El suicidio según la Biblia

Hablo de este tema con profundo respeto por los que han perdido familiares de esta manera tan dolorosa. No obstante, es menester que se analice este asunto tan delicado a la luz de las Sagradas Escrituras.

Me ha sorprendido en gran manera escuchar a pastores, predicadores y líderes decir que el suicidio es algo común que puede sucederle a un hijo de Dios. Más aún me sorprende que haya líderes que vayan tan lejos que digan que el suicidio no afecta la salvación de una persona.

El argumento más insólito que he escuchado es que en la Biblia no se habla abiertamente del suicidio, y, por tanto, no es pecado y no se puede emitir un juicio al respecto. Curioso por demás este argumento porque de fumar marihuana, usar drogas o masturbarse tampoco se habla en la Biblia, no obstante, es por todos reconocido que estos son pecados que nos alejan de la gracia de Dios.

Iré desglosando el tema en diferentes preguntas y no aludiré a nada más que LA BIBLIA para llegar a una conclusión.


¿Puede un cristiano suicidarse?

Esta pregunta tiene dos vertientes. La primera es que no todo aquel que va a la iglesia es cristiano. Más aún, Jesús dijo que habrá ministros que harán milagros y prodigios que El nunca conoció.


Muchos me dirán en aquel día: “Señor, Señor, ¿no profetizamos en tu nombre, y en tu nombre echamos fuera demonios, y en tu nombre hicimos muchos milagros?”  Y entonces les declararé: “Jamás os conocí..." (Mateo 7:22-23)


Así que la pregunta correcta sería: ¿Puede un cristiano nacido de nuevo suicidarse? En efecto, el ser humano tiene la capacidad de hacer lo que quiera, no obstante, un nacido de nuevo solo desea hacer la voluntad de Dios. Precisamente eso es lo que produce el ser conocido por Cristo, el deseo y el anhelo de hacer la voluntad del Padre. Y es este el REQUISITO para entrar al cielo, Jesús dijo:


No todo el que me dice: “Señor, Señor”, entrará en el reino de los cielos, sino el que hace la voluntad de mi Padre ... (Mateo 7:21)


¿Será la voluntad de Dios que sus hijos se maten a sí mismos? Creo que cualquier cristiano lleno del Espíritu Santo conoce la respuesta de esa pregunta. Precisamente para esto murió Jesús en la cruz del Calvario, para salvarnos de la muerte y para librarnos de la potestad de Satanás.


¿Es el suicidio el fruto de una vida consagrada y de unión íntima con Dios o un fruto de la carne?

Gálatas 5:22- 24 nos dice claramente cuáles son los frutos de vivir una vida consagrada a Dios:
Mas el fruto del Espíritu es amor, gozo, paz, paciencia, benignidad, bondad, fe, mansedumbre, templanza; contra tales cosas no hay ley. Pero los que son de Cristo han crucificado la carne con sus pasiones y deseos. 

Más claro el caso contra el suicidio no puede ser. Los frutos del espíritu son todo lo opuesto a lo que un suicida puede sentir. Una persona que llega a tal extremo no puede tener ningún tipo de paz y mucho menos de amor. ¿Acaso no es el matar el acto máximo de odio y desprecio a la vida?

Por otro lado, el mismo capítulo de Gálatas(vv. 19-21) habla de los frutos de vivir en la carne o sin  Dios:

Y manifiestas son las obras de la carne, que son: adulterio, fornicación, inmundicia, lascivia, idolatría, hechicerías, enemistades, pleitos, celos, iras, contiendas, disensiones, herejías, envidias, homicidios, borracheras, orgías, y cosas semejantes a estas; acerca de las cuales os amonesto...

