Question:
I have been listening to you for several months, now. I have heard your reasoning on the time Jesus rose from the dead (the first day of the week) which was our Saturday evening after sundown, which I agree, too. However, you turn right around and say that in Acts 20:7, Paul preached a very long sermon, from Sunday morning to midnight. I do not agree with that. Using the same thought pattern, “Upon the first day of the week” is our Saturday evening after the Sabbath. We know that it was Saturday after sundown because in verse 8 it says, “there were many lights in the upper chamber”. They don’t use “many lights” during daytime hours. Verse 9 states that there was a window to let the light in. But the fact of the matter is that it was dark, and lights were requires so that the disciples could break bread together after the Sabbath observance. They were tired and ready for bed. And verse 9 also states that Eutychus went into a deep sleep as Paul was long winded (notfrom Sunday morning to Sunday at midnight, but from Saturday evening after sundown to midnight). After the young man fell 3 stories to the ground, and Paul says that “his life is in him” (verse 10), Paul departs when “day breaks” (verse 11) which was Sunday morning! Using this thought, 1Cor. 16:2 “Upon the first day of the week” could mean Saturday after sundown, after the Sabbath observance. It doesn’t say that they came together, but they were already there, to “lay in store as God has propered him”. Jews still worship on the seventh day after Jesus rose from the grave. James 2:2 states that “For if there come unto your ASSEMBLY”… Everywhere else, the Greek word means “synagogue”, but here, they changed the word to “assembly”, because it sounded too “Jewish”. I don’t care too much for “King James Version” because of the antisemitism that is in it. For example, in Num.23:19, in your King James Version, it states that “God is not a man, that he should lie;…”. And around 100 times in the Bible, it says,”I AM the LORD your God which ‘brought you out’of the land of Egypt…”, and yet in Ex.12:35, it says in King James language,…and they “borrowed” of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment”. And verse 36, And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they “lent” (there is lent in the Bible) unto them… The Hebrew word “sha’al” means “ask” or “gave”, not “borrow” or “lent”. If God said that He brought them out of the land of Egypt, He didn’t ask them to “return” the “borrowed” items. The name “Sha’ul” (Paul) means “asked”. On the Road to Damascus, God “asked” Saul to be an an apostle to the Gentiles, and he “gave” himself wholly to the work of the Messiah through the will of God.
Answer:
I don’t believe that I ever said that Paul preached ‘from Sunday morning until Sunday evening.’ More precise Paul preached from Sunday night until Sunday morning. I did state that He did preach a long message ‘continued his speech until midnight’. The correct view is probably that they met on Saturday after 6:00pm which was the first day [Sunday]of the week. Paul then left the next morning which was Sunday morning. Acts 20:7-11. “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.” “And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together.” “And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.” “And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.” “When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.”