Month: September 2022

God made man and put us on this earth to find our salvation, live in obedience to God and do good works for the kingdom of God. These are preconditions for living in fellowship with God here on earth. God’s word, our Bible, is our owner’s manual so that as believers we can know what to do; how to be saved unto eternal life and how to live a happy and successful life here on earth by being obedient to God’s word. There’ll be a pecking order in heaven and our position up in heaven will be determined by our obedience to the commandments of God here on earth, along with the good works we do on behalf of the kingdom of God. We have a loving God who has graciously given us his truth, his wisdom, in written form to guide us on our journey through life. Believers who don’t read their Bibles daily and study it for knowledge, understanding and wisdom cannot please God because they won’t know what it is they must do and how to do it.

Genesis 2:7 – And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Genesis 12:2-3 – I will make you (Abram) a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all of the families of the earth shall be blessed.

The Bible contains 129 direct commandments from God that man is to obey in order to please God. Some of these commandments are redundant, but any way you slice it there are about one hundred commandments of God that every believer should know and make every attempt to obey. You will not remember all the commandments of God nor will you come close to full obedience. But you must make a good faith effort to do so if you’re a believer who wants to please God. Do you know the ten commandments by heart? Most believers don’t. If believers can’t even get the first ten commandments right how on earth are they going to know the other ninety commandments of God unless they study their Bibles? They can’t; which is why believers cannot please God unless they immerse themselves in God’s word. Only 10% of Christians who attend church regularly have read the entire Bible and fewer still study their Bibles on a regular basis. Very few believers are living their lives with pleasing God as their top priority; but they should be.

Romans 4:7-8 – Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.

Luke 11:28 – (Jesus speaking) – Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

If you’re a believer and you don’t know your Bible intimately then start down that path immediately. In addition to learning God’s commandments and doing them, keep an eye out for the curses and blessings of God as you study your Bible. God is not shy about telling us about the things he hates and the curses that go along with them. On the flip side, God tells us plainly what pleases him and the blessings that accrue to those believers that obey God. It’s really quite simple to stay on God’s good side; love and obey what God loves and hate and avoid what God hates. If you follow this simple guideline you’ll always be in fellowship with God and living a life that’s pleasing in God’s sight.

Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Proverbs 4:1-2 – Hear, my children, the instructions of a father, and give attention to know understanding; For I give you good doctrine: Do not forsake my law.

When I say read and study God’s word I’m referring to both the Old and New Testaments. It’s true you only need the New Testament to be saved but you need to also know the Old Testament to please God. Why is that? The word “cursed” appears in the Bible 72 times; 67 times in the Old Testament and five times in the New Testament. That means 93% of the curses of God appear in the Old Testament. You can’t avoid all the curses of God if you don’t know what they are. Old Testament familiarity is critical for the believer who wants to avoid the curses of God and also find the blessings of God that are there for the taking. Not knowing the Old Testament is a little bit like walking through a minefield blindfolded. It won’t end well for you.

Psalm 1:1-2 – Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.

Psalm 2:12 – Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

It’s the same thing when it comes to the blessings of God. The word “blessed” appears in the Bible 302 times; 217 times in the Old Testament and 85 times in the New Testament. A person unfamiliar with the Old Testament would miss out on two thirds of the blessings of God intended for those who love him. By studying the entire word of God we can have a clearer picture of who God is and we can live a more bountiful life here on earth. You will only need the knowledge contained in the New Testament in order to be saved but you’ll need to know the information contained in the Old Testament if you want to really know and please God and receive all the blessings God wants to give you. The New Testament did not come to invalidate God’s law or replace the Old Testament. The New Testament came to add to, or supplement, God’s existing law and both the Old and New testaments are equally God’s law and both should be studied thoroughly for knowledge, understanding and wisdom.

Psalm 65:4 – Blessed is the man You choose, and cause to approach You, that he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, of Your holy temple.

Psalm 84:5 – Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage.

The dictionary defines the word “curse” as an appeal to a supernatural power to harm someone or something. To be “cursed” is to be continually affected by something bad. Only God can curse man and once God has cursed someone it lasts forever. On the flip side, the definition of the word “bless” is to ask God to protect someone or something from harm. To be “blessed” is to have or be given something that is of great value. Only God can bless man and once God has truly blessed someone (i.e. salvation) it lasts forever. To be blessed is the exact opposite of being cursed. They are two sides of the same coin; each dispensed by God. God blesses man for their obedience to the word of God and God curses man for their disobedience to the same.

Let’s look at the five verses in the New Testament where God talks about being cursed:

Matthew 25:412 – (Jesus speaking) – Then He will also say to those on the left hand, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

In God’s economy man is either blessed with eternal life in heaven or cursed with eternal death in the lake of fire. Those are the only two destinations that are possible for the creatures God has made. God is never going to curse those believers who are saved unto eternal life nor is God going to bless those men who have rejected the saving grace of Almighty God. In the above verse God defines those going to hell as being “cursed.” When God curses someone in the Bible he is sentencing them to hell.

John 7:49 – But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.

