Deu 18:21 And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the
LORD hath not spoken?
22 When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not,
nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the
prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.


People have all sorts of opinions, but it doesn't really matter. If a prophet
speaks something that doesn't come true then He didn't get it from God. That's
what the Bible says and Jesus says the scriptures can't be broken.

You don't repent from something that is going to happen. You repent from
something that happened. God repented from what He said, which was having Jonah
speak out against Nineveh. Of course He knew He was going to repent ahead of
time or He wouldn't be God. He repented because that was the role he chose.
The God of the Bible knows everything ahead of time. When Moses persuaded God
not to destroy Israel, it was God's will. Just like Jesus knew He was going to
be crucified.

When Jonah spoke out he didn't even mention God. It was the faith of the people
that led them to believe that God was in control. They demonstrated their
faithfulness ahead of time just like God knew they would. If a god doesn't know
something ahead of time then he isn't the God the Bible teaches. It is
impossible that Jonah would have taught something that God said was going to
happen, and it didn't happen. Jonah was just a man, but God doesn't make
mistakes. If God didn't know that Nineveh wouldn't be overthrown and Jonah did,
as he said in 4:2, the Jonah knew more than God. If that is the case then Jonah
should have been God and God should have been the false prophet. That's
ridiculous.



--- In parousia@yahoogroups.com, "johanna_kelton" <johanna_kelton@...> wrote:
>
> A prophet is a human being, not some divine being who never makes a bad
decision, like not going to Nineveh at first as God instructed him. Jonah's
refusal to go didn't go unpunished. As you know, he ended up in the belly of a
whale because he was trying not to have to prophesy to the city. Jonah acted on
behalf of God and was well aware of when destruction (Nineveh being overthrown)
would take place or he wouldn't have said forty days. God obviously informed
him.
>
> Jonah was unhappy that destruction would not come in the time he had
prophesied that it would, making it look to some (most likely the unbelievers
and unrepentent) that he was not a true prophet because his prophecy was no
longer going to occur to the people of that generation (as they were now
repentful and God in His great mercy spared them), although it did happen some
60 years later.
>
> JON 3:10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and
God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he
did it not.
>
> His prophesy brougtht the people of Nineveh to repentence and was the reason
they were spared, so yes, he is a true prophet of God.
>
>
>
> Overthrow: (dictionary.com)
>
> 2. to put an end to by force, as a government or institution.
> 3. to throw or knock down; overturn; topple: The heavy winds overthrew
numerous telephone poles and trees.
> 4. to knock down and demolish.
>
>
>
>