A Passover Plot?

Dave Hunt Classic

 by Hunt, Dave

 www.thebereancall.org

The prophecies concerning the second major theme of the Bible, the coming of the Messiah, are even more numerous and detailed than those pertaining to Israel. These prophecies have also been dealt with at some length in my previous books, so we will only summarize a few of them briefly here. Even the most anti-Christian critics who deny categorically that Jesus of Nazareth is the Savior of the world admit that many specific messianic prophecies were fulfilled in His life and crucifixion. In the attempt to explain away the significance of that fact, some bizarre theories have been invented. Typical of such attempts was a book and movie (neither very successful) some years back entitled  The Passover Plot. Its thesis was that Jesus, knowing some of the messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, conspired with Judas to fulfill them in order to make it appear that He was the promised Messiah.

Irreconcilable Contradiction?

Obviously, it would have been ludicrous for Jesus to get Himself crucified in order to convince a small band of uneducated, inept followers that He was the Christ. In fact, neither His disciples nor any other Jew, including even John the Baptist, could believe (though the prophecies were clear, as Christ explained often) that the Messiah was to be crucified. His death rather seemed proof that he was not the Messiah, so fulfilling the prophecies concerning His crucifixion to the letter, as He did, would not have been the way to gather a following. In fact, Christ's death in fulfillment of Scripture was in order to pay the penalty for our sins.

The prophecies concerning His death  (Psalm:22:16; Isaiah:53:5,8-10,12; Zechariah:12:10, etc.)  were avoided by the Jews as impenetrable mysteries because they seemed totally at odds with other prophecies declaring plainly that the Messiah would ascend David's throne and rule over a magnificent kingdom. How could the Messiah establish a kingdom and a peace that would never end  (Isaiah:9:7)  and yet be rejected and crucified by His own people? It seemed impossible for both to be true, so the Jewish interpreters simply ignored what didn't seem to make sense to them.

That the Jews were able to crucify Jesus was the final triumphant proof to the rabbis, and it served as the disappointing but undeniable evidence to the Jewish masses and His most devoted disciples that Jesus of Nazareth couldn't possibly have been the Messiah. The prophesied messianic kingdom had not been established, nor had He brought peace to Israel by delivering her from her enemies, so at best He could only have been a well-meaning impostor, and at worst a deliberate fraud. Such remains the argument of most Jews today.

There was, however, one way to reconcile the apparent contradiction: The Messiah had to come twice, the first time to die for man's sins, the second time to reign on the Davidic throne. But even when Jesus explained that fact ahead of time, no one could understand it. It would take His resurrection to open blind eyes.

Beyond a Mere Man

Yes, there were a few prophecies that Jesus of Nazareth could have conspired with Judas or others to fulfill. Most prophecies, however, were beyond the control of any mere man. For example, being born in Bethlehem and of the seed of David were major requirements for the Messiah. The timing of the Messiah's birth, too, as foretold, was obviously beyond the influence of any ordinary mortal. His birth had to occur before the scepter departed from Judah  (Genesis:49:10) , while the temple was standing  (Malachi:3:1),  while the genealogical records were available to prove His lineage  (2 Samuel:7:12; Psalm 89, etc.) , and shortly before the temple and Jerusalem were destroyed  (Daniel:9:26) .

There was a narrow window of time during which the Messiah had to come--and He did. As the Apostle Paul, a former rabbi, so eloquently put it, "But when the  fullness of time  was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman [i.e., virgin born]..."  (Galatians:4:4 ). It is too late for the Messiah to make His  first  appearance now. There can only be a second coming, as the Bible declares. Yet the Jews still await the first appearing of the one whom they will imagine is their Messiah but who will in fact be the Antichrist.

The scepter departed from Judah about AD 7, when the rabbis lost the right to exact the death penalty. This right was crucial to the practice of their religion, because death was the penalty for certain religious offenses. When Pilate told the rabbis he wanted nothing to do with Jesus and for them to judge Him themselves, they replied, "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death"  (John:18:31) . The Messiah had to be born before that power was lost, and He had to be put to death afterward, for He was not to die by stoning, the Jews' manner of execution, but by  Roman crucifixion . Amazingly, His crucifixion was prophesied centuries before that means of execution was even known: "They pierced my hands and my feet"  (Psalm:22:16) .