Cualquiera que se atreva a decir que el suicidio no aparece en la Biblia no tiene ningún tipo de discernimiento espiritual. Esta porción Bíblica claramente dice que el homicidio, es decir, el asesinar, el matar, es un fruto de la carne. Más aún, dice el apóstol que los que dan estos frutos no van al cielo:

...los que practican tales cosas no heredarán el reino de Dios. (v. 21)

Ahora bien, la lógica torcida y enceguecida de quienes afirman que el suicidio no afecta la salvación nos dice que estos versos aplican solo a los que matan a otras personas. Osea, para ellos matar a otro es pecado...¿Pero matarse a sí mismo no? Dios abra sus ojos. La Palabra dice:

...ningún asesino puede tener la vida eterna. (1 Juan 3:15, TLA)

Entonces, ¿cómo es posible que alguien que se asesine a sí mismo pueda alcanzar la vida eterna? Decir esto es abiertamente antibíblico, rebelión ante los estatutos de Dios.

¿Acaso no es nuestro cuerpo Templo del Espíritu Santo?

Unos de los pasajes que más claro habla del suicidio se encuentra en 1 Corintios 6:19-20:

¿...ignoráis que vuestro cuerpo es templo del Espíritu Santo, el cual está en vosotros,el cual tenéis de Dios, y que no sois vuestros? Porque habéis sido comprados por precio; glorificad, pues, a Dios en vuestro cuerpo y en vuestro espíritu, los cuales son de Dios.

No entiendo cómo un cristiano nacido de nuevo puede argumentar en favor del suicidio a la luz de el pasado verso que claramente dice que nuestro cuerpo NO NOS PERTENECE y que nuestro cuerpo es para GLORIFICAR A DIOS. ¿Trae gloria y honra a Dios que un hijo suyo se suicide? ¿Esa es nuestra manera de agradecer su sacrificio en la cruz? Aquel que valore al Espíritu Santo, valora y cuida su cuerpo, no lo destruye.

¿Qué le sucederá al que destruya el templo del Espíritu Santo?

¿No sabéis que sois templo de Dios, y que el Espíritu de Dios mora en vosotros? Si alguno destruyere el templo de Dios, Dios le destruirá a él; porque el templo de Dios, el cual sois vosotros, santo es. (1 Corintios 3:16-17)

Esto es claro y contundente, la Palabra de Dios establece que nuestro cuerpo es templo del Espíritu Santo, que no nos pertenece, que no tenemos potestad sobre él y que nuestro cuerpo tiene el propósito de glorificar a Dios. Por esta razón, porque el cuerpo es el lugar donde el Espíritu de Dios habita, asesinarlo es pecado y la sentencia sobre aquellos que destruyan el cuerpo está establecida en la BIBLIA, en los versos que acabo de discutir: Si alguno destruyere el templo de Dios, Dios le destruirá a él. 

¿Acaso no hacen los hijos la voluntad de su padre?

Quizás la palabra más fuerte que se pueda decir respecto al suicidio la dijo Jesús nuestro Señor. Analicemos. 

Vosotros sois de vuestro padre el diablo, y los deseos de vuestro padre queréis hacer. El ha sido homicida desde el principio... (Juan 8:44)

Aquí no hay mucho que discutir. El homicida cumple el deseo del diablo. El que desea matar, complace a Satanás y por tanto, según Jesús mismo dijo, es hijo de él - le pertenece.

Es importante señalar que Jesús dijo que el diablo "ha sido homicida desde el principio". Es decir, matar es parte de su carácter, es su propósito. Jesús dijo:

El ladrón no viene sino para hurtar y matar y destruir... (Juan 10:10)

¿Acaso no es esto el suicidio: hurtar la vida, matar y destruir el Templo del Espíritu Santo? ¿Cómo, pues, se justifica que cristianos defiendan la causa de Satanás que no es otra cosa que destruir a la humanidad?

Es irónico que haya cristianos haciendo el caso para el suicidio cuando el mismo verso en el que Jesús describe a Satanás como ladrón, asesino y destructor de la humanidad, El diga que vino para darnos vida abudante:

El ladrón no viene sino para hurtar y matar y destruir; yo he venido para que tengan vida, y para que la tengan en abundancia.

¿Cómo es posible que no veamos que Jesús está haciendo un fuerte contraste entre El y Satanás y dejando claro que el diablo quiere la muerte y la destrucción de los hijos de Dios mientras que Jesús quiere que vivan?