The law refers to the entire Bible. God is saying man can only be saved by the word of God and without it man is acursed, or cursed, which means they are condemned to hell for eternity. The primary reason God gave us the Bible is so that we can find our salvation and know how to be obedient to God. Nothing on this earth is more important for man to do than reading and studying God’s word; along with daily prayer.

Galatians 3:10 – For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”

Salvation is only achieved by having faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and not by doing any works of the law. Going to church every Sunday and giving money to charitable causes won’t do you a bit of good if you don’t first believe in Jesus and put him above any church, pope, pastor, doctrine or ritual. This New Testament Scripture reaffirms that the Old Testament is still a valid part of God’s word. Jesus Christ did not come to destroy the Old Testament law, but to fulfill it and add a new blood covenant to it by his crucifixion, death and resurrection. Those who think the Old Testament is no longer valid should spend time meditating on this Scripture.

Galatians 3:13 – Christ has redeemed us for the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs from a tree).

Because of the sin nature all men inherited from Adam’s fall from grace in the Garden of Eden, all men are born under the curse of God. To be cursed by God means we’re all destined for eternal death in the lake of fire because of the stain of sin in our body and soul. One of the spiritual truths of God is the wages of sin is death. There was no perfect (sin free) sacrifice available to atone for man’s sin so a perfect God came off his throne and came to earth in the incarnation of Jesus Christ to die in our place so that our sins could be forgiven by a merciful God. When Jesus was crucified on a cross (tree) he took our curses upon himself and gave us his righteousness. Jesus saved us from hell by his death and he gave us eternal life in heaven by his resurrection; for those who believe on his name. Praise God for his mercy!

2 Peter 2:14 – They (evil men) have a heart trained in covetous practices; and are accursed children.

Evil men are nonbelievers. Believers and nonbelievers are both made by God and since we we’re all made by same loving God we are all equally God’s children. God is just and gives everyone the free will choice to serve God or Satan. Nonbelievers are accursed, or cursed, by God because they have chosen to serve Satan. Jesus is the only way to heaven. Nonbelievers have not been forgiven of their sins because they haven’t asked for God’s mercy and grace by accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The sins of the nonbeliever still abides on them and they will receive the wrath of God on the last day. Nonbelievers are “cursed” because God has condemned them to eternal death in the lake of fire for spitting in God’s face; for rejecting Jesus’ sacrificial death on their behalf. All nonbelievers deserve the fate they have chosen.

Revelation 1:3 – Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

Revelation 22:14 – Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.

Dinosaurs:

Nonbelievers would like us all to think that the existence of dinosaurs debunks Christianity and proves the theory of evolution but they are mistaken. Believers don’t deny that dinosaurs once roamed the earth; it’s just a matter of when they did. Most believers just don’t think the dinosaurs became extinct sixty million years ago and well before man arrived on the earth. Those of us with a literal interpretation of the Bible understand that God created the universe, man and the dinosaurs 6000 years ago. As Christian believers we also agree that the original Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) does mention dinosaurs, though it never actually uses the word “dinosaur.” Instead, it uses the Hebrew word “tanniyn”, which is translated a few different ways in our English Bibles. Sometimes it’s “sea monster,” and sometimes it’s “serpent.” Today tanniyn is most commonly translated as “dragon.” The Bible describes a couple of creatures is such a way that some scholars believe the writers may have been describing dinosaurs.

Job 40:15-16 – Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you; he eats grass like an ox. See now, his strength is in his hips, and his power is in his stomach muscles.

Job 40:17-18 – He moves his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit. His bones are like beams of bronze, his ribs are like bars of iron.

The tanniyn appears to have been some sort of giant reptile and the mightiest of all God’s creatures; a giant whose tail is likened to a cedar tree. Some scholars have tried to identify the behemoth as either an elephant or a hippopotamus. Others point out that elephants and hippos have very thin tails, nothing comparable to a cedar tree. Dinosaurs like the brachiosaurus and diplodocus, on the other hand, had huge tails which could easily be compared to a cedar tree. The word “Leviathan” appears five times in the Old Testament, referring to a large sea creature we know to be a dinosaur. These tanniyn are mentioned nearly thirty times in the Old Testament and were found both on land and in the water. We know them all today, collectively, as dinosaurs.

Job 41:1 – Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook, or snare his tongue with a line which you lower?

Isaiah 27:1 – In that day the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong, will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan that twisted serpent; and He will slay the reptile that is in the sea.

The Leviathan was a large aquatic creature of some kind. The Bible refers to it as a fearsome beast having monstrous ferocity and great power. The Hebrew word for “Leviathan” has the root meaning of “coiled” or “twisted.” In Job chapter 41, God goes to great length to describe the size, strength and viciousness of Leviathan. God’s description of the leviathan concludes with a statement that it is the true king of beasts: “Nothing on earth is its equal-a creature without fear.” Based on the biblical description, it seems likely the leviathan is a large sea reptile, possibly a species of dinosaur such as the plesiosaurus. If God said he made leviathan and behemoth then, by extension, God must have made all the species of dinosaurs; and at the same time that he made the universe and us. Job’s acquaintance with a dinosaur is not far-fetched at all, given the book of Job is set in a very early time of history.

