Whose Prayers Does God Hear? (April 11, 2004)

A question was put to me the other day about whether God hears the prayers of Muslims. If they grew up addressing their Creator as "Allah," and that is all they know, can it really be wrong for them to pray that way? Won't God still answer them? Or what about those who pray to saints - does God receive those prayers?

The first thing I would say is that God is gracious, and he is free to respond to any prayer no matter how errant, misguided or malformed it is. All of us pray amiss to some degree. We pray with selfish motives, and we pray to our idea of God rather than to God as he is. Since our limited conception of God only dimly resembles him, I believe that in order for him to hear the petition of even the wisest, holiest and most theologically accurate saint he still has to reach out and snare it like a baseball player catching a bad throw.

A prayer to Allah is a bad throw indeed, but I do not feel it is for us to say whether God is willing to stretch out and grab it. I do see from Scripture that God hears prayers from people who have a minimal understanding of him. Hagar stood outside the covenant that God made with Abraham, and knew him apparently only by the name she gave him, "The God Who Sees Me," (Genesis 16:13). But God heard her (and her son - Genesis 21:17), and met her need. Though Naaman was a pagan idolater at the time he sought a cure from Elisha, (2 Kings 5), he received healing nonetheless.

But it would be wrong to assume that just because God graciously condescends to receive wrong-headed prayer and worship, it is fine to keep rendering him wrong-headed prayer and worship. We must grow. When I play basketball with a 7-year-old, I don't call him on every traveling violation. But if he is to mature as a player he will have to learn the rules, all the rules, and follow them.

The rule now is that we must pray to God the Father in the name of, or through, his Son Jesus Christ. (See for example John 16:24, where Jesus says, "Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask, and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”) One of our jobs as Christians is to make plain that this is how God is to be addressed and worshipped and glorified. God has shown us his love by sending Jesus to be our Savior, and Jesus by his death has opened the way for us to be united with the Father. Our communication with God must now be mediated through Jesus.

And only through Jesus. The Bible says that "there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). Protestant Christians grieve that our Catholic brothers and sisters direct some of their prayers to other mediators - the departed saints - and we plead with our separated brethren to abandon this practice immediately. The Bible forbids contacting the dead (Deuteronomy 18:12: "Let no one be found among you who...consults the dead"; Isaiah 8:19: "Should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?"). The one time in the Bible when someone (Saul) sought help from a dead person he was roundly rebuked for it and the results were disastrous (1 Samuel 28).

Overall, I believe it is worse to pray to a saint than it is to pray to Allah. You could argue that Muslims don't know any better, but Christians definitely should know better than to pray to the dead. We are without excuse, since our Bibles give us clear instruction about how to pray, and to Whom, and through Whom. Also, Muslims at least could be said to pray to one whom they regard as the Supreme Being, who alone is worthy to receive the worship of prayer. But prayer offered to a mere saint is an abomination. If the saints in heaven are aware of the prayers made to them, I believe they recoil with the same kind of revulsion shown by the angel in Revelation 22:8-9. When John bowed to worship him, the angel insisted, "Do not do it!...Worship God."

Having said that, I believe that God may re-direct to himself some petitions errantly sent to his creatures - especially if the petitioners are humble and ignorant and the victims of bad teaching. Of course, it is not a good thing to remain the ignorant victim of bad teaching. It is the duty of all God’s children to learn and grow, to practice what is true and discard what is false. This includes how and to Whom we address our prayers.

The Joy Of Zealous Singing (April 4, 2004)

May I be bold and ask you all to sing louder?

This past week I had the pleasure of participating in a Haitian
worship service in Rogers Park. It was the second time I've heard
Haitian Christians sing, and the second time I've been happy to hear
how loud they are. The roof rattles not because of electric
amplification but because the thronging worshipers like to belt it
out.

Seventeen years ago a Catholic friend of mine came to visit the
Protestant church where I was speaking, and afterward he talked about how different the singing was at our church. "Catholics sing in a
whisper," he said. "You guys sing LOUD." He wasn't complaining - in
fact he wished his fellow Catholics sang as we did. I'm reminded of an
old Reader's Digest anecdote where a Catholic choir director told his
singers, "I'm going to pay you the ultimate compliment. Today you
sounded like Protestants!"

Maybe some day I'll say at Faith Bible Church, "Today you sounded like
Haitians!"

