Do you really believe the story of Jonah

Of all the stories in the Bible, the one which people find hardest to swallow is the account of Jonah and the whale. Skeptics have a field day ridiculing the account of a man who was swallowed whole by a whale and lived to tell of it after three days and nights in such surroundings.
In an attempt to avoid the seeming improbabilities of the story, some contend that this story was never meant to be understood literally, but as an allegory. How then does one deal with the story?
The problem of viewing Jonah as an allegory is that the Bible nowhere treats it as such. The story itself is written as a historical narrative, with absolutely no indication that it was intended as myth or allegory.
Second Kings 14:25 refers to Jonah as a historical figure. Jesus Himself treats Jonah as historical, relating that Jonah was a prophet, whose preaching resulted in the people of Nineveh repenting.
He even compared the story to His own death and resurrection: “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea-monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall stand up with this generation at the judgment, and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, something greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:40, 41, NASB).
If one denies the facts of the story of Jonah, he (or she) must then assume ignorance or deception on the part of Jesus, who believed its authenticity. This would, in effect, destroy His claim to being God.
Having established that Jonah’s story was intended to be historical, it is now possible to deal with the problems of his being swallowed by a whale and the three days and nights he is said to have survived within the fish.
The first fact to deal with is that the Hebrew and Greek words which are translated “whale” in the King James Version actually mean “large fish.” There are certain species of whales and sharks that are perfectly capable of swallowing a man whole, including the whale shark, white shark, and sperm shark. These giant mammals have been known to swallow whole animals that are larger than man. It could have been a whale that swallowed Jonah, but the Bible was not specific on the species.
The second problem to deal with is Jonah’s sojourn within the “great fish.” A man named James Bartley is known to have survived a day and a half in the belly of a whale before being rescued. The anatomy of these mammals provides sufficient oxygen for the possibility of survival.
There is also the possibility that Jonah died in the belly of the fish, and that God brought him back to life after three days. This would not be inconsistent with the teaching of Scripture, seeing that at least eight other resuscitations are recorded. However, this is not indicative in the narrative and Jonah could have survived.
ADDITIONAL REFERENCE SOURCES
Henry Morris, The Bible Has the Answer, Baker Book House, 1971
Hobart Freeman, An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophets, Moody Press, 1969
Gleason Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, rev. ed., Moody Press, 1979

2.Where did Cain get his wife?


One of the most frequent questions asked by Christians and non-Christians alike is where did Cain’s wife come from. This question also involves a larger question: what population existed at the time Cain built his city, and what of incest?
According to Genesis, Cain murdered his younger brother Abel (Genesis 4:8) at some point in his life. As punishment for this crime, God banished Cain from his home and the presence of the Lord.
The Bible also records Cain’s fear that others might avenge Abel by killing him (Genesis 4:14), that Cain obtained a wife at some point (Genesis 4:17) and built a city (Genesis 4:17).
One theory that has been put forth to explain the existence of sufficient numbers of people is directly contradictory to Scripture and posits a “pre-Adamic” race dwelling in the neighborhood of the Garden of Eden from which Cain could take a wife.
This is not a tenable solution, however, for the Scriptures clearly teach that Adam was the first man (I Corinthians 15:45) and that his wife, Eve, was “the mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20, NASB).
Genesis 5:4 tells us that Adam had sons and daughters. At first, sons and daughters of Adam and Eve had to marry each other to populate the earth. Cain probably married a sister or niece or grand niece.
Assuming the accuracy of the Genesis account, and considering the length of lives recorded (around 900 years, on the average), a very sizeable population could have developed very rapidly. Using conservative guesses as to the size of families and average age, there easily could have been several million people living at the time of the death of Cain.
Moreover, the Scriptures nowhere indicate at what points in the life of Cain he murdered his brother, married his wife, or built his city. Even a few hundred years might have passed before all of the events took place, allowing for a sizable population with which to build a city.
All this raises the additional question of incest. If incest is scripturally forbidden, according to the Mosaic law, how do we explain all this marrying of siblings? Since Adam and Eve were created directly by God, and perfect, it can be presumed that their genes were perfect.
When sin entered the world at the Fall, bringing with it death, disease, and destruction, the gene pool would gradually become corrupted. At first, no harm would result from marriage of brothers and sisters, and had sin not entered the world, presumably no harm would have ever entered.
As the generations passed, however, disease, environment, and sin took their toll on the genetic pool, which resulted in mutant and defective genes. Incest was prohibited in Moses’ time, from a biological standpoint, because it now was dangerous and resulted in deformed, moronic, or otherwise defective offspring.
Moreover, in addition to the biological problem which arises from incest, there is also an ethical one. God forbids incest on moral grounds, and this is more crucial than the biological aspect (Leviticus 20:11ff).
Incest disrupts the family social and moral structure. The family is the only God-ordained institution in the world other than the church. At the initial formation of the family structure in Cain’s day, it is difficult to presume what happened with inter-marriage. Thus we cannot be sure to what extent incest occurred. One thing is certain: after God’s ordained family structure stabilized, incest was sin.
ADDITIONAL REFERENCE SOURCES
Henry Morris, The Bible Has the Answer, Baker Book House, 1971
H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Genesis, Vol. I, Baker Book House,