Obviously, too, the Messiah had to be born while the genealogical records still existed, or there could be no proof that He was of the seed of David. Those records were lost with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70, an event that both Daniel  (in 9:26)  and Christ prophesied  (Matthew:24:2).  Since then it has been too late for the Messiah to come, though the majority of Jews still await His first advent. Christians, on the other hand, expect the  second  coming, which also was foretold by the Hebrew prophets.

Amazing Fulfillments

Had Jesus conspired to fulfill the prophecies, He would have had to bribe Pilate to condemn the two thieves to be crucified with Him in fulfillment of Isaiah:53:9. He also would have had to know what soldiers would be on duty that day in order to bribe them ahead of time to divide His clothes among them and gamble for His robe  (Psalm:22:18) , to give Him vinegar to drink mingled with gall  (Psalm:69:21) , and to pierce His side with a spear  (Zechariah:12:10)  instead of breaking His legs as was the custom, but which could not be done to the Messiah  (Exodus:12:46; Psalm:34:20) .

Were the rabbis also part of the plot? Was that why they paid Judas exactly 30 pieces of silver to betray Him as prophesied by Zechariah  (11:12) , then used the money to buy a "potter's field" for burying strangers when Judas threw it down at their feet in the temple, again as foretold  (Zechariah:11:13) ? Is that why they crucified Him precisely when the Passover lambs were being slain all over Israel, in fulfillment of Exodus:12:6? The "Passover plot" scenario becomes increasingly ridiculous the more one examines it.

Where did Jesus get the money to pay off the multitude that lined the road into Jerusalem and hailed Him as the Messiah when He rode in on a donkey--the last beast one would expect a triumphant king to choose-precisely as foretold in Zechariah:9:9? It was Nisan 10 (April 6), AD 32, the very day the prophets had declared that this amazing event would occur--483 years to the day (69 weeks of years, as Daniel foretold it) after Nehemiah, in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus (465-525 BC), had received (on Nisan 1, 445 BC) authority to rebuild Jerusalem  (Nehemiah:2:1) ! The fulfillment by Jesus of these and many other messianic prophecies in minute detail cannot be explained away.

Missing Body, Empty Tomb

Furthermore, if Jesus had successfully "plotted" to get Himself crucified on the precise date and time that was prophesied-in spite of the determination of the rabbis to the contrary  (Matthew:26:5; Mark:14:2) --Jesus still had to rise from the dead. No "Passover plot," no matter how many conspirators were involved, could accomplish that! A fake "resurrection" wouldn't be sufficient basis for His followers to launch Christianity. Only if He really died and came back to life would they have the motivation and courage to proclaim His gospel in the face of persecution and martyrdom.

Roman soldiers didn't sleep on duty. Had they done so while the disciples had stolen the body, they would have been on crosses the next day, and so would the disciples for their crime in breaking the Roman seal on the tomb. And if the disciples had stolen the body and somehow managed to keep it a secret, why would they die for a lie? They were such cowards that none of them had been willing to die for what they had once believed to be the truth. Yet they almost all went to their deaths as martyrs, declaring to the very end that they were eyewitnesses of the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead. None of them tried to save his life in exchange for revealing where the body had been hidden. There is simply no way to explain the undeniably empty tomb except by resurrection.

Neither Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, nor any of the world's other religions, makes any pretense that its founder is still alive. For Christianity, however, the resurrection is the very heart of its gospel. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then the whole thing is a fraud. Nor did Jesus tell His disciples to go to far-off Siberia or South Africa to preach His resurrection where no one could challenge that claim. He told them to begin in Jerusalem , where, had He not risen from the dead, a short walk to the grave just outside the city wall could have proven that He was still dead. How the rabbis and Roman rulers would have loved to discredit Christianity before it could gather momentum! The surest way would have been to put the dead body of Jesus on display, but they could not. The closely guarded grave was suddenly empty!

Enter Saul of Tarsus

The proofs for the resurrection are numerous and irrefutable, but having dealt with them elsewhere, we will mention only one--a proof often overlooked. That Christ had indeed risen from the dead is the only explanation for the fact that Saul of Tarsus, the chief enemy of Christianity, became its chief apostle. A popular young rabbi, Saul was on his way to great honors for his leadership role in pursuing this aberrant sect with arrest, imprisonment, and martyrdom. Then suddenly he became one of the despised and persecuted Christians himself, and for this he was repeatedly arrested, beaten, and imprisoned. On one occasion, he was even stoned and left for dead. Finally, he was beheaded. This stunning turnabout made no sense...unless.

