This is probably not going to be the last post in this series, because I want to address the idea of “divine rape” in God’s effectual call and irresistible grace. This fifth post is going to be on Predestination and Prayer. In Part 4, I argued that Calvinism does not hinder prayer, but that God ordained that his saving, effectual call of his election comes through our preaching of the gospel in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5 and 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; and this calling of his elect is the joy of the entire Triune God in Luke 10:21-22–Father, Son, Spirit. In Part 3 I argued that Calvinism does not give license to live however but that it gives the foundation and confidence to live the life of holiness we are called to live for (Hebrews 12:12-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15; Ephesians 1:4; Philippians 2:12-13; 1 Corinthians 15:8-10). In Part 2, I argued that election is unconditional from Romans 9:11 and from 1 Corinthians 1:20-31 that Calvinism’s unconditional election and effectual call is designed to cut human pride out from under itself and give all glory and honor for salvation to God. In Part 1, I argued that many objections against Five-point Calvinism (TULIP) comes from people assuming it is the same as Hyper-Calvinism, it would be the same thing as assuming Arminianism is either Open Theism or Pelagianism; if this confusion would stop, many objections would cease, and so I tried to demonstrate the difference between the biblical Five-point and Hyper-Calvinism. So let us turn to Predestination and Prayer.

The first thing I want to is to define the type of prayer being spoken of. I don’t think that the objection raised is “why pray a prayer of praise to God for who he is and what he has done for me, a sinner bound for hell” or “why pray a prayer to God thanking him for all of the blessings he has given me. If I am understanding the objection, I think I am being asked “why do I ask God to save people and ask God to do certain things.” Or “why petition God for anything since he has already determined exactly what will happen?” Let me know if I am wrong and I will write another post to respond to the clarification. But I will operate under this assumption.

Now before I get into my textual response, I have to ask a question to all synergists. Synergism is the theological system where the will of God and the actions of God must work along side the actions and will of man. There are varying degrees of this. By that I mean that some people say the work load is 50-50, God does half and man does half; others say that God does 99% (God became incarnate in Christ, died on the cross and rose from the grave, and sent the Holy Spirit to woo and convict) and man does 1% (namely believe in the truth of their own autonomous and independent free will). If this is true, I must turn the question back around to the synergist. Since it is God that does not do the final and decisive act of salvation (faith in the gospel and work of God in Christ), how is it that a synergist can pray to God to save a person? God has sovereignly chosen to not interfere in the will of man, but only to attempt to persuade through the Spirit, how is it then that God can be asked to save that person? Yes God has made the salvation available, all of humanity is savable, but God does not actual put people in Christ until they come on their own free will, until they chose to receive Christ. How then can God be asked to save a person? Wouldn’t that be asking him to violate his own sovereign decree to not interfere in man’s will? Even when I was a synergist, I have never understood why do this, I just did. Now that I am Reformed, this doesn’t make any sense at all.

In Reformed soteriology, it is God who does the final and decisive act in salvation. It is by his work that one believes (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:30; Philippians 1:29; John 6:44-45, 64-65; John 10:26-27). Thus it is only right to ask God to save someone, even if God has not elected that person for salvation because I have no knowledge of who is elect, because it is his work that brings them to faith and repentance. I can pray for God to save a lost person because it is him who saves that person, that person cannot in their own will free themselves from sin’s mastery but only God can do that (2 Corinthians 4:4, 6). So if a synergist can explain this to me I would truly be honored.

Now there is something unique about the following statement of Paul in Romans 10:1, “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.” This is Paul’s response to Romans 9:30-33 where the Jews have missed out on the righteousness of God because, unlike the Gentiles who found it by faith alone, they sought it through their pursuit of the law. Paul says his prayer is for the salvation of the Jews (which also fits his anguish in Romans 9:1-5). Romans 9:30 starts out with “What shall we say, then?” That word “then” is referring to in light of all that has been spoken of up to Romans 9:30. The Jews have missed out on righteousness in pursuing it by law and the Gentiles found righteousness by faith because God had mercy upon the Gentiles and hardened the Jews–in spite of all of the advantages God graced Israel with (Romans 9:1-5). I spoke of Romans 9:11 speaking of Unconditional election in Objections to Calvinism Part 2 of 5. But on the heels of this chapter in defending God’s righteousness in hardening the Jews, Paul prays for Israel to be saved. Even though Paul believes in unconditional election, Paul still prays for the salvation of his lost and rejected “kinsmen according to the flesh.” Election does not diminish the need for prayer.

