The Bible as Science: Who Says it Can't Happen

People love to laugh off Jonah and the whale as “obviously impossible” but most of the time that confidence comes from a fuzzy picture of what a whale even is. We take the criticism head-on and get surprisingly specific, comparing toothed whales that chew with baleen whales built to gulp and strain, then asking a simple question: are we rejecting the Bible because of evidence, or because we’ve already decided miracles can’t happen?

From there we explore the episode’s central theme, the Bible and science relationship, without apologizing for Scripture. We talk through whale anatomy, feeding habits, size records, and the claim that an air-breathing mammal must manage oxygen in ways that skeptics rarely consider. Then we widen the field beyond “whales” to the category the book of Jonah actually uses, a great fish, including large sharks and the whale shark, along with modern news-style accounts offered as evidence that swallowing a person whole is not just ancient folklore.

The biggest takeaway is not a marine biology trivia win. It’s the sign of Jonah that Jesus points to, tying Jonah’s three days and nights to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, and forcing the real question of authority: do we build our lives on changing human claims or on the living Word of God that does not change?

If you enjoy Bible teaching, Christian apologetics, and thoughtful answers to tough passages, subscribe, share this with a friend who doubts Jonah, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show. What part of the Jonah story do you find hardest to believe?

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Transcript

Welcome And Gospel Message

0:07

Welcome to the Preaching the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W. Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Deland, Florida. Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior. Now here's your host, Pastor James W. Knox. All right now, greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. I'm Brother James, and I welcome you once again to the Preaching of the Cross, Radio Broadcast, the minister of the Bible Baptist Church of De Land, Florida, by the grace of God reaching around the world with the good news that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. The Bible says that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and the third day Jesus rose from the dead, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life, for God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, a repentance that is needed, because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We're so thankful that God's given us the privilege and opportunity of preaching over this radio station, and we're also thankful that God has given us someone, something, and the wonderful salvation to be had through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God we have something to tell you about when we come your way over the radio. You know it's a blessing. Those of you that are listening to our uh local broadcast, it's just such a joy to our heart, not only the letters that come, we've had several this week, not only the visits that you make to the Bible Baptist Church here in Deland, but uh and we've had several of those recently, but also uh to uh make make as I make my way throughout the community. Uh seems like everywhere I go anymore I'm running into people who say I listen to the program, I'm happy to meet you. It's glad to be able to put a a face with a voice, as uh surprising as that may be sometimes. And we just really do appreciate the fact that uh uh there are those of you in in churches all across our community, there are those of you in different religious uh backgrounds and affiliations, and yet you you feel confident in tuning in this radio broadcast and knowing that we are going to teach you the Word of God. We're not gonna try and lift up a church or exalt uh one uh man or any such thing as that, but we're going to try our very best to instruct you in the ways of God more perfectly, and we certainly thank God for the opportunity

Why Bible Doesn’t Fear Science

2:46

to do that. Now, we began a series uh some time ago on the Bible as science, and we are showing you, we are proving to you, uh, that the Word of God does not have to take a backseat to science. The Christian does not have to apologize to any so-called scientist on the face of the earth. As a matter of fact, uh where science and the Bible differ, we have proven over and over again that the reason is that science has not yet reached a full and complete knowledge of the truth, and when they do, they will line up with the Word of God, as has been the case so often in the past. We are busy discussing this matter of Jonah and the whale. This is one of the great arguments that's raised by the critics of the Bible, those who supposedly look to science rather than uh scripture for their truth and their revelation, and they have a great deal of difficulty with this matter of Jonah. We have shown you uh already a great deal of information about this. We want to continue on today. As we've said before, there just isn't any possible way to go back and review everything every time. That's why we make these studies available to you on cassette recording, but let's press onward with our look at Jonah.

Toothed Whales And The Objection

3:59

The whales constitute the genus Cetacea, C-E-T-A, C E A. This genus is divided into two general groups, the first of which is composed of all the whales that are known as dentisteti d-n-t-i, dente, that's where we get our word dentist or dental. These are the whales, as their name suggests, that are armed with teeth. Most of this variety do not have teeth on both jaws, but they have several strong, well-defined teeth in their lower jaw, which fit into sockets in the upper jaw. They use these teeth for tearing loose their food and crushing squids and preparing them for the first steps of digestion. The sperm whale, for instance, which is a monster that often reaches a length of sixty to sixty five feet, has forty four teeth in the lower jaw, but has only the sockets in the upper jaw. This whale has an extremely small throat. He chews his food and crushes it. It is evident at once that this whale could not have swallowed Jonah because of his custom of chewing and the restricted area of the esophagus. Presumably this type of whale, which has been the chief object of commercial pursuit, gave rise to the current belief that no whale could swallow Jonah. There's another whale of this same type, the dentisteti, known as the bottlenosed or beaked whale. Its scientific name is typide or tip TIPH TIP, maybe TIPHIDE You say why all these fancy words? So that you'll think they know something you don't know. It's all vocabulary, folks. This is a small whale, it's not over thirty feet long, and although this whale is only half the size of the sperm whale, it has a throat big enough to swallow a man. However, we exclude this whale from being Jonah's host because it also is armed with teeth and choose its food.

