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<\/a><\/p>\nAs I did with the prophets Isaiah<\/a> and Jeremiah<\/a>, I will now take a look at the twelve \u201cminor prophets\u201d (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi) and see whether their theology of salvation (soteriology) is closer in spirit and substance to Catholic or Protestant soteriology. I\u2019ve never done this before, so I look forward to what will certainly be an exciting journey of discovery.<\/p>\n To briefly recap the differences: the Protestant idea is that people can do absolutely nothing to be saved. Accordingly, the Good News Bible paraphrased Isaiah 64:6 in a spectacularly biased and incorrect way: \u201ceven our best actions are filthy through and through\u201d. Catholics wholeheartedly agree that Pelagianism or works-salvation is a heresy. What we disagree with is the notion that no good works that come from this grace are meritorious, as the proof of genuine faith, or that none of them can play a role in our ultimate salvation, as the \u201cfruit\u201d of faith or \u201cwork of faith\u201d (1 Thess 1:3; 2 Thess 1:11) or \u201cfaith working through love\u201d (Gal 5:6) or \u201cgood works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them\u201d (Eph 2:10), as \u201cGod\u2019s fellow workers\u201d (1 Cor 3:9), \u201cworking together with\u201d God (2 Cor 6:1), and working \u201charder\u201d as a result of \u201cthe grace of God which is with\u201d us (1 Cor 15:10), \u201cabounding in the work of the Lord\u201d (1 Cor 15:58), since \u201cGod is at work in\u201d us, \u201cboth to will and to work for his good pleasure\u201d (Phil 2:13), etc., etc.<\/p>\n The minor prophets teach the New Testament and Catholic doctrine of grace, works, and faith all being involved in the process of salvation (see fifty passages from Paul about this<\/a>). But they also teach the biblical and Catholic doctrine of good, meritorious works and obedience to God\u2019s law and moral commands playing a central role in God\u2019s determination of every person\u2019s ultimate salvation or damnation (see fifty passages about that, too<\/a>). All verses will be from the RSV.<\/p>\n God is Loving<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Hosea 11:1, 3-4, 8 <\/span><\/span><\/strong>When Israel was a child, I loved him, . . . [3] . . .\u00a0<\/span>but they did not know that I healed them. [4] I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one, who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them. . . . [8] . . . my compassion grows warm and tender.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Hosea 14:4<\/strong> . . . I will love them freely, . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Joel 2:13<\/strong> for he is gracious . . . slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Jonah 4:2<\/strong> . . . I knew that thou art a gracious God . . . slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Micah 7:18, 20<\/strong> . . . God . . . delights in steadfast love. . . . [20] Thou wilt show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Nahum 1:3<\/strong> The LORD is slow to anger . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Malachi 1:2<\/strong> \u201cI have loved you,\u201d says the LORD. . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n God is Merciful<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Hosea 2:19-20<\/strong> And I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. [20] I will betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know the LORD.<\/span><\/p>\n Hosea 6:1<\/strong> \u201cCome, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn, that he may heal us; he has stricken, and he will bind us up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Hosea 6:11<\/strong> For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed. When I would restore the fortunes of my people,<\/span><\/p>\n Hosea 14:4<\/strong> I will heal their faithlessness; . . . for my anger has turned from them.<\/span><\/p>\n Joel 2:13<\/strong> for he is gracious and merciful, . . . and repents of evil. [i.e., exercises mercy when repentance occurs]<\/span><\/p>\n Joel 2:18<\/strong> Then the LORD became jealous for his land, and had pity on his people.<\/span><\/p>\n Amos 9:14-15<\/strong> I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. [15] I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land which I have given them,\u201d says the LORD your God.<\/span><\/p>\n Jonah 3:10<\/strong> When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it.<\/span><\/p>\n Jonah 4:2<\/strong> . . . I knew that thou art . . . merciful,. . . and repentest of evil.<\/span><\/p>\n Jonah 4:11<\/strong> \u201cAnd should not I pity Nin\u2019eveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Micah 4:6-7, 10<\/strong> In that day, says the LORD, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away, and those whom I have afflicted; [7] and the lame I will make the remnant; and those who were cast off, a strong nation; . . . [10] . . . the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.<\/span><\/p>\n Micah 7:18-19<\/strong> Who is a God like thee, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger for ever . . . [19] He will again have compassion upon us, he will tread our iniquities under foot. Thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Nahum 1:12<\/strong> . . . Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.<\/span><\/p>\n Zephaniah 2:7<\/strong> . . . For the LORD their God will be mindful of them and restore their fortunes.<\/span><\/p>\n Zephaniah 3:14<\/strong> Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! [15] The LORD has taken away the judgments against you, he has cast out your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall fear evil no more.<\/span><\/p>\n Haggai 2:19<\/strong> \u201c. . . From this day on I will bless you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Zechariah 1:16-17<\/strong> \u201cTherefore, thus says the LORD, I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion; my house shall be built in it, says the LORD of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. [17] Cry again, Thus says the LORD of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.'\u201d (cf. 2:8-13; 3:9)<\/span><\/p>\n Zechariah 8:3<\/strong> Thus says the LORD: I will return to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain. (cf. 8:7-8, 11-15; 10:6)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Salvation is By God\u2019s Grace Through Faith; Justification; God Calls His Elect<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Hosea 10:12<\/strong> . . . it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain salvation upon you.<\/span><\/p>\n Hosea 13:4<\/strong> . . . besides me there is no savior.<\/span><\/p>\n Joel 2:32<\/strong> . . . for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.<\/span><\/p>\n Micah 7:7-8<\/strong>\u00a0But as for me, I will look to the LORD, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. [8] . . . the LORD will be a light to me. (cf. 7:9)<\/span><\/p>\n Nahum 1:7<\/strong> The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.