Phone Line Transcript 2001

The Stake or The Cross? Part II

Thank you for calling SOS. Today, we are continuing our series on the "Torture Stake". "Was Jesus executed on an upright pole or was Jesus really crucified on a cross"? If you missed the first message of this series, you can obtain transcripts from our website, which is: members.tripod.com/sosoutreach;

Last week we proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the WT's book, Reasoning from the Scriptures clearly excluded crucial information from the Imperial Bible Dictionary's account on the means by which Jesus was executed. Not only did the Imperial Bible Dictionary obviously point to the cross; we can see the evidence from the Greek Scriptures also. Thomas would not believe in John Chap. 20:24,25 until he saw the print of the nails (in the plural, more than one nail) in Jesus hands. Matthew at Chap. 27:37 also revealed to us that Jesus' hands could not have been nailed straight up above his head because a sign was posted above his head – not his hands.

The eye witness accounts by both John and Matthew is compelling evidence that Jesus was in fact crucified on the cross. But did you know that Jehovah God knew, in advance, and revealed to us in the OT, how Jesus, The Lamb of God, would be crucified?? That's right; hundreds of years before Jesus was even born, Yahweh, had painted us a brilliant picture about the "ultimate sacrifice".

Exodus Chap 12 vs. 22: and I'm reading from the NWT now:

"And you must take a bunch of hyssop and dip it into the blood in the basin and strike upon the upper part of the doorway and upon the two doorposts some of the blood that is in the basin; and none of you should go out of the entrance of his house until morning".

When Egypt's judgement was imminent, God commanded the sons of Israel to mark the doors of their dwellings with the blood of the Passover lamb. Those marks painted on the doors set apart the houses of those who believed and obeyed God from the houses of those who did not.

The bason mentioned in Ex. 12:22 was not a container in the sense in which we use the word basin today. The word is the Egyptian sap, meaning the threshold or ditch which was dug just in front of the doorways of the houses to avoid flooding. The people placed a container in the ditch to prevent seepage. The Israelites killed their Passover lambs right by the doors, where they were about to sprinkle the blood, and the blood from the slaughter automatically ran into the depression (or the bason) at the threshold. When they painted the blood on with the hyssop "brush", they first touched the lintel (or the top horizontal part of the doorframe), then each side post (or the vertical sides). In doing this, they went through the motions of making the sign of a bloody cross, the prophecy of another Passover sacrifice to come centuries later. Thus, the door was "sealed" on all four sides with the blood of the lamb, because the blood was already on the bottom. A famous author sees this as a picture of the suffering Messiah Himself: and I quote:

"Blood above where the thorns pierced His brow, blood at the sides, from His nail pierced hands; blood below, from His nail pierced feet".

We see further symbolism in the words of Jesus, when He said in John Chap. 10 vs. 9 and I quote.

"I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture."

The Israelites went in through the blood-sealed door on the first Passover night and found safety. Protected and redeemed by the sacrificial blood, they went out the next morning and began their journey toward the good pasture, the land of promise. We who are redeemed by the true Passover Lamb find safety in Him from God's judgement, and, because of Him, as we are told in Hebrews Chap 11 vs. 10; we look forward to a future, eternal haven in the very presence of the Almighty, in the city whose "builder and maker is God.

***Thank you again for joining us today. And please join us again next week for more ongoing studies in the scriptures.***

By the way, did you know that Yahweh revealed yet another picture of Christ's death in Ezekiel Chap 9:4-6?? That right, once again, Jehovah foretold, hundreds of years before Jesus' birth, how He was to be crucified. Stay tuned and find out!

If you have any comments or thoughts on today's message, please feel free to leave them after the sound of the tone.

 

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