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"Yet You Would Not Return To Me,"

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Conservative theology collides with the liberal and conservative church. Melon takes the reader from the world of the biblical Minor Prophets (Hosea through Malachi) to the events of 9/11. Melon surveys the Minor Prophets and draws together their common elements, style, occasions, and purposes to develop a biblical understanding of the nature of prophecy and the role of a prophet in society. Using a question and answer format, Melon develops 14 "guidelines" for prophetic preaching in an age of terror. For example: "(1) Prophetic preaching reveals that one God is in control of history and is bringing history to His final conclusion. (3) The main thrust of prophetic preaching is calling people back to God. (4) Prophetic preaching reveals that God's love is punitive as well as restorative. (6) Prophetic preaching brings hope to God's people who may be terrorized. (8) Prophetic preaching exposes social injustice (both foreign and domestic) and holds national leaders accountable."
If the book were to stop there, it would be well worth the price for any pastor who desires to faithfully preach these neglected books. Melon, however, takes his guidelines and contrasts both the conservative (Charles Colson, Southern Baptists, Jerry Falwell, etc.) and liberal churches response to 9/11. He faults the liberal church for surrendering to contemporary culture. He faults the conservative church for surrendering to nationalism and patriotism. Anyone reading this book will not remain unscathed.

Few books have caused me to reevaluate my theology as much as this one. Melon (a conservative Southern Baptist pastor) looks at the events of 9/11 and subsequent wars through the eyes of the OT Minor Prophets. Melon asks the conservative evangelical church a question, If prior to the events of 9/11, the conservative evangelical community warned that if "God did not judge the USA than He will owe Sodom and Gomorrah an apology," than why did the same church respond to the events of 9/11 by proclaiming "God didn't do this," and then promote Augustinian "Just-War" theology?
Using a question and answer format that leads the reader from the time of the Minor Prophets to current events, Melon takes the conservative church to task for not considering the judicial work of God. Was 9/11 an act of evil, an act of God, or simply the reality of living in a sin-infected world?
The intended target of the book is pastors and teachers. The goal of the book is twofold. First, to encourage pastors/teachers to consider God's judicial activity in national or natural crisis. Second, to help pastors avoid common "pitfalls" when preaching prophetically.
Melon is quick to declare that his book is not an "end-times" prophecy book about how current events are fulfillment of any eschatological scenario. This book is opposed to such "pop-theology."
Both liberal and conservative churches are taken to task. Liberal churches for surrendering to post-modern morality. Conservative churches for their extreme nationalism and marriage to George W. Bush.
Pastor's who are uncomfortable with the much of the evangelical communities' promotion of "just war" theory as a primary response to 9/11 will find this book helpful. Pastors who have promoted "just war" and Christian patriotism, along with "God and Country" celebrations in their churches in support of the war effort will be challenged biblically to reconsider their positions.
As Melon warns, if the church is found declaring the wrong message in light of 9/11, what greater catastrophes lie on the horizon?

A friend in the ministry recommended this book to me. At first I was skeptical thinking that the book would be just another "rant" about what is wrong with the USA. Dr. Melon's book, however, is a biblical, reasoned, and well-researched treatise on God's role in national and natural tragedies.
Dr. Melon begins by surveying God's relationship to Israel in the Old Testament. From there, he moves to God's relationship to Gentile nations in the Old Testament. He concludes by making application to God's role among Gentile nations (specifically the USA) today. Dr. Melon asks and answers difficult questions such as, "For what reasons might God send judgment to a nation today? If God were to send judgment to a nation today, what would it look like? How would people respond? How might the church respond? How would political leaders respond? Do acts of God often appear to be acts of evil?"
Dr. Melon's book is useful on a number of levels. First, it is an excellent brief survey of the Hebrew Minor Prophets, their time period, and their role in Israelite society. Second, it gives pastors useful guidelines on preaching these difficult books. Third, it causes the reader to re-evaluate the possible role of God in the 9/11 events. And lastly, Dr. Melon (whose theology is thoroughly conservative) takes conservative evangelicalism to task for their promotion of civil religion, nationalism, patriotic fervor and uncritical alliance with the present Bush presidency.

If you like a "neat and tidy" God, this book is not for you. Then again, neither would be the Bible. Using the Minor Prophets, Dr. Melon raises some serious questions about the role of God in 9/11. Dr. Melon very well may be a "voice crying in the wilderness" to an evangelical church that has either lost its moral compass (the liberals) or baptized the current Bush administration's global agenda (the conservatives)to the level of divine decree. I hope this first work by Dr. Melon is not his last.

Even though this book was written after 9/11 and before the hurricanes of 2005 (Katrina, Rita, etc.) it sounds a clarion biblical call to a nation and a church steeped in sin and experiencing the just consequences. The previous reviews do an excellent job of covering the content of the book, so no further description is needed here. Suffice it to say that Dr. Melon appears to have his ear tuned to the heartbeat of the sovereign Lord.