Does God Answer The Prayers Of Unbelievers?

            Some Christian leaders teach that God would not answer any prayer of unbelievers other than their prayer of repentance.

            The Bible portrays God answering the prayers of unbelievers:¹

Here are some passages dealing with prayer by an unbeliever:

The people of Nineveh prayed that Nineveh might be spared (Jonah 3:5-10). God answered this prayer and did not destroy the city of Nineveh as He had threatened.

Hagar asked God to protect her son Ishmael (Genesis 21:14-19). God not only protected Ishmael, God blessed him exceedingly.

In 1 Kings 21:17-29, especially verses 27-29, Ahab fasts and mourns over Elijah’s prophecy concerning his posterity. God responds by not bringing about the calamity in Ahab’s time.

The Gentile woman from the Tyre and Sidon area prayed that Jesus would deliver her daughter from a demon (Mark 7:24-30). Jesus cast the demon out of the woman’s daughter.

Cornelius, the Roman centurion in Acts 10, had the apostle Peter sent to him in response to Cornelius being a righteous man. Acts 10:2 tells us that Cornelius “prayed to God regularly.”

            Consider an instance wherein a Christian visits hospitals to pray for the sick. In such a situation, that Christian would pray for both believers and unbelievers who are sick. While praying with an unbeliever, he could advise the unbeliever to pray for healing in Jesus’ name. If the unbeliever prays earnestly to Jesus for healing, would not the living God answer his prayers?

        I am not remotely suggesting that God will heal every unbeliever who prays for healing in the same way that God need not necessarily answer the prayer of healing of every believer.

            But if an unbeliever pleads for God’s abiding presence, peace, encouragement, strength, and power to endure his sickness, would not the living God answer his prayers? Who knows, maybe the unbeliever would turn to Christ through this event as well.

            The living God, who healed Commander Namaan (2 Kings 5) – an unbeliever – of his leprosy, is sovereign in HIS nature.  An article on the Biblword website pertinently summarizes, “God is sovereign, and there is no limit to his power and ability. We cannot put Him in a box and say this or that is what He will or will not do. He knows what is in the heart of every man, woman and child. He hears the cry of their heart and He can choose to answer any prayer that He sees fit.”²

Endnotes:

¹https://www.gotquestions.org/unbeliever-prayer.html

²https://www.biblword.net/does-god-hear-the-prayers-of-the-sinners-and-unbelievers/

Websites last accessed on 30^th May 2022.  

Prayers In The Name Of Jesus Still Works! (Modern Miracles)

            Could we still pray for miracles?¹ Yes, most certainly.

            God continues to be active. Miracles do occur.

            Christian apologist Sean McDowell mentions two recent² instances of the miraculous. The first instance, published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, was that of a 23-year old man who was miraculously healed from gastroparesis – a condition he was suffering for 16 years. Sean writes: [Emphasis Mine]³

Last week as I was teaching on the topic of miracles in my Resurrection class at Biola University, one of my students shared a remarkable instance of a miracle story from a peer-reviewed medical journal. He is working on a documentary of modern miracles and also spear-heading a movement to document recent miracle claims in peer-reviewed journals.

The journal article is available online with public access, so you can check out the details for yourself. Essentially, the case is about a 23-year old white male who experienced intermittent cramping and projectile vomiting at one week of age. He was soon was diagnosed with gastroparesis (a chronic, lifelong condition that is known to significantly impact the quality and length of life).

Maximal medical treatment was administered, but ineffective. For the next sixteen years, his symptoms remained severe and refractory and he was dependent on a feeding tube.

Intercessory Prayer

Yet in November 2011, he experienced “proximal intercessory prayer” (PIP) from an evangelist who reported his own story of having his life spared when his intestines were severed in a serious car accident. With the permission of the family, the evangelist prayed in the name of Jesus for the healing of the boy.

Halfway through the prayer, the boy described experiencing a shock throughout his body. That night after the prayer, the boy ate a meal for the first time without any complications. According to the article, this kind of sudden, lasting recovery from gastroparesis is unique in the scholarly literature. The journal authors write:

“For 16 years the patient was totally dependent on j-tube feedings and could not tolerate any form of oral feeding. After receiving PIP, his intolerance to oral feedings was completely resolved. He was able to tolerate oral feedings and was completely taken off of the j-tube feedings one month after the PIP experience” (p. 291).