Why voluntarily trade popularity for suffering and eventual martyrdom? Paul explained that he had met the resurrected Christ, and that the One who had died for the sins of the world was alive and had revealed Himself to him. That testimony, however, was not sufficient in itself to prove that Christ was indeed alive. Something more was needed.

No one could doubt Paul's sincerity. That was demonstrated by his willingness to suffer and even die for Christ. A sincere belief, however, that Christ was alive was not sufficient proof. It was possible that Paul had hallucinated and simply imagined that Christ had appeared to him and spoken to him and was indeed alive.

The Roman governors Felix and Festus, as well as King Agrippa, heard Paul's account of this supernatural encounter and were convinced that he was sincere but deluded  (Acts 24-26) . That explanation, however, did not fit the facts. Paul's sudden intimacy with Christ's teachings provided proof of the resurrection that could not be explained away by any means.

Conclusive Evidence

Paul, who had not known Christ before He was crucified, was suddenly the chief authority on what Christ had privately taught His inner circle of disciples. He had to have met Him! The apostles, who had been personally instructed by Christ for several years, had to acknowledge that their onetime enemy, Paul, without consulting any of them, knew all that Christ had taught them, and indeed had even deeper insights than they. When Paul rebuked Peter for going astray, the latter submitted to the correction  (Galatians:2:11-14).

"I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you"  (1 Corinthians:11:23)  was how Paul began his explanation to the Corinthian church of what happened at the Last Supper and what Christ had taught His disciples on that occasion. Yet Paul had not been present, nor had he consulted any of those who had been there. "I conferred not with flesh and blood; neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia"  (Galatians:1:16,17)  was Paul's sworn testimony. That he was suddenly the chief apostle and authority on what Christ had taught could be explained in no other way than that he had been instructed by the resurrected Christ, exactly as he claimed.

Without consulting any of those who had been Christ's disciples during His earthly ministry, Paul had become the chief authority on Christian doctrine, as all the church had to acknowledge. He wrote most of the New Testament epistles. "I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not of man. For I neither received it of man neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ"  (Galatians:1:11,12)  was Paul's solemn testimony. There is no other explanation than that Christ had indeed been resurrected and  had personally instructed Paul.

Reason for Confidence

The fulfillment of the prophecies mentioned above as well as scores of others in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ prove beyond any possible doubt that He is the Messiah of Israel, the Savior of the world. No one can examine the facts and remain an honest doubter. Those who refuse to believe in the face of such overwhelming evidence are without excuse.

Having seen that what the Bible prophesied concerning past events was fulfilled with 100 percent accuracy, we have valid reason for believing that what it tells us concerning the future will likewise be fulfilled.

Excerpts from Dave Hunt's book A Woman Rides the Beast .

The Power of His Resurrection

by Dave Hunt

www.thebereancall.org

Paul's prayer for the Ephesian believers is very specific. He asks God to bestow upon them a deeper knowledge and understanding of Christ that we do well to seek for ourselves. This is not something that one can learn in a seminary or even in a Bible study or from reading devotional books. Paul's desire for them was that they would willingly receive from God "the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ" (Eph:1:17-23).

Specifically, Paul prays that they would know the "exceeding greatness" of the power that God wanted to demonstrate in their lives. His explanation of this power is most instructive. Paul tells us about it in Philippians 3. It was, in fact, what he desired so much for himself. He called it the "power of his resurrection" and declared: "[Oh] that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus."

Was Paul uncertain of his salvation, concerned that he might not qualify for the resurrection of believers at the Rapture? Hardly! He is telling us that the Resurrection of Christ is not only a historical event that we look back to with satisfaction and joy. It is the greatest event in the history (past, present, or future) of the entire cosmos!

The greatest event that the universe will ever see is also one of the most difficult to understand. We mention it so casually, but here is the hinge upon which all history hangs and is forever divided. The division of time ought to be not only BC (Before Christ) and AD (meaning After Christ); it ought to be BR (Before the Resurrection) and AR (After the Resurrection).

With modern telescopes and the means of apparently probing farther into space than ever before, David's words in Psalm 19 take on deeper meaning: "The heavens declare the glory of God...." Creation is the greatest visible expression of power, and we bow in awe and worship when we think of the infinite God behind all that we can see. But Paul says that is nothing in comparison to the power displayed in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and this is the great power that Paul desired for the Ephesians to experience in their daily lives.

