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Was Jonah Really Swallowed By A Great Fish Or Is It Just A Myth?
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Feb 20, 2025
Evidence for the Existence of God, see link below https://tayibs.com/2020/01/01/even-sneakers-prove-that-god-exist/ I was invited to a podcast a week ago to talk about why I believe what I believe- my faith in Christ. There were a total of 4 people in the discussion, I included. During our exchange, one of the hosts who is supposedly a believer in Christ asked me whether I believed that Jonah was actually swallowed by a great fish. And I answered affirmatively; to my surprise he was laughing and thought the story was fictional and not historical. He said that it was a metaphor, but a metaphor for what? Today I’ll be discussing why I believe the account of Jonah being in a belly of a great fish for three days was actually historical, see video Scripture References: Matthew 12:38-45 Acts 1:1-5 Hebrews 4:12
View Video Transcript
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hello good morning this is ty Hebert is
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calm about a week ago I was invited to a
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podcast to talk about why I believe what
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I believe
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basically my faith in Christ and there
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were a total of four people in there and
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the podcast I included and as we
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exchanged one of the hosts was
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supposedly a Christian he believed in
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Christ he asked me whether I believed
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that Jonah was actually swallowed by a
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great fish and I answered yes
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affirmatively I was like yes he he was
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swallowed by a great fish and to my
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surprise and the the host was kind of
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mocking and laughing and he he actually
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thought that the story was fictional and
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are historical and he said he was a
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metaphor
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and my question is a metaphor for what
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so today I'm gonna be discussing why I
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believe the account of Jonah mean in the
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belly of a great fish for three days was
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actually historical it wasn't just a
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myth or a metaphor fictional he actually
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happened and I'm gonna be telling you
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why I believe this is actually truth and
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this is actually a real thing that
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happened okay so put your thinking caps
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on and let's dive into this this morning
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all right so let's go on to my next
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slide now the first thing we want to do
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is this we wanna establish how Jesus
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viewed the account of Jonah what was
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Jesus view on it so it's recorded in
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Matthew 12 verse 38 to 45 and please be
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patient because I'm gonna explain why
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I'm saying this so let's understand how
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Jesus viewed their kind of Jonah and now
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we're gonna read from Matthew verse
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verse 12 I'm in chapter 12 verse 38 to
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45 there are so many Pharisees and
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scribes answered him saying teacher we
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wish to see a sign from you but he
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answered them an evil and adulterous
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generation six for a sign but no sign
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will be given to it except the sign of
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the prophet Jonah for just as Jonah was
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three days and three nights in the belly
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of the great fish so will the Son of
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three days and three nights in the heart
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of the earth the men of Nineveh will
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rise up at the judgment with this
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generation and condemn it for they
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repented at the preaching of Jonah and
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behold something greater than Jonah is
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here the Queen of the South will rise up
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at the judgment with this generation and
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condemn it for she came from the ends of
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the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon
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and behold something greater than
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Solomon is here now here's the thing
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like Jesus certainly believed that the
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account of Jonah being swallowed by a
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great fish wasn't fictional you can see
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it right there are highlighted in red he
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said for just as Jonah was three days
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and three nights in the belly of the
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great fish so will the Son of Man be
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three days and three nights in the heart
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of the earth and he also adds up as on
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today that the men of Nineveh will rise
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up at the judgment with this generation
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and condemn it for they repented at the
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preaching of Jonah so he actually
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connects the account of Jonah to his own
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predicted death and resurrection after
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three days which definitely gives more
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gravitas through Jonah's story he can he
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also connects it to kinda see the Queen
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of the south and Solomon's account so if
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Jesus said he happened then
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it truly happened now the question is
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this we have to wrestle with this
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question here was Jesus telling the
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truth how do we know whether Jesus was
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telling the truth that's what we need to
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establish okay now Jesus was addressing
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the scribes and the Pharisees right he
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was talking to them so they certainly
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believed the story of Jonah
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because he quotes it and they don't deny
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that there's no denial they didn't say
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what doesn't really happen he was a
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metaphor they certainly didn't say that
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because they know that is actually
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something that actually took place now
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was Jesus telling the truth based on the
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audience we can see that he was telling
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the truth in that time when he was
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speaking no one said objection Jesus
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this didn't happen there's nothing like
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that
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hold it for now since we don't have any
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evidence beside what I'm saying let's
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let's see whether Jesus is telling the
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truth I hope are making any sense here
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let's let's first understand why I'm
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saying this okay so let's go to the next
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slide first let's see how other major
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religions view Jesus now the Jews
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believe Jesus was Mary son he was a
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teacher a rabbi he had many disciples he
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was respected and he performed miracles
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he claimed to be the Messiah and was
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crucified on the cross they also
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acknowledge his followers reported Jesus
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was raised from the dead keep that in
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mind
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now what about Muslims Muslims believe
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Jesus was born of a virgin is to be
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revered and respected was a prophet and
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wise teacher who worked miracles
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ascended to heaven and will come again
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they believe that I'm a Dyer Muslims
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they believe just was may have been born
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of a virgin was a prophet and wise
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teacher worked miracles and was
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crucified on a cross bhai they believed
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Jesus came from God was a wise teacher
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who had a divine and human nature work
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miracles and was crucified and
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resurrected as an atonement for Humanity
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Hindus believed Jesus was a holy man a
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wise teacher and he's a god Buddhists
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believe Jesus was an enlightened man and
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a wise teacher a new age they believe
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they believe a new age believers
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maintained here was a wise man a moral
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teacher right they believed that so keep
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that in mind
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based on the evaluation and feedback
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from other religions it is very
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reasonable to say that Jesus was a man
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of his word because a prophet cannot lie
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a prophet by definition must tell the
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truth okay it's important that we
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establish that and if that's the case
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then he was telling the truth about
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Jonah's account because Jesus said
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exactly what happened with Jonah so if
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Jesus say that that means it is the
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truth and I know a lot of you may say
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that is insufficient evidence now let's
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continue Jesus claimed to be God and
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predicted his own death and resurrection
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okay did it really happen