            Regarding the prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus - a means to the miraculous healing, the journal authors write:⁴

This case report ¹⁵ examines proximal intercessory prayer (PIP) as an intervention to resolve symptoms related to gastroparesis when maximal medical management was administered but not effective. PIP, as described by Brown and colleagues¹⁶ refers to direct-contact prayer typically less than 15 min, frequently involving touch, by placing hands on the recipient and sometimes embracing them in a hug, keeping the intercessor’s eyes open to observe results. The prayer is typically done in “soft tones”. The intercessor may “petition God to heal, invite the Holy Spirit’s anointing, and/or command the healing and departure of any evil spirits in Jesus’ name.”¹⁶

            The journal article also mentions the testimony of the person who was miraculously healed: [Emphasis Mine]⁵

“Living with feeding tubes was a struggle, to say the least. Growing up being an active child, it was difficult to get the hydration and nutrition necessary with a drip feeding process. During the prayer, I felt an electric shock that started from my right shoulder traveling down through my stomach. That was the moment that I knew I had been touched by the holy spirit. Since I have been healed of my illness, I have had more energy than ever before, and have thoroughly enjoyed the new adventure of trying all different types of foods. I have entered into the medical field in search to help the sick and needy, and to give back the great care I received as a patient.”

            The second instance of the modern miraculous mentioned by Sean is that of a blind woman receiving sight:⁶

Last summer a student of mine in the Talbot M.A. Apologetics program sent me a remarkable case of a modern miracle that was peer-reviewed in a medical journal. Amazingly, he just sent me another modern miracle case from Explore: The Journal of Science & Healing.

This case is about a young woman who was legally blind, but after receiving prayer, had her vision restored immediately and permanently. You can read the journal article directly, but here are the relevant details.

Receiving Sight after 12 years

The young woman was diagnosed with Juvenile Macular Degeneration (JMD) and lost her vision over three months in 1959 when she was eighteen years old. Initial reports show that her vision was 7/200 in each eye.

In 1972, after being legally blind for over a dozen years, she received proximal intercessory prayer (PIP) from her husband, which is a kind of direct contact, petitionary prayer that often lasts over fifteen minutes. They went to bed at midnight, which was later than normal for them, and he read her two Bible verses and then began to pray. Although he had never heard of a miraculous present-day healing, and he did not speak in tongues, fast or perform other common spiritual practices associated with Pentecostal or Charismatic circles, he began to pray boldly for her healing.

According to the authors of the article, “At the close of the prayer, his wife opened her eyes and saw her husband kneeling in front of her, which was her first clear visual perception after almost 13 years of blindness.”

In 1974, her visual acuity was 20/100 without correction, and then in 2001, she vision had improved to 20/40 in each eye. Except for common age-related problems, her sight has remained intact for the past 47 years.

            Find below an excerpt from the journal article about the healing prayer, which the husband prayed over his blind wife:⁷

When the couple went to bed later than normal (after midnight), her husband performed a hurried spiritual devotional practice (reading two Bible verses) and got on his knees to pray. She describes that they both began to cry as he began to pray, with a hand on her shoulder while she laid on the bed, and with great feeling and boldness he prayed: “Oh, God! You can restore […] eyesight tonight, Lord. I know You can do it! And I pray You will do it tonight.” At the close of the prayer, his wife opened her eyes and saw her husband kneeling in front of her, which was her first clear visual perception after almost 13 years of blindness.

The couple were not cessationists (i.e., believing that spiritual gifts such as glossolalia, healing, and prophecy are not for the present age), but they had never heard of anyone receiving a miraculous healing in the present day. The patient reported, “The only healings we knew about were in the Bible”. She indicated that her husband had never before prayed for someone who subsequently experienced a remarkable recovery. Their only prior experience with prayer for healing seems to be when the patient and her husband had briefly visited the meeting of a well-known healing evangelist, but they left before the time in the meeting when the healing practices began. The patient and her husband were involved with a Baptist church at the time that did not practice the laying on of hands while praying for the sick. They also did not practice glossolalia, nor fasting, which are more commonly associate with Pentecostal or Charismatic sects that believe miraculous healings happen in the present age as opposed to only in the ancient world.

            Here’s the testimony of the woman who was healed of her blindness: [Emphasis Mine]⁸

“What people need to understand is ‘I was blind’, totally blind and attended the School for the Blind. I read Braille and walked with a white cane. Never had I seen my husband or daughters [sic] face. I was blind when my husband prayed for me- then just like that- in a moment, after years of darkness I could see perfectly! It was miraculous! My daughter's picture was on the dresser. I could see what my little girl and husband looked like, I could see the floor, the steps. Within seconds, my life had drastically changed. I could see, I could see!”