Psalm 104:25-26 – This great and wide sea, in which are innumerable teeming things, living things both small and great. There the ships sail about; there is that Leviathan which you have made to play there.

Job 41:11 – Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him? everything under heaven is Mine.

Nearly every ancient civilization has some sort of art depicting giant reptilian creatures. Petroglyphs, artifacts, and even little clay figurines found in North America resemble modern depictions of dinosaurs. Rock carvings in South America depict men riding diplodocus-like creatures and, amazingly, bear the familiar images of triceratops-like, and tyrannosaurus rex-like creatures. Roman, Mayan and Babylonian history makes reference to dinosaur-like creatures. This can’t be all a coincidence. There are fossilized footprints of humans and dinosaurs found together at places in North America and West-Central Asia. Humanists would have us believe a giant meteor struck the earth 60 million years ago and wiped out all the dinosaurs. They also claim that a small cat-sized mammal survived the meteor strike and that man evolved from that small creature. Give me a break! That is total speculation without a shred of evidence!

Colossians 1:16-17 – For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

Romans 11:36 – For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

Job 9:8 – He (God) alone spreads out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea.

If you’re a believer who interprets the Bible literally then you will have a young earth interpretation because God says he made the universe and man 6000 years ago over a span of six 24 hour days before resting on the seventh day. God always speaks the truth plainly. If you accept this truth of God then you must also believe man and dinosaurs coexisted at the same time in history past; which adequately explains the presence of dinosaur fossils. The question then becomes, what happened to the dinosaurs and when did it happen? Dinosaurs may or may not have been on Noah’s Ark but most scholars now believe God did save the dinosaurs from the flood. It doesn’t really matter.

What is important is accepting the fact that dinosaurs were created by God 6000 years ago. Dinosaurs could have easily fitted on the ark because the average dinosaur was about the size of a horse and for the larger dinosaurs only small juveniles would have been taken on the ark; similar to what we said happened with elephants, rhinos and hippos. While the Bible doesn’t discuss the issue, it’s likely the dinosaurs died out sometime after the flood due to a combination of the dramatic environmental shifts that occurred after the flood and the fact that they were relentlessly hunted to extinction by man.

Psalm 8:3-4 – When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him?

Job 26:7 – He (the Lord) stretches out the north over empty space, He hangs the earth on nothing.

Proverbs 16:4 – The Lord has made all for Himself, yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.

The theory of dinosaurs is like the theory of evolution; they both sound good but they have no evidence to back them up. If the humanists had hard evidence to prove their theories we’d have heard about it by now. Humanists would like nothing better than to disprove the Bible story of creation and debunk Christianity as a religion altogether; but that’s simply not the case. They’ve been trying for 2000 years to find errors in the Bible and haven’t succeeded yet. The Bible is still the inerrant word of God. Praise the Lord! Humanists vehemently deny the existence of a supernatural God that is above man. They see man himself as a god. These humanist point to all these dinosaur fossils buried in the ground as proof that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. They deny the great flood ever happened and disregard any potential aftermath but the truth is self-evident.

During the great flood of Noah’s time many millions of tons of sediment would have been stirred up all over the earth. All the dead plants and animals of the earth would have slowly settled to the bottom of the seas first, and then all the sediment would have slowly settled on top of them. We’re talking millions of tons of dirt and organic debris eventually compacting to create a soft stratum (or layers of rock) on the surface of the earth. The organic debris decayed to form oil deposits. Think about this. All life, both plant and animal, are carbon-based life forms. When living tissue dies it decays back into its basic carbon compounds. Oil deposits prove that a whole lot of living things, both plant and animal, died all at one time and was deposited together in one place and was sealed off by a layer of sediment. The only plausible explanation for these occurrences is the great flood of Noah’s time.

Of course you’re going to find fossils buried in the ground because they don’t easily decay. The presence of fossils do not disprove the Bible. On the contrary, Fossil remains confirm the Bible account of Noah and the great flood. Sometimes these fossils were found deep in the ground and sometimes near the surface of the earth but that has no correlation to the age of the fossils. Digging through these so called “geologic zones” is the number one way paleontologists date dinosaur fossils and the deeper they are found the older they claim the fossils to be. It’s not accurate.

Zechariah 12:1 – The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him.

Genesis 2:7 – And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 – He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Paleontologists are of course all atheists that accept the theory of evolution and that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. If they didn’t they wouldn’t be in their line of work. They interpret the age of fossil records based on that worldview. They make their data fit their menta; paradigm. The other major fossil dating method frequently used is through potassium-argon radiometric dating (K-Ar). This is a tricky method of determining how much of these two elements remain in the samples tested. The problem is this test has proven unreliable in the past. For example, living animals have been tested and the test said they were 300,000 plus years old. A ten year old lava flow from Mount St. Helens was dated 340,000 years old. The list goes on. There is no accurate way to date dinosaur fossils.