Baleen Whales Built To Swallow

5:57

Now I don't desire to make this study technical, and so we're going to pass on to say that the other type of whale is known as the Mystic M Y S T I C E T E. This group is composed of the whales that have no teeth. In place of teeth, they are equipped with whale bone plates called balena B-A-L-A-E-N-A, and hence these are often called balenine whales. These plates form the sieve through which the food of the whale is strained. These plates vary from eighteen inches in length to twelve feet in some cases. One particular whale of the order of Mysticetti has plates that are eighteen inches in width at the juncture with the jaw, and they taper down to about the width of the hand, and become finally attenuated, something after the order of the straws in a whisk broom. Now the ends of the upper and lower baylen join in the center of the mouth, forming a sieve through which the food is strained. This group of whales has a curious habit of feeding. They open their mouths, submerge their lower jaws, and rush through the water at a terrific speed. When one of them thus feeding has filled his gigantic mouth, he closes his jaws and curls back his lips. By a muscular pressure of the tongue, he forces the water out of his mouth, straining it through his balena or plates. When the water is all excluded, the whale swallows whatever is left in his mouth. Some of these creatures are armed with these plates to the number of three hundred on each side. The balena is the source of the whalebone of trade. These whales migrate from sea to sea, and since all seas connect somewhere, they may be found in their migrations and wanderings in strange out of the way places. It is this order of whale that the very largest types are found. They form a fascinating field of study. For instance, there is that variety called megaptera medosa, or humped back whales. They are weird looking as they pass in the sea, being about fifty feet in length with their head forming fully one third of their entire length. They have a low, thick dorsal fin which adds to their humpback appearance. The pectoral fins are fifteen feet long, and as they speed through the water these pectorals assume the appearance of wings. They are covered with rows of longitudinal ridges, like a rib thread automobile tire. They feed on anything that floats on the surface of the sea. The largest whale known is the Balinoptera musculus or musculus, commonly called the sulfur bottom, belonging to the variety called finmac. One of them has been measured that was ninety five feet and six inches long, while the average length would be in the neighborhood of seventy six feet. They also are armed with longitudinal ridges, and from sixty to ninety protuberant ridges of blubber line them for their entire length. This particular type of whale would have no difficulty whatever in accommodating a man. As an evidence of the size of these great animals, let me quote an expert, Charles Bell Emerson. He says The last account that I have of a big hall was that of the Norwegian whaler NT Nielsen Alonso. She was covered from stem to stern with layers of congealed grease, and gave off that peculiar odor of whale oil that you can smell a mile or more. She arrived in Sydney, Australia on february twenty ninth from the Ross Sea, in Antarctica, as she had to have bunker coal before proceeding to Larvik, Norway. Unusually favorable conditions prevailed all the time during the four months cruise, and the vessel's tanks were full of whale oil to their full capacity. It is recorded that fifty seven thousand barrels of oil were secured in that voyage, valued on the present market at about thirteen million dollars. There is a record of a sulfur bottom whale of ninety-five feet in length, having a weight of one hundred and forty seven tons, that's two hundred and ninety four thousand pounds. This specimen, captured off the west coast of North America, is the largest whale of which there is authentic record. This would mean that this one was the largest animal ever known to man up to date. The one that went ashore was big enough so that a seventy five ton locomotive crane was unable to lift it out of the entrance to the Panama Canal. So it was towed twelve miles out to sea, and Navy airplanes dropped two one hundred and sixty pound bombs and blew it to pieces. The whale's stomach is complex, having from four to six chambers or compartments, in any one of which a small colony of men could be readily accommodated. We have records that show that the whale has proved itself host to various living creatures.