            Please observe that these are not random reports of the miraculous without credibility. These instances of the miraculous are credible because they have been published in peer-reviewed medical journals. So miracles happen in our time and age.

            As prayerful Christians, let us continue praying in Jesus’ name for the miraculous healing of our relatives and friends. If God so wills, HE will heal. Meanwhile, let us keep praying without giving up (cf. Luke 18:1-8).   

Endnotes:

¹Dr. William Lane Craig defines a miracle as, “So a miracle, I think, properly defined, is an event which the natural causes at a time and place cannot produce at that time and place. Or, more succinctly, a miracle is a naturally impossible event – an event which the natural causes at a certain time and place cannot bring about. It is beyond the productive capacity of nature…” (https://www.reasonablefaith.org/media/reasonable-faith-podcast/when-is-It-rational-to-believe-in-miracles/)

²The term recent refers to the date in which the healing was published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

³https://seanmcdowell.org/blog/a-remarkable-case-of-a-peer-reviewed-modern-miracle

⁴https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965229918313116

⁵Ibid.

⁶https://seanmcdowell.org/blog/the-blind-receive-sight-a-peer-reviewed-modern-miracle

⁷https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550830720300926?fbclid=IwAR0tgsnm-fRTDImK5eGZSndVW1bNzfijdyIiqF9pkZo07ywT3wHyFWfkr-Y

⁸Ibid.

Websites were last accessed on 25^th April 2020.

Who Saves Us From Coronavirus - Science Or God?

            The statement ‘Pray as much as you like, only science will save us’ cannot be uttered by a sincere Christian because a Christian believes in prayer. This statement could not have come from the theistic bandwagon, for those who sincerely believe in God would not entertain such a thought process. Hence those who subscribe to this statement ought to be from the atheistic or the scientific materialistic worldview.

            Pray as much as you like, only science will save us pits God against science. This, however, is an artificial conflict.

            Science per se does not engineer this conflict, but scientists and their adherents do. Interestingly, there are Christian scientists, even those that are much acclaimed in their domain, who believe in God and prayer.

            Christian scientists view the same data or information that the atheist or agnostic scientists view. Fascinatingly, the very same data that guides Christian scientists towards God motivates the agnostic and atheist scientists to disregard God.

            So it’s not the data, but it is the interpretation of that data that motivates scientists to move towards or away from God. Digging deeper, it can also be reasoned out that the innate bias against God impels certain scientists to disregard God. 

            Richard Lewontin, a leading evolutionist, famously expressed that innate bias against God. His dogged determination to prevent God from entering through the door is verbalized here, “Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.” [Emphasis Mine]¹

            An a priori commitment to materialism induces a scientist to preclude any notion of God to enter his realm. Thus the scientific materialist suffers from this innate bias against God.

            We have great regard for science, no doubts. The fact of the matter is science is yet to conquer COVID-19. In fact, science is learning from the human immune system designed by God to overcome the Coronavirus.

            Although God can heal everyone, the Bible does not teach that God would heal every single person who pleads for healing.

            Consider the healing narrative at the Pool of Bethesda. A great number of sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people were lying there. But Jesus did not heal all of them. He healed only one (John 5:1-13).

            Paul pleaded with God to heal him, but God chose not to heal him (2 Corinthians 12: 7-10).

            Timothy was not healed of his frequent ailments (1 Timothy 5:23).

            Trophimus was also not healed of his sickness (2 Timothy 4:20).

            If God were to heal every believer, it is quite plausible that all the sick people would become Christians. They’d become Christians for the sake of healing. That’s a wrong intent!

            We don’t become a Christian for health and wealth. We become a Christian so that we are forgiven of all our sins and to be in right standing with God.

            Those who believe in the Lord Jesus believe in HIM for their salvation. Only the Triune God can forgive sins, hence we believe in the only true and living God – the God revealed in the Bible.

            If God does not heal everyone, they why pray?

            An excerpt from my blog entitled Why Pray When Everything Happens As How God Determines? should suffice:²

First, we pray because we can ask for that which we need. Just as how a child requests a parent, we can ask our Heavenly Father. It’s our prerogative to ask and it’s God prerogative to answer. Second, we need to be humble enough to accept whatever God offers us, for we know that God is just, good and loving. Hence, HIS decisions are always correct.