Psalm 19:1 – The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.

Isaiah 44:24 – Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and He who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, who spreads abroad the earth by Myself.

Ephesians 2:10 – For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

God is the author of all truth, knowledge and true science. It was God who established all the physical laws of the universe. When fallible science does not correspond to fallible theology, we cannot blame the Bible. The scientific assumptions may be wrong, or the biblical interpretations may be wrong, or both-but the Scriptures never are. Scripture may be misinterpreted, but it will never be wrong. Another unfortunate tendency in modern atheism is to compare science to a single interpretation in the Bible, then declare that science has “proved” the Bible incorrect. This of course is illogical. At the most, all that might be disproved is that particular interpretation of Scripture. God usually states important spiritual truths multiple times throughout the Bible so it’s a good practice to always use Scripture to interpret Scripture if you can. Never base a Bible interpretation on a single vague Scripture taken out of context as nonbelievers are prone to do.

Psalm 53:1 – The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity; there is none who does good.

Proverbs 12:15 – The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise.

The fields of paleontology and fossilology are highly prone to error when dating fossil records. In the last century, we have witnessed countless examples of “groundbreaking” discoveries that have ultimately been proven to be misleading. One famous example is the coelacanth. Declared to have been extinct for about 70 million years, this fish was thought by scientists to have been among the first to walk out of the ocean on its way to becoming the ascendant of modern man. There was great excitement and surprise in the scientific community when a fisherman caught a living coelacanth off the island of Madagascar in 1938. Many evolutionists believed the reason this fish disappeared from the fossil record is that it had evolved into land-dwelling tetrapods.

Hebrews 12:28-29 – Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

Luke 1:37 – For with God nothing will be impossible.

The reason this is important is that many fossils have been dated to be roughly 70 million years old mostly because their remains were found in the same geological stratum as remains of the coelacanth. And yet there are coelacanths alive today that look exactly like those fossils-so use of coelacanth fossils to date other fossils, as it turns out, isn’t all that accurate. A fossil record is simply a catalog of when the death of a living plant or animal occurred. Fossil records don’t confirm the theory of evolution as the humanists claim. They prove just the opposite. The deposition of fossil records corresponds with the biblical account of the great flood and prove that a young earth is 6000 years old. The fact that there are vast sedimentary deposits all over the world confirms the great flood destroyed all plants and animals at the same and caused them to be deposited on the sea beds and then were covered over with sediment. It’s just common sense that the fossilization process must have occurred at the same time in our past. It must have begun after Adam’s sin introduced death and decay into our world. No other explanation fits the data.

Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

2 Corinthians 5:7 – For we walk by faith, not by sight.

Know that nonbelievers will confront us and attack Christianity. God calls them fools. They believe in their baseless theories on evolution and the age of dinosaurs without any supporting facts. Nonbelievers and some weak-minded believers tend to home in on the areas they consider the weak points of our faith, namely Noah’s Ark, Jonah and dinosaurs. Humanists took over the world’s education system in the world long ago so they could indoctrinate us with their lies and baseless theories of evolution and dinosaurs to the point where most people believe the lies. Humanists have brainwashed the masses and would have us believe that man evolved from one cell organisms in the primordial ooze of the distant past into modern man consisting of thirty trillion cells that arranged into specialized tissues, organs and body systems all by themselves, complete with a brain that is the greatest super computer in the universe. Their conclusion cannot be supported by the facts.

1 Peter 3:15 – But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.

Proverbs 23:12 – Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge.

Are you gullible enough to believe such a tall tale? I’m certainly not. Humanists must also convince us the earth is millions of years old to allow the necessary time for evolution to take place. The theory of the dinosaurs is just another lie backing up the first lie. Some lukewarm believers who are weak-minded and not strong in their faith have also fallen for these lies and started to doubt the absolute truth of the Bible, which is Satan’s plan. Once you start doubting the Bible you’re on the slippery slope that leads to doubting God and eventually losing your faith altogether. To prevent that we need to study God’s word so we know the truth of God. In this blog series I have tried to provide a defense for the three most common attacks against Christianity that you will hear from nonbelievers, which is Noah’s Ark, Jonah and dinosaurs.

Gird yourself for the battle that will surely come! Nonbelievers and doubters have no original thoughts of their own. They are just repeating what they’ve heard or what they’ve been told. They don’t know any better because they haven’t actually studied God’s word to find out the truth of God. If they did they would be resolute believers. They are just too lazy to search out the truth of God for themselves. God calls them fools. Try your best to educate the nonbelievers and lukewarm Christians. We owe it to Jesus to fulfill the “Great Commission” as best we can, with firmness and gentleness. It’s our reasonable service to the God who made us.

The prophet Jonah:

Jonah was one of the minor prophets of God. The book of Jonah was written around 780 BC, probably by the prophet himself. The book of Jonah recounts the incredible story of a disobedient prophet who was punished by God by having him swallowed by a great fish (whale) for three days and nights until he repented and agreed to preach repentance to the Ninevites as God had commanded. Jonah was promptly vomited upon the shore. Jonah then preached in Nineveh causing the city to repent of their sins which caused God not to destroy the city as he had planned to do. The miraculous content of the story of Jonah is denied by nonbelieving skeptics who don’t believe in God, miracles or Jonah.

