Open Theism Discussion Board

JEE said...

A couple of days ago I was watching with my three-year-old daughter the Veggie Tales movie, "Jonah" (a cute and funny movie even for oddball adults like me, actually). While watching it, I was struck with the fact (which I guess I had seen before in the Book of Jonah itself, but hadn't noticed before) that Jonah NEVER really had a heart that was right. All through the book, he operates from ungodly motives of self-preservation, cultural prejudice, and general selfish malevolence. The end of the book finds God rebuking the prophet for caring more for his own comfort (afforded by the gourd God caused to grow as a shade for Jonah) than for the welfare of the people of Nineveh "and much cattle."

What really struck me was the fact, so often and so sadly observed, that a person may in fact be MIGHTILY used by God without even himself having a pure heart. Could this sort of thing be what Jesus was referring to in Matt. 7:21-23?

So the question of whether or not John the Baptist was regenerate in his mother's womb seems moot with regard to his divinely ordained role as a prophet of God. The same God could use a donkey to speak for Him if need be.

I don't believe that the Bible paints Jonah in a very good light. The book ends without closure regarding Jonah himself. There is one sense of the definition of "prophet" as simply one who prophesies. Balaam and Caiaphas met this criteria even though they were both wicked men. They both prophesied. As I understand Jonah he is something more than Balaam, but he still seems less than 100% obedient, especially of the heart. I am reminded of the words of Jeremiah when he spoke of attempting NOT to speak God's words - they burned within him and had to be spoken. I think that the OT prophets were chosen specifically in a way that is not applicable after the incarnation and pentecost. John was the last and greatest in that he physically touched the promised messiah that all the other OT prophets had viewed at a distance.