In my study of world religions I came across two serious objections to the teachings of Christianity. Most of the objections I come across are stupid and poorly-thought-out, but these two have cropped up in my thinking again and again, because they seem to make a certain amount of sense.
The first is about prayer, and I believe I finally have an answer. It ocurred to me while I was reading Murray’s book, “With Christ in the School of Prayer.” But the explanation requires a little excursion into my train of thought.
Prayer, from the perspective of a thinking outside observer, appears to be little more than ineffectual hoping. You might balk at the idea, but think about it for a minute. How do you explain all of those ‘no’ answers? “It wasn’t God’s will.” And in response to, “Why pray then?”, we usually say something that can be reduced to, “God just likes to hear what we’re thinking once in awhile, so He won’t get lonely.” Or worse, “Well, if you don’t pray, then you’re sure not to get it, because God often waits to carry out His will until someone prays for it.”
Then you have to go on to argue, “Then is God’s hand shortened, that it cannot save?” Of course not… and a 5-pointed Calvinist (this term is used derisively on purpose, and therefore doesn’t apply to you Calvinists of a sharper disposition) says, “well, God always ordains someone to ask Him to do what He wants to do.” That sounds to me like a bit of stretch–
But it gets even worse when the rubber meets the road, and we come right down to my personal prayer life. Because when I pray, how am I, as an individual, supposed to know whether what I am praying for is God’s will, and; therefore, whether or not I will get an answer? In effect, the neigh-sayers are right. I’m only expressing my desires to God, with the vague hope that what I ask for will coincide with His will. And if this is true, then what is prayer if not a useless, misplaced desire– a lazy replacement for taking action?
Indeed, certain religions take this “prayer,” which I have just described, and which ocurrs primarily in a self-subjugated position called “kneeling;” and, they replace it with a little thing called “Will,” which is capitalised in those belief systems just as it is here. The idea is, the stronger your will is, the more likely you are to get what you ask for, because instead of asking for what you want, and asking, and asking and asking, and doing nothing at all, you say, “Hallowed be MY name! MY kingdom come… MY will be done on earth, for there IS no heaven!!” And that is supposed to increase the likelihood that you will get up, go outside, and accomplish more of what you want by the time you expire than the ineffectual, unfaithful prayer of an unrighteous man could avail in ten thousand years.
Well, first of all, these religions also have loopholes. If you don’t get what you want, then either you didn’t want it badly enough (your will was either weak or divided), or you wanted something that just wasn’t possible. After all, there are still the laws of nature to consider– but since we’re trying to get what we want, why not do as much as possible to stack things in our favor? Here is where Christianity actually trumps, because our God is not confined by our thinking, and He can do things that don’t fit our superimposed models of observation, these so-called “natural laws”. The difference here isn’t that those with the Will to Power [Nietsche, Beyond Good and Evil; and Freud, On the Interperetation of Dreams] somehow vouchsafe to themselves the impossible; the difference is supposed to be that the Freudians and Nietsche-ans go out and take, while many (and I dare say, most!) Christians sit around and hope that things will start going their way.
Second of all, there’s what I read in Murray’s book. He reawakens the importance of the will in our prayer life, to a degree our detractors and I have never fully grasped:
“But the word of the Master teaches us more. He does not say, What dost thou wish? but, What does thou will? One often wishes for a thing without willing it. I wish to have a certain article, but I find the price too high; I resolve not to take it; I wish, but do not will to have it. The sluggard wishes to be rich, but does not will it. Many a one wishes to be saved, but perishes because he does not will it. The will rules the whole heart and life; if I really will to have anything that is within my reach, I do not rest till I have it. And so, when Jesus says to us, ‘What wilt thou?’ He asks whether it is indeed our purpose to have what we ask at any price, however great the sacrifice. Dost thou indeed so will to have it that, though He delay it long, thou dost not hold thy peace till He hear thee? Alas! how many prayers are wishes, sent up for a short time and then forgotten, or sent up year after year as matter of duty, while we rest content with the prayer without the answer.
“But, it may be asked, is it not best to make our wishes known to God, and then to leave it to Him to decide what is best, without seeking to assert our will? By no means. This is the very essence of the prayer of faith, to which Jesus sought to train His disciples, that it does not only make known its desire and then leave the decision to God. [emphasis mine.] That would be the prayer of submission, for cases in which we cannot know God’s will. But the prayer of faith, finding God’s will in some promise of the Word, pleads for that till it come. In Matthew (ix. 28) we read Jesus said to the blind man: ‘Believe ye that I can do this?’ Here, in Mark, He says: ‘What wilt thou that I should do?’ In both cases He said that faith had saved them. And so He said to the Syrophenician woman, too: ‘Great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.’ Faith is nothing but the purpose of the will resting on God’s word, and saying: I must have it. To believe truly is to will firmly.
“But is not such a will at variance with our dependence on God and our submission to Him? By no means; it is much rather the true submission that honours God” (75-76).
Need I say more? All of you who denounce displace prayer with Will Power, this is my answer! You are not limited by the laws of nature but by the will of God! No amount of magic(k) or effort can overcome it! And to you Christians I say, stop praying ineffectively! You are limited by the Will of God only, and He is a kind and merciful God, Who is delighted to give us more than we need.
The second is about sin. I mean, I’m working on memorizing these verses, right? From the Vest Pocket Companion for Christian Workers, by R.A. Torrey. And one of the first verses in there is I John 1:8, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Which is pretty bad news… since we are supposed to “be perfect, just as [our] Father in heaven is perfect;” and, “stand in awe, and sin not.” I was talking to one of my friends and he said, it seems like it’s just setting you up to fail. Clearly the Lord doesn’t want us to spend all of our time in the temple, beating ourselves up and crying, “have mercy on me, a sinner!” Besides, isn’t God “faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able; but will with the temptation provide a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it?” Then why are we condemned to perpetuate this “wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?”
Well, the only plausible explanation that I can come up with is, this whole life is just one long, torturous purification ritual. We are doomed to be punished and to suffer and to repent, and repent again and, just when we feel that we’ve suffered enough to have ceased from sin (I Peter 4:1), we run up against I John 1:8. Where does it end? Don’t you know, it’s pretty stressful being stuck in this rut with pretty much a guarantee that the only escape is death. Any thoughts?? Because I’d just like to put my sin behind me, once and for all. lol