2 Kings 2:23-24 – Then he (the prophet Elisha) went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled (killed) forty-two of the youths.

Jonah 1:17 – Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Matthew 19:26 – But with God all things are possible.

For believers with spiritual discernment the story of Jonah is biblical history as told by God himself to holy men, one of which was Jonah, who wrote down the story as he was moved by the Holy Spirit. For “lukewarm” believers who don’t believe every word in the Bible as written, the story of Jonah is considered to be a parable meant to convey the theological point that God also cares about Gentiles. Nineveh was the largest city in the world at that time with 120,000 people and the capital of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrians were a cruel, evil and warlike people who Jonah hated. When God instructed Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach repentance to the city Jonah instead ran away from God and tried to hide so he wouldn’t have to preach salvation to those evil people. God cares more about sinners than we do. This story confirms that God loves everyone equally and he wants salvation unto eternal life in heaven for all his children. God wants all of us in his presence forever.

2 Kings 14:25 – He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of Arabah, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He had spoken through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher.

1 Kings 20:36 – Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, surely, as soon as you depart from me, a lion shall kill you.” And as soon as he left him, a lion found him and killed him.

Romans 14:12 – So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.

So, is the Jonah account historical, a parable or a fake? Apart from the biblical account, there’s no conclusive historical proof that Jonah was ever swallowed by a fish and lived to tell about it. With Jonah we can’t see the obvious tracks of God like we can with Noah’s Ark so we have to base our decision on the circumstantial evidence that’s available and the credibility of God’s testimony on one hand and that of Satan and evil men on the other. Nonbelievers say there was no such person as Jonah and that Nineveh never existed. The Bible books of Jonah and Nahum are both about God’s judgment of the people of Nineveh for their sins before God. To deny the existence of Nineveh is to deny that the Bible is the inerrant word of God and to call God a liar to his face. Nonbelievers also declare that even Nineveh did exist there’s no way that the city could have been as large as God said it was through the prophet Jonah.

1 Corinthians 3:19 – For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness.”

1 Corinthians 2:14 – But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

1 Corinthians 1:18 – For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Jonah was a real historical figure and prophet of God as mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25, and reiterated by Flavius Josephus in his history of Israel titled, “Antiquities of the Jews.” The book of Jonah is also a part of the collection of twelve minor prophets contained in the Old Testament that are meant to convey prophecies by genuine historical prophets and, as such, the book of Jonah was considered to be a historical account by the compilers of the Old Testament. A Babylonian priest and historian named Berosus in the third century BC wrote of a mythical creature named Oannes who emerged from the sea to give divine wisdom to man. Oannes is Assyrian for the name “Jonah”. Most myths are based on some historical fact so is it possible Berosus was writing about the real live event of Jonah being vomited upon the shores of Phoenicia? We’ll never know for sure but the similarity between the two stories is striking. In the New Testament Jesus confirms the story of Jonah when he speaks of Jonah being a sign to the Ninevites. This could be a reference to Jonah being vomited from a great fish in front of witnesses who took it as sign from their fish god Dagon that they needed to repent of their sins before God.

Matthew 17: 27 – (Jesus to Peter about paying the temple tax) – Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go out to sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.

Proverbs 5:21 – For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He ponders all his paths.

1 Kings 17:4 – (God speaking to Elijah) – And it shall be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.

The lost city of Nineveh was discovered in the mid-1800s after more than 2500 years of obscurity, which vindicated the biblical account. Nineveh was found buried in the vicinity of Mosul, in modern-day Iraq, and was confirmed to be a very large city as God said it was. Nineveh was discovered buried beneath a pair of tells (mounds) known by the local name of Nabi Tunus which in Arabic means, “the prophet Jonah.” Sometimes I’ve wondered how Jonah managed to preach repentance only one day in Nineveh and yet he managed to get every single person in that evil city to repent; from the king down to the beggar on the street. Let’s face it, nobody’s preaching is that good! The residents must have seen a miracle.

Matthew 12:39-41 – (Jesus speaking) – An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.

Jonah 2:10 – So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Galatians 6:8 – For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

Follow my logic here. The Assyrians worshipped the god Dagon, who was part man and part fish. Jonah was vomited on the shore of Phoenicia from the belly of a whale in front of witnesses. Because of the digestive juices in the whale’s stomach Jonah’s skin and hair were probably bleached white. Given the piscine nature of Jonah’s arrival and his strange appearance the people of Nineveh recognized that Jonah was a sign from God and they all immediately repented of their sins. How could they not do it? It’s the only logical explanation I can think of for 100% of an evil and sin-filled population to repent of their sins.

