So if we now continue following
Bunyan’s argument, we need to look at how
the Spirit decides on what it is that He urges us to pray for. Quite simply
put, we are urged by the Spirit to pray “for
such things as God has promised[1]”.
Now that might sound quite simple and straightforward, and in many ways it is.
But there are also complexities to this proviso that must be investigated and
considered. To do so, in relation to the “prayer” we are considering, it is now
time to take a closer look at the subject of that particular “prayer” which you
suggested, the immediate curing of
every case of cancer in the world. Before I can feel comfortable doing
this, however, there is something that I feel needs to be said.
I find it somewhat unfortunate, and even disturbing, that you
should use cancer as an example in what I see as being a very flippant and
lighthearted manner. The pain and the suffering caused by this devastating
disease, as well as the totally
destructive nature by which it is characterized, is not, in my opinion,
something to be publicly minimized by its use on a page such as the web-site
you have authored, in the procedure which you have suggested.
Each and every day, countless people stand helpless as this
killer of body, and spirit, ravages their very lives, or possibly, the lives of
one or more of those who are near and dear to them. If you sir/madam/whatever[2]
can’t give to the disease the proper amount of fearful respect which it in
itself, as one of the world’s most prolific killers, deserves, perhaps you
could at least honor those who must fight every day with this evil for the
very breath they breath. I say this sincerely, and from the heart, as one whose
mother lost her battle with that beast when I wasn’t even 10 years old, and
whose eldest brother gave so much of his insides to the same disease, that he
spent his latter years burdened with the continual presence of a colostomy bag.
And even then, I could only pray that it stopped there, until my second eldest
sister surrendered a breast, yet again, to the same disease.
You could have used any number of other subjects as the focus
of your argument, and I respectfully suggest that if perhaps you had a little
more spirituality in your own life, you might be a little more sensitive to
those others who share this world with you.
With all that being said, let me now apologize in advance to
any who may read these pages, for anything I might say in my following
arguments concerning the suffering of this world in general, and the specter of
cancer specifically. I mean no disrespect to all those who are affected by this
disease each and every day, but “God Is Imaginary” set the playing field, and I
feel quite certain that if I were to in any way change the nature of the
offered “prayer”, I would be immediately written off as not being able to make
answer to the “proof” in question. So
once again, I apologize in advance for any offence taken, or pain caused by,
any of the things I need to say on the pages that follow. For whatever its
worth, the chances are very good that I will share in at least some of your
discomfort and pain, as I hope and pray that I will also always share in your
hope and your joy.
So the task before us now is to determine if the subject of
your “prayer” is anything that God is in any way obligated to respond to. These
considerations should include whether that prayer be offered by either a
non-believer, or a believer, and should any response given by God, be in the
manner that you desire, or in any other way of His choosing. In short, does the
subject of your “prayer” reflect “such a
thing as God has promised”? I personally believe the easy and simple answer
in either of the above-stated cases, believer or non-believer, is a plain and
simple “No”. However, before we can look directly at the subject of your
petition, we need to remind ourselves that your “prayer” itself fails to meet
even the most basic requirements of what a prayer should be. There is no
sincerity, there is no truly heartfelt need, there is not even the honest
belief that God exists. Any one of these three things is enough in itself to
disqualify, so to speak, your grouping of words from being recognized as a
serious prayer. So if we truly desire to look closer at the request of God that
you have suggested, and if we are to delve deeper into the question of the
suitability of such a request regarding its inclusion in a prayer, then I
believe we will have to set up a very loose, and hypothetical situation. So let
us just imagine, for the sake of argument, that the request before us, the
curing of every case of cancer in the world, was a request made by a truly
sincere believer, who in all innocence was honestly seeking God’s glory and the
betterment of human-kind.
My first concern has to be the obvious one. The very structure
inherent in the words offered as the “prayer”, when combined with the stated
intent of your web-site in general, in actuality, make your words appear less
like a prayer, and much more closely
akin to a “test”, or a “challenge” if you will. What is being asked for
basically, is a sign; a sign of such magnitude that any and all doubts of God’s
existence should be eradicated in one fell swoop. And if so, then where is
faith? Just as important, where is obedience?