I know that not everybody likes to sing, and some can't sing at all.
And I know that voice volume corresponds less to spirituality and
maturity than it does to simple enthusiasm. I also know that decibel
level will often be dictated by cultural expectations: Asians will
sing softer than Blacks as surely as Episcopalians will stand stiffer
than Charismatics. And I even know that my hero, C. S. Lewis, despised congregational singing and wanted less of it. (I never dismiss anything Lewis wrote without first thinking very hard about why I might be wrong.)

But with all those qualifications duly noted, it is still inescapably
biblical to sing loud to God. See Isaiah 12:6: "Shout aloud and sing
for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among
you," or Psalm 95:1: "Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us
sing aloud to the Rock of our salvation." It is more fun to sing loud.
I think it makes visitors more favorably disposed to us. I know it
encourages the song leader. And, I believe, when matched with purity
of heart and zeal of spirit, it brings greater glory to God.

When You Are Slandered (March 28, 2004)

Both my sons were recently subjected to false accusations by classmates. (No, I didn't choose to believe "their side of the story" simply because they're my boys: both accusations, though unrelated, were demonstrably false.) They didn't get in any trouble, but they still had to nurse the wounds of blighted reputation, and defend themselves with "I didn't do that! Ask so-and-so!" or "Trust me, I'm not like that."

I tried to speak words of comfort and counsel to them. I can sympathize with the falsely accused, having been subjected to an absurd slander about five years ago that had me grinding my teeth with anger. I later found out that my accuser - who never confronted me but only talked to others - turned out to be guilty of the very sin that I was being accused of! I thought bitterly, "Well isn't that ironic."

Or maybe it isn't so ironic. Perhaps the person most likely to suspect you of sin is the one who is yielding to it himself. A thief thinks you're embezzling because, well, that's what he would do in your situation. A liar just knows you're shading the truth because she herself deals falsely with people all the time and can't imagine you're any different.

People project their sinful souls onto others. Among the many corrupting influences of sin is the fact that it darkens spiritual vision, making the sinner incapable of seeing - much less appreciating - holiness and kindness and goodness in others. All the world looks dark through the welder's goggles of sin. If you have stuffed your
nostrils with dung, even a rose will smell bad.

Human scum found Jesus bad, and killed him. And if they slandered him, certainly they'll slander you and hate you for things you never did. It will always grieve us, but ought never surprise us, when we are lied about and made to bear the punishment for things concerning which we are innocent.

Some words of counsel regarding slander: First, it is o.k. to defend yourself. St. Paul does so vigorously in 2 Corinthians chapters 10 through 12. My sons did the right thing in protesting their innocence. Second, avoid slanderers. I have forbidden one son to have any further contact with the person who wrote a nasty email about him. ("Arguments and fights will come to an end if you chase away those who insult others" - Proverbs 22:10, CEV). Third, be careful about believing too hastily the bad reports you hear about others. Check the source, and when possible speak to the individual accused. Many times I have seen an absolutely reliable individual pass along unreliable information because he never imagined he had cause to doubt it. And finally, when slandered, consider this humbling thought: most of us have gotten away with lots of sin that nobody ever found out about or rebuked us for. Since those remain hidden from the eyes of others, maybe it is only fair in the long run that our reputations should get slammed from time to time for wholly fictitious crimes and misdemeanors.

A Reason To Risk Your Safety (March 21, 2004)

On October 24, 1901, a 43-year-old schoolteacher named Anna Edson Taylor became the first person to plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel. She had hoped to become rich off the stunt, but her attempts to parlay it into fortune failed miserably. The public shunned her lecture circuit, and she returned to Niagara Falls to make a meager living selling her autograph to tourists. She died penniless and bitter in 1921.

Grace Horsely Darling, on the other hand, sought no public acclaim for her watery ordeal. During a terrible storm on September 7, 1838, the frail 22-year-old daughter of a lighthouse keeper spotted some boat wreckage floating on the churning sea near their home on England's Farne Island. She summoned her father, who with his spyglass saw nine individuals clinging to a rock about a quarter mile offshore - the sole survivors of a shipwreck from the previous night. Knowing that these shipwreck victims faced certain death from the pounding waves if not rescued immediately, Grace and her father braved the North Sea gales in a 20-foot rowboat and somehow managed to save seven of them. (Two had perished).

News of Grace's heroism captured England's imagination. She was besieged with requests for pieces of the clothing she had worn during the rescue, and for so many locks of her hair that one pundit joked she faced the danger of baldness. Artists painted seascapes of the girl in the storm-tossed boat, and writers commemorated her deed in books and plays. But she never tried to capitalize on her fame, and she remained at the lighthouse with her family until she died of consumption four years later. Her legacy was the rapid growth of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which flourished throughout the British Empire in the wake of her much-publicized heroism.