Air Chambers And Survival Claims

10:50

The whale is an air breathing mammal and cannot live without oxygen. This oxygen it has to get somewhere above the water. As the whale has no gills, it can only submerge as long as its air supply will allow. So all whales have in their heads a wonderful air storage chamber. The chamber is an enlargement of the nasal sinus, and in a very large whale, this strange tank or compartment could measure fourteen feet long by seven feet high and seven feet wide. That's a good size room. Dr. Ransom Harvey recounts that a friend of his, weighing two hundred pounds, climbed from the mouth of a dead whale into this chamber. If the whale takes into its mouth any object too big to swallow, it thrusts it up into this air chamber. If it finds that it has a large object in its head, it swims to the nearest land, lies in shallow water, and ejects it. Well, well, well. That's rather curious, don't you think? Having read Jonah Chapter two. Recently in the Cleveland Plane Dealer newspaper was an article quoting doctor Ransom Harvey, who says that a dog was lost overboard from a whaler. It was found in the head of the whale six days later, alive, and none the worse for its unnatural journey. This quotation from the Cleveland Plane Dealer was recently copied by the Sunday School Times and caused a great deal of comment. At any rate, it may easily be seen that a man would have no difficulty remaining alive for three days and three nights in an air chamber as extensive as this, containing six hundred and eighty-six cubic feet of space.

Jonah As A Picture Of Christ

12:34

Now let's not forget, our original proposition that it may not have been that Jonah lived three days and three nights in the belly of the whale. As a matter of fact, the Bible indicates that he did not, but that rather he died and was resurrected because of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, even so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The body of the Lord Jesus Christ being dead, of course, but his soul being alive in the lower parts of the earth. Now there are also sharks that swim the sea that are large enough to swallow a man. The late Dr. A. C. Dixon stated that in a museum at Beirut, there is the head of a shark big enough to swallow the largest man in recorded history. Dr. Hickson also recounts instances where the white shark of the Mediterranean was known to have swallowed an entire horse. Another one of these monsters of the deep swallowed a reindeer, minus only its horns. In another Mediterranean white shark shark, upon its capture, investigators found a whole sea cow about the size of an ox. Now there's a ferocious and voracious shark, known as the Somnilosus Microcephalus. It's also known as the sleeper shark. While it is small, seldom getting more than twenty feet in length, it is the swiftest and most ferocious shark in existence today. It is known to attack the largest whale, and divide hunks of blubber from this huge mammal until the victim succumbs in death. This shark could have swallowed Jonah. But the difficulty is that it would probably have bitten him into at least two sections, so we come to the point of this entire discussion.

Could A Shark Be The Fish

14:30

Is there any creature that swims in the deep sea, whose natural feeding habits and whose entire morphology would make him a logical host for Jonah? As far as we know, there's there is one, two, maybe three. One of them is the shark known as Rhinodon Typicus. It is called variously the bone shark, the Indo-Pacific shark, and the whale shark, by which later name or latter name it is most commonly known. Recently off the coast of Florida, a specimen was captured and exhibited about the country, finally sent to the Smithsonian Institute. This was a comparatively small specimen, being thirty-six feet in length. This shark gets its common name, the whale shark, from the fact that its oral cavity is similar to the structure found in the whale. Sometimes it reaches the length of fifty feet, and one account tells of the largest specimen captured seventy feet in length. This shark, having no teeth, feeds like the whale, straining its food through great plates in its mouth. Is it possible that the Word of God says great fish in Jonah and Jesus said whale in Matthew, because this great fish that God had prepared, Jonah chapter number one, was indeed a remarkable combination of whale and shark. I'm not saying that it's so, but you'll see, you'll allow science the privilege of calling a shark a whale, or calling one creature a whale shark because it combines two characteristics, you'll allow science that privilege, and yet you refuse to allow the Word of God that same privilege, and this is very bigoted and narrow-minded of you. Now, it's capacious maw could readily swallow a man, this whale shark. Indeed, there are many instances where this very thing has occurred. Out of these multiplied occasions, we're going to consider three, four, or five of them with you on the radio program.

