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Proverbs 19:21
Proverbs 21:1
Daniel 2:21
ஏனைய பதிவுகள்:
QUESTION ON PRAYER
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LINKS TO POSTS ON - MY RELIGIOUS TURNING POINT
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RELIGION is a strong castle on a solid
rock, the FAITH. Pillars of religion are always deep rooted into that rock and
they are unassailable, unshakable and inscrutable for the BELIEVERS. What I did
was testing the pillars one by one. When I tested the pillar on - FREEWILL - it
wobbled.
My conviction is that free will of man
and omniscience of an almighty would never stand together. Any one of these two should alone stand. If
there is omniscience of god, free will becomes meaningless and defunct and vice
versa. This tussle I had explained in the previous post. That led to me to a
conclusion against what Christianity says.
The first defiance of my faith has
pushed me to a next question: Question
on prayer.
It is always said by prayer you can
'make' god do what you ask for. Prayers are considered by Christians
only as a tool to get the mercy of
god. It is stressed that our daily life should be filled with prayers. But to
me there was one another incongruity - who stands as the winner - will of god
or human prayers? The following quotes proclaim the supremacy of god and his
will.
Proverbs 19:21
“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the
purpose of the Lord that will stand.”
Proverbs 21:1
“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the
Lord; he turns it wherever he will.”
Luke 12:7
But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not
therefore …
Romans 9: 18 - 20
Everything depends on what God decides to
do, and he can either have pity on people or make them stubborn.
Someone may ask, “How can
God blame us, if he makes us behave in the way he wants us to?” 20 But, my friend, I ask, “Who do you think you are to question God? Does
the clay have the right to ask the potter why he shaped it the way he did?
Daniel 2:21
“He changes times and seasons; he removes
kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who
have understanding.”
Above quotes stress that everything is under the control and
wish of god. God's omniscience gets fully established by these quotes. But there
are another set of quotes wherein god's will gets deviated by ther prayers of
believers.
Matthew 7:7
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek
and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Proverbs 15:29
The Lord is far
from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
Mother Teresa
"God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there
is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against
evil."
Thomas Watson
Prayer
delights God's ear; it melts His heart; and opens His hand. God cannot deny a
praying soul.
These above
quotes show how god yields to prayers.
In our
childhood days, we were always taught that a crying hungry child alone gets fed
by its parents; in the same way by praying you get things from god. More so we
were taught that prayer always wins. 'Victory through prayer' has been the
often heard saying of Christian believers. Early morning prayer, fasting
prayer, whole night prayer .. varieties of prayers among believers.
These
beliefs raised a question. Prayer is
defined as a communication with god. You ask for it , you would get it. This is
what most Christians feel and believe in. In continuation of my question of
free will and predeterminism, god, the omniscient knows what would happen, when it would happen and all. Things were
pre-decided. If so, how come a prayer from a believer would make any difference
in his will? Things should happen as decided by god. So what do we get out of
prayer. With or without prayers omniscient's decision or 'His Will' would be
carried out. Even by praying a believer cannot make a dent in the predecided
plan of god. Right? If so why prayers then?! Let all be His will !
In a light
hearted vein, I thought of the prayers of Jesus. Jesus had been shown in Bible
praying. But we never knew what he prayed for. But in Gethsemane he prays to
relieve him of the crucifixion. Only time when we know what he prayed. Was it
heard? Did his prayers change anything? If it is "but as thou will" (Mat 26:39) .. why pray then?
·
Matthew 26:39 39 And
he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I
will, but as thou wilt.
·
Mark 14:36 Abba,[a] Father,” he said, “everything is possible
for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
·
Luke
2242 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet
not my will, but yours be done.”
Jesus prayed like
this 'to take this cup from him'. But god didn't !
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P.S.
Well, when I posted
the above ideas in Tamil in my blog, surprisingly I got a comment from a
'fundamental' muslim that prayers of Prophet Esa were really heard by Allah.
Rest of the story goes like this: Gibrail (Gabriel) comes before Esa in Gethsemane and commands Esa to run when he would be
about to be arrested by Roman soldiers. They would run through a cave. During
this, Esa had to scoop a handful of sand and hurl it on the face of a chasing
soldier. Then, that soldier gets the face of Esa and he gets arrested and goes
through the whole of Calvary and final crucifixion. The 'real' Esa escapes and
stands on a stone at the opening of the
cave. From there he is taken to Jannah or heaven
by angels. So prayers of Esa were heard and he gets what he prayed for!
Hope this
post script would be interestingly new to many Chrisitians.
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