<\/span><\/p>\n Habakkuk 3:13, 18-19<\/strong> Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, for the salvation of thy anointed. . . . [18] yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. [19] GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like hinds\u2019 feet, he makes me tread upon my high places. . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Haggai 2:4<\/strong> Yet now take courage, O Zerub\u2019babel, says the LORD; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehoz\u2019adak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the LORD; work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts,<\/span><\/p>\n Zechariah 3:3-4<\/strong> Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. [4] And the angel said to those who were standing before him, \u201cRemove the filthy garments from him.\u201d And to him he said, \u201cBehold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with rich apparel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Zechariah 10:8<\/strong> . . . I have redeemed them, . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n True Faith Must Be Preceded by Repentance<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Joel 2:12-13<\/strong> \u201cYet even now,\u201d says the LORD, \u201creturn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; [13] and rend your hearts and not your garments.\u201d Return to the LORD, your God, . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Joel 2:32<\/strong> And it shall come to pass that all who call upon the name of the LORD shall be delivered . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Amos 4:6<\/strong> \u201c. . . you did not return to me . . .\u201d (cf. 4:8-11)<\/span><\/p>\n Jonah 3:7-8<\/strong> \u00a0And he made proclamation and published through Nin\u2019eveh, \u201cBy the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, or drink water, [8] but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry mightily to God; yea, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands.<\/span><\/p>\n Zechariah 1:3-4, 6<\/strong> . . . Thus says the LORD of hosts: Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. [4] Be not like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, \u2018Thus says the LORD of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.\u2019 But they did not hear or heed me, says the LORD. . . . [6] But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, As the LORD of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Faith Must be Wholehearted<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Hosea 7:14<\/strong> They do not cry to me from the heart, . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hosea 10:2, 4<\/strong> Their heart is false; . . . [4] They utter mere words; with empty oaths they make covenants; . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Amos 5:21-23<\/strong> \u201cI hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. [22] Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal offerings, I will not accept them, and the peace offerings of your fatted beasts I will not look upon. [23] Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Faith Alone and Verbal Proclamations Are Not Sufficient for Salvation<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Micah 3:8-12<\/strong> But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. [9] Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity, [10] who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong. [11] Its heads give judgment for a bribe, its priests teach for hire, its prophets divine for money; yet they lean upon the LORD and say, \u201cIs not the LORD in the midst of us? No evil shall come upon us.\u201d [12] Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.<\/span> Faith and Works Are Organically United and Two Sides of the Same Coin<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Hosea 5:7<\/strong> They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne alien children. . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hosea 6:7<\/strong> But at Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.<\/span><\/p>\n Hosea 10:12<\/strong> Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hosea 11:12<\/strong> E\u2019phraim has encompassed me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah is still known by God, and is faithful to the Holy One.<\/span><\/p>\n Hosea 12:6<\/strong> \u201cSo you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Amos 5:24<\/strong> \u201cBut let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/strong> He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?<\/span><\/p>\n Habakkuk 2:4<\/strong> Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I interpret this passage as saying that living the faith is inseparable from faith in the sense of belief. In the Hebrew mind the two things are<\/strong> <\/em>the same. To believe a thing is<\/em><\/strong> to live it out<\/em><\/strong>. Accordingly, James 2:18 states: \u201cI by my works will show you my faith.\u201d Paul cites Habakkuk 2:4 twice (Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11, RSV) as \u201cHe who through faith is righteous shall live.\u201d This doesn\u2019t support the Protestant view unless they attempt to eisegete it and falsely contend that \u201crighteous\u201d here is merely imputed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Zephaniah 2:3<\/strong> Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his commands; seek righteousness, seek humility; . . .<\/span><\/p>\n Zechariah 3:7<\/strong> . . . If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Zechariah 7:9-10<\/strong> \u201cThus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy each to his brother, [10] do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Zechariah 8:16-17<\/strong> These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, [17] do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, says the LORD.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Malachi 2:6, 10-11<\/strong> True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. . . . [10]\u00a0Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?\u00a0[11] Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Indwelling of the Holy Spirit<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Joel 2:28-29<\/strong> \u201cAnd it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, <\/span>your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. [29] Even upon the menservants and maidservants in those days, I will pour out my spirit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Haggai 2:5<\/strong> . . . My Spirit abides among you; fear not.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Disobedience to God\u2019s Moral Laws and Lack of Good Works Bring About Judgment and Ultimate Damnation<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Hosea 4:6<\/strong> My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.<\/span><\/p>\n Hosea 4:9<\/strong> . . . I will punish them for their ways, and requite them for their deeds.<\/span><\/p>\n
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