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WHAT WAS THE SIGN OF JONAH?
WHAT
WAS THE SIGN OF JONAH?
"CHRIST" NOT A
NAME
Over a thousand million Christians today blindly
accept that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ.
They produce "a thousand and
one" prophecies from the Jewish Bible (the Old Testament)
to prove their
claim that Jesus was the Messiah promised to the Jews.
Let us hold the
thousand" prophecies in abeyance for a moment and examine
the only
unequivocal claim made by Jesus in the Gospels and examine whether he
fulfilled his promise to the Jews.
title. It is a translation of the Hebrew word
Messiah, meaning "anointed."
The Greek word for
"anointed" is Christos from which we get the word
Christ.
Priests and kings were "anointed" when being
consecrated to their office.
The Holy Bible confers this title even on a
heathen king CYRUS (Isaiah 45:1).
We are reminded in the Gospel of St.Luke that "WHEN
EIGHT DAYS WERE ACCOMPLISHED FOR THE CIRCUMCISING OF THE CHILD, HIS NAME
WAS CALLED JESUS, WHICH WAS SO NAMED OF THE ANGEL BEFORE HE WAS CONCEIVED
IN THE WOMB." (Luke 2:21).
The name that was given to Mary for her yet
unborn son was JESUS and NOT Christ.
It was only after his baptism at the
hands of John the Baptist that he, Jesus, claimed to be the Christ.
The
Jews were not the ones to accept his claim on its face value.
They
wanted proof!
MIRACLE AS PROOF
Matthew records that the learned men among the Jews -
the Scribes and Pharisees - came to Jesus and asked,
"MASTER, WE
WOULD SEE A SIGN FROM THEE". (Matthew 12:38).
What they really
wanted was some "magic trick," some "sleight of hand" like producing a
rabbit out of a hat or walking on the water or flying in the air or
trodding on burning coal. This is the type of "sign" or MIRACLE they were
looking for. The Jews mistook him for a sorcerer, a wizard, a
charlatan.
NO "SIGN" BUT ONE
With righteous indignation Jesus replies:
"AN
EVIL AND ADULTEROUS GENERATION SEEKETH AFTER A SIGN; AND THERE SHALL NO
SIGN (no miracle) BE GIVEN TO IT, BUT THE SIGN (miracle) OF THE PROPHET
JONAS: 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." Matthew 12:39-40).
Jesus says, "NO SIGN." He does not
refer the Jews to blind Bartimeus whose sight he had restored. He does not
speak about the "woman with issues" who was healed by merely touching him;
or about the 2000 pigs he had destroyed to heal "a man possessed;" or the
5000 and the 3000 people he had fed and satiated with a few pieces of fish
and a few pieces of bread. "No sign," says Jesus, BUT
ONE! - "THE SIGN OF THE PROPHET JONAS!" He is putting all
his "eggs" in one basket. His claim to being the Messiah (Christ) stands
or falls the ONLY "sign" he was prepared to give.
Did Jesus fulfill the only sign he gave? Christendom
answers with a unanimous Y-E-S! without heeding the
Biblical advice - 'not to take things for granted.' - but
"PROVE ALL THINGS!" (1 Thessalonians 5:21)
JONAH FLEES HIS CALL
What was the "sign" (miracle) of
Jonah? We have to go to the "Book of Jonah" in the Old Testament to find
out. God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh and warn
the Ninevites to repent from their "evil ways, and from the
violence that is in their hands." (Jonah 3:8) But Jonah was loath
to go as a warner unto the Ninevites, so he goes to Joppa instead of
Ninevah, and takes a boat to run away from the Lord's command.
While at sea, there
was a terrible tempest. According to the superstition of the mariners, a
person fleeing from his Master's command creates such a turmoil at sea.
They began to enquire among themselves and said, "COME, AND LET US
CAST LOTS, (like the tossing of a coin, "head" or "tail")
THAT WE MAY KNOW FOR WHOSE CAUSE THIS EVIL IS UPON US. SO THEY
CAST LOTS, AND THE LOT FELL UPON JONAH." (Jonah 1:7). Though here
was a temporary lapse on the part of Jonah in fulfilling his mission, he
manfully and most outrageously volunteers: "AND HE SAID UNTO THEM
TAKE ME UP, AND CAST ME FORTH INTO THE SEA; SO SHALL THE SEA BE CALM UNTO
YOU: FOR I KNOW THAT FOR MY SAKE THIS GREAT TEMPEST IS UPON YOU."
