“Then
some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher,
we want to see a sign from you.”
He
answered, “A
wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be
given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
For
as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish,
so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth.””
Matthew
12:38-40
When
the Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign to validate the authority of
what He taught, He promised them only one sign, the sign of His
resurrection. Interestingly, He compared His resurrection to the Old
Testament account of Jonah. In the same way that Jonah was in the
belly of the sea creature for three days, Jesus would be in the tomb
for three days.
Jesus
often used familiar events from the Old Testament to teach the New
Testament believers about Himself. Consider this passage where Jesus
talks about His second coming:
“As
it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of
Man.
For
in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;
and
they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and
took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son
of Man.”
Matthew
27:37-39
Let's
think about these analogies for a moment. I've heard many liberal
Christians claim that many, most, or even all of the fantastic
“stories” in the Old Testament are just that – stories. Jonah
did not live inside a whale. David did not kill a 9 feet tall giant.
Noah didn't really build an ark. Moses did not really part the Red
Sea. What's more, most of these liberal Christians not only deny the
event, they also deny the characters. There was no Jonah. There was
no David. There was no Noah. There was no Moses. All of these
events, and even all of these people, are just analogies. They're
parables – just like the parables that Jesus taught. They teach a
spiritual truth but weren't physical realities.
Here's
the dilemma that I see. If Jonah was a parable, then is the
resurrection also a parable? Did Jesus really
rise from the dead after three days or does the Bible only say He
rose from the dead in order to teach some “spiritual truth”?
Likewise, how do we know that Jesus is literally coming again? If
the Flood didn't literally happen, then maybe the Second Coming is
just another parable that Jesus told.
Would
it really make any sense for Jesus to compare a real event to an
incredible one? Remember, this is more than a simple analogy. Using a hypothetical example that someone can understand is a powerful, rhetorical tool. But in these cases, we're talking about fantastic events. What if I said, “Just like the Easter Bunny hides
eggs for children to find, we also should his His words in our
hearts”? Or maybe, “We exchange gifts at Christmas because Santa
brings gifts every Christmas”? You can see how comparing a literal
truth to a fictional account can actually diminish the point being
made.
Furthermore,
if we begin assigning the label of “parable” to any event or
person we find too incredible, then on what grounds can we claim any
part of the Bible is true? How do we know, for example, that Jesus
Himself was a real person? After all, if Jonah wasn't real, and if
Noah wasn't real, then how do we know Jesus was indeed a real person
in history? Maybe the entire Person of Jesus is an analogy meant to
represent God's presence among His people.
Believing
that events from the Old Testament events are myths has consequences
when considering New Testament events. How can someone claim to
believe in a literal Second Coming if he refuses to believe in a
literal Flood? If someone believes that Jonah wasn't really in a
fish three days, then how can he believe Jesus was really in the tomb
three days? To what literary clues can he point to distinguish
between myth and reality (besides his own credulity)?
I
believe the plain reading of the words of the Bible conveys the most
obvious meaning. Simply hermeneutics tells us when Jesus is speaking
in parables and when He is speaking about real events. The Second
Coming is a real event. The Flood was a real event. Any attempt to
allegorize some events in the Bible while affirming others is nothing
more than special pleading.
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