The Validity of Jonah- Not Simply Morallity

Several weeks ago, two of the most influential Christian churches in the nation, if not the world, both of whom are very different from each other, were doing a teaching series on the book of Jonah. Their pastors who taught these series are arguably two of the most influential Christians on the planet, but again, quite different in philosophy, ministry, and leadership style.

What I found odd is that both pastors stated within their sermons that it was not neccesary to beleive that the story of Jonah had actually happened. They stated that what matters is ‘what the story means for us’. They asked their audiences to suspend their disbelief in the story and just listen to it as if it were a moral tale.

I understand why they did that. There are many unbelievers who will not listen to what the Bible has to say because they don’t believe it is true. The pastors must have thought that if the unbeliever was given permission to disbelieve the validity of the Bible, they might actually pick up on the morality of the story and apply it to their lives. There’s a problem with that though.

Churches, pastors, Christians, and particular Jesus share a common mission: saving the lost from eternal tormentious seperation from God. Trying to get an unbeliever to simply understand the moral of a story will never save them to a restored relationship with God. If that’s all it took to ‘be saved’, being moral, then there was no purpose in the sacrificial death of Jesus and there is certainly no purpose for the Church and its people- not to mention the fact that there would be no hope for any of us because in case you haven’t noticed we, as people, don’t even posses the abillity to be moral on our own.

The Bible is abundantly clear that the only way to salvation was through the perfect life that we could never live, lived by Jesus; the sacrificial death that we deserved to die, taken on by Jesus; and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, all of which defeated Satan, sin, hell, and death. That finished work of Christ is given to us totally as a gift of grace and can be recieved only through faith, not by simply applying morality myths to our lives.

In order to have faith, or trust, in Christ’s finished work and recieve salvation we are required to believe that He actually is who the Word of God states He is, and that He actually accomplished the work the Bible said He did. The Bible states to be saved that we must confess with our mouths Jesus is Lord and BELIEVE in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead. We can’t simply beleive in the idea of something like this happening, apply that belief into our lives whether it happened or not, and then be saved. We are actually required to beleive that this actually happened.

So what does this have to do with Jonah? Two things:

The first: If we can doubt the credibility of certain stories in the Bible that seem a little too far fetched for us, we should then doubt the validity of all of its stories and writings. If one part of the Bible which has claimed to be, and has been seen as, historically true for thousands of years is actually not true; then why beleive any of it at all??! The Bible is totally congruent in itself and all parts of it are built on the foundations of preceding and proceding passages that illuminate the whole of Scripture. If one passage’s validity fails, then every other one’s does as well.

The second: Jesus beleived in the story of Jonah. He even used the story to give people a sign that He was the Messiah. He stated, “For just 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.” Jesus said this to speak of His upcoming resurrection which He acurately prophesies here Himself- try to accomplish that self-fulfilling prophecy!

The entire faith/religion of Christianity is built on the credibillity of Jesus and in Him being God the Son- thus being omnicient. If Jesus spoke of something as truth, something that He applied to His very validity of being the long awaited Messiah, and it was not true, then shouldn’t we throw out all of the teachings of Jesus and His very abillity to save us? For if he lied, He was not the perfect sacrifice for our sin. And if He had not known of the validity of the story of Jonah, then He was not God and had no power to save and forgive sins in the first place.

So as Christians, especially as pastors, we must not apologize for the miraculous nature of the stories in which our faith is rooted in. For if we allow people to pick and choose what they feel is valid within the Bible, we might as well throw the whole thing out. Because if a claim of the Bible proves to be false, then why believe any of it. For this, afterall, is about belief, not morality.