Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Jonah

[Joel Blazing Pants]

The book of Jonah heavily implies that the acceptance of Jesus isn't necessary for salvation.

I'm pretty sure we all know the story of Jonah. Ninevah being the worst city on the planet, God wants Jonah to warn them. He doesn't want to, runs away, gets eaten by a fish, eventually prophesies, the people repent, God forgives, the city isn't destroyed, God is good.

But the fact that God forgave them is very, very important.

Nowhere in the Book of Jonah does it imply that the sacrifice of innocent life was a requirement for God to forgive the Ninevites.

They repented, they humbled themselves, they fasted. But they did not kill, shown by the actual verses:

"6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened."

God still forgave them. Which makes Jonah very angry. They have a little debate, and it ends with God saying:

" And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh,in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” "

It shows that God has concern for those who do not know him, and that can be delved into another day. The point is that this was a time where Jesus hadn't existed yet, and supposedly the only way through forgiveness was through the sacrifice of an innocent life.

But there were no mass killings in Ninevah and God still forgave them.

Meaning that God can forgive without the need for death.

Meaning that, according to the bible, people who believe in God do not need Jesus.

[jimwalton]

Well, interesting post. Let's talk about it. It seems that your whole point is that Nineveh was forgiven without the need of a fatal blood sacrifice.

The key to where you are wrong is that the text never says the Ninevites were forgiven—that their sins were removed, but only that God had compassion on them and relented from the impending judgment.

First of all, the Ninevites declared a fast and they believed what Jonah said (pertaining to his message from his God: they "believed God" [Jonah 3.5]). Jonah had never even told them the identity of his God. There is no indication they got rid of their idols or understood the law. They repented, but any Assyrian would have done so under these circumstances. . If they had been convinced that some god was angry at them and about to destroy them, they would have sought to appease that god. That is how they took Jonah’s warning. In the ancient world people believed that there were all sorts of powerful gods, but they only worshiped the ones they believed had power over their lives. Jonah was informing them that a God they had not recognized had noticed them and was going to act against them, and they were grateful for this information.

There's no indication they were sorry for their sins, were repenting from their sins, were turning to the true God, or converting to Judaism. They declared a fast and sat in the dust to indicate spiritual mourning.

"God had compassion on them" (Jonah 3.10). There's no forgiveness of sins for repentance. There is compassion and mercy. The whole point is that God responds with compassion to even the smallest steps in the right direction.

So to answer your question, Jesus is still necessary for the forgiveness of sins.