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| Sperm whale (Physeter microcephalus) illustration by Uko Gorter |
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Linguistically
speaking, the limitation of human language only exacerbates our
misunderstanding of God, for example, my reference to eternity's “past;” time is
irrelevant in eternity, yes! Since everything in creation had a beginning, it
is impossible for our finite mind to go outside the box, per se, to understand
that the Creator had no beginning.
There
is absolutely no way to wrap our thinking around this truth of God’s
eternality, no beginning or the inverse truth without ending. It’s best not to
rob ourselves of a blessing and take it on faith and move forward and enjoy
this amazing truth about God. No person, place, or thing preceded Yahweh. The only way that I can explain the eternal nature of God is to say, “He said that He
was everlasting;” and whether you or I believe it or not will not change that
spiritual reality.
Therefore,
we can rightfully assume that Yahweh knew that the Ninevites would repent based
on His attributes. He never changed His mind; He never miscalculated for that
would conflict with His holiness, omniscience, omnisapience, and immutableness.
In the case of Nineveh, He only changed His response to a dynamic change of the
human mind and heart. There is no evidence of Yahweh ever contradicting
Himself, changing His mind, or miscalculating their response.
In
the gamut of Scripture (the LXVI only), there is no evidence of contradiction,
modification, or miscalculation of Yahweh’s thoughts, words, or actions. There
is only the twisting and wrangling of the context by the low-viewers to prove
that Yahweh is either less than truthful or an outright liar. If this can be
proven then the reliability of the Scriptures is kaput because its Author lacks
integrity.
Just
how far in advance did Yahweh know Nineveh would turn from their wickedness?
Since He is eternal and unchangeable, we have no way of knowing since we are
finite, and Scripture makes it clear that God had no genesis or end. Since
eternity has no terminus points, imagine an uninterrupted linear line, without
any ticks or marks on it, running to a never-ending infinite horizon.
Where
along that line did Yahweh know about the Ninevites turning from their wicked
ways, ca 759 B.C.? We can only conclude, given His eternal attributes, that He
had always known since eternity “past;” you know; that infinite line that has
no beginning or ending in any direction or angle!
Here
is what I personally know about a satisfactory explanation of this text in
Jonah 3:10 for a high-viewer is that God relented even though it clearly stated
in Num 23:19 and 1 Sam 15:29 that God does not lie or change His mind. If you
have a high view of Scripture, you will have a high view of God; that God keeps
His word; He does not change His mind because of some miscalculation.
If
you have a low view of Scripture you will have a low view of God, and see contradictions
in the text. High-viewers will acknowledge there are challenges in Scripture
but not any contradictions; low-viewers will claim that the Bible is fraught
with contradictions, not challenges.
If
you are of the lower-view persuasion, you look at Scripture as a work of man,
full of errors and contradictory statements. After reading where it is said
that God does not lie nor change His mind (Num 23:19; 1 Sam 15:29), you go
throughout Scripture pointing out passages, like Jonah 3:10, where God appears
to be inconsistent with His statement in Num 23:19 and 1 Sam 15:29. You
conclude that God does indeed change His mind, which, according to a low-viewer
mentality makes God out to be unreliable as well as His Word.
There
is another way of looking at this anthropomorphism. It is similar to what the
Lord’s half-brother, James, does when he talks about justification or being
judicially declared righteous by God through faith alone. There are two
perspectives on justification: from God’s standpoint and from man’s viewpoint
in James’ discussion. In Jonah, there are two angles on God relenting:
evidentiary from God’s viewpoint and evidentiary from man’s standpoint.
(Jas
2:14) What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says
he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him (Jas 2:14)? Read what
Paul said in Rom 4:5, But to him who does
not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted
for righteousness. Think of works as fruits. James goes on to say
in 2:17-18, Thus also faith by itself, if it
does not have works [fruits], is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith,
and I have works [fruits].” Show me your
faith without your works [fruits], and I will show you my faith by my works [fruits]. Then in
2:24, You see that a man is justified by
works [fruits], and not by faith only.
