the life of Joseph that are very
interesting. Joseph was one of the twelve sons of Jacob, whom God renamed
“Israel.” God gifted Joseph to be a dreamer of divine revelation and an
interpreter of dreams. The third day motif appears in some of these dreams
and other events in Joseph’s life. By applying the Thousand Year-Day
Principle to the third day in these episodes, they forecast especially the
Jews’ dire plight during the latter days and that it will occur during the
third millennium following the Christ event.
Chapter 14: Meeting God at Mount Sinai on the Third Day
This very important chapter is about the Israelites arriving at Mount Sinai
following their Exodus from Egypt. Moses repeatedly goes up the mountain and
receives messages from God, which he conveys to the Israelites back in camp.
After the Israelites accept God’s offer of a covenant relationship with him,
God tells Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow….
And prepare for the third day because on the third day the LORD will come
down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people” (Exodus 19.10-11). God
did, and it is now explained that this event prefigures God’s later
visitation of the Jews in the person of Jesus Christ. By applying the
Thousand Year-Day Principle to God meeting the Israelites “on the morning of
the third day” after their preparation for doing so (v. 16), it is shown that
this type forecasts the approximate time that God would meet Israel in the
person of Jesus Christ. Several other aspects containing a third day motif
are drawn from this episode and others that Israel experienced about this
time to show that they will be fulfilled during the endtimes. Jews claim that
this Sinai experience of their ancestors is full of hidden meaning, and they
are right.
Chapter 15: Preparing to Take the Promised Land on the Third Day
The name “Jesus” is the same as the Hebrew name “Joshua,” which is by divine
design. This chapter asserts that Joshua’s leading of the Israelites into the
Promised Land was a type that prefigures Jesus’ second coming, when he will
not only deliver Jews from imminent annihilation but lead Jewish men in
destroying their enemies. There are two accounts of “three days” in the first
three chapters of the book of Joshua that give an account of the Israelites’
preparation (similar to the preparation for meeting God at Mount Sinai) for
crossing of the Jordan River and taking possession of the land of Canaan.
By applying the Thousand Year-Day Principle to these two motifs of three
days, it is seen that, as types, they predict that the Jews’ final and
complete possession of their Promised Land will occur during the early third
millennium following the Christ event. But it is alleged that it should not
have taken that long. God would have given final and complete possession of
the Promised Land to the Jews if they would have responded positively to the
message of John the Baptist and Jesus, to repent. In fact, both
preparations—at Sinai and the Jordan River—prefigure that message of
repentance. John the Baptist probably was symbolically proclaiming that
message at the exact place where the ancient Israelites had crossed the
Jordan River. If the Jewish people would have repented not long after Jesus’
crucifixion (the cross must come before the crown), all of the following
would have occurred: (1) the Israelites meeting God at Mount Sinai would have
prefigured God meeting the Jews in the person of Jesus (which indeed
happened), (2) the Israelites wandering in the Sinai Desert for forty years
would have prefigured the forty years between the Christ event and the Fall
of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, assuming Jesus would have returned about that time,
and (3) Jesus’ return at about the time of the Fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70
would have fulfilled the type in which Joshua led the Israelites into the
Promised Land forty years after God’s visitation of Israel at Mount Sinai.
Chapter 16: Elijah and a Three-Year Motif
There is much typology in the life of Elijah, and some of it contains a third
day or third year motif. These events are now related. They include drought
and famine, Elijah’s challenge to the prophets of Baal and rain falling in
the third year. It is shown that much of this typology pertains to the Jews’
suffering during the latter days and that, by applying the Thousand Year-Day
Principle to it, these motifs probably forecast a very approximate timing of
the End.
Chapter 17: King Hezekiah Healed on the Third Day
This chapter is about the Assyrian King Sennacherib’s assault against King
Hezekiah of Judah. This incident prefigures the Antichrist’s assault against
the nation of Israel, to annihilate it, during the last days of this age.
King Hezekiah got deathly ill, typifying Israel’s spiritual sickness due to
its rejection of Messiah Jesus. King Hezekiah prayed to God for healing.
Isaiah the prophet then told King Hezekiah that because he had humbled
himself and asked God to heal him, on the third day the King would go up to
the temple to worship God as a healed man, which indeed happened. By applying
the Thousand Year-Day Principle to this incident, it forecasts (1) God’s
deliverance of the endtimes penitent Jewish remnant during the third
millennium following Israel’s rejection of Jesus as its Messiah and (2)
delivered Israel going to the Millennial Temple during the messianic
(=Millennial) age.
Chapter 18: Queen Esther Saves the Jews on the Third Day
This engaging chapter is about the thrilling story of the Jewess, Queen
Esther, when she saved her people from complete annihilation. Jews, still to
this day, honor this heroine queen with their popular Feast of Purim. It
happened to the Jewish exiles who lived in Persia (Iran) during the 5th
century B.C., when Ahasuerus (Xerxis I) was the king of the widespread
Persian Empire. Several characters in this plot are types; for example, King
Ahasuerus typifies God the Father; Queen Esther typifies Jesus Christ; Haman,
the king’s wicked prime minister, typifies both Satan and the final
Antichrist; Mordecai, Esther’s uncle and parent by adoption, typifies the
penitent Jewish remnant of the endtimes.
