1. Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

God hearkens unto man.

Discussion in 'Baptist Theology & Bible Study' started by jonathan.borland, Mar 12, 2012.

  1. jonathan.borland

    jonathan.borland Active Member

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2008
    Messages:
    1,166
    Likes Received:
    2
    There are many passages in the Bible that speak of God hearkening to the voice of man and bringing things about based on his earnest petitions. Are we to understand that these hearkenings took place in eternity past based on God's foreknowledge and that he formed his sovereign plan based on real interactions with his creations made in his own likeness with will, emotion, intellect, etc.? I'm thinking of the countless real answers to prayer, God prolonging the day, not destroying the Israelites after Moses' intercession, turning from the wrath he intended due to humble repentance, etc. I'm interested in both the Cal and non-Cal perspective.
     
  2. Tom Butler

    Tom Butler New Member

    Joined:
    Dec 20, 2005
    Messages:
    9,031
    Likes Received:
    2
    John Piper wrote on prayer and God's sovereignty in an article back in 1976. Let me tease you with this paragraph:
    Here's the entire article:
    http://www.fivesolas.com/prov_pra.htm

    I know this doesn't deal with all the things Jonathan mentioned in the OP, but it's a good start.
     
  3. jonathan.borland

    jonathan.borland Active Member

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2008
    Messages:
    1,166
    Likes Received:
    2
    From the Piper article you cited:

    "In other words, just as God will see to it that His Word is proclaimed as a means to saving the elect, so He will see to it that all those prayers are prayed which He has promised to respond to."

    So to Piper it sounds like the biblical terminology of God hearkening to the voice of a man is actually not biblical at all.

    As for praying for the lost, why the forced simplistic bifurcation into either God-determinism or self-determinism?
     
Loading...