Do
you recall Jesus telling His disciples that a tree is known by its own fruit in
Lk 6:44? An apple tree bears apples, not some other fruit. A fig trees down not
bear dates, right? If
we claim to be an apple tree, we must show forth the apples. You cannot claim
to be an apple tree and have no fruit. Think of the apple tree as faith.
Without apples, the apple tree is nothing more than a barren faith. So is faith
without works, but our justification is by faith alone. It cannot be both faith
and works (Rom 11:5-6; Eph 2:8-9; Titus 3:5).
Works
is all-inclusive, not limited to the keeping of the Law of Moses; it is anything
considered meritorious to earn heaven. It can be anything thought to be a
factor in salvation. According to Paul,
But
that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for
THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH (Gal 3:11).
(Eph
2:8) For
by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it
is the gift of God,
(Eph
2:9) not
of works, lest anyone should boast.
So,
what is James saying? Is he at odds with Paul in this matter of justification? There
is no problem, only a matter of perspective. Obviously, based on the high view,
both James and Paul are correct even though they seem to be polar opposites of
one another. Here is where we see the two perspectives on justification: God's side and the human side.
No
one can see the faith we have in God because only God knows our hearts. No one
could see Yahweh declaring us judicially righteous before Him when we were born
again. A pastor once heard my penitent cry to the LORD, but he could not see
God declaring me righteous before Him, and His Holy Spirit entering into my
heart. What the pastor could see moving forward is the visible fruit of my
faith, beginning with water baptism by immersion, identifying with the baptizer, and declaring my faith to the world.
If
we are claiming to be an apple tree (or a Christian), then we need to show the
world our apples. If we cannot, our faith is dead, as James would say in his directness.
Faith without fruit is a dead faith. God sees faith and fruit; we only see the
fruit and conclude a person of faith from it; a tree is known by its fruit,
yes? We are saved by faith alone, but genuine saving faith is not fruitless;
it produces fruit. Without fruit, our faith is DOA.
Hopefully,
you understand that there is a God perspective to justification (faith) and a human perspective to justification (fruit or works as a byproduct of faith). Consider that most
Americans claim to be Christian. From the polls I have read, there was one that
polled only evangelicals, but their beliefs were fraught with heresy even in
the most basic of biblical truths that are critical to the faith! Such faith is dead if one claims to be an apple tree that bears no apples!
Now,
I want to carry that same idea about justification over to God not changing His
mind to changing His mind, and see if we can get a better understanding of what
is going on here in Jonah. It probably won’t silence the low-viewers, but God
will one day. There is a God-side to changing His mind or relenting and a
man-side to it as well, similar to justification; faith in the heart that
cannot be seen, and fruit, in the life of faith, that can be seen.
The
people of Nineveh believed God (Jon 3:5) … Then God saw their works, that they turned from
their evil way (Jon 3:10). From Yahweh's point of view, He saw their faith and the fruit of it. From man's perspective, he saw the
evidence of the people humbling themselves before Yahweh, [the people] proclaimed a fast, and
put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them (Jon 3:5). And God relented from
the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them (Jon 3:10). Had the
people not believed, all living inside the walled city, including the surrounding
burbs on day 40 would be dead. Low-viewers need desperately to get a Life.
I
was reminded while writing this; if we believe in the verbal plenary
inspiration of the Scriptures, the problem is not found in the Scriptures but
in our understanding, not possessing the Holy Spirit or carnality or willful
ignorance. Because we fail to understand a thing doesn't demand a truth to
be untrue until we understand it, right? The burden of proof is not on the
Scriptures or God who is its Author (2 Tim 3:16), but on us. It is indeed
unfortunate that the low-viewers do not see it that way, but they are low-viewers
by choice (cf. 1 Cor 2:14; 2 Cor 4:4)! <><
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