But you may still ask, “What would one learn here that otherwise would not be possible without prayer?”

We pray to love, trust, and understand God in a growing measure. When we pray we get spiritually closer to God. Significantly, when we pray, we are at peace with God. We will be at peace with God even when our prayers are not answered or when things do not go our way (e.g. betrayal, death, joblessness etc) despite our fervent pleas.

But you may still ask, “Do our prayers of asking God to change the situation make any sense? How then should we pray? Moreover, how do the prayers in Old Testament make sense (e.g. 2 Samuel 12:16)?

Yes, it does make sense to ask God to change the situation, for no one wants to exist in an adverse situation. Even the second person of the blessed Trinity, the Son, asked the first person of the blessed Trinity, the Father, to change HIS situation, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me…” (Luke 22:42, NIV).

The second part of this verse offers an answer to the question, “How should we pray?” The second part of Luke 22:42 states, “…yet not my will, but yours be done.” So let us pray for God’s will to be done and let us pray according to the will of God, “And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” (1 John 5:14, RSV, Emphasis Mine).

(This does not mean that God does not hear any prayer that is not offered according to HIS will, for God, as an omniscient being, knows what we will say, even before we say it.)  

            So no one could claim that prayer is ineffective. Any assertion about the ineffectiveness of prayer is an argument from ignorance.

            If a Christian claims that prayer is ineffective, then he needs to learn more about God and the Bible.

            If an atheist claims that prayer is ineffective, he is being [willfully] ignorant of God and HIS Word.

            Recently, the governor of New York infamously disregarded God while discussing the flattening of the curve in New York, “The number is down because we brought the number down. God did not do that. Fate did not do that. Destiny did not do that. A lot of pain and suffering did that.” [Emphasis Mine]³

            But the governor of Texas Greg Abbott believes and trusts in God, “Pastor Jack Graham interviewed Texas governor Greg Abbott Sunday during Prestonwood Baptist Church’s service. Abbott told Graham that we can see the hand of God working in the fight against coronavirus. He went on to describe his own personal crisis and how that informs what he’s doing to get Texas ready to reopen for business.

            “When I was just 26 years old, I suffered, literally, a back-breaking injury,” Abbott told Graham. Abbott was permanently paralyzed from the accident. It was that injury that put him in a place to lead Texas effectively. Abbott said that while it tested his faith, he kept reaching out to God. “I found in the aftermath of that, as I continued to reach out to God, I found God reaching out right back to me.” His relationship with God and Jesus Christ was strengthened after the injury. “It empowered me to go on and become the governor of the great state of Texas.”

            Abbott added that everyone is challenged and tested. Regardless of the challenge, Jesus will support people, and He will always be there for them. “[If you believe] Jesus Christ and God, you will be able to weather this storm. God never promised us a life free of storms. What God promised was a pathway through those storms. That’s what I’ve seen in my own life, that’s what I’m seeing in Texas.” [Emphasis Mine]⁴  

            For every atheist who throws a tantrum against God, there are two or more theists who thank God and trust in HIM during times of trials and tribulations. 

            Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved - you and your household (Acts 16:31).

            To God be the glory!

Endnotes: 

¹https://www.drjbloom.com/Public%20files/Lewontin_Review.htm

²https://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.com/2017/10/why-pray-when-everything-happens-as-how.html

³https://stream.org/while-ny-gov-cuomo-rejects-gods-help-in-this-crisis-texas-governor-abbott-says-put-your-faith-in-god/

⁴Ibid.

Websites last accessed on 23^rd April 2020.

Unanswered Prayers: Are They God's Gift & An Excuse To Forsake God?

            They waited several years for a child. Then God blessed them with a lovely child. Seven years later, the child fell ill.

            The parents prayed desperately as if their life hinged on this one particular event – the survival of their most loved one.

            The child died.

            The parents were inconsolable. Their sorrow knew no bounds.

            Their prayers were unanswered.

            Then when we listen to the song Unanswered Prayers by Garth Brooks, we hear that unanswered prayers are a gift from God. The chorus reads:

Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers

Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs

And just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care

Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers

            If you do not marry the girl you desperately prayed for, and if the girl you married is better than the girl you once prayed for, then the unanswered prayer is indeed God’s gift.

            But this is not a universal principle.

            Not all unanswered prayers are God’s gifts.

            The child you adored died. What if God did not bless you with another child? What if you remained childless?

            Could you then consider the unanswered prayer as a gift?

