-----------------
We have commented on Mr. Huffman's articles before, and have found him to be a doctrinaire Calvinist/Reformist, though a somewhat gentler variety. Nevertheless, his Calvinism colors his doctrine and his thinking process to the point where we cannot trust that he is telling us the truth.
The crux of this article is that God does not change, and He does not change His mind. This would mean that prayer does not influence God in any way. God has already purposed the entirety of existence and what He has purposed will come to be. Prayer will not change that.
Ancillary to this, the author states that God determines both the ends and the means. The necessary conclusion from these premises is that human activities are completely moot. If God has pre-ordained everything that will happen and does not change His mind, then his creation merely goes through the motions of existence.
That can only mean that if we pray or don't pray, there is no effect. If we say yes or no, it doesn't matter. Sin or believe. Nothing changes our destiny. These conclusions are inescapable. If God predetermines everything, nothing matters because nothing happens outside of God's direct purpose and pre-chosen will. Life is merely theater.
The Bible has some other things to say about the issue, but the author will either ignore or omit every bit of contrary biblical information. We therefore must deem this Bad Bible Teaching.
David Brainerd observed, “The idea that everything would happen exactly as it does regardless of whether we pray or not is a specter that haunts the minds of many who sincerely profess belief in God. It makes prayer psychologically impossible, replacing it with dead ritual at best.”
The answer to the question “Does prayer make a difference?” is definitely, “Yes!”. But let’s consider how and why the Bible teaches us that prayer matters so much.
On one hand, the Bible teaches that God is working everything according to his own will. Paul says in Ephesians 1:11 that “we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” This is a comprehensive statement. There is nothing God is not working together to culminate in his own perfect purposes. (Paul was not saying that God has predestined every event.
First, the predestined ones Paul referred to were those "who were the first to hope in Christ" (verse 12). That is not "comprehensive."
Second, God working "all things after the counsel of his own will" does not tell us that God controls everything. It says that everything that happens will eventually be worked to conform to his purpose.)
What wonderful comfort this is, especially when we can’t see how anything at the moment seems to be good, much less perfect. The circumstances themselves may be terrible, tragic, a painful reminder of the sin-cursed state of this world — but God’s purposes are perfect and he is working “all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11). (The author repeats himself.)
In Isaiah 46:9-10, God reveals that “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’.”
One of the attributes of God is in immutability; he is unchangeable. (The key claim, undocumented. So let's help the author:
Malachi 3:6 For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
The author now needs to demonstrate that God does not relent, change what He purposed to do, or agree to do something in response to a prayed request.)
God does not change his mind, (Again, let's help the author:
Nu. 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil?)
reconsider his plans, (Um, no. There are many times when God reconsidered His plans or was asked to do so:
Ge. 18:25 Far be it from you to do such a thing — to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
Ex. 32:14 Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
Ps. 90:13 Relent, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants.
Ps. 106:44 But he took note of their distress when he heard their cry...
Ps. 106:45 for their sake he remembered his covenant and out of his great love he relented.
Am. 7:3 So the LORD relented. “This will not happen,” the LORD said.
If God does not reconsider, particularly in answer to prayer, then prayer is a farce, a useless exercise.)
get frustrated or discouraged. God declared the end from the beginning, and there was no one there to advise Him in the beginning! He needs no counselor in order to determine how to run his universe.
On the other hand, God has expressed that his will is for us to pray. The Bible is incessant, undivided, and crystal clear in its commands and encouragements to prayer.
“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
“Continue steadfastly in prayer” (Colossians 4:2).
“I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies” (Psalm 18:3).
“The Lord is near to all who call on him” (Psalm 145:18).
And of course Jesus provides the strongest teaching on perseverance in prayer in the New Testament (Luke 11:1-8; 18:1-7).
As R.C. Sproul observes, “One might pray and not be a Christian, but one cannot be a Christian and not pray. Romans 8:15 tells us that the spiritual adoption that has made us sons of God causes us to cry out in verbal expressions: ‘Abba, Father!’ Prayer is the Christian what breath is to life.”
This leads us to the correlating truth that the same God who appoints the end also appoints the means. (It's here the author indicates that God determines outcomes and controls the circumstances that lead up to those outcomes. Thus events and occurrences are orchestrated by God in order to bring about His desired end. This is total pre-determination, where every event is pre-planned, every human choice is already chosen, and every soul's destiny is inescapable and unalterable.)