Por último, la Palabra de Dios dice: 

Seguid la paz con todos, y la santidad, sin la cual nadie verá al Señor. (Hebreos 12:14)

¿Acaso es santidad tomar autoridad sobre nuestro cuerpo y matarlo sabiendo que la Biblia dice que no nos pertenece? 

Recordemos que Jesús dijo:

Mas el que persevere hasta el fin, éste será salvo. (Mateo 24:13)

¿Desde cuándo optar por destruir el templo del Espíritu Santo es "perseverar en la fe hasta el fin"? Dios tenga misericordia

No me queda más que dirigirme a los que estén leyendo este artículo y hayan pensado en el suicidio como una opción. Jesús dijo que EL vino para que TU tengas vida, y no solo vida, sino vida en abundancia. Abre tu corazón y pídele su ayuda, EL no te la negará, es promesa. Jesús dijo:

...al que a mí viene, no le echo fuera. (Juan 6:37)

Jesús fue a morir en la cruz paa que TU vivas, El dio Su vida por la tuya...por amor.

Porque de tal manera amó Dios al mundo, que ha dado a su Hijo unigénito, para que todo aquel que en él cree, no se pierda, mas tenga vida eterna. (Juan 3:16)

La Biblia dice:

Acercaos a Dios, y él se acercará a vosotros. (Santiago 4:8)

Ven a Cristo y obtén vida en abundancia...

A los ministros que estén leyendo esto, una advertencia: tengan cuidado de lo que enseñan, escudriñen la Escritura y enseñen conforme al Espíritu que hay en ella y no conforme a razonamientos de hombres. Los líderes rendiremos cuentas a Dios por nuestras enseñanzas. Seamos sabios y entendidos y no nos aliemos con enseñanzas diabólicas que puedan incitar a otros a cometer este acto, no seamos piedra de tropiezo...sabemos bien lo que dijo Jesús sobre ser la piedra de tropiezo de otros. Dios nos ayude a siempre ser Bíblicos.

Joseph's Dreams

Without a doubt, Joseph is one of the most important characters of the Bible. He was certainly one noble man, so noble that God chose him to complete an important task: to preserve a remnant for God during the years of famine that struck the Middle East in his time. God showed Joseph what He was going to do with him. But God did not tell how He would accomplish His will on Joseph.

In Genesis 37 we read:

And Joseph dreamed a dream, and told his brethren, who hated him so much the more.

For he said unto them, Hear, I pray you this dream which I have dreamed.

Behold now, we were binding sheaves in the midst of the field: and lo, my sheaf arose and also stood upright, and behold, your sheaves compassed round about, and did reverence to my sheaf.

Then his brethren said to him, What, shalt thou reign over us, and rule us? or shalt thou have altogether dominion over us? And they hated him so much the more, for his dreams, and for his words.

Again he dreamed another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have had one dream more, and behold, the Sun and the Moon and eleven stars did reverence to me.

Then he told it unto his father and to his brethren, and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this thy dream, which thou hast dreamed? shall I, and thy mother, and thy brethren come indeed and fall on the ground before thee?

God showed Joseph what the future would bring and what would happen. Evidently, these dreams showed a bright future for Joseph, one in which he would reign over other people; leadership and honor were in the horizon for him. I'm sure Joseph did not expect what happened immediately after God spoke to him.

In verse 20, one of the brothers say:

Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, A wicked beast hath devoured him: then we shall see, what will come of his dreams.

Unlike what he would have expected, fulfillment did not come after the dream.  What came after was exactly the opposite of that dream; he was not converted into a leader but into a slave as we see in verse 28.

Then the Midianites’ merchant men passed by, and they drew forth, and lift Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver: who brought Joseph into Egypt.

Who would have thought that after such a glorious dream one would end up as a slave? Psalm 105:18 says:

They held his feet in the stocks, and he was laid in irons... (GNV)

Not only that, after being enslaved, Joseph faced death penalty because of a false accusation made by Potiphar's wife. It is very important to point out the fact that in all of this no sin is attributed to Joseph; he was suffering injustice and it was not because of the result of bad actions. 

