DISPUTED DOCTRINES -- Chapter Twenty-Nine

QUESTION IN APOLOGETICS

The question here is, What should be our attitude toward certain miracles recorded in the Old Testament which border upon the grotesque? Most prominent among these are the speaking of Balaam's ass and the swallowing of Jonah by the whale.

Many of our young men, with a highly developed sense of their own intellectual penetration and culture, declare that they cannot receive these accounts as actual occurrences. They are young and for them there is hope that with advancing years there will come sure and settled convictions on these as well as on many other things.

But there are also some theologians in the Church who look upon these narratives as the product of a highly sensitivized poetic imagination, and as by no means to be taken as actual occurrences. What should be our attitude toward them?

If we hold to the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, there seems to be only one way of regarding these narratives. They are in the 0. T. record and are stated there, as anyone who will read the 22nd chapter of Numbers and the book of Jonah can see, not as myths, fables, allegories, or imaginative occurrences, but as historical facts, as the record of events that actually took place.

Such is the impression that they make upon every unbiased reader. And, since they have their place in the 0. T. record through inspiration of the Holy Ghost, how does it help matters to conceive of the Holy Ghost as using illustrations of so absurd a nature and apparently palming them off as true? Would this add to the convincing nature of the truth which it was sought to impress? Would it not rather detract from it and tend to throw it into discredit? And, if these miracles never occurred, what assurance do we have that other strange things recorded in the Bible ever took place?

Besides, it is not the 0. T. writers alone who are concerned in this matter. Both these miracles are referred to in the N. T. and are set down as facts without the slightest intimation or hint that they are only imaginary occurrences. St. Peter, in chapter 2:15-16 of his Second Epistle, speaks of those who "are gone astray following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but was rebuked for his iniquity; the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbade the madness of the prophet." Evidently St. Peter was not wise above what was written, but accepted the Mosaic record of this event as an historical fact. And, let it not be forgotten, St. Peter was an inspired man!

And with reference to the matter of Jonah, we have a still higher authority than that of Peter. We have the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who accepted the account without any hesitation as an actual historical fact and makes it a type of Himself and His rest in the grave, saying in the most solemn and impressive manner: "For as Jonah 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."

From this it would follow that the type and the thing typified both stand or fall together; and if the one did not occur, neither would the other. No, we cannot throw doubt upon one passage of Scripture without discrediting the rest; and parts of Scripture which seem in themselves unimportant for our faith, obtain importance through their connection with that which is fundamental. We know that an ass cannot ordinarily speak and that a man cannot ordinarily be swallowed by a fish and remain alive in the body of that fish for three days. But God is almighty and is able to accomplish this result in each of these cases, and we should not doubt His readiness to do so when the situation is sufficiently serious to warrant it, as it undoubtedly was in the two cases mentioned above.

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