(Jonah 1:12)
DEAD OR
ALIVE?
Since Jonah was
selflessly offering himself as a "vicarious" sacrifice
there was no need for strangling him before throwing him into the sea, no
need to spear him or break his arm or limb. In his own words:
"TAKE ME UP AND CAST ME FORTH." The question now arises,
that when the shipmaster and the crew threw him overboard, was Jonah
dead or alive? Any Christian child who
has attended Sunday School will give an immediate reply:
"ALIVE!" The storm subsides. Was this perhaps a
coincidence? A fish swallows Jonah. Was he dead or
alive when swallowed? The answer again is
"ALIVE" Was he dead or alive when "JONAH PRAYED
UNTO THE LORD HIS GOD OUT OF THE FISH'S BELLY?" (Jonah 2:1)
Surely
dead men don't cry and don't pray! The answer again is
"ALIVE" For three days and three nights the fish takes
him around the ocean: dead or alive?
"ALIVE!" is the answer. On the third day it vomits him on
the seashore: dead or alive? A-L-I-V-E,
of course! What had Jesus prophesied about himself? He said: "AS
JONAH WAS ..... SO SHALL THE SON OF MAN BE" LIKE JONAH. And how
was Jonah? Was he dead or alive for
three days and three nights? Alive! ALIVE! ALIVE! is the
unanimous answer from the Jew, the Christian and the Muslim!
UNLIKE
JONAH
If Jonah was
alive for three days and three nights, then Jesus also ought to
have been alive in the tomb as he himself had foretold!
But Christianity hangs on the flimsy thread of the death"
of Jesus for its salvation. So it has to answer that Jesus was
DEAD for three days and three nights. The
contradiction between his utterance and its fulfilment is
obvious. Jonah ALIVE, Jesus DEAD!
Very UNLIKE Jonah! Jesus had said "LIKE Jonah" not
UNLIKE Jonah. If this is true then according to his own
test Jesus is not the TRUE Messiah of the Jews. If the
Gospel record is genuine then how can we blame the Jews for rejecting
"CHRIST".
THREE AND
THREE = 72 HOURS?
The Doctor of
Divinity and the Professor of Theology replies that in Matthew 12:40 under
discussion, the emphasis is on the TIME factor - "as Jonas was
THREE days and THREE nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the son of
man be THREE days and THREE nights in the heart of the earth."
"Please note," says the learned theologian, "that the word
"THREE" is repeated F-O-U-R times in
this verse to prove that Jesus was going to fulfil the prophecy as regards
the length of time he was going to remain in the tomb,
and NOT 'As Jonas was' in relation to his being
alive or dead. If it is the time factor
that Jesus was stressing then let us ask whether he fulfilled that aspect
of his promise to the Jews as well. The Christian dogmatist answers:
"OF COURSE!"
PUBLIC
HOLIDAY
The question arises:
when was Christ crucified? The whole Christian world answers:
"FRIDAY!" Is this the reason we celebrate "Good Friday" -
as a Public Holiday in every Christian nation from America to Zambia, from
Abyssinia to Zaire at Easter? What makes Good Friday" so
good? "it is the death of Christ on the Cross on this day to wash off our
sins," says the Christians. So he was killed on the cross on a Friday,
19xx years ago? "YES!" says the Christians. From the Gospel records we
gather that the Jews were in a hurry to eliminate Jesus. Hence the
midnight trial, and then dispatching him off to Pilate in the
morning; from Pilate to Herod and then back again to Pilate. The vested
interests were afraid of the general public. Jesus was their hero. He had
been their benefactor. His enemies had to do away with him quickly, and
succeeded in doing so. However, as much as they were in a hurry to hang
him on the cross, they were in equal hurry to bring him down from the
cross before sunset on Friday because of the Sabbath. The Sabbath starts
at about 6 p.m. on Friday and the Jews were warned in Deuteronomy 21:23
that the victim of crucifixion was an "accursed of God"
and was not to be permitted to remain hanging on the Sabbath day,
"that thy land be not defiled which the Lord thy God giveth thee
for an inheritance."