Actually Joseph is an example of chastity and purity since he was tempted many times but he did not commit any sin as it is said in Genesis 39:10. Being pure and honest did not save him from jail and he paid for a crime that he did not commit:

And Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, in the place, where the king’s prisoners lay bound: and there he was in prison. (Genesis 39:20)

This is exactly the opposite of Joseph's dream. Not only he was a slave anymore, now he was an imprisoned slave. No one would ever think that this is the place where the dream was going to come to reality. According to our natural mind no one could ever think of becoming a great revered leader being imprisoned accused of rape. But God's ways are not ours, thank God for it.

It is extremely important to mention that Joseph had his dream when he was 17 years old as it is said in the Scriptures; he was sold as a slave immediately after. From this we know that he was sold as a slave being a teenager. Let us remember that he was extremely attached to his father, so we must know that he was suffering way too much, much more than we can imagine.

But the question arises, why did he go through all this? Is it because he was not a good servant of God? Was it because God was punishing him for being so loved by his father Israel? Was God punishing him for being proud? We find the answer to these questions in Psalm 105:19:

They held his feet in the stocks, and he was laid in irons, until his appointed time came, and the counsel of the Lord had tried him.

The answer is clear: God put Joseph's faith into trial. Geneva Study Bible's note on this verse says: So long he suffered adversity as God had appointed, and till He had tried sufficiently his patience. This verse is crystal clear: God was not punishing Joseph, God was not scourging him; God was testing him until the time that God prepared for the completion of the prophecy. For how long did Joseph have to wait? The answer is in the Bible. Genesis 41:46 says:

And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh King of Egypt: and Joseph departing from the presence of Pharaoh, went throughout all the land of Egypt.

From this we get that Joseph had to bear 13 years of slavery and imprisonment after the dream he had when he was 17. These are 13 years of humiliation, of being accused, shackled, beaten, mistreated and tarnished. Each one of these things were in God's plan for Joseph; these things were Joseph's test of faith and he clearly understood this, for he said to his brothers:

Now then you sent not me hither, but God, who hath made me a father unto Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Joseph acknowledged that God had a plan for his life that included he being put in a pit by his brother, sold as a slave, put into prison and then making him a ruler in Egypt. We do not know whether Joseph asked God WHY it had to be this way, what we do know is that Joseph understood that God was making a way for him through his tragedies.

Many of us today are suffering a great trial of faith. Maybe, like Joseph, we have been waiting for something glorious to come to reality and nothing happens. Let us remember that Joseph saw everything getting worse for 13 years. But God is all powerful and He can make a way out in a day and this is all we have to remember. God is powerful enough to fix a lifetime of suffering in a matter of seconds. Like Joseph, lets wait patiently for God's deliverance to come. 

Sterility and Infertility in the Bible

Dedicated to all those who- like me- feel hopeless or who are physically or spiritually sterile...

As I talked to a friend and sister in Christ, I noticed that I am sterile. I have nothing to offer God. I have lost almost everything and sometimes I feel that even my faith is sinking like the Titanic. The only thing I have given birth to is embarrassment and shame. It is very embarrassing to put your faith in God, to pray for months and years and see no response from God. It is embarrassing to expect great things from God and believe the impossible and receive nothing from Him. It is extremely shameful to answer the questions of brothers and sisters who ask if God already answered my petitions and why He doesn’t answer. I can echo Isaiah 26:18:

“We were with child, we writhed in labor, but we gave birth to wind.” (NIV)

The New Living Translation puts it clearer:

“We, too, writhe in agony, but nothing comes of our suffering.”

That nothing comes out of my suffering is as embarrassing as infertility was to a woman in Biblical times. Not being able to have a son was seen in Hebrew law as a valid reason to divorce and abandon the barren woman.  Therefore, it was a very stressing situation for a woman to see herself waiting to get pregnant for years and not being able to do so. Likewise, waiting for a something to happen and give birth to a miracle is being a very stressful task for me. Everyone expects me to deliver what I have been waiting for. Everyone expects that God will support me and honor His word and promises in my life.

