The Response Spreads Of Dr. William Bachus The Paranoid Prophet

The Response Spreads

In addition to their repentance, to show their sincerity and humility, they declare a fast and put on sack cloth. Even the King (whose name is not given), we are told, arose from his throne, put off his royal robes, sat in ashes and proclaimed an official fast with sack cloth for himself and all the people of the city, along with their domestic animals. Then, “Let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from His fierce anger so that we may not perish.” (3:8-9) Notice that this king does not guarantee that all will go well. He only hopes they will be spared. It was an act of unprecedented royal humility and
His strange behavior has elicited a number of speculations about this. Dr. William Bachus, a Christian psychologist, has written a small book entitled The Paranoid Prophet, in which he uses a fictional psychologist to probe Jonah’s emotional behavior which may have contributed to his anger and over-reaction toward God. Dr. Bachus has Jonah confessing to his psychologist, “To my twisted vision, God’s mercy on Nineveh was as evil as my warning cry in the streets had been to my assailants—though that word I resented was God’s own love sparing their very lives. I did not understand God’s love and I thought it a weakness in Him.” The author ends his book by putting words into Jonah’s mouth that say in essence that God has forgiven Jonah and Jonah has forgiven God. Dr. Bacchus’s book touches on legitimate struggles that are shared by many Christians
Shad Helmstetter, who works and writes in the area of human behavior, has a book entitled Who Are You Really and What Do You Want? Helmstetter argues that we need to do what he calls more “Self Talk” to know who we are and what we believe. Although the book is not about Jonah per say, its insights can help us to understand who Jonah was and why he acted as he did. Jonah seemed unable to engage in serious self-introspection. He was a rigid product of his culture, his nation, and upbringing. When God confronted him with new and greater knowledge of Himself, Jonah froze. His behavior causes us to wonder how willing we are to allow God to expand our thinking and behavior in order to conform to His