Mirza Ghulam Ahmad 1835-1908, the Promised Messiah, the Second Coming says:
Let it be noted that though Christians believe that Jesus (peace be on him) after his arrest through the betrayal by Judas Iscariot, and crucifixion — and resurrection — went to heaven, yet, from the Holy Bible, it appears that this belief of theirs is altogether wrong. Matthew (chapter 12, verse 40) says that just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so the Son of Man shall be three days and three nights in the bowels of the earth.
Now it is clear that Jonah did not die in the belly of the fish; the utmost that happened was that he was in a swoon or a fit of fainting. The holy books of God bear witness that Jonah, by the grace of God, remained alive in the belly of the fish, and came out alive; and his people ultimately accepted him. If then Jesus (on whom be peace) had died in the belly of the ‘fish’, what resemblance could there be between a dead man and the one who was alive, and how could a living one be compared with one dead?
The truth rather is, that as Jesus was a true prophet and as he knew that God, whose beloved he was, would save him from an accursed death, he made a prophecy in the form of a parable, revealed to him by God, in which he hinted that he would not die on the Cross, nor would he give up the ghost on the accursed wood; on the contrary, like the prophet Jonah, he would only pass through a state of swoon.
In the parable he had also hinted that he would come out of the bowels of the earth and would then join the people and, like Jonah, would be honoured by them. So this prophecy too was fulfilled; for Jesus, coming out of the bowels of the earth, went to his tribes who lived in the eastern countries, Kashmir and Tibet, etc. viz. the ten tribes of the Israelites who 721 years1 before Jesus, had been taken prisoner from Samaria by Shalmaneser, King of Assur, and had been taken away by him.
Ultimately, these tribes came to India and settled in various parts of that country. Jesus at all events must have made this journey; for the divine object underlying his advent was that he should meet the lost Jews who had settled in different parts of India; the reason being that these in fact were the lost sheep of Israel who had given up even their ancestral faith in these countries, and most of whom had adopted Buddhism, relapsing, gradually into idolatry.
Dr. Bernier, on the authority of a number of learned people, states in his Travels that the Kashmiris in reality are Jews who in the time of the dispersal in the days of the King of Assur had migrated to this country.2
In any case it was necessary for Jesus (peace be on him) to find out the whereabouts of these lost sheep, who had, on coming to this country, India, become merged into the other people. I shall presently adduce evidence that Jesus (peace be on him) did in fact come to India and then, by stages, travelled to Kashmir, and discovered the lost sheep of Israel among the people who professed the Buddhist faith and that these people ultimately accepted him, just as the people of the prophet Jonah accepted Jonah.
And this was inevitable; for Jesus had said in so many words that he had been sent to the lost sheep of Israel.
http://www.alislam.org/library/books/jesus-in-india/ch1.html
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Tags: Buddhists, Dr. Bernier, faith, Jesus, Jonah, Kashmir, Lost Sheep of Israel, religion
paarsurrey 
June 18, 2009 at 8:26 pm |
Hi Paar Surrey,
Jesus said that He is GREATER than Jonah. Jesus didn’t say He was the SAME as Jonah or LIKE Jonah. Jesus was GREATER.
Matthew 12:39-41
39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.
Jesus is GREATER than Jonah because He died and came back to life. By saying He is GREATER than Jonah, Jesus is by no means denying what He so clearly taught elsewhere concerning His death:
Matthew 16:21
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Matthew 20:17-19
17 Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them,
18 “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death
19 and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”
Matthew 26:1-2
1 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples,
2 “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
Matthew 26:6-12
6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper,
7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.
8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked.
9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”
10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me.
11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.
12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.
By saying that He was GREATER than Jonah, Jesus was teaching that what would happen to Him would be even greater than what happened to Jonah. Jesus has conquered death and no one else has! His grave is empty.
There is something else we need to keep in mind. Both Jesus and Jonah preached the message of repentance. Nineveh preached “40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed.” Jesus also preached the message of repentance to the Jews. Nineveh repented at Jonah’s preaching and therefore wasn’t destroyed. Jerusalem did not repent at Jesus’ preaching and was destroyed in 70 AD (almost 40 years after Jesus was crucified). Because the Jews did not repent, Jonah’s judgment fell upon the Jews.