It is clear that a Christian must bear fruit. And this is something I know from the Gospel. Jesus said: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit--fruit that will last--and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” (John 15:16 NIV) This puts enormous pressure on me as it put enormous pressure on women to bear fruits (children) in Biblical times. As time passes by and nothing happens, people have started to ask me to evaluate my life and my relationship with God because something must be wrong. The diagnosis is clear, I am not delivering a miracle, therefore, I am sterile.

Being sterile is a hopeless situation indeed. But something great is found in the Bible: every time God made a great miracle, He chose barren women to bring it forth. Let us examine a few of these cases:

Sarah

Sarah was a barren woman when God promised a child to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-7). Thinking logically, when she saw that days, weeks, months, and years passed by and God did not fulfill His promise through her, she gave her servant Hagar to Abraham so he could have that promised child. If it was impossible for her to have a child because of her infertility, it was going to be even more difficult to have a child when she was 90 years old and “worn out”. Genesis 17 says:

“God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”

It was way beyond human possibility for Sarah to have a son at that age. Let us remember that menopause comes to women in their mid forties. So, being optimistic, Sarah had stopped having menses for 40 years, add to that that she was barren. This made it completely impossible for her to have a child. Yet, here we have God, showing up when she could do absolutely nothing about it. But  praise God because He “chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.” (1 Corinthians 1:28 NLT)

The world considers important to be fertile, to have a good age to have a kid, to be healthy and young in order to raise a child. But God does not see things as we see them, where He sees sterility, frustration, and impossibility, He sees an opportunity to glorify His Holy Name - and He certainly did when Sarah had her awaited Isaac in her arms. Abraham laughed when God said that Sarah would have a son, likewise, people laugh or doubt when they see a person struggling with faith but at the same time  waiting for something impossible to happen. But God has the last word on everything and He can bring forth great things out of nothing, using people who have nothing to offer except their infertility.

Rebecca

According to Jewish tradition, Rebecca and Isaac had to pray a lot before she became pregnant. The Bible says that she was childless and got pregnant after Isaac prayed and asked the Lord to help her to conceive (Genesis 25:21). From this barren and hopeless woman, Jacob and Esau were born. Jacob became the father of the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel. God turned the shame and hopelessness of this woman into a great nation that has survived thousands of years till today.

Rachel

Following the line of matriarchs, Rachel, Jacob’s beloved wife, was barren (Genesis 29:31) just like Rebbeca, her mother-in-law, and Sarah, Jacob’s grandmother. Rachel suffered a lot because of her childlessness and God listened to her cry:

“Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” She named him Joseph,h and said, “May the Lord add to me another son.” (Genesis 30:22-24)

As we may notice from her words, it was a disgrace for a woman not to have children as it is a disgrace today not to bear fruits for the Lord. But the Lord did not punish her for her despair or because she felt disgraced, He had compassion, and He did a great thing: He made her give birth to Joseph, the one who would preserve a remnant on earth after the great famine that struck the Middle East in his time. When everything was against Rachel and her situation was desperately hopeless, God showed His mercy and made her bear the great Joseph.

Hannah

In 1 Samuel 1 we can read the story of Hannah, a woman loved by her husband but childless. It says that the Lord had closed her womb meaning that she was sterile. She was desperate because, as said before, a woman without a child was regarded as nothing by society. Furthermore, in case of the death of the husband, a childless woman would lose all her sustenance and support. In verse 11 she prays:

“Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”

She was greatly troubled; she said to the priest who thought she was drunk while praying:

“I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” (v.15-16)

She was giving the Lord nothing but her anguish, her grief, her pain, and her misery. These things are not the ones that “move God” to bless according to many Christians. I have heard that what makes God answer is your joy, your strong faith, your tithes, your service to God, but pouring out your soul and tell God about your misery? No, that’s lack of faith and God does not answer these prayers because you are not “trusting” God enough. That’s what I have been said. But it is not what I see in this Hannah’s story.

God answered Hannah’s prayer and turned her misery into joy. In her prayer of thanksgiving she said “My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.” (1 Samuel 2:2) Horn means strength. She was simply saying that she had no strength, it was low and the Lord, by answering her prayer, lifted it high. Later on, in verse 9 she said: “It is not by strength that one prevails...” What did she mean? She’s simply saying that it is not our own strength or abilities what makes us prevail, it is God and God glorifies Himself even more when He makes the weak strong.