Some great event had to have occurred for the whole population to repent like that in a single day. It’s like what happened when the meek disciples all became lion’s of the faith when they saw the risen Christ ascend into the clouds and returned to heaven. It’s like what happened to Paul, the greatest enemy of Christians, when he met Jesus Christ on the Damascus road and was subsequently transformed into the greatest Christian who ever lived. Whenever anyone observes a miracle of God, or hears about it from reliable witnesses, then, and only then, is it possible to have such a dramatic turnaround; to have immediate buy-in with God from everyone involved and their total repentance. Meeting God face to face will do that to you.

Biblically speaking, a “sign” is a miracle of God given to a targeted audience for a specific reason. God never gives signs just to show off. In Matthew 12:39, Jesus revealed that the Ninevites had received a sign from God. Now just having the prophet Jonah show up and preach repentance to the people of Nineveh, in itself, isn’t a sign from God. Where’s the miracle in that? The sign from God to the Ninevites, the miracle of God, was having a whale vomit Jonah, the prophet of God, from its stomach onto a beach in Phoenicia in front of a group of startled witnesses. It was this miraculous sign from God to the evil people of Nineveh that caused the whole population of that city to repent of their sins against God and cover themselves with sackcloth and ashes. This was decreed by the king to all the people of Nineveh because they accepted the sign of Jonah as a miracle of God intended just for them.

Psalm 139:7 – Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?

Numbers 22:28 – Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?”

Galatians 6:7 – Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man does, that he will also reap.

The miracles in Jonah are not impossible for God. God controls nature as we’ve seen time after time in the Bible. It’s easy for God to whip up a storm or calm the sea. God is the author of life so he can make any creature, including man, do his bidding. Only two marine animals are known to prowl the Mediterranean Sea and are also large enough to swallow a man; a Great White shark and a Sperm whale. Anyone swallowed by a shark would be cut to shreds by their razor sharp teeth. A Sperm whale, on the other hand, has no teeth so obviously Jonah was swallowed by a whale and not a shark. A person swallowed by a whale would naturally die from a lack of oxygen or from the digestive acid in the whale’s stomach unless they received God’s supernatural protection; which is what happened to Jonah. God could have just as easily brought a person back to life who died in that situation. This is child’s play for the God who created the universe and all life.

We see repeatedly in the Bible that God controls nature. God summoned the storm in the book of Jonah and dissipated it when Jonah was thrown into the sea. If God can call up lions and bears to kill people he can surely direct a whale to be on station to swallow Jonah and then spit him out again when commanded by God. Is the story of Jonah incredible? Yes it is. Is the story of Jonah physically possible? Yes it is. Is there corroborating physical evidence that confirms the biblical account of Jonah being swallowed by a whale? No there isn’t. Is there any eyewitness testimony confirming the story of Jonah? Yes there is. Is the story of Jonah a certainty? Yes it is; if you believe in the one true God of creation who cannot lie and does all he pleases.

1 Kings 21:13 – And two men, scoundrels, came in and sat before him; and the scoundrels witnessed against him, against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth has blasphemed God and the king!” Then they took him outside the city and stoned him with stones, so that he died.

2 Corinthians 13:1 – By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.

Hebrews 11:1 – Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

In Old Testament times there were no written languages so everyone operated by rote memory and their local verbal traditions. The truth of any matter in those days was always established by the personal testimony of two or three witnesses and this is well documented in the Scriptures. For example, if someone was alleged to have blasphemed against God they could not be stoned to death unless there was corroborating testimony by at least one other person (i.e. 1 Kings 21:13 – the story of Naboth’s vineyard). In the case of Jonah being swallowed by a whale we have no personal testimonies refuting this biblical story.

Luke 11:29-30 – (Jesus speaking) – And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, He (Jesus) began to say. “This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.

Daniel 6:22 – (Daniel speaking to King Darius) – My God has sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouth, so that they have not hurt me.

Hebrews 11:6 – But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

On the other hand, we have the testimony affirming the truth of this story from God himself who spoke to Jonah and directed his actions. We have the testimony of Jonah. We have the testimony of the Holy Spirit, who wrote the Old Testament book of Jonah through the prophet. In Matthew 12:40-41, we have the testimony of Jesus Christ confirming the Old Testament account of Jonah being in the belly of a big fish for three days and three nights. Every divine person of the triune Godhead testified that the account of Jonah was true. If you, in your foolishness and pride, call God a liar then the wrath of God will be upon you. You will reap what you have sown. You will reap the whirlwind of your destruction.

Hebrews 10:31 – It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Psalm 18:30 – As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven.

Proverbs 12:15 – The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise.

It all boils down to one thing. Who you want to believe. You can believe God who is truth and who cannot lie. Or you can choose to believe Satan who is a liar and the father of lies. Satan has been lying to man from the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden, and he continues to lie to us to this day. In fact, Satan is incapable of speaking the truth at all. He is just the opposite of God in every respect. Don’t believe evil men (nonbelievers) either because Satan has put blinders on them, making them all pawns of the devil. The only one you can count on in this world who will never let you down is Almighty God, because he is always faithful and true. We have the testimony of God himself that Jonah was swallowed by a big fish. Do you want to believe God or Satan? Choose rightly because your eternal destiny depends on it.

