Jonah and the nature of Prophecy

You know the story of Jonah and Nineveh, right?  Jonah was commanded by God to warn Nineveh that, because of their wickedness, they had forty days to live.  At first, Jonah disobeyed but then Jonah obeyed God and warned the Ninevites of their impending doom.

Lo and behold, the Ninevites were scared straight!  They immediately put on sack cloth and ashes and repented of their sins, calling on the Lord to save them.  And the Lord did.

Let’s say it happened today

Let’s say that, instead of this happening 6000 years ago, in ancient Nineveh, it happened today.  Let’s say that a modern day Jonah were to appear and warn the world of impending doom.  And the world repented sufficiently so that the doom was averted.

Do you know what would happen?  

The headlines would read, “False prophet!  His prophecy didn’t come true!”  Yeah, that’s right.  Instead of thanking God for His great mercy shown upon the world, the world would turn upon the fellow that had warned them and thus saved them from impending doom.  

Well folks, it is happening today

There are several people out there, who feel called by God to warn people of impending suffering and perhaps doom.  Modern day Catholic Seers claim they have received warnings from God and they are passing them on to us.

I’ve seen several articles in Catholic circles, warning people not to take these alleged seers too seriously.   They say that these things generally don’t come true.  They fail to account for the reason why they haven’t come true in the past.  Because of God’s mercy towards His elect.

The Church tells us how to discern these prophecies

Prophecies which contradict the Teaching of the Church, should be disregarded.  But, these prophecies, as far as I see, are completely in line with Church Teaching and in fact, they instruct us to observe all Church Teaching and to be obedient to the Church. 

Year of Mercy 

Is it coincidental that these prophecies are supposed to come true in 2017 and 2016 is the Year of Mercy?  I doubt it.

We don’t want these prophecies to come true

I know I don’t.  I’m sure these Seers would tell you that neither you nor they want these prophecies to come true.  In order to avert these prophecies, we need to imitate the Ninevites.  We need to repent of our sins.  We need to call out to God.  We need to pray for His mercy.

That’s the whole purpose of the warnings, if they are from God.  It is because of His merciful love that He wants us to repent of our sins and turn to Him.  Otherwise, He wouldn’t send any warnings.

Whether you be Catholic, Protestant, Jew or whatever.  We need to unite before God.  We need to become one in love and call out for His mercy.  

What if these warnings are false?

Let’s hope they are false.  But that’s not going to stop me from turning to God more and more each day.  Because even if these warnings are false, I know that I’m not going to live forever.  Someday, I will die.  And I don’t know the day nor the hour.  Therefore, I want to be as perfect as God wills for me to be, on that day.

The point of this article

The Ninevites didn’t sit around examining Jonah’s message when he came around with his warning.  They recognized that it was true and they admitted their sins and cried out to God for mercy.  Look around.  We live in a world-wide Nineveh.  It’s time to put on sack cloth and ashes.  It’s time to cry out for God’s mercy, again.