As promised she gave her son Samuel to the Lord and he became one of the greatest servants of God in the Bible. How did the story end? “...the Lord was gracious to Hannah; she gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord”. (1 Samuel 2:21) Evidently God did not punish her for being sad, for saying in prayer that she was miserable, in grief and in pain. God honored this woman’s feelings and made her fruitlessness nothing giving her not one, but six children.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth and Zechariah “were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years” (Luke 1:6-7). Here we have a godly couple, servants of God Almighty and childless. They were blameless, therefore, no one can even suggest that they did not have a child because they did not have faith or because they did not work for the Lord first. They were in that situation because God allowed it to happen.

Once again we see the same obstacles: infertility and old age. Once again, as with Sarah and Abraham, it was impossible for this couple to have a child. There was nothing they could do to make it happen. But that’s when God gets all the glory, when the miracle cannot be attributed to anything we have done. The miracle was entirely His and it was so impossible that “All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it...” (Luke 1:65-66)

From this situation of fruitlessness the great John the Baptist was born, the one in charge of making the way to our Lord Jesus Christ. Of John the Baptist Jesus said: “Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist...” (Matthew 11:11) These words are enough for us to see how God blessed that barren woman who apparently had nothing to offer to God but her infertility. She was sterile though she was a faithful servant of God. We must not forget that in Biblical times being sterile was seen as a curse. This explains the despair, the misery and the preoccupation of those childless women who might have thought that God was against them.

Today, lack of answers to prayers, lack of tangible fruits, are regarded by Christians the same way. And many times I have found myself hurt because some Christian brother or sister have suggested that I might be wrong/cursed by God because I am not delivering my miracle. What these brothers and sisters forget is that in the Bible we have plenty of women who were, in the eyes of society, rejected and cursed by God when in reality God was simply waiting for the exact moment in which His name would be glorified to answer their prayers. 

These moments were always those in which these women had nothing but suffering, anguish, misery, pain, and grief to offer to God. When something is beyond human hope, that is the perfect scenario for a miracle that will glorify our God. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samuel, and John the Baptist are the proof that God uses extreme situations of fruitlessness to do great things, not because of our greatness but because of His.

“Sing, barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband” (Isaiah 54:1)

The Miracle of Weakness by Carter Conlon

I want to share with you this powerful message for those who feel weak. It will bless you; it blessed me!

God bless!


http://www.tscnyc.org/media_center.php?pg=sermons&mi=23744

The Failure of the Christian Church

I would like to share with you a very important article about the Christian Church. It's worth reading it and reflecting on it. God bless.

The Failure of the Christian Church

¿Dios se "arrepiente"? ¿Dios cambia de opinión?

¿Dios cambia de opinión?

Esta es una pregunta que se repite mucho debido a que hoy día los “profetas” son tan rápidos para lanzar “profecías” que no se cumplen, que se han visto necesitados de difundir una nueva teoría que propone que Dios cambia de parecer para justificar sus desaciertos. La Palabra de Dios es clara al respecto:

“Dios no es hombre, para que mienta, ni hijo de hombre para que se arrepienta. Él dijo ¿y no hará? Habló, ¿y no lo ejecutará?” (Numeros 23:19)

En Malaquías 3:6 Dios habla de sí mismo y dice:

“Porque Yo Jehová no cambio...”

Y en Santiago 1:7 dice claramente que en Dios no hay mudanza ni sombra de variación. Ahora bien, entonces ¿por qué hay algunos pasajes en los que se dice que Dios “se arrepintió” o cambió de parecer? El contexto y el dominio del idioma y los modismos hebreos dan la respuesta a esta aparente contradicción.

Primeramente, en el caso de Génesis 6:6 donde Dios “se arrepintió de haber hecho al hombre en la Tierra”, en ninguna manera indica un cambio de parecer. Si así hubiera sido del todo, la raza humana simplemente hubiera dejado de existir y Dios no se hubiera tomado la precaución de salvar a Noé y a su familia para preservarnos de la extinción.

