The story of Jonah is real. Even if you were to look at the story of Jonah as an allegory you could extrapolate a good deal of spiritual wisdom, but the story is true. There are many believers that hold to the philosphy that many of the stories in the Bible are allegories, but I know better. They claim that these stories are allegories:
Adam and Eve
Noah's ark
The parting of the Red Sea
The tower of Babel
The donkey talking to Balaam
The etching of the ten commandments on stone
The story of Jonah
Josephs dreams
David in the Lion's den
Nebuchadnezzar's madness
The virgin birth
Jesus talking to the thief about paradise
Paul getting bit by the serpent
Some put the whole book of Revelation in that category
How ridiculous. It takes no saving faith at all to believe that these stories are allegories. Anyone can believe that these and other stories from the Bible are just silly stories to help make us feel like doing better; that they are myth like the stories of Greek mythology. I've heard priests and pastors waffle like a school child caught stealing when confronted about the stories in the Bible. They don't know if the stories are true or not so they don't stand behind them. They have not searched the scriptures with their faith, only with their intellect. Many of these same type believers and their followers believe what they want to believe and leave the rest as if it didn't have any efficacy. They read what is convenient and easy and pass over what requires genuine faith to apprehend.
Of course it takes faith to believe the Bible and to believe the stories in the Bible, but it is the same faith that saves your soul. If you don't have faith to believe the simple miracles that God can perform without any effort, how is it that you trust that same God to save you from yourself? Surely it is more difficult to change the mind of a hardened man or woman than to have a man live inside a large fish for three days. Think about it. Jesus uses the example of Jonah in His answer to the scribes and Pharisees.
"Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah 1:17
"Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. 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:" Matthew 12:38-39
Let's see, Jesus refers to an allegory to win His allegorical argument. That would mean Jesus was presenting an allegory to prove an allegory. How utterly ridiculous.
Adam and Eve were two distinct people called out by name, not the race of Adam and the race of Eve.
Yes Noah built the ark and it took him more than one hundred years. Yes he did lead the animals in two by two.
Moses parted the water with his staff, it didn't part because there was hardly any water in the sea and a strong wind blew in and parted the water so they could cross over.
Yes Jesus was born of a virgin birth.
God is miraculous. God did many wonderful miracles in days past. God is still doing many wonderful and mighty miracles today. I believe that you run the risk of creating your own religion if you pick and choose what you want to believe in the Bible. There is too much of that going around. Get off the fence. Believe God's Word and enjoy knowing in your heart that our God is a miracle working God and the miracles of the past were just a primer for what is ahead.
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