Consider this my attempt to try and figure out a piece of prayer, out-loud, in front of all the people who read this blog. This is my view now and it may change in an hour if I am given sufficient evidence I cannot deny.
I think prayer works and that humans are fully capable of communicating with God. God had no reason to create us but love as we can give Him nothing He needs. If we are created by love, then God must take a personal interest in our lives therefore rendering communication with Him something acceptable and believable.
This brings me to the next point where it starts to get a little foggy, so please bare with me. If we can in fact communicate with God, can we request things of him? The answer from what I can see is yes we can, although that is not all prayer should be used for. The Bible does say ask and you will receive, i.e. “Ask and I will give the Nations to you,” and a few other scriptures I am sure you know or can find fairly quickly if you really wanted to.
The question you then have to ask is, If we then can communicate and ask things of Him, can we change his mind? According to scripture, it looks like we can. Abraham tried to spare the lives of many “righteous” people as did Moses, although those people might not have been so righteous at the time.
Just because we can change God's mind says nothing negative of His sovereignty or any other "omni" you can think of just yet. I think the first mistake people make here is to say that if it were possible to change God’s mind, God really isn’t God because he is not all-knowing, all-powerful, etc. I am not sure admitting this says anything to the idea that God cannot be God; if anything, it speaks to the intensity and intimacy of the relationship we have with Him, affirming His title as creator (as discussed above) according to His love for us, rendering Him God. You cannot affirm that it is possible to speak to God without affirming that God first loves you. Consider this series of arguments (my best attempt to clarify what is so hard to write):
Insert your favorite proof of God here then proceed
1.
a) If God needs nothing, and
b) If God created humans, then
c) God does not need humans
2.
a) If God is love, and
b) If God creates out of love, then
c) God creates humans not out of need but out of love
3.
a) If God loves humans, and
b) If God communicates with humans (prayer), then
c) God is willing to both listen and act
4.
a) If God is willing listen, and
b) If God is willing to act, then
c) God may not have everything predetermined
5.
a) If you have made it this far, and
b) If you have been open to my thinking, then
c) You will realize you cannot conclude 4c without first affirming 1a-4b
At this point I have probably lost all the Calvinists (except for the 2.5 pointers) and probably anyone who is shut off to the whole idea of “openness” theology. Is it so bad to say that God definitely knows some things about the future as is evident in scripture, but maybe not all things? Can we see the future as somewhat “open?”
Really this post has not been so much about prayer as it has been about Theology, and I apologize if that is what you were looking for. Maybe this jumble of mess will provide an inkling of insight to those “chosen” few who read this blog. You will realize, however, that your belief, your theology, will determine where you lie on the efficacy of prayer.
2 comments:
I read a book a long time ago that argued that God experiences time just like we do. He knows almost everything about the future, but only because he knows everything about the present. Knowing all things about right now allows God to deduce all future possible outcomes and their likelihood.
I don't buy that extreme position. I recently read "The Fabric of the Cosmos" by Brian Green. This book explains the concepts of special and general relativity. Even in our physical universe, time is relative. What for us is 100 years, may be 10,000 years millions of light years away. I don't totally get it, but that's what they seem to have discovered.
So, if time is not absolute for us, then time is certainly not absolute for God. Getting to know these laws of physics has solidified my view that God exists outside of time.
When it comes to the universe, every moment exists at the same time--we just happen to experience these moments sequentially. So I guess I believe that God experiences time as it really is, as each moment existing simultaneously. God experiences all time as "now."
So, all that said, I'm neither a Calvinist, nor do I believe in open theology. I do think that God can and does change his mind, but I have no idea how or why that's the case.
I prefer "Process Metaphysics" over Open Theism. Doesn't openness seem incomplete to you? I think it is. I feel like there is another logical/natural step that needs to be taken to bring the idea to its conclusion. Oh, I also think that God exists within time...but that's a long conversation.
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