Thursday, July 19, 2007

Theology Q&A's: Does Prayer Change God's Mind?


Does God actually listen to the prayers of people and
then respond by doing something that they asked for?
Here's a more difficult question: does prayer actually change God's mind? They seem simple, but there is some 'heady' theology behind those questions. It underscores the need for theological study. That's why it's always so sad to hear today's trendy church leaders putting-down the study of theology. Well in this short audio clip, RC Sproul answers those questions, plus tells you two additional things that you must know about prayer.

Before you listen to this 8 minute MP3, take note of what your answers are to those questions, then afterwards - tell us how you did in the comments below. Again, the questions are:

1) Does prayer change things?
2) Does prayer change God's mind?

Always remember that your theology and doctrine will impact your practice; you can't just divorce yourself from those things, nor can you afford to minimize those things, as we so often hear from today's pastors, such as this one:

"There's a danger in thinking Christianity is just a head thing. We can fall into the trap of listening to good messages, learning a lot about the Bible, and studying up on our doctrine, and forgetting that there is more to playing in the game than just memorizing the playbook. While these things are important, they are not the main thing. Some of the most useless Christians out there are also the smartest. We must not forget that Christianity is also a heart thing. It's not just what we know, it's a relationship with God. I believe it's possible to know God. I've seen students be more on fire for God than those who grew up in the church. Why is that? Because spiritual maturity isn't measured by age...it's more of a heart thing."

He's right of course, about Christianity not being just a head thing, but he's wrong to rank "head things" lower on the list. After all, it is our understanding of truth that moves our heart and hands. Or to borrow his analogy, nobody even gets on the field without knowing some crucial things from the playbook. It's also wrong to suggest that spiritual maturity is measured in zeal; that's the subject of a video that's posted here on Old Truth. We've had "on fire" students pass through here who were full of zeal, and yet were unable to explain what the incarnation was or tell us the significance of the resurrection. Zeal without knowledge.

Wanting to be funny, another popular pastor today stereotyped those who put a very high-priority on doctrine and theology by saying that they do "an in-depth Bible study on the goat in the book of Leviticus" and referred to such time-wasting people as "licking the lint out of their navels".

Leaders like that should not degrade or downgrade these important things, but should instead realize that every pastor is called to be a theologian. I wonder how many of them today have actually thought long and hard about the questions on this audio never mind being able to answer them accurately. They are very theological questions after all, and yet - they are questions that impact our understanding of something very practical.

This audio is from Sproul's "Lord's Prayer" series and his teaching entitled
"Thy Kingdom Come".

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