THE STORY OF JONAH by Prof. L. T. Townsend

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 22, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 49.

THE STORY OF JONAH.

By Prof. L. T. Townsend

WE have now narrowed down the "incredible" parts of this story to the preservation of the prophet in the sea-monster, and his escape from peril. All other parts are credible, credible in themselves considered, and also are supported by the best of historical and exegetical evidence. But, as is claimed, Jonah's adventure while in the sea and in the sea-monster is not credible. And doubtless more than one person among us has asked, perhaps is now asking, how any intelligent man can believe these questionable parts of the story. Is not such belief, it is asked, confronted by difficulties that are clearly insurmountable? Though Jonah might have been thrown into the sea, and afterwards have reached the shore, and have gone to Nineveh; even though he might have been seized by a sea-monster and swallowed, and have suffered no form of mutilation (as was the case with a sailor in 1758, of whom Heubner gives account), still must it not be conceded that in the monster's stomach Jonah could have retained his consciousness but a few seconds, unless there were divine interpositions? After remaining there for five, or at most for ten minutes, must it not be admitted that there is no power or agency on earth that could have restored him to consciousness? And, according to the record, he remained in that loathsome imprisonment until some hour of the third day after his casting into the sea. God, therefore, must have miraculously interposed, or Jonah never again could have seen the light.

And yet, upon our willing admission that such divine interpositions are possible, and that they have taken place, very much depends. Unless this story of Jonah, and many others which involve just as signal and miraculous interpositions, are true to the letter, the foundations of our Christian religion are gone, and our evangelical faith is not worth contending for a day longer. A new system of religion must be discovered, or helplessly and hopelessly we must remain without the inspirations and consolations that have long cheered humanity. In its dependence upon its alleged facts, Christianity differs from other religions. Other religious systems are speculative; their facts are incidental. The facts of the Christian religion, on the other hand, are real and supreme; that is, if Adam and Abraham never lived; if God did not give the law to Moses; if Christ was a myth, and if he neither lived, died, nor rose again, then, at least in the judgment of anyone who has the least respect for logical methods and conclusions, the whole superstructure of Christianity falls to the ground. Christian people must cleave to the facts, or else be consistent and abandon their whole system. Logically there is no third course open to an evangelical Christian. The Bible records and Christianity always have been, and always must be, one and inseparable. The self-consistency of Christianity, and the courage with which the natural and supernatural events recorded in the Old Testament are repeated and emphasized by the founders of Christianity, leave no escape from the conclusion that the Bible is one, and that, in the world's redemption, Judaism and Christianity are also measurably inseparable.

And this also is true: the alleged fact that God wrought a miracle in behalf of Jonah, in order that the prophet the more faithfully might declare the divine message, and in order that he might be a prophetic sign of Christ's resurrection and of our own resurrection, is no more incredible than any one of the scores of miracles recorded in the Bible. If you deny one, you must deny all. The story of Jonah is no more incredible than the parting of the waters of the Red Sea; no more incredible than the calling of fire from heaven by Elijah; no more incredible than the preservation of Daniel in the den of lions, or than the walking of his three companions in the midst of fire; no more incredible than the story of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, of which Jonah's experiences always have been regarded as prophetic types, and upon which in supreme dependence rest the faith and hope of the whole Christian world.

—Prof. L. T. Townsend.