John 8:44 – (Jesus speaking) – You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

Matthew 10:28 – (Jesus speaking) – And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Luke 1:37 – For with God nothing will be impossible.

NOAH’S ARK:

One day God will burn up this earth and our universe with fire and he’ll replace it with a new earth and a new heaven. But the word of God, which is our Holy Bible, will not perish. The word of God will endure on earth and in heaven forevermore. Every single word in the Bible, every punctuation mark, is there for a reason, sometimes known only to God. The Bible is the truth of God and it contains his covenant promises. The eyes of God roam to and fro across the earth to fulfill his promises because the Lord our God cannot lie and he also does not make any mistakes. In the book of Revelation, chapter 22, in verses 18 and 19, God gives us an ominous warning of impending doom for anyone who dares to add or detract from his word in any way, shape or form. God is speaking in the above verses specifically about the book of Revelation but, by association, we can assume God will also do the same thing to anyone who adds or detracts from any of the other 65 books of the Bible because they’re all equally the word of God.

Revelation 22:18-19 – For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Hebrews 11:7 – By faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

2 Corinthians 5:7 – For we walk by faith, and not by sight.

Even if you’re a believer who thinks God is only referring to the book of Revelation with this warning you can’t deny that God simply does not like it when someone alters the content and meaning of his word by adding words, removing words or by twisting or disbelieving the words that God has written. For a believer to not believe every word in the Bible is like slapping God in the face. It’s like spitting in God’s face. It’s like calling God a liar to his face. A believer who does not believe every word in the Bible, as it is written, cannot please God. The primary goal of every believer is to please the God who made us. It’s as simple as that. Even if a lukewarm believer doesn’t receive all the plagues mentioned in Revelation it’s just common sense to expect that the Lord will punish the disobedient in some way for doubting God. The Scriptures confirm that believers who do not please God will have their works burned up by fire when they stand before the bema judgment seat of Jesus Christ on the last day.

Genesis 7:11-12 – In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.

Matthrew 24:37-39 – (Jesus speaking) – But as the days of Noah were, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man be.

1 Peter 1:25 – But the word of the Lord endures forever.

In the book of Genesis God goes to great lengths to explain how he created the earth, the universe, and man. God uses four whole chapters, Genesis 6-9, to explain to us how he destroyed all flesh that he had created with a great flood because of man’s great sin. The flood covered the whole earth. God saved only Noah, his family, and selected animals in an ark so man could start over on the earth. Noah’s Ark is such an incredible story that nonbelievers are incredulous. That’s to be expected because nonbelievers have no spiritual discernment. Unfortunately, many believers also don’t believe that the story of Noah’s Ark happened as it is written in the Bible. They think God is laying it on a bit thick or lying altogether.

Please listen carefully to me. God speaks the plain truth and nothing but the truth. It’s who God is and what God does. God doesn’t change and God doesn’t lie. If believers don’t know that by now then they don’t know God. Believers who don’t believe in the story of Noah’s Ark are wise in their own eyes. They think they know better than God or that they can interpret what God means. The Scriptures says we’re to walk be faith and not by sight so we need to start living it. Scripture also says we’re to trust in what the Lord says and we’re not to lean on our own understanding. Nonbelievers and believers who do not believe every word that God says are fools in the eyes of God. The truth of God is spiritually discerned by the believer and the revelation of God is self-evident to all believers who are in true fellowship with Christ.

Genesis 7:23-24 – So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. And the waters prevailed (covered) on the earth one hundred and fifty days.

Luke 17:26-27 – (Jesus speaking) – And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

Hebrews 10:31 – It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

In the book of Genesis God gives us a brief summary of his salvation plan for man without going into great detail. For nonbelievers, and some believers, who cannot accept the plain truth of God as it’s written, it’s up to them to study God’s word and do their own due diligence so that they can believe what God says is the truth. The Bible is the inerrant word of God and all the evidence you need to prove it is right there in the word of God. All you need to do is study the Bible for knowledge, understanding and wisdom and you will learn the plain truth of God. God encourages man to taste him to see that he is good and true so why not take God up on his offer instead of believing the lies of Satan and evil men? The onus is not on God to make us believe. The onus is on us to believe by seeking the truth of God’s word for ourselves. Those who profess their doubts about the story of Noah’s Ark are showing their profound ignorance, foolishness and faithlessness before the Lord of creation, all the host of heaven, and righteous believers on the earth who know the truth. All believers should be prepared to educate those who deny any part of the story of Noah’s Ark.

Isaiah 54:9 – For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.

Genesis 6:18-19 – But I will establish My covenant with you (Noah); and you shall go into the ark – you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.

Psalm 18:30 – As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven.

