A Question to Ponder
by Max Frazier, Jr.
from the May 2010 Edition of the Philogian

From time to time I receive interesting questions from students.  This question addresses a major concern many have today regarding God and prayer:

     Respond to this statement in a current periodical.  “Isn’t prayer a
     paradox?  As an atheist, I’d like to know how the religious think prayer  
     works.  Most Christians believe God is all-knowing and has a plan.  So, if
     you pray to God to cure you of cancer, you’re asking him to change his
     plan for you.  When God hears your prayers and changes his plan, does
     that mean he was not all-knowing before?”

This question may be one of the oldest asked questions in all of Christianity.  And it is the subject of a heated debate today primarily between John Piper and Greg Boyd.  Can a person actually change God’s plan?  If that is the case, then there are some serious flaws in any discussion of God’s sovereignty.  However, if God’s plans cannot be changed, then there are some serious unanswered questions about the need for prayer.  So, we find ourselves on the horns of a dilemma.

The Bible makes it so very clear – it is the theme of the entire book of Daniel – that sovereignty is one of the central attributes of God.  Listen to these words of Daniel, actually they are the words of the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar: The decision is announced by messengers; the holy ones declare the verdict, so that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men (Daniel 4:17).  And there are certain terms used to describe this sovereignty that we find difficult to understand, even to accept: predestination, foreknowledge, election.  I will admit that I do not understand them as I should.  But I do believe that each of those terms reflect upon an aspect of infinitude of God that this finite mind will never comprehend. 

Does God know everything at all times?  Yes, I believe He does.  The Bible states that God knew before laying the foundations of the world that man would sin and need a Savior: He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake (1 Peter 1:20).  Was God taken by surprise when Adam sinned?  I don’t think so.  Was God surprised when Ninevah repented at the preaching of Jonah?  I don’t think so.  I don’t think anything takes God by surprise because He knows the end from the beginning.

You see, God is outside of time.  He is the creator of time.  Will there be time in heaven?  We don’t know for sure, but it will probably be very different from time here on earth.  So, if I am outside of time, looking in on time, then I can see everything that has ever happened or will ever happen as a momentary thing. 

So, should we pray?  Absolutely!  Prayer is not for God’s benefit.  It is for our benefit.  Prayer does not change God’s mind, but it often does change my mind.  Prayer does not come as a surprise to God, but it does often surprise me with my incomplete obedience to Him. 

Friends, there is so much about God that we simply have to take as a matter of faith.  There are some dynamic tensions that exist because of our finiteness trying to understand the infinite.  That is like me trying to understand how a computer works…I use it because I believe in what it can do, but I try not to figure it out.  I have found that it is better to accept God that way as well.
 

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