Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: pmafire!geoff@uunet.uu.net (Geoff Allen) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: False prophets Message-ID: Date: 18 Sep 90 08:00:09 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: WINCO Computer Engineering, INEL, Idaho Lines: 53 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu rjb@akgua.att.com (Robert J Brown) asks if Jonah qualifies as a false prophet because his prophecy that: >>"Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown" (KJV). appears not to have come true. And timh@linus.uucp (Tim Hoogasian) writes: >IF - nineveh did not repent of its wickedness. you've missed a VERY >big 'if'... Indeed. Repentance seems to be able to override a prophecy. I was sent some e-mail asking if Isaiah qualified as a false prophet, since his prophecy to Hezekiah in II Kings 20:1 didn't come true. Isaiah said (as translated by the NIV committee): This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you will die; you will not recover. Not only did Isaiah prophecy that Hezekiah would die (not too tough to do, I can predict that for everyone reading this), but he also prophesized that Hezekiah would die of his present illness. But what happened? Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD.... (II Kings 20:2) The passage further records that Isaiah was told by God to turn around and return to Hezekiah and tell him that his prayers and tears were heard and he would not only recover, but would also live another 15 years. So it would appear, based on these two events (Hezekiah and Ninevah) that one can one can reverse a prophecy against oneself through repentance and prayer. -- Geoff Allen \ Since we live by the Spirit, uunet!pmafire!geoff \ let us keep in step with the Spirit. bigtex!pmafire!geoff \ -- Gal. 5:25 (NIV) [This discussion seems to me to be approaching the point of silliness. It seems fairly clear that the situation of people repenting when faced with a prophecy against them is an explicit exception to the requirement that a prophet's words will always come true. "At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it." Jer 18:7-8 (NRSV) Presumably this is going to be reflected in what the prophet who is conveying God's words says. --clh]