La palabra hebrea para “arrepentirse” utilizada en este verso es una expresión que se utiliza para “sentir pena o dolor”. Dios sintió dolor al ver la maldad humana, sintió pena de haber creado al hombre. Pero varios miles de años después, y de mucha más maldad, seguimos en la Tierra. Dios no cambió de opinión ni se revocó a sí mismo.

Por otro lado, en muchas ocasiones Dios lanzaba profecías condicionales de destrucción. El ejemplo clásico es el de Jonás. Dios le declara una profecía de destrucción para Nínive pero no la cumple al ver que los habitantes de la ciudad se arrepintieron de su maldad y se volvieron a Dios. Jonás se quejó ante Dios:

“Y oró a Jehová y dijo: Ahora, oh Jehová, ¿no es esto lo que yo decía estando aún en mi tierra? Por eso me apresuré a huir a Tarsis; porque sabía yo que tú eres Dios clemente y piadoso, tardo en enojarte, y de grande misericordia, y que te arrepientes del mal.” (Jonás 4:2)

Aquí Jonás dice claramente que Dios se arrepiente del mal, es decir, que a Dios le duele el mal. Dios es amor, la Palabra lo dice. El no se complace en la destrucción y la muerte de los impíos; en Ezequiel 3:11 dice:

“Vivo yo, dice Jehová el Señor, que no quiero la muerte del impío, sino que se vuelva el impío de su camino, y que viva.”

La voluntad de Dios es que los hombres vengan a Él y que vivan, por tanto, en estos casos Dios sí puede determinar no cumplir con alguna palabra de juicio condicionada al arrepentimiento del pueblo. Esto lo hace movido por amor, compasión y misericordia, no porque su carácter sea voluble o inconstante. Este aparente cambio de parecer en realidad no es un cambio de parecer sino una muestra de la bondad, de la misericordia y del amor de Dios por aquellos que lo buscan.

Ahora bien, esto es en extremo diferente a la nueva teoría de muchos “profetas” que dicen que Dios da una palabra pero “tú tienes que hacer que se cumpla porque Dios puede cambair de opinión al respecto si no ve acción de parte del recipiente de la profecía”. Esto simplemente es una falacia pues la Palabra de Dios dice que Dios mismo es quien se encarga de cumplir sus promesas:

Yo digo: Mi propósito se cumplirá, y haré todo lo que deseo...Lo que he dicho, haré que se cumpla; lo que he planeado, lo realizaré. (Isaías 46:10,11 NVI)

Si lo ha determinado el Señor Todopoderoso, ¿quién podrá impedirlo? Si él ha extendido su mano, ¿quién podrá detenerla? (Isaías 14:27 NVI)

Pero los planes del Señor quedan firmes para siempre; los designios de su mente son eternos. (Salmo 33:11 NVI)

Queda claro por Isaías 46:10,11 que el que se encarga de hacer que las profecías se cumplan es Dios, no el hombre. Recordemos que Jesús dijo: ¿Y quién de vosotros podrá, por mucho que se afane, añadir a su estatura un codo? (Mateo 6:27) En Isaías 14:27 se nos dice que nadie puede impedir que Dios lleve a cabo sus planes y que nadie puede detener su mano. El Salmo 33:11 dice claramente que los planes de Dios son eternos. Si son eternos no pueden estar en las manos del hombre el mayor peso de la responsabilidad de cumplir el plan de Dios.

Los hombres se equivocan y son inconstantes. Dios no se equivoca, sus planes son eternos y El mismo se encarga de que ellos se lleven a cabo porque Él no comparte su gloria con nadie. Dios no cambia de parecer, y lo más importante que debemos siempre tener en mente es que su voluntad es que los hombres se arrepientan, sean salvos y vengan al conocimiento de la verdad (2 Pedro 3:9, 1 Timoteo 2:4). Por tanto, aquellos pasajes Bíblicos en donde vemos a Dios “arrepintiéndose” de destruir una nación, debemos verlos al revés, debemos verlos como a Dios siendo firme y constante en su decisión de reconciliar consigo al hombre.