Two women defied the waters of death - one to benefit herself, the other to save people's lives. Adulation and fame eluded Anna Taylor, who bequeathed nothing more than a quirky example that inspired more barrel-riding Niagara Fools - some who would die, none of whom would do anybody any good. But a nation adored Grace Darling, who, through the inspiration she gave to lifeboat rescuers, saved many more lives than the seven she rescued in 1838.

The Bible says, "Should you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not" (Jeremiah 45:5). Instead it commands us, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit...Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." (Philippians 2:3-4). If you ever have the urge to do something grand and dangerous, fraught with personal risk, make sure that you are doing it to benefit someone else, not to make yourself look big.

Confessing Quickly Or Ratcheting Up Your Crime (March 14, 2004)

I think Martha Stewart deserves to go to jail, but not because she was guilty of making use of inside information. That was bad, of course, but I can understand it if a person got a call from a broker saying “Dump this stock - it is going to tank” and in a moment of unguarded, unpremeditated weakness the client said, "Thanks! Sell!" That is illegal, of course, and worthy of a fine, but it is not the same as plotting fraud or clubbing someone over the head to steal his wallet. A slap on the financial wrist and a term of community service would suit the white-collar crime.

But Stewart deserves prison time because of the way she chose to escalate matters when she got caught. Rather than admitting guilt, she stonewalled. She lied, obstructed justice, lied, falsified documents, lied, covered up, lied, sought out fellow conspirators, and lied. At this point it would be a miscarriage of justice to let such relentless contempt for the law evade the iron bars of confinement.

More misery is wrought by moral misfits feigning innocence than this world dreams of. If you are caught doing wrong, admit it - just admit it, take your penalty, repent and go on. That is what President Clinton should have done six years ago when he was busy expressing outrage that anyone should accuse him of marital infidelity. Rather than coming clean, he chose to drag the nation through an embarrassing and expensive investigation that we all had to endure and fund. Shameful.

When I worked with at-risk middle school students I frequently had to contend with delinquents who had mastered the art of contemptuous escalation. Brian, for example, would crumple up a piece of paper and throw it on the floor. I would say calmly, "Brian, you need to put that in the wastepaper basket." Brian would pretend not to hear, so I would repeat. Brian would say, "I didn't put that there!" I would say, "Even so, Brian, I would like you to put it in the trash." "I ain't no janitor!" he'd shout, and things would proceed like that until he got suspended. In his view, he got suspended for a picky little thing like throwing a piece of paper on the floor (when nobody was supposed to have seen him do that anyway). But in reality he was suspended for the tantrum and the shouting and the insubordination that followed. Things could have been so simple, so easy, if he had just thrown out the piece of paper in the first place.

As I read through the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel with my boys it impresses me that, though David sinned a lot, he responded quickly to rebuke and took full responsibility for his actions. He promptly admitted that his lies triggered the slaughter of the priests of Nob (1 Samuel 22:22). He acknowledged that he was the villain of Nathan's parable (2 Samuel 12:13). He allowed Joab to slap some sense into him (2 Samuel 19:5-8). You do not see David saying, "Who? Me? I didn’t do anything. I did not have sex with that woman, Mrs. Bathsheba."

Denial escalates mistakes to misdemeanors, misdemeanors to crimes, and crimes to atrocities. Confess your sin quickly and honestly. It is the right thing to do, and it might save you a lot of trouble in the long run.

Unfit For Public Service (March 7, 2004)

It's an election year, and, once again, no candidate who supports abortion will get my vote. Is that narrow-minded of me? After all, there are lots of other issues that are important to me as a Christian and as a citizen. Is it responsible mindlessly to punch the ballot of whatever candidate happens to be pro-life?

No, it isn't, but that is not what I’m doing. I'm not voting for somebody simply because he or she is pro-life. My commitment is strictly negative: I won't vote for anyone who isn't pro-life. That is because anyone who could protect innocent life from those who would destroy it - but refuses to do so - is unfit for public office. He or she is too morally degraded to be allowed to serve the public trust.

Look at it this way. Suppose you knew a candidate with whom you agreed on all major issues - education, national security, economic policy, etc. But this candidate also supports laws that guarantee the right of Nazis to gas Jews. (He wouldn't send a Jew to the cyanide showers himself, you understand - he just feels that people should have the right to choose what to do about the sensitive issue of Jew-slaughter. It is not a matter for government interference, he says. It is something to be decided in private consultation between an anti-Semite and her Doctor Mengele.)