Some observations from the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13,

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

The first thing Jesus taught us to pray that God’s name be sanctified, set apart, made holy. The next thing he prayed for was that God bring forth his kingdom, which comes through the calling of the elect in evangelism and the Second Coming of Christ at the end of the age. Then Jesus taught us to pray that God’s will be done, obeyed, here on earth as it is done in heaven. But we ask the Father who is in heaven. We are to petition this God to declare the holiness of his name, make his kingdom come on earth, and to obey his will. We are asking him to do this, not help us to do this. We must ask God to give us our daily needs, not help us get it. We then are to ask God to forgive us as we forgave those who wronged us. Then we ask God to lead us into temptation. The Greek verb is a for “lead us not” is a second-person plural, aorist subjunctive that has been negated. We are asking God to not make it possible to be tempted, to be lead into temptation. And we are asking God not to help us resist the evil one but to deliver us. He is to do all of this. We are banking on God’s sovereignty and omnipotence to answer our prayer. God’s absolute sovereignty is essential to our prayer life. Without it, we would have no foundation with which to ask and be confident that God will answer those petitions. God must have the ability to answer what we ask of him. But some of the things that Jesus mentions here on earth can only happen if God sovereignly and creatively acts within a person’s life.

Take for example: God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven. The angels in heaven perfectly obey God’s will. It is never rebelled against by the heavenly beings. We are asking God to make that happen here on earth. If this was also contingent upon man’s autonomous free will, God would not have the full ability to make this happen. God could not answer that prayer, it would be beyond his ability because he has sovereignly chosen to relinquish control over humans so that they could have the same autonomy over themselves as God has: completely free (hence God’s reply to Moses in Exodus 33:19, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,” that Paul quotes in Romans 9:15 as his argument for God still being righteous in loving Jacob and hating Esau not because of works and before they were born). God no longer governs over man’s will and therefore cannot ensure that his will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. But if God’s grace ensures obedience, then God we can be confident in God answering this prayer. Thus apart from God’s absolute sovereignty and his effectual and persevering grace, prayer for the lost would be fruitless and no one could be confident that God could answer our prayers to meet the needs of his people.

Now the first question I want to ask is why should I pray to God for things ( namely, physical, mental, spiritual, emotional needs in my life; for the same needs in the lives of others)? I want to turn to Jesus’ words in the Gospel according to John and his final discourse in John 14-16. The first text I want to use to answer this is John 14:13, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” The term “ask” is the Greek artiste is an aorist subjunctive verb which means “whatever you may/might ask.” What we ask for here in this text is unspecified. But whatever that is Christ said “that I will do” (touto poihsw). John records this as future active indicative. What is asked of Christ he will do, Christ does not leave prayer “unanswered” (this does not mean Christ will not answer the prayer the way the person thinks Christ should answer it). But the next word in Greek is an important word: ina, that all too familiar Greek conjunction that means “in order that” or “so that.” There is a reason that if we ask Christ for something he will do it. Christ answers prayer so that what? “That the Father may be glorified in the Son.” By Christ’s answering our prayers, God is glorified, honored. Thus without our prayers, God could not be fully manifest his glory! So I pray, as a Calvinist, so that God can be seen as glorious, that Christ might manifest the infinite glory of his Father through answering my prayers. The very honor and glory of God is at stake in prayer, and this makes prayer of the deepest concern for me. I desire to magnify the honor of God, I desire to manifest the gloriousness of God. Thus I pray.