In fact, Paul tells us that the Resurrection is the greatest display of God's power ever to be demonstrated, nor can it ever be surpassed. We need to understand why this is so and why Paul prayed as he did. After all, "In [Christ] was life" (Jn:1:4). Jesus said, "I have power ( dunamis ) to lay down [my life] and...to take it again. This commandment have I received from my Father." (Jn:10:18) Then why did it take such power to raise Christ from the dead?

During His life on earth and before His own resurrection, Christ had raised many from the dead. Those resurrected, such as Lazarus (Jn:11:1-43) and the widow of Nain's son (Lk 7:11-16), died again after some days or years, to await the resurrection of all believers at the Rapture.

How could the Giver of life, by whom all things were created (Jn:1:3), be killed? Here we have a seeming contradiction. Christ himself said, "No man taketh my life from me...I lay it down of myself" (Jn:10:18). Yet Peter indicts the Jews with having killed Jesus: whom "ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain" (Acts:2:23). In addressing the rabbinical council, Stephen uses even stronger language: "of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers..." (Acts:7:52).

The answer to the question of why it took the greatest power ever displayed to raise Christ from the dead can only be found in relation to the death He died.

God had declared that the penalty for sin is death, which is eternal separation from Him. Isn't that rather harsh? Adam and Eve were driven out from the garden paradise by their Creator, who had placed them there, for the seemingly minor infraction of eating some fruit. How could that be worthy of eternal punishment?

We have such a careless view of sin, looking at the act alone and forgetting against whom the act was committed. The sin of Adam and Eve was not merely eating the forbidden fruit. It was deliberate defiance of and rebellion against the One who had created them and the entire universe. From our viewpoint, David's sin of adultery, murder, and lying was far more reprehensible. But David knew what sin was: "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight" (Ps:51:4).

At its heart, sin is deliberate treason, open and defiant rebellion against the Creator and Ruler of the universe. We need to remember this fact. Most Christians who, when convicted by conscience, fall on their faces and confess their sins are not really confessing the horror of what they've done. It is not enough to repent of the deed. We must confess also that, no matter how trivial we think the act was, we have repeated Adam and Eve's treason against the Lord God . Without that admission deeply felt as a conviction in our hearts, the confession is incomplete.

Now we begin to understand why it took the "exceeding greatness of God's power" to raise Christ from the dead. The hymn writer put it well, "'Twas our sins' vast load that laid Thee, Lord of life, within the grave." What does that mean ? How could our sins have been laid upon the sinless Christ? This certainly was not accomplished by Pilate's condemnation of Christ nor in the scourging and being nailed to a cross by godless Roman soldiers. Yet this is what that unbiblical film, The Passion of the Christ , portrayed-and it was praised by thousands of evangelicals including hundreds of leaders.

What really happened on the Cross not only could not be portrayed in a movie but by omission was denied. Isaiah wrote, "It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin" (Isaiah:53:10). Clearly, what men did to Christ had no part at all in the Lord's bruising Him and making His soul a sacrifice for sin. There is a moral and spiritual dimension to sin that Christ had to endure for every individual, and none other could.

Not only did our Savior have to be perfectly sinless to pay for the sins of others but He had to be infinite. No one less than God could accomplish this satisfaction of justice. But the penalty had been pronounced against mankind . Thus, God, though infinite, could not pay that penalty unless, without ceasing to be God, He became fully man . This is what the one and only virgin birth was all about.

Atheists complain that it would be unjust for an innocent party to pay the penalty for the guilty. That would be true were it not for another dimension to the Cross. For those who believe, God considers Christ's death and resurrection to be as their own. A miraculous inner transformation occurs, which Christ promised and which He called being "born again" (Jn:3:3-16). That's not a cliché but reality.

Pilate could not have known what he was saying when he presented Christ to the howling mob: "Behold the man!" This was man as God had intended him to be. Paul called Him the " second man" and also the " last Adam" (1 Cor:15:45-47). In other words, from Adam, freshly created by the hand of God in the Garden, to Jesus, the last Adam, freshly formed in the womb of a virgin, there was no one of whom it could be said, "Behold the man as God intended him to be."

"Sins' vast load," which would have held mankind in the Lake of Fire forever, could be fully endured by the infinite One upon the Cross, where He stood between God and Man. If Infinite Justice had not been satisfied through Christ's full payment for our sins, He could not have come out of that grave.