And what does our Lord have to say about unbelievers who ask for signs?
“The Pharisees and Sadducees came to
Jesus and tested Him by asking Him to show them a sign from Heaven. He replied,
…’A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign (such as the curing of
every case of cancer in the world?), but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah (a reference to His soon-to-occur resurrection)’. Jesus then left them and
went away.”
Matthew 16:1-2a, 4 (Parenthetical statements mine for
clarification.)
Now I do not mean to imply by my earlier questions regarding
faith and obedience, that the prayer, as
we are presently looking at it, is not sincere, for we have stipulated in
our hypothetical situation that it is in fact the prayer “of a sincere believer”. What I do mean to
imply is that the prayer is offered imperfectly, which in no way takes away
from the earnestness of the one who prays, but more so indicates an honest lack
of understanding. However, with that being said, this lack of understanding
does not change the simple fact that the one praying in this case is in essence
asking God to provide “a sign” establishing His existence in a manner so
concrete as to eliminate the need for faith. Whoever prays such a prayer will
certainly not be among the first to do so.
In the Christian belief system, the enemy, or Satan, is also
referred to as “the Tempter”, at least in part, due to his tempting (or
testing) of Jesus in the wilderness.
“Then the devil took him to the holy
city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If you are the Son
of God,’ he said, 'throw yourself down. For it is written:
‘He will command His angels
concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their
hands,
so that you will not strike your
foot against a stone.[3]’”
Matthew
4:5-6
You will note that Satan tried to use a particular scripture as
support for that which he requested of Jesus, very much like you do in support
of your “proofs”. If Jesus had done as He was requested, surviving the test
would have confirmed His Deity then, in much the same manner as “curing every
case of cancer in the world” would confirm it today. But rather than take Satan
up on the offer, Jesus replied,
...”It is also written: “Do not put the Lord your God to
the test.[4]”
Matthew
4:7
I would like to be very clear here about what I am saying.
First of all, I certainly do believe that God answers prayer, and of that I
have much evidence in my own life. At least indirectly, by the answering of
personal prayers of mine, God has increased my faith, and thus, my belief in
His existence has been even more firmly established. So therefore, it could be
said that I myself have at various times, “put God to the test”. And there are
even Biblical examples of similar instances of an individual performing “tests”
of this nature; a nature, I must point out, that is completely different from
the nature of your “prayer”, as we shall soon see. By way of example, we need
only briefly review the Biblical accounting of Gideon. I’m sure many people,
believers and non-believers alike, are familiar with Gideon, and his multiple
testings to ensure that a message he had received was in fact from God, and was
not just a product of his own imagination, or the plot of an evil spirit. For
those who are not familiar with these tests they involved a woolen “fleece”,
and the tests worked in the following manner.
“Gideon said to God, “If you will
save Israel by my hand as you have promised – look, I will place a
wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all
the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” And that is what happened.
Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and rung out the dew – a
bowlful of water.
Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be
angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with
the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.”
That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with
dew.”
Judges 6:36-40
So what is it that makes the situation with Gideon any
different than the situation with the prayer that we are currently considering?
They both are basically “tests”. Well, if we are talking about the prayer as it
was originally suggested on your
web-page “God Is Imaginary”, then the main difference is that unlike you,
Gideon was a believer who was praying to a God that he knew very deeply in his
heart, existed. Gideon was also possessed of a true believer’s “awe” of the
living God, as is evidenced by his initial reaction when he first encountered
“the angel of the Lord[5]”,
and subsequently had it proven to him that it was indeed God that he had been
speaking with. So alarmed is Gideon by this realization that he feels certain
that he must now perish[6].
We know that this was the very fear that was in his heart, by the reassurance
given him from the Lord Himself:
“When Gideon realized that it was
the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Ah, Sovereign Lord, I have seen the angel
of the Lord face to face!”