            Or you may have been blessed with a beautiful girl and you pray for her marriage. When she’s at a marriageable age, she is brutally raped and unimaginably injured. Despite prayers, after days of hospitalization, she dies.

            How is this unanswered prayer a gift from God?

            Don’t get me wrong. There are various occasions wherein unanswered prayers are indeed a gift from God.

            But I zealously oppose the notion that all unanswered prayers are a gift from God.

            In a couple of instances mentioned above and in the many other horrendous acts of evil perpetrated upon humanity, one cannot fathom unanswered prayers to be a gift from God. So there are many instances wherein unanswered prayers cannot be considered as God’s gifts.

            In an erstwhile blog, I wrote:¹

Unanswered Prayers Are A Biblical Reality

Job pleaded, “I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me. You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me. You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm.” (Job 30: 20-22, NIV).

Some faithful and well meaning Christians would contend the reality of unanswered prayers. They would argue that although Job suffered immensely, he was blessed mightily. The same holds true for King David as well (cf. Psalm 22: 1-2).

The same Bible that narrates the blessing of Job and King David also narrates the incomparable suffering of God’s people. In other words, the Bible implies God’s silence when HIS people were suffering, “There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.” (Hebrews 11: 35b-38, NIV).

These verses reveal God’s silence to those who were faithful to HIM. Even when the faithful cried out to God, HE remained silent.

Thank God for poets who so wonderfully articulate these moments of despair,1

"It’s enough to drive a man crazy, it’ll break a man’s faith

It’s enough to make him wonder, if he’s ever been sane

When he’s bleating for comfort from Thy staff and Thy rod

And the Heaven’s only answer is the silence of God."

(Andrew Peterson in “The Silence of God.”)

           

          Why are unanswered prayers not an excuse to forsake God?

            In that very blog, I wrote:²

Is Renouncing God A Better Option?

Many have renounced Christianity because God did not answer their prayers. To renounce Christianity is one option when God does not answer prayers…

Consider the option of renouncing God. What would happen to those renouncing God? Do they get a better God? No way! There is only one God, and that’s it.

            Forsaking God could depict us as spiritually immature believers, for we may have forgotten the basics of our belief in the God of the Bible:

            1. We believe in the God of the Bible because HE alone saves us from eternal death to life.

            2. As Christians, we profess a consummate commitment to God over man - even family or our own life (cf. Matthew 10: 34-38).  

            3. As Christians, we primarily seek the spiritual and not the material aspects of this world (cf. Matthew 6: 33, 22: 36 - 38).

            If we have properly understood the basics of our belief in Christ, then we would not forsake God even when we suffer a loss of our loved ones or our possessions or even when our own life is threatened.

            Our response to any of these situations would resonate with that of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, “Your threat means nothing to us. If you throw us in the fire, the God we serve can rescue us from your roaring furnace and anything else you might cook up, O king. But even if he doesn’t, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference, O king. We still wouldn’t serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”” (Daniel 3: 16-18, MSG; Emphasis Mine).

            But there could be complicated scenarios. Consider the fervent prayers for our loved ones to believe in Christ and be saved.

            What if our loved ones die without believing in Christ? Would this situation of unanswered prayer justify forsaking the God of the Bible?

            Our prayer, in this very instance, does not focus on the material, but the spiritual – the eternal life for our loved ones.

            How do we respond to a situation where our loved ones remain as unbelievers until their very last breath?

            It’s God who is sovereign, good, gracious and just. HE would never turn away anyone who seeks HIM (John 6: 37). God’s sovereignty, goodness, and justice entails that HE would do everything that needs to be done to bring anyone to HIM – that includes our loved ones as well.

            But God, despite our fervent prayers, will not force anyone to believe in HIM, ““O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would have none of it! Look, your house is left to you desolate! For I tell you, you will not see me from now until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’”” (Matthew 23: 37 – 39, NET).

            This is the hard truth or the bitter pill that we need to swallow. 

            Whatever be the case, unanswered prayers are not a legitimate reason to forsake God. 

Endnotes:

¹https://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.com/2016/08/silence-of-god-despair-of-man.html

²Ibid.

Websites last accessed on 16^th October 2019.

Why Pray When Everything Happens As How God Determines?