To satisfy the
religious scruples of the Scribes and Pharisees the "secret
disciples" of Jesus took down the body from the cross. They gave
the body the Jewish burial-bath, plastered it with "one hundred
pounds weight of aaloes and myrrh" (John 19:39), then placed the
shrouded body into the sepulcher before night-fall.
WHY
"SUPPOSED"?
There are numerous
differences between the various sects and denominations of Christianity,
but on the above they are unanimous. Jesus is SUPPOSED to
be in the tomb on the night of Friday. He is still SUPPOSED to be
in the tomb on the day of Saturday. He is still SUPPOSED
to be in the tomb on the night of Saturday. Christians agree
whole-heartedly with this. It will be noted that I have repeated the word
'SUPPOSED' three times. The reason is that the Gospels
are silent as to when exactly Jesus came out of the tomb. He could have
been taken away on Friday night by his "secret
disciples" to a more congenial and restful
place, but I have no right to assume about what the Gospel writers are
silent. I have, therefore, repeated the word 'SUPPOSED'
three times.
In the final
analysis, let us see whether Jesus was THREE days and
THREE nights in the tomb:-
EASTER WEEK |
IN THE SEPULCHER |
|
DAYS |
NIGHTS |
FRIDAY
- placed in tomb just before sunset |
- nil
- |
One
night |
SATURDAY - supposed to be in tomb |
One
day |
One
night |
SUNDAY
- missing before sunrise |
- nil
- |
- nil
- |
TOTAL |
One
Day |
Two
Nights |
You
will no doubt note that the GRAND TOTAL is
ONE day and TWO nights, and NOT
three days and three nights. According
to the Christian Scriptures Jesus had failed a SECOND time.
FIRST he was unlike Jonah, who was ALIVE
in the belly of the fish, which is the exact opposite of what the
Christians claim had happened to their master Jesus, who was
DEAD for the same period of time as Jonah was -
ALIVE.
SECONDLY, we discover that he also
failed to fulfill the TIME FACTOR as well. The greatest
mathematician in Christendom will fail to obtain the desired result -
THREE days and THREE nights. We must not
forget that the Gospels are explicit in telling us that it was
"before sunrise" on Sunday morning (the
FIRST day of the week), that Mary Magdalene went to the
tomb of Jesus and found it empty.
"GOOD" WEDNESDAY
The Armstrong family has debunked the whole Christian
world. They seem to know their arithmetic! Mr Robert Fahey of the
"Plain Truth" magazine, delivered a lecture recently at
the "Holiday Inn,' Durban, where I was present. Mr Fahey attempted to
prove to his Christian audience that Jesus Christ was crucified on a
Wednesday and not on Friday, as is supposed by Orthodox
Christianity for the past two thousand years. According to him if one
counts backwards from Sunday morning deducting 3 DAYS and 3 NIGHTS, one
ought to get WEDNESDAY as the answer.
I congratulated Mr Fahey for his ingenuity. I asked
him, how was it possible for the past two thousand years the whole
Christian world celebrated GOOD FRIDAY instead of
GOOD WEDNESDAY. Thus the 1,200,000,000 Christians of the
world today are ignorant of the correct day of the so called crucifixion!
It means that even the Roman Catholic Church – which claims an unbroken
chain of Popes from Peter to this day - according to Mr Fahey are mislead.
GOD OR THE DEVIL?
The question arises, who deceived the millions of
Christians for the past TWO THOUSAND years. GOD or the
DEVIL? Mr Fahey categorically answered: "THE
DEVIL!" "If the devil," I said, "can succeed in confusing
the Christians in the most elementary things of their Faith, whether to
celebrate a Good Friday or a Good Wednesday, then how much easier for him
to mislead Christians in other things concerning God?" Mr Fahey blushed
and walked away.
If this is the belief of the trend-setters of
the Christian Faith in the world today, may we not then ask: is this not
the mightiest hoax in history?
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