But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do
not be afraid. You are not going to
die.”
Judges
6:22-23 (Emphasis mine.)
Once again, it is this deep reverence
for God, this awe and wonder, that sets a believer apart from those who do not
believe, establishing the sincerity and respect of which we spoke earlier. And
how did Gideon express his gratitude?
“… Gideon built an altar to the Lord
there and called it The Lord Is Peace…”
Judges
6:24
It is imperative to understand that Gideon did not devise these
tests as a means of establishing whether or not there was a God, he already
believed that very deeply. Rather, he asked for signs so he could be assured
that it was the true and living God who was sending him on the particular
mission in question. His uncertainty does not speak of unbelief, but of
self-doubt, rooted in his humble amazement at the fact that he should be the
one chosen for such a task[7].
This speaks of a humility that is admirable before God, much more desirable
than the boastful pride that is so often exhibited by men who consider
themselves to be the highest power.
If Gideon had not accepted in the first place that there was
indeed a living God, who in His infinite wonder might actually have decided
that Gideon would be the tool by which He saved Israel, then perhaps Gideon
would simply have written the whole thing off as the work of an over-active
imagination and continued on with the threshing that he had been occupied with
when the messenger first arrived. Since he did, however, believe in God, he
took the whole affair very seriously and set about trying to confirm that which
he perceived to be happening. Questioning God may, as a primary response, leave
something to be desired, but it is certainly understandable, since the
circumstances were quite out of the ordinary. We are even instructed elsewhere
in the Holy Word that we should test
the spirits to see if they are, in fact, from God.
“Dear friends, do not believe every
spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many
false prophets have gone out into the world.”
1
John 4:1
It should be noted that the author of
1 John was speaking, through a letter, to believers
in one or more of the churches of his time. This is made clear a few verses
later when the author states:
“We are from God, and whoever knows
God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.”
1
John 4:6
So we know that Gideon was sincere in his belief in God, and we
know that he was in awe of his creator. We also know that his prayer, or
petition, was channelled to God through the agency of “the angel of the Lord”.
The phrase “the angel of the Lord” is a phrase that is commonly
believed to describe a “theophany” – an appearance of God Himself[8].
This type of appearance can also be considered, and is by many, as an
appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ. So Gideon did indeed offer his prayer
“through Christ”. And as for whether or not Gideon offered his prayer according
to “such as God has promised” we need only take another look at verses 36 and
37 in Judges 6 to see that,
“Gideon said to God, “If you will
save Israel by my hand, as you
have promised – …,as you said.“ (Emphasis mine)
So Gideon was simply asking for proof
of something that he felt God had already promised him. Which brings us back to
our original question as to whether “the curing of every case of cancer on the
planet” is actually anything that God has ever promised would occur in this
life. I believe the answer to that is “No, He has not.” Certainly not by using
the name cancer specifically, and to the best of my knowledge, not in regards
to, any or all illness or suffering in general. I am also convinced that with
my admittedly limited understanding, I could never even begin to enumerate the
different reasons why God has never
promised such a thing. I do, however, think I can offer at least a couple of
valid suggestions. That however, is a
task best begun tomorrow.
TO BE CONTINUED...
[1] “Prayer”, John Bunyan,
Puritan Paperbacks, Banner of Truth Trust, 1965, pp.20-21
[2] The actual name of whoever
authored your web-page does not appear to be readily apparent anywhere on your
site. Whether this is a reflection of your desire for privacy, or whatever, I
intend no rudeness by my comment.
[3] Psalm 91:11-12
[4] Deuteronomy 6:16
[5] Judges 6:11-21
[6] It was commonly believed
in Gideon’s time that a face-to-face meeting with the Lord would result in the
death of whoever it was who saw Him. Even today, it is believed that the only
reason we can approach the Lord, even in prayer, is because as believers, we do
so “in Christ”.
[7] Judges 6:15
[8] See “The Wycliffe Bible
Commentary”, Moody Press, 1962, p.245, regarding Judges 6:11, et al
