Was Jonah a blackslider

[Salty]

Would you consider Jonah to be a backslider?

Open for discusion

 

[rlvaughn]

Salty, how would you define backslide? I found it defined these ways online:

Dictionary.com:

to relapse into bad habits, sinful behavior, or undesirable activities.

Billy Graham:

The Old Testament uses the term “backsliding” to speak of those who have been near to God but have allowed sin to take them away from Him. (He gave as examples, Jeremiah 2:19; Jeremiah 14:7; Hosea 14:4).

Easton Illustrated Bible Dictionary:

Backslide - to draw back or apostatize in matters of religion (Acts 21:21; 2 Th 2:3; 1 Timothy 4:1). This may be either partial (Proverbs 14:14) or complete (Hebrews 6:4-6; Hebrews 10:38; Hebrews 10:39). The apostasy may be both doctrinal and moral.

GotQuestions.Org:

The word backslide, in a Christian context, implies movement away from Christ rather than toward Him. A backslider is someone who is going the wrong way, spiritually.

I consider he did, as I usually think of backsliding and as most Baptists use the term -- he moved away from God in sin and disobedience. If used in the sense of some -- fall away from the faith -- then no. He had faith in God to do what Jonah did not want God to do -- forgive the Ninevehites!

 

[Vizio]

Yes. He disobeyed God's command. For a time he tried to run from God. Ironically it was because he knew the merciful nature of God and that God would relent on his punishment of Nineveh.

 

[JohnDeereFan]

Would you consider Jonah to be a backslider?

Open for discusion

He was under a different covenant and it would be an anachronism to hold him to modern standards.

 

[Rob_BW]

Well, we don't know much of anything about Jonah's life before the word of the Lord came to him.

I'm not sure if we should call him a backslider if we don't know how he was living previously.

 

[Alcott]

Was Jonah a blackslider?

His particular swimming style didn't matter; he sunk way, way down.

 

[rlvaughn]

Saw on a church sign this morning:

“If you're down in the mouth, remember Jonah. He came out all right.”

 

[rlvaughn]

He was under a different covenant and it would be an anachronism to hold him to modern standards.

JohnDeereFan, could you explain why you think speaking of backsliding is applying another covenant to his situation? For example, the word is used several times under the covenant of the law in the Old Testament. Would you say that we are using the word differently? Thanks.

Well, we don't know much of anything about Jonah's life before the word of the Lord came to him.

I'm not sure if we should call him a backslider if we don't know how he was living previously.

Most of what we know about Jonah is from the prophetic book of that title. His mention in the New Testament confirms the historicity of the account and uses Jonah's plight as prophetic of the resurrection. Matthew 12:41 might suggest he was in some sense "great," but that is probably reading too much into it. The other time that Jonah is mentioned in the Old Testament (other than the book of Jonah), he is called God's servant:

2 Kings 14:25 He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher.

He seems to have been close enough to the Lord, as his prophet, to understand that the reason that God was sending him to Nineveh was to warn the Ninevehites towards repentance -- yet far enough away from his heart to not desire the same thing the Lord desired. We certainly have to make some inferences from the limited information we have, but for myself I take it in Jonah's favor -- that he was probably a prophet of reasonable standing when God called him to go to Nineveh.

 

[Linda Davis]

Jonah had a lapse of reasoning when he allowed his prejudice to cloud his judgement.