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now I want you to again to put your
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thinking caps on and ask yourself
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several questions what where the
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disciple of Jesus willing to die for
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okay
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the disciples were willing to die for
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their faith their faith that rested on
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their eyewitness of the resurrection
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they claimed that they saw the
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resurrected Jesus will remain with them
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for 40 days and we're willing to die for
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it no one of them recanted even under
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torture by the way most of them were
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martyred for for that very reason so
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they died for I witness this is
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empirical evidence they saw it with our
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own eyes he wasn't something that they
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thought he wasn't he thought he wasn't
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some kind of ideology is we die because
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we I witnessed the resurrection we saw a
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man died he predicted his death and he
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rose after three days okay
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keep that in mind so let's go to the
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next slide in acts 1 the promise of the
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holy spirit now this is listen to what
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Luke is saying here in the first book o
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Theophilus I have dealt with all that
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Jesus began to do and teach until the
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day when he was taken up after he had
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given commands through the Holy Spirit
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to the Apostles whom he had chosen he
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presented himself alive to them after
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his suffering by many proofs appearing
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to them during forty days and speaking
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about the kingdom of God and while
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staying with them he ordered them not to
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depart from Jerusalem but wait for the
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promise of the father which he said you
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heard from me for John baptized with
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water for you be baptized with the Holy
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Spirit not many days from now now Jesus
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predicted his death and resurrection and
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he happened exactly how he predicted it
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if the disciples were lying about the
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resurrection then they had to know that
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they were dying for a known lie keep
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that in mind if they were lying about
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the resurrection then they had to have
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known that they were dying for something
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that was a known lie and that is not
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reasonable at all okay it isn't
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reasonable not one of them even recanted
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under pressure
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and torture and this is another
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interesting fact their exposition of the
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Old Testament scripture also proves that
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they have been taught these truths by
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Jesus priorities ascension to heaven
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because prior to that this guy weren't
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really learned they made a lot of
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mistakes and you just usually will call
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them to account well after the
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resurrection he taught them and xposed
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the scripture to them so they understood
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the scriptures and they were able to
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expose the Old Testament Scriptures by
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giving us why those scriptures were
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given and my whole point in this
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argument is to show you that Jesus is
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exactly what claims to be because
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everything that he said came to pass
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hence the account of Jonah was
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historical because Jesus said it was
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historical okay so hopefully you
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understand my argument go back and
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listen to it again I know I said a lot
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of things and I don't want you to be
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confused but what I want to establish is
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that this because Jesus said the account
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of Jonah happened
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I believe it and why I believe it was
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because Jesus himself is the truth and
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the truth no lie comes from the truth
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okay so let's keep going now more
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evidence we all know that out of nothing
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comes out nothing
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okay and we know that the universe had a
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beginning and since the universe at the
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beginning it means that it was created
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by a transcendent being who exists
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eternally if you wanna dive into why
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this is true I did an article on that
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I'll give you the link in the
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description okay the universal beginning
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even science knows that the universal it
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be at the beginning because he's
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expanding and the expansion of the
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universe shows that at some point he
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started somewhere okay so every one of
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us is in a state of flux we are
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constantly changing which shows that we
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have a beginning because we are changing
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change now let me ask you a question
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because the universe are the beginning
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and we believe that the host of all this
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universe the complexity of it was
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created by a transcendent being who has
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life in himself he himself is the author
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of life okay so keep that in mind now
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which is harder to do creating a complex
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universe or putting a man in a belly of
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a great fish for three days if God can
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create the entire host of heavens if we
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can create all this thing with this
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complexity how easy it is to put a man
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in a value of a great fish how easy is
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that think about it now this other thing
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that I wanted to say to you the DNA code
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is the longest word I ever existed in
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about 3.5 billion letters long okay and
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then and embedded in it is information
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that is specific he is not random which
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means that there is a mind behind it and
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scripture says in Hebrews 4:12 for the
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word of God I'm gonna pass him up I saw
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saying Hebrews 4:12 says for the word of
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God is living and active sharper than
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any two-edged sword piercing to the
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division of soul and of spirit of joints
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and of marrow and discerning the
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thoughts and intention of the heart
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basically the Word of God produces an
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action so when God says let there be
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light
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there is light when God commands through
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his spoken word the creation of a
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universe then he happens and if that's
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the case the same God who can command by
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a spoken word a fish to swallow a man
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for three days that's an easy thing for
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him to do because if that's the case the
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same God can command by a spoken word a
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fish to swallow man for three days and
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Jesus also confirms the ferocity
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reliability of this account by codon
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living so I've given you plenty of
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evidence now maybe there's a little bit
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of confusion in your mind if you want to
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understand this more I would love to
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talk to you more individually ok so I'm
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looking forward for to hearing from you
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guys ok again um one of the things that
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I wanted to add was this I don't believe
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that there is somebody that does not
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believe that God has not existed because
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guess what what really causes people to
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deny the existence of God is not that
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there is no proof because Gera shows has
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shown us a lot of proofs the problem is
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their morality
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they hate the God that they know exists
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because they don't want to submit to his
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rule that's the main question because
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they see the evidence but they keep
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trying to find ways to reject it okay
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I want you to just marry it on these
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words and and I'm looking forward to
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speaking to you next time thank you
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