First of all, what is an ark? The word “ark” is an Old Testament term for a boat. In those days there were no ocean-going vessels and all boats were small and never moved out of the sight of land. Noah’s Ark was the first ocean-going vessel ever built and was by far the largest ship ever constructed at that time. When God instructed Noah to build the ark he gave the measurements in cubits. There were four types of cubits in those days so the length given to Noah was anywhere from 18″ to 22″ long. That means the ark was between 450 ft. and 510 ft. long; about one and a half football fields in length. The ark was 75 ft. to 91 ft. wide; a little more than half the width of a football field. The ark was 41 ft. to 45 ft. high; about the height of a four story building.

Now imagine three levels, or decks, within the ark. We’re talking about 1.5 million cubic feet of total space; which is equal to the capacity of 570 standard railroad stock cars. It took Noah and his three sons more than 120 years to build the ark. I’m sure Noah employed many contract laborers on the ark and of course God was the paymaster. So when the Bible talks about Noah’s Ark don’t dismiss it as some little wooden boat. This was one of the greatest construction projects in the history of the world up to that point in time. Let your mind’s eye envision a massive ocean container ship, oil tanker or grain ship and you have some idea of the monumental size of Noah’s Ark and the tremendous effort it took to build it.

1 Peter 3:18-20 – For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.

Matthew 19:26 – (Jesus speaking) – But with God all things are possible.

2 Peter 2:4-5 – For God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly.

The next thing to take note of in Genesis is that God took two of every “kind” of animal on the earth, not necessarily every species. God took what he wanted to take and left the rest. I feel confident feel God didn’t take every kind of animal on earth but it doesn’t really matter one way or the other. Dinosaurs, for example, existed before the flood and God may have left them off the ark. Either way, it goes without saying that God probably took only juvenile animals to save on food as well as space in the ark. Let’s take elephants for example. Why would God put a bull elephant on the ark weighing several tons when a juvenile male elephant one tenth the size of an adult would accomplish his purpose just as well?

You get the picture. God doesn’t tell us everything he knows; just what we need to know. God drew all the animals to the ark himself and they came calmly and in an orderly fashion. I’ve no doubt that once the animals entered the ark they went into some sort of deep sleep much like a bear goes into hibernation during the winter. Never lose sight of the fact that God knows how to do everything and God can do anything he wants to do because with the Lord our God nothing is impossible . Instead of doubting God start accepting God at his word and then seek to find out how God accomplished his will if you have any questions.

2 Peter 3:5-6 – For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished; being flooded with water.

1 Peter 3:15 – But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.

God himself shut the door on Noah’s Ark before the rain started. We know it rained for forty days and nights and that the water on the earth ended up about twenty feet higher than the top of the highest mountain on earth. Detractors say there’s no way there could be that much water on earth. God explains in Genesis 7:11, that he broke up the fountains of the great deep. Scientists now know that there is a tremendous amount of water trapped in the earth’s crust so God simply brought all that water to the surface in order to flood the earth. Scripture also confirms that there are fresh water volcanoes in the bottom of the oceans pouring millions of gallons of water into our oceans.

Noah’s ark floated for roughly ten months before it finally ran aground on Mt. Ararat, in modern day Turkey. The physics students at the University of Leicester in England decided to test if Noah’s Ark could actually have floated with two of each animal on earth at that time. The students were shocked by their findings. They found that Noah’s Ark could have easily handled all the kinds of animals God said he put on the ark. We should never ever doubt the word of God. God always speaks the plain truth. God cannot lie. God always does as he pleases.

Psalm 14:1 – The fool has said in his heart, that there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abdominal works, there is none who does good.

Proverbs 12:15 – The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise.

Psalm 33:11 – The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.

When the topic of Noah’s Ark comes up be ready to defend the word of God with the facts I’ve just provided. In fact, I bring up Noah’s Ark as one of the proofs of God. Ocean-going vessels are required to meet certain engineering specifications in order to be seaworthy. If they’re not built right they’ll sink in rough seas. Man has only known about this for the last 150 years or so as we’ve begun to built these massive ships. It just so happens that the dimensions God gave Noah for building the ark meet those necessary construction specifications perfectly. God has established every physical law in the universe and God knows everything there is to know about his creation. One other thing; when you build a vessel out of wood you can only build it up to a certain size. If you build it any larger the vessel will fail structurally. It just so happens that Noah’s Ark was at the very upper limit of what is possible for a vessel made of wood. This fact further emphasizes that the construction of Noah’s Ark was God’s doing and that God guided the ark safely through the flood.

Hebrews 11:6 – But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.

Hebrews 11:1 – Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

The story of Noah’s Ark and the great flood is one of the central themes of the Bible and the story is mentioned in several other books in the Bible. God originally told the story of Noah and the great flood to Moses, who recorded it in the book of Genesis. The prophet Isaiah also mentions Noah and the great flood as does the Apostle Peter. The teachings of Jesus Christ as recorded in the gospels of Matthew and Luke also include a reference to Noah and the great flood. Anyone who denies the Bible story of Noah’s Ark is calling Moses, Isaiah, Peter and Jesus Christ himself all to be liars. Jesus Christ cannot lie because he is God. Those who deny the story of Noah and the great flood are rejecting the Lord who made them. Woe unto them when they stand before God on the last day to be judged.