            The question, “Why pray?” is so vital that if we do not have a reasonable answer, our prayer life may be weakened. Some of us may not have a reasonable answer to this question. Others may doubt the power of prayer because of the adversities that they have faced. Either which way, our spiritual life would crumble if our prayer is not effective.^A

            Sincere Christians growing in their faith may have genuine questions. These questions should be reasonably answered to enable them to continue in their spiritual growth in Christ. So let us think through the question - Why should I pray? This question could be asked from various contexts.

            One such context is this: Why do I have to pray for my friend to believe in Christ when God knows whether or not my friend would believe in HIM? God knows, even before I pray, whether my friend would believe in Christ or not. So why should I pray?

            Another similar context is the prayer for deliverance. Only God knows whether or not I would be delivered from my suffering. Since God is the only one who has the power to deliver me, why waste time in prayer, when prayer will not play any definite role in my deliverance?

            Various contexts, such as this, could be offered to validate the question, “Why pray?”   

            Let us consider the instance of praying for a friend to believe in Christ. If we decide not to pray for our friend (because we know that our prayer will not bring about our friend’s conversion), then we are not being a genuine friend. More importantly, we need to know that our decision (or rebellion) to not pray stems out of a serious dissatisfaction in our finiteness as a human being. In other words, we want to be God (we want to know the future), this desire is subconsciously there in us, but we do not know the future (we cannot be God). Hence, in our anger and dissatisfaction, we refuse to pray.

            Conversion is effected by the activity of God (HE loved us and died for us) and man (he should freely believe in God). As a good friend, we may share the good news or testify about God and HIS goodness to our friend. We may even resolve his doubts. God will also do everything possible to draw our friend to HIMSELF. However, the decision to believe in God is our friend’s decision. We cannot force our friend to believe in Christ.

            We question the efficacy of prayer because we are ignorant of our friend’s future – whether or not he will believe in Christ. We are dissatisfied that we are not omniscient (omniscience is a necessary attribute of God and not man). We are dissatisfied that we are not God. Hence we refuse to pray for our friend.

            Think about this. Is this a good reason to not pray?

            No! We should pray. But why?

            First, we pray because we can ask for that which we need. Just as how a child requests a parent, we can ask our Heavenly Father. It’s our prerogative to ask and it’s God prerogative to answer. Second, we need to be humble enough to accept whatever God offers us, for we know that God is just, good and loving. Hence, HIS decisions are always correct.

            But you may still ask, “What would one learn here that otherwise would not be possible without prayer?”

            We pray to love, trust, and understand God in a growing measure. When we pray we get spiritually closer to God. Significantly, when we pray, we are at peace with God. We will be at peace with God even when our prayers are not answered or when things do not go our way (e.g. betrayal, death, joblessness etc) despite our fervent pleas. 

            But you may still ask, “Do our prayers of asking God to change the situation make any sense? How then should we pray? Moreover, how do the prayers in Old Testament make sense (e.g. 2 Samuel 12:16)?

            Yes, it does make sense to ask God to change the situation, for no one wants to exist in an adverse situation. Even the second person of the blessed Trinity, the Son, asked the first person of the blessed Trinity, the Father, to change HIS situation, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me…” (Luke 22:42, NIV).

            The second part of this verse offers an answer to the question, “How should we pray?” The second part of Luke 22:42 states, “…yet not my will, but yours be done.” So let us pray for God’s will to be done and let us pray according to the will of God, “And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” (1 John 5:14, RSV, Emphasis Mine).

            (This does not mean that God does not hear any prayer that is not offered according to HIS will, for God, as an omniscient being, knows what we will say, even before we say it.) 

            How do we make sense of the prayers in the Old Testament? Consider the prayer of David in 2 Samuel 12, “…the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground.” (v15b, 16, Emphasis Mine). David’s understanding of God was impeccable in this instance.

            David prayed to God for seven days for the healing of his child. God refused to heal the child. The child died. David’s response to his child’s death was fascinating, for he submitted himself to God’s will, “On the seventh day the child died. David’s attendants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, “While the child was still living, he wouldn’t listen to us when we spoke to him. How can we now tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.” David noticed that his attendants were whispering among themselves, and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked. “Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.” Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate. His attendants asked him, “Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!” He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”” (2 Samuel 12: 18-23, NIV, Emphasis Mine).

            So let us pray continually. There is nothing wrong in asking, so let us ask God, according to HIS will. Ask God to spiritually enrich our life, and God will certainly do it, for this is God’s will that we know, love, and grow in HIM. But if we ask God to enable us to be the next Billy Graham or a famous Christian evangelist, HE need not fulfill our request. This request need not be according to God’s will.

