One of the common arguments that Latter-day Saints frequently raise when shown Joseph Smith’s many false prophecies is that the Prophet Jonah in the Bible would also be a false prophet because he prophesied of the destruction of Nineveh, but that didn’t come to pass because the people of Nineveh repented.
This is a really bad argument because it ignores the whole narrative thrust and purpose of the Book of Jonah.
The Book of Jonah opens with the Prophet called by God to go to Nineveh and “and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” Jonah 1:2 (ESV). Jonah is being sent to warn Nineveh of impending destruction.
Jonah flees from God and does not want to perform this task. The Book of Jonah is brilliantly written in that it does not at first give us any insight into why Jonah does this. These revelations instead come later on. We might think at first, for instance, that Jonah might have been afraid for his life. But that is not at all the case.
Instead, we only learn why Jonah fled AFTER he preaches and achieves great success and the people of Nineveh repent and are saved. Jonah cries out to God, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.” Jonah 4:2 (ESV). So Jonah did not want to preach to Nineveh because he knew that God was merciful and would be willing to forgive the people of Nineveh if he was allowed to preach to them. Jonah wanted Nineveh to be destroyed and did not want to preach to them to give them a chance to repent and be forgiven.
It is clear that Jonah was not a false prophet. He knew that his words carried with them the chance that Nineveh would repent. That’s why he did not want to go. The people of Nineveh likewise understood his words as conveying the opportunity to repent.
Jonah’s reluctance to be the instrument of Nineveh’s repentance also helps explain another otherwise puzzling portion of this story. It explains why Jonah seems to preach the most halfhearted sermon of all time. After only traveling in Nineveh a single day (in a City that is a three days journey), he calls out “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Jonah 3:4 (ESV). This is hardly a heartfelt cry of repentance. Jonah doesn’t really seem to want his efforts to succeed. Yet God uses Jonah’s lame and uninspired preaching to carry out an incredible miracle of deliverance.
So the Book of Jonah shows God’s great sovereignty and providence and also his great mercy and compassion. A rebellious prophet cannot foil the work of God. God’s will for the deliverance of Nineveh was carried out just as Jonah had feared and predicted. Jonah was not a false prophet, but a reluctant true prophet of a God who is never false and is never frustrated by our imperfections.
Boasting In Christ Alone 