But, even though this is enough to settle the issue for me, there is more! Jesus also said in John 16:23-24, “In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” The phrase “in that day” refers to what was said in John 16:22, “So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” On the day that the disciples see Jesus again, at his return, they will receive their joy that none can take away (I do recognize that there are present applications in this text concerning the “joy” or chara spoken of by Jesus.). “In that day” there will be no need to ask God of anything, for what will we need to ask God for when our hearts have the joy that cannot be taken away? Jesus will have returned and brought the joy that is permanently ours! But whatever, from now until that time has come, “whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” The Greek in this phrase is almost identical to that of John 14:13. John 14:13 reads in Greek, kai o ti an aithshte en tw onomati mou touto poihsw; and John 16:23 reads in Greek, an ti aithshte ton patera en tw onomati mou dwsei umin. The same idea is communicated, only here in John 16:23 we have the Father answering the prayer and not Christ. The message is the same: God hears and answers prayer.

Now at the end of John 16:24 we are given an imperative verb: aiteite. “Ask.” This Greek term, same in John 14:13, means to beg, desire, call for, require, crave. We are to beg and call for whatever (ti an or an ti). Jesus connects to this command to ask or “pray” with this promise “and you will receive” (kai lhmpsesthe). The verb is again future indicative, an assertion or statement of the reality that God will grant the petition. But here again we find that Greek conjunction ina so that we know the purpose of our receiving what we are commanded to ask for, “your joy may be fulfilled.” Now the verbal construction is quite interesting. It appears that “may be fulfilled” is what is known as a periphrastic construction. This a Greek construction that uses eimi (I am, or the verb “to be”) with a perfect participle peplhrwmenh. The force of the construction is the emphasis on the continuous nature of the action. This particular construction is normally used to express the plural third person perfect participle in Koine Greek, an example is Acts 13:48 and “were appointed.” However, that would require eimi to be in the indicative mood. In John 16:24, eimi is subjunction, so I don’t this is periphrastic. Also, the verbs are referring to the “your joy” which is singular. Now eimi is subjunctive, which is the mood of possibility or probability. It can be used to express that something might happen, “I might go to Jimmy’s house today.” There is a possibility of me going to Jimmy’s house, but no certainty. However, the subjunctive can also express certainty of accomplishing something. “I filled up my car with gasoline so that I might go to work this morning.” Here the subjunctive is used, but it expresses not that I may or may not go to work, but that without the gasoline, I could not go to work. This latter use is how eimi is being used in John 16:24, unless we pray, our joy would not be fulfilled. But more than this, the fullness of the joy is in the perfect tense (as I stated above). The fullness is a complete action whose effects are felt in the present. The joy is a lasting joy, it does not end. The joy cannot be emptied out or taken away (cf. John 16:22). Prayer is not only for God’s glory, it is for our joy. It sustains our joy in our Christian walk. Apart from prayer, you could maintain your joy. Your joy would not be in the perfect tense any longer. We must pray if we are to remain joyful on this side of heaven.

I close with a paragraph from John Piper about prayer as God’s means to bring about his will,

The Lord’s Prayer shows us the astonishing nature of prayer. It puts in the position of greatest importance the prayer for God’s name to be glorified, God’s kingdom to advance and triumph, and God’s will to be accomplished on the earth the way it’s happening in heaven. This means that God intends to use human prayers to accomplish his most ultimate and universal purposes. For example, Jesus tells us to pray for the workers that will be required to spread the gospel to all the nations. “Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matt. 9:38). Yet nothing is more certain than that the kingdom of God will triumph. Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it . . . this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 16:18; 24:14). There is no uncertainty about the triumph of God. Nevertheless, in God’s providence it depends on human prayer. –Piper, John. What Jesus Demands from the World. (Crossway Books: Wheaton Illinois, 2006) 112.

To review, Paul’s prayer for the salvation for the Jewish people (Romans 10:1) was not diminished by his teaching on election in Romans 9. The doctrines of grace (i.e. irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints) and God’s sovereignty are essential to his ability to answer prayer, such as in the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). God has made prayer a means to declare and display his glory (John 14:13). Prayer is a means to sustain our joy (John 16:23-24). Thirdly, God has made prayer a means to accomplish his will and without it, his will would not be done. Therefore let us pray!

Cross posted at Think Wink