A Christian Perspective

Lets find out if you have the stomach for the gospel.

Question: what is your opinion of the book of Jonah?

I. Jonah Attacked 3 ways.

1. Infidels that reject it as a myth.

John 3:3 (KJV) Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

2. Those who believe the inspiration of the book but deny its literalness, they consider it an allegory with great spiritual lessons.

Luke 11:29 (KJV) And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.

b. If this is just an allegory and not literal then we can allegorize the death and resurrection of Christ, to which Jesus compares his experience to that of Jonah

3. A more subtle attack is those Godly men and women who would not shrink from the literal account, but seek proof of it in the natural world and take Jonah's account of the miraculous away by doing so.

a. These type of defenders would take the account to a realm of natural possibilities to prove or explain that it could happen.

b. They seek for a fish that could swallow a man whole without crushing, mauling and macerated and survive 3 days and nights in the digestive juices of a fish and have enough O2 to survive and come out healthy enough to hit the road proclaiming Gods Word.

c. No creature has ever been found to do this even if theres been accounts of people being swallowed they came out not very well and half dead just a few hours later not 3 days and nights.

d. Jonah wasn't half dead mauled macerated but apparently healthy and well and ready to preach.

A. To Seek Proof.

1. This demand for proof of the bible from sincere motives maybe from the highest purposes but it removes the element of faith and seek evidence that will only destroy the central message of Jonah.

Mat 12:38-40 (KJV) Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. 39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: 40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

2. To seek a fish that Jonah could survive in is beside the point JONAH WAS DEAD!

3. This is about the miracle of Jonah as a perfect picture of the Gospel account of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

4. Attempts to prove the book in natural ways obscures the true meaning of the book.

II. Fact or Fiction

A. One of the strangest accounts in the bible.

1. Preached from the belly of a fish at the bottom of the sea 800 years before Christ.

2. The clearest picture of Christ Death and resurrection Christ in the bible.

3. The Lords own words used to show as a type of himself in the tomb for 3 days and nights.

4. Spoke these in response to unbelieving scribes and Pharisees who refused to believe and demanded a sign.

B. To be continued so come back soon!

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