Modern Reports Of Men Swallowed

16:35

The first record comes from the Hawaiian Islands, in whose shark-infested waters the Rhinaton is a common visitor. During a recent visit to the islands, uh there you were able to see, if you uh went to the right place, a certain soldier who lived on the island of Oahu. He was reported missing without leave. Thirty days after the man disappeared, a party of Japanese fishermen set out from Hilo to spread their nets, and were chagrined to find a rhinodon basking on the surface in the vicinity where they desired to spread their nets. The feeding habits of these great fish are interesting, but fatal to the nets of a fisherman. The shark will bask on the surface of the sea, apparently asleep, until assailed by hunger, then, utterly without warning it will open its giant maw, and with its eyes closed will charge at full speed through the water, engulfing whatever may be floating near the surface. With a weight of many tons and a velocity that makes that weight irresistible, woe to the flimsy nets that meet this charging monster. So, fishermen never spread their nets when the rhinodon, the whale shark, is in the region. But the flesh of the shark is used for fertilizer on some of the plantations, and there is quite a price to be paid to those who capture one. So the fishermen put back to the port, procured their harpoons and a high powered rifle, quietly approaching the basking creature, they succeeded in their purpose and captured it without much difficulty, and towed the body to the beach. There they cut it open to examine the contents of the stomach, and found therein the skeleton of a six foot male human bee. After thirty days in this weird sepulchre, there was nothing left but the bones of the frame, but every bone was undamaged and undisturbed, thus evidencing the fact that the man had been swallowed whole. Indeed, as this shark has the betalina common to the whales, in place of the teeth usual to the sharks, it cannot bite or chew, it must swallow whatever it takes into its mouth in one entire piece. The sad remains of what once had been a man were identified as the missing soldier, and the mystery of his case was thus cleared up to the satisfaction of authorities. After thirty days there was no possible chance that a man in such condition could survive, but this is recorded here to establish the fact that the Rhinodentipicus does on occasion swallow human beings without harm to them in the process. Now that such experiences are more common than is generally believed, may be seen from the clipping taken from a newspaper. And I'm going to repro reproduce for you on this radio broadcast the news item in its entirety. Headline Fisherman Find Body of Missing Merchant Inside Giant Shark. Honolulu, September 2nd, United Press International. And I quote, Mystery surrounding the disappearance several days ago of Sedao Nakatus, Honolulu merchant, was cleared up Wednesday when fishermen found his body inside a huge shark which they caught off Barber's Point. The identification of the body was through dental work. Nikatus and another merchant, Minori Canawaga, set out last Sunday in a skiff on a fishing expedition. When they failed to return, the destroyer Gamble and the minesweeper Tanager Six began a search for them. Airplanes also joined in the search. The merchant's overturned skiff was found thirty miles off the point, but no trace of either man was found. Three fishermen caught two sharks in the vicinity of the point Wednesday, brought them ashore, cut them open, and inside of one they found the body of Nikatus. Two naval aviators, who joined the search, risked their lives in the shark-infested waters when a plane made a forced landing sixty miles from Honolulu. The plane, piloted by Lieutenant W. L. Rees, rode the seas until the destroyer arrived to take it in tow. The tragic conclusion of this episode is explained by the phrase several days ago. The question that must be settled in light of this present inquiry is what would become of a man who was in this dangerous predicament for just three days and nights? Once more we have a recent event that will shed some light on the problem. Some time ago a magazine devoted to our current events contained an account of an English sailor who was swallowed by a gigantic rhinodon in the English Channel. Briefly, the account stated that in the attempt to harpoon one of these monstrous sharks, this sailor fell overboard, and before he could be picked up again, the shark feeding, turned and engulfed him. His horrified friends made so much outcry that they frightened the fish, and it sounded and disappeared. The entire trawler fleet put out to hunt the fish down, and forty eight hours after the accident occurred the fish was sighted and slain with a one pound deck gun. The winches on the trawlers were too light to haul up the body of the mighty denizen of the deep, so they towed the carcass to the shore and opened it to give the body of their friend a Christian burial. But when the shark was opened, they were amazed to find the man unconscious but alive. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was found to be suffering from shock alone, and a few hours later was discharged as being physically fit. The account concluded by saying that the man was on exhibit in a London museum, and you could pay a small fee to come and see the Jonah of the twentieth century. Now, isn't it an amazing thing? We'll give you some more examples on tomorrow's broadcast or next week's, depending on where the when this program is aired on your station, but isn't it amazing that scientists will continue to reject the Word of God on the basis of the fact that they cannot believe that a sea creature, be it a whale, be it a shark, be it a great fish, could swallow a man, and the man could remain alive, when there are evidences in our newspapers, magazines, and books in this present day of the very thing taking place.

Faith In God Over Changing Science

22:46

Now, here's the problem, folks. The problem is you've been brainwashed by your school system, you've been brainwashed by your news media into taking science at their word and denying the truth of the word of God. Now that's just the fact of the matter. And what we are challenging you to do, what we are encouraging you to do, is be broad-minded, be liberal-minded, be a free thinker, be free to think honestly and reasonably, be free to consider intelligently the facts as stated in the Word of God, which are supported by fact, which are supported by all true and genuine science, which are supported by the actual scientific events taking place round about you today. And put your faith and trust, not infallible science, which has to change its self and its views and its teachings constantly. But put your faith and trust in the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever and does not change because it does not have to. It was true when it was written, it is true today, it will be true tomorrow and forever. And the safest thing you can ever do, the most intelligent thing you can ever do, is bring your life into line not with fallible science, but with the infallible truth of the Word of God. Amen and amen.

Where To Hear More Teaching

24:18

Join us every weekday for another episode of the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast. For hundreds of hours of in-depth expository Bible teaching, please visit our YouTube channel, James W. Knox Sermons, our sermon audio page, Bible Baptist the Land, or our website, Bible Baptistteland.com. Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.