The Tough Truth About Prayer part 2

This is a follow up post from my original commentary a couple of days ago. A reader, Tim Kuehn, is gracious enough to read The Beast's Lair and has raised an issue that, frankly, I didn't expect to come up. I am thrilled that he has mentioned it and I am happy to respond as best I can. This is a long and drawn out post that will send most of you to snooze town. But, I hope it is helpful to some.

The question was two fold: 1) What is the Scriptural basis for God hearing the sinner's prayer of salvation. 2) Isn't a person who prays a prayer of salvation already filled with the Holy Spirit by the time they have prayed it, therefore God is still only hearing the prayer of a believer.

First of all, let me clarify a few points. The subpoint 2 above is an idea that most of my readers, and Christians in general for that matter, have not considered. When I talk about God "not hearing" the prayers of unbelievers as I mentioned in my first post, I am of course not intending to portray God as being deaf to those prayers. In His omniscient nature, God certainly physically hears the prayers. The phraseology that "God does not hear the prayers" refers more to his inclination to hear with the intention of responding. As I also mentioned in the previous post, I am sure that God in His infinite wisdom and omnipotence has done that very thing, but I do think that is the exception.

Now, the issue that Tim has raised really takes a step beyond even our understanding of how God hears prayer to the issues of compatibilism vs libertarian freedom, Calvinism vs Arminianism (not to be confused with Arianism). Here is how it breaks down:

Compatibilism and Calvinism typically go together as do libertarian freedom and Arminianism. For the compatibilist, the doctrines of human free will and God's sovereignty work together, in other words, they are compatible. Compatibilists do not limit the exercise of God's sovereignty in order to preserve man's free will. No good explanation can be made as to how this works, but in essence it says that God is 100% sovereign while humans still have free will and responsibility for their actions. This ties with Calvinism because the Calvinist views salvation through the lens of God's sovereignty, that He has elected some to accept Christ and those whom He elected will, by their own choosing, unite with Christ. They do not come to Christ because of what they have done, because of their great faith, because of their works, but only because of the grace of God who elected them.

In contrast, libertarian freedom holds the view that our choices are completely free from any predetermination by God, or for that matter, from the constraints of human nature. For the libertarian, this is the only way to view human freedom with the result of genuine moral responsibility. Both open theists and Arminianists hold to this view. For the open theists, God anxiously and eagerly waits to see who will accept His son and then welcomes them into His family once they have done so. Because God's sovereignty is not the final decision in salvation for the libertarian open theist, there is no way for Him to know who will ultimately accept Christ until it happens. The Arminianist doesn't go quite that far, but says in their understanding of libertarian freedom that God, after setting things in motion, looked ahead in time and saw who would ultimately, on their own free will, accept Christ. He then "elected" these people based His foreknowledge of their own free will. Nevertheless, even for the Arminianist, God still had a moment of "hoping" as He looked ahead in time that people would make that decision. (by the way, the issues of infra and supra lapsarianism can come into play here, but I don't think it is relevant enough for what we ultimately are discussing.)

So what does all of that have to do with the Holy Spirit filling a person before they say the sinner's prayer, whereby God is still only hearing the prayers of believers? Well, for the open theist in their libertarian freedom, this concept is completely out. The only way God could fill someone with the Holy Spirit before a prayer of salvation was made is if He knew with certainty that the person would make that prayer. Now, this process of being filled with the Holy Spirit before the prayer is actually said is basically an instantaneous process. Those who support this idea understand it to happen pretty much at the exact same time, but that a millisecond before the prayer is made, that person is filled with the Spirit. Nevertheless, if you hold completely true to libertarian freedom, that millisecond is just enough time for the person to change their mind. Arminianists are able to say that through the foreknowledge of God, He knew they would accept and that is how He can fill them right before they pray. But then, the Arminianist is on dangerous ground of actually being a Calvinist. Because even if you say that God foresaw their free will, you are still implying that the free will He foresaw is now determined. So, when the person gets ready to make their decision, they have no ability to change their mind because God already foresaw their actions.

For the Calvinist, there is no problem with this idea. God elected those who would be saved by His sovereignty and grace. Therefore, He knows with certainty who will accept Christ and when. He is therefore able to fill that person right before or as they are saying the prayer, whereby He is still hearing the prayers of believers.

Where do I come down on this issue? I don't know. This is a very specific understanding of salvation on which I just haven't reached a conclusion.

However, Tim, in reference to your question, let me finally get to the heart of what I meant by my original statement that God hears the prayers of sinner's when they ask for salvation. Here is the point: A sinner who hears the Gospel of Christ really only understands one thing. They are lost and need Jesus to get to God. For them to even begin to understand the implications and nature of all this stuff we have been discussing is just simply impossible and not needed for salvation. In that regard, whether or not the Spirit fills the unbeliever right before the prayer or right after, the point that I wanted to make to unbelievers reading my blog is that God will hear and respond to that kind of prayer.

The Scriptural support for this is endless. You may read it through the lens of God filling unbelievers with the Spirit before they pray, but nevertheless the entire Bible is really a message of the lost calling out to Christ and being redeemed. The ultimate passage is Luke 18. The prayer of the supposed righteous Pharisee is apparently all but worthless while the prayer of the sinful tax collector results in him going "down to his house justified." There are even examples of entire nations praying to God in recognition of their sin and God hearing their prayers with action. The story of Jonah is a great example. So does God respond to the prayers of those confessing sin? Absolutely. How He does that exactly is a subject to continued to be discussed.

Thanks so much for your question and your insight. Blessings to you.