PLEASE tell me you wouldn't vote for this candidate, no matter how much you liked his stands on other issues. Certain outrages ought to disqualify a person from office. John Piper, in an article entitled "Single Issue Politics," put it this way:

No endorsement of any single issue qualifies a person to hold a public office. Being pro-life does not make a person a good governor, mayor, or president. But there are numerous single issues that disqualify a person from public office. For example, any candidate who endorsed bribery as a form of government efficiency would be disqualified, no matter what his party or platform was. Or a person who endorsed corporate fraud...would be disqualified no matter what else he endorsed. Or a person who said that no black people should hold office - on that single issue alone he would be unfit for office. Or a person who said that rape is only a misdemeanor - that single issue would end his political career.

Christians fight an uphill battle to end the political careers of abortion advocates. I can't say I am optimistic about a major upheaval in public attitude that will result in abortion being abolished from the land. But why despair? 300 years ago a man could hold public office even though he had supervised the torture and burning of suspected witches. He could not be elected today. 150 years ago an individual could run for office on a pro-slavery platform. Not today. 40 years ago a governor could advocate "Whites Only" drinking fountains and not be impeached. No longer. Who is to say that in 50 years those who now tolerate ripping baby bodies to bits will not be viewed with the same horror?

Things can change for the good in a democracy, but only if those who know what is right speak up and promote justice and vote accordingly. Do not give your vote to anyone who seeks to maintain our shameful status quo of large-scale infanticide. Such individuals do not deserve to govern, and to vote for any of them is a serious dereliction of Christian duty.

Know Whom You Worship (February 29, 2004)

Bear with me a few moments in the following thought experiment.

Suppose we ask a man if he is a Christian and he says, “Absolutely. I believe in Jesus Christ. He is my Savior and Lord. He died for my sins. He lives in my heart, and helps me to do right. I will see him in heaven."

Certainly this man is an orthodox Christian - at least as far as his verbal profession would indicate. But suppose now we say to him, "Tell me something about Jesus. When did he live?"

"About 150 years ago."

Well, that's off by more than 1800 years, but it is not an essential point - some people are fuzzy about dates.

"How did he die?"

"Bullet to the head."

Well, that is really odd - we know that Jesus was crucified.

"What can you tell me about his life?"

"He was a man who preserved our nation through its most troubling years during the Civil War as our 16th president."

Ah - now we see the problem. This man is actually describing Abraham Lincoln, but has assigned to him the name "Jesus Christ" and has given him religious significance by saying he "died for my sins" and "lives in my heart." Can we still call this man a Christian? No - but not because he rejects or refuses to believe in Jesus. He does believe in Jesus - he told us so himself. The reason he is not a Christian is because practically all his facts about Jesus are wrong. He may call himself Christian, but the content of his belief indicates that he’s really a “Lincolnian.”

My point is simply that it is important for all of us who call ourselves Christians to get our facts right about Jesus. If we let falsehoods creep into our understanding of him, then there will come a point of critical mass when we are no longer loving and worshiping Christ but rather some perversely distorted mental image of him. Rigorous Bible study and careful theological reasoning accompanied by prayer and the Holy Spirit’s direction will help us form right thoughts about Christ so that we can worship him as he is and not as we (perhaps falsely) imagine him to be.

That goes for God the Father and God the Holy Spirit as well. If we believe wrong things about God we will be idolaters worshipping a false deity. This thought occurs to me when I hear of people turning away from God in anger when they do not get a “yes” answer to their prayers. I think, “What kind of God were they praying to in the first place? Were they praying to the sovereign and holy Lord of all creation, or to some glorified genie in a bottle?” The “god” that some people address in their prayers bears no more resemblance to the real God than Abraham Lincoln does to Jesus Christ!

Here is another example. Some years ago I received news of an adulterer who claimed that he was doing God’s will by divorcing his faithful wife. I wrote the beast saying that, despite his claims, he was not a Christian. I said, "Whatever 'faith' you have is worthless, because you place it in a God who condones your plans to dismiss your wife, and that God does not exist. The one true God, the one I worship and fear, pledges to damn unrepentant, vow-breaking lying adulterers like yourself.”

The God who exists is the one whom we know through Scripture, and there is no other God. The Jesus who is our Savior is the one whose life and teachings are recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Knowing and learning the sacred texts and thinking rightly about them is no mere academic exercise. It is a holy thing to do. Through the Bible we know God, the real God, and thus protect ourselves from blurred, false, misleading and even idolatrous images of him.