The penalty for sin is eternal banishment from God's presence and from His entire universe into the Lake of Fire. That is what high treason against the Creator of all merits in His court. One of the greatest horrors of the Lake of Fire will be the fact that even in that place of torment, these haters of God find no escape from Him. He is there in the consciences of the damned, consciences that will no longer find any excuse behind which to hide. There will be no escape from the truth they rejected, and that will haunt them eternally. David said, "If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there" (Ps:139:8).

It would be impossible for any finite being to pay the infinite penalty demanded by God's infinite justice. No man attempting to pay for his own sins could ever finally say, as Christ declared in triumph on the Cross, "It is finished! The debt has been paid." But the penalty must be paid in full. How else can the prison gates of justice be torn open?

In the Book of Job we get some inkling of the very real struggle between Satan and God for the cosmos. "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them" (Job:1:6). In that amazing account, we are given an insight into what is involved in this battle between God and Satan. It is a conflict of cosmic proportions for control of the universe, and man is the prize that both sides seek. This is a very real battle for man's heart and affection. Nor is there any guarantee that God will triumph in every individual case. With the gift of free will, every man has an individual choice to make concerning which side he will join in this battle.

Christians have a vital role to play in Satan's ultimate defeat: "They overcame [that old serpent, the Devil - Rev:12:9] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death" (Rev:12:11). With the love of Christ in our hearts, we follow the example that Christ himself left to us: "Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously" (1 Pt 2:21-25).

Satan continues to enter God's presence boldly, as he did in Job's day. How do we know? He still accuses the brethren before the throne of God day and night and will do so to the very end (Rev:12:10). As we've said before (and it bears repeating), Satan is like a lame duck president. He can still walk the corridors of power unopposed and wield considerable influence behind the scenes. He has not yet been thrown out of heaven, but that day is coming soon:

There was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Rev:12:7-9)

How will Satan finally be cast out? An old hymn expresses clearly and beautifully what scripture portrays: "In weakness like defeat, He won the victor's crown; Trod all our foes beneath His feet by being trodden down. He Satan's power laid low; Made sin, He sin o'erthrew. Bowed to the grave, destroyed it so, and death, by dying, slew."

Satan cannot understand how Christ, through meekness and seeming weakness, could triumph over him. Everything about the Cross confuses him. First he inspired Peter to prevent Christ from going to the Cross: "Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee" (Mat:16:21-22). We know that Satan inspired Peter because of Christ's reply: "Get thee behind me, Satan." Then he inspired Judas to betray Jesus to the rabbis so that they could have Him crucified: "Satan entered into him [Judas]" (Jn:13:27). Satan doesn't understand to this day.

In my opinion, Satan really thinks he could be the final victor in this battle for the hearts and minds of mankind. And why not? He offers what he has trained man's greed and lust to desire: wealth, possessions, hedonistic pleasure, free sex, popularity, fame, drugs and alcohol in abundance, and satisfaction of every lustful desire. Yet multitudes choose instead to follow Christ, though He offers hatred and rejection by the world, with persecution and suffering-but eternity in His presence, where there is true happiness: "In thy presence, is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm:16:11).

And what of those who make the wrong choice and opt to join Satan in committing treason? God does not take pleasure in punishing the wicked (Eze:33:11), but each one's punishment must be suited to the crime. When one reads what the atheist leaders say about God in blatant and defiant rebellion, we know they would tear Him from His throne if they could. They hate God. It is clear that torment for eternity in the Lake of Fire for their treason will at last be the reaping of what they have sowed.

Consider the following from Richard Dawkins, leader of the New Atheist movement, in a debate with John Lennox, a fervent Christian, also an Oxford professor and scientist with two earned Ph.D.s, who in his closing remarks testified to his faith in Christ and to our Lord's resurrection: "Yes, well, that concluding bit," said Dawkins, lips curled in contempt, voice dripping with venom, "rather gives the game away, doesn't it? All that stuff about science and physics...that's all very grand and wonderful, and then suddenly we come down to the resurrection of Jesus. It's so petty, it's so trivial, it's so local, it's so earthbound, it's so unworthy of the universe."

Yet God calls the Resurrection the greatest display that could ever be known of His majesty and power. How pitiful is this vitriolic outburst from Dawkins! This pagan, who obviously worships creation instead of its Creator (Rom:1:21-23), is beside himself with rage. This expression of his hatred of God will mock him eternally (Prov:1:20-33), while heaven will ring with the eternal yet ever new song of praise to God and the Lamb: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." TBC