Why did the people of Nineveh repent so easily in Jonah? They

Everyone back then was really fucking gullible.

they knew what happened to Sodom

>>9106339
Well he told them God was going to destroy the city for one.

>>9106727
Any raving prophet could have done that. What did Jonah specifically do to make his words actually have an effect on other people?

>>9107028
We don't know. I would speculate the following points (combine them as you wish):

- it working was God's miracle of changing their minds
- it working was because they knew what happened to some other city who practiced similar things as they did
- it working was because this prophet was really convincing
- it working was because the prophet did some miracles
- it working was because the citizens were already reaching a critical mass of guilt perhaps from socially destructive events happening in their city (murder, adultery, theft, diseases etc.) and the prophet was the catalizator that turned guilt into repentence

The way I see it, God knows in advance who will listen to the prohpet's words and who will not but he extends the same courtesy to all. So some end up rejecting the message and some listen.

>>9107093
This is one of the best posts I've seen in a few weeks.

>- it working was because this prophet was really convincing
>- it working was because the citizens were already reaching a critical mass of guilt perhaps from socially destructive events happening in their city

I like these the most because it would offer a good example for others to follow, and doesn't require God's direct intervention, though God is involved in all things.

>>9107117
It's funny because when you combine those two factors you still get a miracle: the right person, speaking the exact right words, to the people who needed to hear them at the exact right time. It's just not a supernatural miracle, so not as "sexy" to us. Or possibly the supernatural aspect doesn't penetrate into our physical world, for all we know angels of God might have stood by the prophet's side at that time with nobody being physically aware of them.

I mean lets be honest, as time goes onward, God interacts less and less with the world and his people. We are very far, not so far though, from creation now, so he is spacing out his interactions by a lot.

Back then, God was very obviously real and very close. I believe God had made a threat to Nineveh concerning their fishing seasons at the time. Also, wasn't Jonah swallowed by a fucking whale before this?!

>>9107200
It's also people moving away from God. How many people are unhappy with the way things are and how many turn to God for help? I'd suggest not many. There's a lot of unhappiness but it never occurs to anyone that it might be due to us turning away from God. Always a new system is proposed some new -ism. Though I will not be surprised if we will soon propose a man-made "pragmatic" religion once it becomes common knowledge that man needs religious belief. But again, I would not be surprised if we created a pragmatic and aritficial one merely as a solution to that problem, instead of examining a honest repentance.

>>9107234
I think God interacting less with his people is just a good sign overall. It shows we are traveling forward WITH God. The disbelief in God happened recently. And it seems things are being set in motion now in response to that. The theory of evolution seems to me to be the biggest problem with academic and scientific understanding, and that is now being extricated skillfully thanks to you all.