Queen Esther learned of Haman’s wicked plan to exterminate all Jews
throughout the Empire, in which he deceived the King. So she fasted and
prayed for two days. On the third day, due to Persian law, she risked her
life by appearing before her husband, the King, and requesting that he
prevent the Jews’ destruction. By applying the Thousand Year-Day Principle to
this third day motif, it prefigures the Antichrist’s attempt at the End of
Days to completely destroy the nation of Israel, by annihilating all Jews,
and that it will occur during the early third millennium following the Christ
event.
Chapter 19: Finishing the Church’s Mission on the Third Day
This chapter concerns mostly an enigmatic saying of Jesus, containing a third
day motif, that still baffles scholars today. The context is that some
Pharisees warned Jesus to flee Herod’s jurisdiction because the governor
wanted to kill him. Jesus rebuffed their warning, saying, “Go and tell that
fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and
tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the
next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be
killed outside Jerusalem’” (Luke 13.32-33). It is explained that the second
part of this saying refers to Jesus’ current, public ministry, which he would
continue, because he implies that he will not be killed in Herod’s
jurisdiction but in Jerusalem. Yet Jesus does not specify in how many days.
And it is explained that the difficult first part of this saying is about
what will happen after Jesus’ death, in which he will continue his ministry
through his church and finish it “on the third day.” The Thousand Year-Day
Principle is now applied to this third day motif to show that the church will
finish its mission during the third millennium of its existence, at which
time Jesus will return.
It is also shown that by applying the Thousand Year-Day Principle to the
third day motif in three other incidents—Jesus turning the water into wine,
his saying about rebuilding the temple (his body) in three days, and his
return to Cana on the third day—all prefigure the coming of the
eschatological kingdom during the third millennium following the Christ
event.
Chapter 20: Finding the Boy Jesus on the Third Day
From the time of Jesus’ birth-infancy to the beginning of his public
ministry, at about age thirty, the only thing we know about him is the
heartwarming and amazing story of the time when he was twelve years old. The
occasion was the annual Passover festival at Jerusalem, which Jesus’ family
attended just as most Jews did. When the festival was finished, Jesus’
parents and their entourage began the journey back home to Nazareth. But they
mistakenly left Jesus behind and did not discover his absence from their
party until the end of that first day of travel. Since it would have taken
the whole next day for them to return to Jerusalem, we read, “After three
days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to
them and asking them questions” (Luke 2.46). The expression, “After three
days,” means on the third day. By applying the Thousand Year-Day Principle to
this expression, it is explained that the parents’ search for Jesus typifies
the Jewish people searching for their Messiah and eventually finding him
during the third millennium following the Christ event, which indeed will
happen when Jesus returns. And Jesus’ ascension to his Father’s house in
heaven typifies what Jesus said to his parents after they expressed their
dismay about his absence. He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Do
you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (v. 49).
Epilogue
It is concluded that by applying the Thousand Year-Day Principle to these
third day motifs in the Bible, it can reasonably be assumed that the End of
Days and the simultaneous Second Coming of Christ will occur sometime between
about the years 2070 and 2250.
More Third Day
by Kermit Zarley
My
book, The Third Day Bible Code, may cause me and others to discover, or
merely recall, other ways in which the third day motif in scripture typifies
Jesus. In fact, after I finished this book and it went to print, I have made
such discoveries or learned them from others. What follows are examples. And
in time, I may post other such discoveries on this web page. If you make such
a discovery yourself, click “CONTACT US” and email it to me. If I deem it
worthy, I will add it to this page and credit your name.
The Exodus
In “Chapter 8: The Sign of Jonah the Prophet,” the last section is entitled
“The Numbers ‘Three’ and ‘Forty.’” It is about the prominence of these two
numbers in Jonah’s experience and how they are often related in scripture.
Israel’s Exodus from Egypt and entry into the Promised Land forty years later
typifies Jesus. When Jesus was transfigured before three of his disciples on
the Mount of Transfiguration, Luke relates, “Suddenly they saw two men, Moses
and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his
departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luke 9.30-31).
The
word “departure” translates the word exodus in the Greek text of the Luke’s
gospel. Simon Chow (The Sign of Jonah Reconsidered: A Study of Its Meaning in
the Gospel Traditions, 98) connects this word exodus to Israel’s exodus from
Egypt. And he adds, “Numerous features in the transfiguration scene (Moses,
mountain, glory, clouds and the voice from heaven) recall the Sinai
tradition.”
Three features of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt and entry into Canaan typify
Jesus. First, Israel’s Exodus from Egypt, a symbol of the world, is a type of
Jesus departure from this world by means of death. Second, Israel’s episode
of forty years of wandering in the wilderness is a type of Jesus’ forty days
between his resurrection and his ascension. Third, Israel’s immediately
following entry into the Promised Land is a type of Jesus’ immediately
following ascension into heaven.
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