To summarize, Jesus was teaching that what would happen to Him would be even greater than what happened to Jonah. Jesus would be crucified by the unbelieving Jews, He would rise again from the dead and as proof of His kingship He would judge Jerusalem for her unbelief. Jesus’ judgment of Jerusalem happened about 40 years after He was crucified, just as He said.
These great and enduring signs Jesus gave to the Jews of His day are also signs for us today. Jesus has conquered death and no one else has! His grave is empty. Because Jesus has been raised from the dead, we can have assurance of salvation. Jesus said,
John 5:24
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
What Mirza Tahir Ahmad writes is fiction. Take for example the following claim he makes,
“Again according to the Bible, when his side was pierced blood and water gushed out. ‘But when they came to Jesus and found him already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear bringing a sudden flow of blood and water (John 19:33,34).’ If he was dead and his heart had stopped beating, such active bleeding as causing the blood to rush out or gush out would be impossible. At most coagulated blood and plasma could have passively seeped out.”
http://www.alislam.org/library/books/christianity_facts_to_fiction/chapter_4.html
This assertion is untrue. It is not medically “impossible.” Here is a medical explanation of the flow of blood and water from the Journal of the American Medical Association, one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world:
“The gospel of John describes the piercing of Jesus’ side and emphasizes the sudden flow of blood and water. (1) Some authors have interpreted the flow of water to be ascites (12) or urine, from an abdominal midline perforation of the bladder. (15) However, the Greek word (pleura (32,35,,36) used by John clearly denoted laterality and often implied the ribs. (6,32,36)
“Therefore, it seems probable that the wound was in the thorax and well away from the abdominal midline.
“Although the side of the wound was not designated by John, it traditionally has been depicted on the right side. (4) Supporting this traditions is the fact that a large flow of blood would be more likely with a perforation of the distended and thin-walled right atrium or ventricle than the thick-walled and contracted left ventricle. Although the side of the wound may never be established with certainty, the right seems more probable than the left.
“Some of the skepticism in accepting John’s description has arisen from the difficulty in explaining, with medical accuracy, the flow of both blood and water. Part of this difficulty has been based on the assumption that the blood appeared first, then the water. However, in the ancient Greek, the order of words generally denoted prominence and not necessarily a time sequence. (37) Therefore, it seems likely that John was emphasizing the prominence of blood rather than its appearance preceding the water.
“Therefore, the water probably represented serous pleural and pericardial fluid, (5-7,11) and would have preceded the flow of blood and been smaller in volume than the blood. Perhaps in the setting of hypovolemia and impending acute heart failure, pleural and pericardial effusions may have developed and would have added to the volume of apparent water. (5,11) The blood, in contrast, may have originated from the right atrium or the right ventricle or perhaps from a hemopericardium. (5,7,11)”
Citation: William D. Edwards, MD; Wesley J. Gabel, MDiv; Floyd E. Hosmer, MS, AMI; “On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ”; Journal of the American Medical Association 21 March 1986; Volume 255, 1463.
This same prestigious medical journal concludes:
“Clearly, the weight of historical and medical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead before the wound to his side was inflicted and supports the traditional view that the spear, thrust between his right rib, probably perforated not only the right lung but also the pericardium and heart and thereby ensured his death. Accordingly, interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge” (William D. Edwards, MD; Wesley J. Gabel, MDiv; Floyd E. Hosmer, MS, AMI; “On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ”; Journal of the American Medical Association 21 March 1986; Volume 255, 1463).
There is substantial evidence from the 1st century AD for the historic event of Jesus’ death on the cross and His burial.
The Old Testament prophets testified to Jesus death and burial.
Jesus testified to His death on multiple occasions.
We have eyewitnesses to the death of Jesus on the cross.
We know of people who participated in the burial of Jesus’ dead body.
Even non-Christian sources wrote that Jesus died.
Josephus (Jewish historian born around 37 AD and died 100 AD) refers to Jesus’ death (Antiquities 18.3.3).