            Finally, there’s a problem with my title, “Why pray when everything happens as how God determines?” My title is incorrect because God does not determine everything that happens in this world. It is not difficult for God to not control everything. God, who is maximally great, is all-powerful, so God can control everything. But God refrains from controlling everything that happens in our universe.

            For instance, it is my decision to write this blog now. (Of course, I cannot write this blog unless God blesses it. I need to live, be sane, and have a fair amount of understanding of the Scripture to write this blog. My life, my sanity, and my understanding of the Scripture are God’s blessings in my life.) I could have written this blog later, but I decided to write now. Similarly, you are reading this blog out of your own freewill. (It is also our decision to not smoke, drink or to steal. We can go on and on.)

             Last but not the least; we have an adversary – the Satan, who tempts us. However, prayer is the God given means to overcome temptation (Matthew 26:41). When we pray fervently, God will strengthen us to overcome our temptations (Hebrews 2:18) and HE will enable us to cast Satan out of our lives (Mark 9:29).

Endnotes:

^A What is an effective prayer? A person’s prayer would be effective, if he/she places absolute trust in God. When a child asks or pleads with the father, the child believes that the father has the ability and the power to provide. In other words, if the child doubts the father, then the intensity of his request would be weak.

Think about this, a weak request is not a genuine request; a weak request is a disingenuous request. A disingenuous request (a request that is not genuine) need not be requested, because our request is to God, who is the maximally great being (all-knowing & all-powerful). (Since God knows that our request is not genuine, HE need not answer our request.)  

Could We Change God’s Mind?

            We prayed for many years that God would heal a terminally ill friend. He continued to deteriorate despite our prayers. The doctors, finally, gave up hope. Then a few friends requested a famous faith-healer, who happened to be in the city, to visit and pray for our ailing friend. The preacher visited and prayed. Lo and behold, the terminally ill man was miraculously healed!

            Did God change HIS mind when a more righteous or a spiritually gifted faith-healer prayed for this ailing person?

            Can God change HIS mind?

            There are two diametrically opposite answers to this question. Some Christians believe that God can change HIS mind, whereas others assert that God does not and cannot change HIS mind.

            Let us briefly study their assertions.

God Changes HIS Mind

            Some Christians think that God can change HIS mind, “…advocates of a theory called open theism have argued that God can and does change and that we can cause that change. They find their support for this in passages such as Genesis 18, where Abraham intercedes before the Lord for Sodom and Gomorrah, and God seemingly changes His mind. They claim further support from passages like Jeremiah 18:7–10, Jonah 3:10, and Genesis 6:6, which speak of God repenting or relenting or being sorry.”¹

            These Christians, upon reading these verses, believe that God changes HIS mind:

            “The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.” (Genesis 6:6, NIV, Emphasis Mine).

            “And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people.” (Exodus 32:14, RSV, Emphasis Mine).

            “If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it." (Jeremiah 18: 7-10, NIV, Emphasis Mine).

            “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.” (Jonah 3:10, NIV, Emphasis Mine).

God Cannot Change HIS Mind

            Pastor, theologian, and author, R.C Sproul, unpacks this dilemma from the vantage point of God’s omniscience.²

There’s one sense in which it seems God is changing his mind, and there’s another sense in which the Bible says God never changes his mind because God is omniscient. He knows all things from the beginning, and he is immutable. He is unchanging. There’s no shadow of turning within him. For example, He knows what Moses is going to say to him in Numbers 14 before Moses even opens his mouth to plead for the people. Then after Moses has actually said it, does God suddenly changes his mind? He doesn’t have any more information than he had a moment before. Nothing has changed as far as God’s knowledge or his appraisal of the situation.

Is God confused, stumbling through all the different options—Should I do this? Should I not do that? And does he decide upon one course of action and then think, Well, maybe that’s not such a good idea after all, and change his mind? Obviously God is omniscient; God is all wise. God is eternal in his perspective and in his full knowledge of everything. So we don’t change God’s mind. But prayer changes things. It changes us. And there are times in which God waits for us to ask for things because his plan is that we work with him in the glorious process of bringing his will to pass here on earth.