On the other hand, God has expressed that his will is for us to pray. The Bible is incessant, undivided, and crystal clear in its commands and encouragements to prayer.
“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
“Continue steadfastly in prayer” (Colossians 4:2).
“I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies” (Psalm 18:3).
“The Lord is near to all who call on him” (Psalm 145:18).
And of course Jesus provides the strongest teaching on perseverance in prayer in the New Testament (Luke 11:1-8; 18:1-7).
As R.C. Sproul observes, “One might pray and not be a Christian, but one cannot be a Christian and not pray. Romans 8:15 tells us that the spiritual adoption that has made us sons of God causes us to cry out in verbal expressions: ‘Abba, Father!’ Prayer is the Christian what breath is to life.”
This leads us to the correlating truth that the same God who appoints the end also appoints the means. (It's here the author indicates that God determines outcomes and controls the circumstances that lead up to those outcomes. Thus events and occurrences are orchestrated by God in order to bring about His desired end. This is total pre-determination, where every event is pre-planned, every human choice is already chosen, and every soul's destiny is inescapable and unalterable.)
The Bible is just as incessant, undivided, and crystal clear in connecting prayer with results, and lack of prayer with lack of results. (Does God predetermine that someone will not be praying and thus predetermines that this person will not receive? And by the same token, does God predetermine that someone will pray and thus has predetermined that He will answer?)
Jesus puts it plainly in Matthew 7:7-8, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” Open doors are only promised to those who knock, answers only to those who ask, finding only to those who seek their treasure in God through Christ. (But this all seems to be a ruse, because the means and the ends are predetermined. So God only pretends to open doors when He decided long ago that someone would ask for the open door and He would open it.)
Jesus puts it plainly in Matthew 7:7-8, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” Open doors are only promised to those who knock, answers only to those who ask, finding only to those who seek their treasure in God through Christ. (But this all seems to be a ruse, because the means and the ends are predetermined. So God only pretends to open doors when He decided long ago that someone would ask for the open door and He would open it.)
And perhaps the most explicit statement in all of Scripture, that prayer does indeed make a difference is James’ assertion that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). (Let's translate: "The prayer of the person predetermined to be righteous is predetermined to be powerful.")
This, then, points us back to God, the gospel, and our dependence. Along with all these commands and encouragements to pray, we find this insurmountable roadblock to effective prayer: “Without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). Prayer without faith is utterly useless. Yet, where does faith come from? “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).
The faith that is needed in order to please God, and effectively pray, is provided by God’s grace. And whereas James explicitly states that the prayer of a righteous man avails powerfully, Peter reminds us of where our righteousness must come from, as he writes “to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:1). Even our righteous actions and righteous prayers are the overflow of the cross in our lives: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
The faith we need in order to please God in prayer comes from God by grace. The righteousness we need in order to prevail in prayer comes only through our Savior Jesus Christ. (!!! The author term switches and thus amends the Bible verse he quoted. The Bible quote was, by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. However, the author wrote, "through our Savior Jesus Christ." "By" and "through" are not synonymous.)
This, then, points us back to God, the gospel, and our dependence. Along with all these commands and encouragements to pray, we find this insurmountable roadblock to effective prayer: “Without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). Prayer without faith is utterly useless. Yet, where does faith come from? “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).
The faith that is needed in order to please God, and effectively pray, is provided by God’s grace. And whereas James explicitly states that the prayer of a righteous man avails powerfully, Peter reminds us of where our righteousness must come from, as he writes “to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:1). Even our righteous actions and righteous prayers are the overflow of the cross in our lives: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
The faith we need in order to please God in prayer comes from God by grace. The righteousness we need in order to prevail in prayer comes only through our Savior Jesus Christ. (!!! The author term switches and thus amends the Bible verse he quoted. The Bible quote was, by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. However, the author wrote, "through our Savior Jesus Christ." "By" and "through" are not synonymous.)
So does prayer change things? Yes, but only because God is changing us to begin with, by grace through faith. (Here's his conclusion, that prayer only changes us. He didn't even discuss this.)
No comments:
Post a Comment