What did our preachers teach us to understand from this sign?

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Godsgood said:
When the Jews asked the Lord what sign He would give as proof of the truth, He answered with the sign of Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of the great fish, and on the third day, Jonah was brought out alive.

So we ask the Lord, why was it on the third day and not on the first day or the second day?

And the Lord’s revelation to us is that there are three ways His words can be understood:

  1. Literal
  2. Physical
  3. Spiritual

And through God’s revelation, we understand that the first two—the literal and the physical—do not give life because they are not the truth in themselves.

That is why Jonah was not brought out of the great fish on the first or second day.
If he had been, he would not have been brought out alive.
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That is merely someone's interpretation and not some deep truth "revealed" by God.
 
Godsgood said:
Physical refers to things that can be perceived through the senses—things that can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or touched. According to what God has revealed, however, the physical things perceived through our senses cannot be used as the basis for salvation.
Because physical things that are perceived through the senses are beneficial only to the flesh or the body. And here is what God says about His words.
JOHN 6:63
63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
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Because you have ripped this statement from its context, you have misinterpreted and misapplied it.

Godsgood said:
However, what some people do who they read and believe in the Holy Scriptures is that they seek healing for physical illnesses, even though the one who benefits is the human body.
And what is remarkable is that even cancer, which doctors can no longer cure, is said to be healed in the name of Jesus Christ.

There are groups within Christianity who demonstrate that they have been healed in the name of Jesus Christ.

For example, if someone was previously unable to walk and needed crutches, they testify to people that they can now walk without using them. They even collect the crutches they used before and display them to the people as evidence of their healing.

However, on the Day of Judgment, the Lord does not accept their claim that they performed these works in the name of Jesus Christ.
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Nothing in Scripture says these are the same people.

Godsgood said:
Therefore, #2 Physical, which is perceived through the senses, cannot be used as a basis for salvation because it cannot be considered the truth.
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Nobody is claiming that physical reality is "a basis for salvation" so why are you bleating about it?
 
Godsgood said:
When the Jews asked the Lord what sign He would give as proof of the truth, He answered with the sign of Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of the great fish, and on the third day, Jonah was brought out alive.

So we ask the Lord, why was it on the third day and not on the first day or the second day?

And the Lord’s revelation to us is that there are three ways His words can be understood:

  1. Literal
  2. Physical
  3. Spiritual

And through God’s revelation, we understand that the first two—the literal and the physical—do not give life because they are not the truth in themselves.

That is why Jonah was not brought out of the great fish on the first or second day.
If he had been, he would not have been brought out alive.
Click to expand...
And if we connect this sign of Jonah to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, then apparently the Lord would not make Himself rise again on the first day or on the second day. This is because the #1 Literal and #2 Physical understanding of God’s Word does not give life or does not correspond to the truth.


So, what about the third one?
What message, then, is God conveying to us?
#3 The Spiritual message of God in His Word.
 
Godsgood said:
And if we connect this sign of Jonah to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, then apparently the Lord would not make Himself rise again on the first day or on the second day. This is because the #1 Literal and #2 Physical understanding of God’s Word does not give life or does not correspond to the truth.


So, what about the third one?
What message, then, is God conveying to us?
#3 The Spiritual message of God in His Word.
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You invent "meaning" for a passage of Scripture and then treat that as though it is Scripture itself. It isn't.
 
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Godsgood said:
And if we connect this sign of Jonah to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, then apparently the Lord would not make Himself rise again on the first day or on the second day. This is because the #1 Literal and #2 Physical understanding of God’s Word does not give life or does not correspond to the truth.


So, what about the third one?
What message, then, is God conveying to us?
#3 The Spiritual message of God in His Word.
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In what the Lord God revealed in #3, the spiritual message of God is found in His words, as written in the Holy Bible. However, although these are the words of God, they cannot yet be considered the truth. The revelation of God is still necessary for them to be regarded as the truth.
For example, what the Lord said to the Jews about the temple while they were inside the temple.
JOHN 2:19
19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

Although these were the words of the Lord, they could not yet be considered the truth. The Lord’s revelation was necessary before they could be understood as the truth. When He revealed that the temple was His body, that was when His words became clear and were understood as the truth.

He said, “Destroy this temple,” referring to His own body. He would be put to death, but on the third day He would rise again. Thus, the disciples’ understanding was enlightened, and they realized that the temple He was referring to was His body.
JOHN 2:21
21 But he spake of the temple of his body.

In what the Lord God revealed through the sign of Jonah, which He compared to the Lord’s resurrection, the truth was revealed. #1 Literal, what people clearly understand from the words of God—and #2 Physical, what is perceived through the senses—are not the truth. Rather, #3 Spiritual, the spiritual message of God in His words, is what is called the truth.


Just as Jonah was brought forth alive from the great fish on the third day, so the Lord Jesus was also raised from the dead on the third day. This shows how God’s words are to be understood. It is only #3, or God’s revelation in His words, that gives life or salvation.


Therefore, if we go back to the Jews’ question about the truth that gives life, we can understand that the truth is revealed through the sign of Jonah that the Lord gave. Through this sign, the truth that gives life is made known.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!
 
Godsgood said:
In what the Lord God revealed in #3, the spiritual message of God is found in His words, as written in the Holy Bible. However, although these are the words of God, they cannot yet be considered the truth. The revelation of God is still necessary for them to be regarded as the truth.
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Wrong... as usual, because you refuse all correction.

God's word is truth, objectively and without additional revelation.

Godsgood said:
Therefore, if we go back to the Jews’ question about the truth that gives life, we can understand that the truth is revealed through the sign of Jonah that the Lord gave. Through this sign, the truth that gives life is made known.
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Truth is not "revealed" through the sign. Jesus' words were truth before He rose from the dead. The full meaning of those particular words was not revealed until His resurrection, but that doesn't mean it wasn't truth.

You have confused the concepts of "full meaning" and "truth". They are not the same thing. A statement doesn't become "truth" once the full meaning is revealed; it was always true (or, in merely human words, not true).

There are many statements in Scripture declaring that God's word is truth. They don't say (or even hint) that "God's words are not truth until God reveals something additional".
 
Godsgood said:
JONAS 1:17

17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
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Jonah 1:17 means God sovereignly intervened to judge, preserve, and foreshadow — all at once. It is a multi‑layered act that Scripture later unfolds across the Old and New Testaments.
The fish is both:
judgment for Jonah’s rebellion
rescue from drowning
God disciplines Jonah but preserves him for repentance and future obedience.
Jonah’s three days in the fish represent, helplessness, confinement and symbolic “entombment”
Inside the fish Jonah prays, repents, and acknowledges salvation is from the LORD alone.
Jesus explicitly identifies Jonah’s three days and nights in the fish as a prophetic sign of His own burial and resurrection. “As Jonah was three days and three nights… so shall the Son of Man be…” (Matthew 12:40).
Jonah’s emergence = life restored
Christ’s resurrection = victory over death
Jonah is delivered so he can preach to Gentiles (Nineveh). Christ rises so the gospel can go to all nations.
Jonah fled. God pursued
.Jonah sank. God saved
Jonah resisted. God recommissioned.
The fish is proof that God’s mercy outruns human rebellion.
it's a Picture of God’s Mercy Toward the Disobedient.
Jonah 1:17 reveals God’s sovereign act of judgment and rescue, Jonah’s symbolic death and restoration, and the prophetic sign pointing to Christ’s burial and resurrection — all demonstrating that salvation belongs to the LORD.
 
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