            Similarly, Dr. William Lane Craig explains this theme from the perspective of God’s foreknowledge and the need for us to understand the literary genre’s of the Bible and the literary devices used by the biblical authors for an effective narration. If we understand these details, we will be able to accurately interpret the Bible. Thus we would possess a proper understanding of God. Here’s William Lane Craig:³

I don’t think that God can change his mind, because as an omniscient being, he knows everything that will happen, including his own decisions. God has foreknowledge not only of everything that creatures will do, but also knowledge of his own acts…If God knows the truth value of all true future tense propositions — then he will know the truth value of propositions about his own actions — like God will part the Red Sea; he knows that. So, God would have knowledge of everything in the future, and therefore there could be no basis for changing his mind. An omniscient being cannot change his mind, it would only be an ignorant being, a being that is ignorant, that could acquire some new reason for doing something that would cause him to change his mind…

There are some Scriptures which, at least superficially to a layperson, looks like God’s changing his mind. Jonah and the whale and Nineveh where God was going to destroy the city unless something happened, and he seemed to change his mind.

It’s vital that we understand the literary genre, or type, of most of these biblical stories. The Bible is in the form of narratives. They’re stories about God told from the human point of view. And so, a good storyteller will tell his story with all the vivacity and color that he wants to enhance his narrative.

And so, you’ll find stories in the Bible about God, told from a human perspective where God not only lacks knowledge of the future, but even lacks knowledge of what’s going on presently. God comes down to Abraham and says, “I’ve heard the outcry in Sodom and Gomorrah. I’m going to go see if what I’ve heard is really happening there.”

Well, that would deny not only God’s foreknowledge, but his knowledge of the present. And there are other passages where God is spoken of in anthropomorphic terms of having nostrils and eyes and arms and other sort of bodily parts—wings. If you take all of these literally, God would be a sort of fire-breathing monster.

And so, these are anthropomorphisms. They are literary devices that are part of the storyteller’s art, and shouldn’t be read like a philosophy of religion or systematic theology textbook. There’s just a naïve view of the type of literature that Scripture is.

Need For Proper Interpretation Of The Bible

            Unless we understand the Bible as how God – the author of the Bible – desires us to understand, we will subscribe to a faulty theological position, which, at times, could be detrimental to our salvation. Hence it is imperative to interpret the Bible accurately, “…while the above texts talk of God as changing, there are numerous texts in the Old and New Testaments that tell us that God does not change in His being (Psalm 102:25–27; c.f. Hebrews 1:10–12; Malachi 3:6; James. 1:17) and that He does not change His mind (Numbers 23:19; Hebrews 6:17–18). This is not to play different texts against each other but to know that we need some interpretive principles to help us understand the Bible. There are two reasonable interpretive principles that can help us understand these passages:

            1. Difficult passages should be interpreted in light of other clearer passages.

            2. Passages which are found in the historical narrative in Scripture should be interpreted in light of the didactic (instruction/teaching) passages (such as the epistles.).”⁴

Can My Prayer Change God’s Mind?

            If our prayer can change God’s mind, then there would exist an overabundance of confusions and contradictions that would effectively destroy our spirituality. If our prayer can change God’s mind, then God cannot be a maximally great being, but let’s not even go to such stupendous theological dilemmas.

            Consider this rather simplified dilemma. If I pray for rain and if you pray for no rain (because your home is in a low lying flood prone location), and if God answers my prayer and not yours, then would you not consider God to be partial and cruel?

            Numerous theological complications, such as this, could be offered, but there is no need, for God does not change HIS mind, “…people often ask whether prayer can change God’s mind….How could a prayer change God’s mind?.... Is it that when Abraham (Genesis 18:16–33) came to God, he came to Him with information that God lacked apart from what Abraham told Him? Obviously Abraham didn’t teach God something that He didn’t already know. In fact, God knew that Sodom would have fewer than ten righteous people, whereas Abraham did not. God’s mind doesn’t change because it doesn’t need to change. He knows everything, and He knows the end from the beginning. God has no plan B because there are no deficiencies or flaws in His plan A.

            Does prayer change things? Yes. Does God use prayer as a secondary means to bring His work to pass? Yes. Does God not only invite us to pray but command us to? Yes. Does the effective prayer of righteous man accomplish much? Yes. But do these things change God’s mind? No. Why? Because God has never had to change His mind from the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:11).”⁵

Endnotes:

¹https://answersingenesis.org/who-is-god/does-god-change-his-mind/

²http://www.ligonier.org/blog/does-god-change-his-mind/

³http://www.reasonablefaith.org/media/can-god-change-robert-lawrence-kuhn

⁴https://answersingenesis.org/who-is-god/does-god-change-his-mind/

⁵Ibid.

Websites cited were last accessed on 16^th October 2017.