Tacitus (AD 55-120), a renowned historian of ancient Rome wrote around 115 A.D. that Christ was “executed” by Pilate (Annals 15.44).
Every non-Islamic historian that I am aware of affirms that Jesus died on the cross and that this is a fact of history.
I invite you to embrace Christianity as the truth and only way of salvation. Jesus said, “I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins” (John 8:24). Believe in Jesus, and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and you can have certainty that you will inherit eternal life. This certainty is rooted in what God has done in the real world with respect to the death of Jesus on the cross, His burial, resurrection, and ascension into heaven.
From: Paar Surrey [mailto:paarsurrey@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 3:46 PM
To: AGoerner@adelphia.net
Subject: living Jonah compared with the dead Jesus
How could a living Jonah be compared with the dead Jesus, as the Christians incorrectly believe?
June 18, 2009 by paarsurrey
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad 1835-1908, the Promised Messiah, the Second Coming says:
Let it be noted that though Christians believe that Jesus (peace be on him) after his arrest through the betrayal by Judas Iscariot, and crucifixion — and resurrection — went to heaven, yet, from the Holy Bible, it appears that this belief of theirs is altogether wrong. Matthew (chapter 12, verse 40) says that just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so the Son of Man shall be three days and three nights in the bowels of the earth.
Now it is clear that Jonah did not die in the belly of the fish; the utmost that happened was that he was in a swoon or a fit of fainting. The holy books of God bear witness that Jonah, by the grace of God, remained alive in the belly of the fish, and came out alive; and his people ultimately accepted him. If then Jesus (on whom be peace) had died in the belly of the ‘fish’, what resemblance could there be between a dead man and the one who was alive, and how could a living one be compared with one dead?
The truth rather is, that as Jesus was a true prophet and as he knew that God, whose beloved he was, would save him from an accursed death, he made a prophecy in the form of a parable, revealed to him by God, in which he hinted that he would not die on the Cross, nor would he give up the ghost on the accursed wood; on the contrary, like the prophet Jonah, he would only pass through a state of swoon.
In the parable he had also hinted that he would come out of the bowels of the earth and would then join the people and, like Jonah, would be honoured by them. So this prophecy too was fulfilled; for Jesus, coming out of the bowels of the earth, went to his tribes who lived in the eastern countries, Kashmir and Tibet, etc. viz. the ten tribes of the Israelites who 721 years1 before Jesus, had been taken prisoner from Samaria by Shalmaneser, King of Assur, and had been taken away by him.
Ultimately, these tribes came to India and settled in various parts of that country. Jesus at all events must have made this journey; for the divine object underlying his advent was that he should meet the lost Jews who had settled in different parts of India; the reason being that these in fact were the lost sheep of Israel who had given up even their ancestral faith in these countries, and most of whom had adopted Buddhism, relapsing, gradually into idolatry.
Dr. Bernier, on the authority of a number of learned people, states in his Travels that the Kashmiris in reality are Jews who in the time of the dispersal in the days of the King of Assur had migrated to this country.2
In any case it was necessary for Jesus (peace be on him) to find out the whereabouts of these lost sheep, who had, on coming to this country, India, become merged into the other people. I shall presently adduce evidence that Jesus (peace be on him) did in fact come to India and then, by stages, travelled to Kashmir, and discovered the lost sheep of Israel among the people who professed the Buddhist faith and that these people ultimately accepted him, just as the people of the prophet Jonah accepted Jonah.
And this was inevitable; for Jesus had said in so many words that he had been sent to the lost sheep of Israel.
http://www.alislam.org/library/books/jesus-in-india/ch1.html
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June 18, 2009 at 10:01 pm |
It is not a sound method of interpretation to read your assumptions into Matthew 12 and basically rewrite the immediate context to fit your assumption. This is a logical fallacy which is sometimes called “manufacturing facts from a theory.” Nor is it sound to disregard the larger context of Matthew which indisputably contradicts your assumption. This is also a logical fallacy known as “special pleading.”
I invite you to love Jesus by believing what He taught and believing in His death and resurrection for sinners.
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