Many have assumed the resurrection and the raising of Christ are the same thing. People think they are the same occurrence, but are they?

Let’s look at the scriptures and prove the difference between these two occurrences.

Act 4:33  And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.

Christ was resurrected from His death on the cross. On that Wednesday afternoon Christ died on the cross. He was taken down off the cross and put into the sepulchre.

Joh 19:30  So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

Joh 19:39  And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds.

Joh 19:40  Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury.

Joh 19:41  Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

Joh 19:42  So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews’ Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby.

He was then resurrected on Thursday morning.

He then descended to hell, to preach to the sons of God and the angels who are being held there until their judgement.

Eph 4:9  (Now this, “HE ASCENDED”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?

Eph 4:10  He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

1Pe 3:19  by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison,

1Pe 3:20  who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.

2Pe 2:4  For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;

Christ was in Hell, Hades or heart of the earth, for three days and three nights.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night.

Jesus descended to hell, He was in the heart of the earth {NOT THE GRAVE} for three days and three nights.

Mat 12:40  For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Mar 8:31  And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Joh 2:19  Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

TO BE RESURRECTED IS TO BE BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE FROM DEATH.

Christ died on Wednesday afternoon, He was resurrected on Thursday morning.

He then descended to hell and preached to the angels who were held in chains until the judgement.

TO BE RAISED CAN ALSO BE USED TO MEAN RESURRECT, BUT IT CAN MEAN TO BE BROUGHT UP FROM THE PLACE OF THE DEAD.

Both these words can mean the same thing, what we are proving in this article is that the resurrection of Christ happened on Thursday morning and He was raised from the heart of the earth on Sunday morning.

When the scriptures talk about Christ being raised, in a number of cases this is referring to when He came up from hell or the heart of the earth.

Rom 10:9  that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Act 2:31  he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.

Act 2:32  This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.

Act 13:34  And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus: ‘I WILL GIVE YOU THE SURE MERCIES OF DAVID.’

Act 13:35  Therefore He also says in another Psalm: ‘YOU WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO SEE CORRUPTION.’

Act 13:36  “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption;

Act 13:37  but He whom God raised up saw no corruption.

Rom 10:5  For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “THE MAN WHO DOES THOSE THINGS SHALL LIVE BY THEM.”

Rom 10:6  But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above)

Rom 10:7  or, “ ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

HE IS RISEN

It is clear from the following scriptures that Christ was raised on Sunday morning. He rose from the heart of the earth.

Mat 28:6  He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

Mar 16:9  Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.

1Co 15:3  For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

1Co 15:4  and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,

1Co 15:5  and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.

Act 1:3  to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

Christ died on Wednesday, He was buried that day before sunset. His burial was not in the ground, He was placed on a stone slab above the ground. Therefore the three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, do not refer to His burial placement.

Christ was resurrected on Thursday morning and then He descended to the heart of the earth as per the scriptures stated above. When He descended He preached to the spirits who were held there in chains awaiting judgement.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS THAT CHRIST WAS IN THE HEART OF THE EARTH

Christ was then raised from the dead, this means He was raised from the place of the dead, this is the place where the spirits who were spiritually dead were held in chains, this is what “RAISED FROM THE DEAD” means. It means He was raised from a place, He was not dead in the heart of the earth, He was alive, so it is not referring to Christ being dead, but the actual place where He was.

The above article proves that the resurrection of Christ and the raising of Christ happened at two different times.