If you talk to God, you are praying; if God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.
That's to put it rather strongly, but I think its true to say that in the Bible, prayer is talking to God. We listen to God by reading his Word.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Prayer is...
The internet alleges that Archbishop William Temple once said:
That's to put it rather strongly, but I think its true to say that in the Bible, prayer is talking to God. We listen to God by reading his Word.
That's to put it rather strongly, but I think its true to say that in the Bible, prayer is talking to God. We listen to God by reading his Word.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 comments:
so you were taught that God is dead?
i know there are a lot of people that claim to have heard from God and never really did...so i understand the idea of that...but to say that we can believe the scripture is true if we don't believe God can and does talk to people...then we contradict ourselves and our whole belief system proves to be flawed...if we are to believe that scripture is true than we must believe God talks to people or else one would claim that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, John the Baptist and even Jesus Himself were all schizophrenics...which is not the case obviously. God can and does talk to people and no, they are not all "crazy".
Thank you for your comments, Erika.
As I said, he puts it rather strongly, doesn't he? I was amazed that an Archbishop should have said such a thing - if indeed he did - and that's why I thought it was noteworthy!
Of course I think God can speak to people directly in all mannner of ways.
And indeed he clearly did at certain points in salvation history.
I think how God speaks to us today is another question. I would say its primarily and normally through the Bible. I don't think the Bible leads us to expect God to speak to us "directly" i.e. in a voice in our head kind of way today. How we would know if that was God etc. I do not know. I know my capacity to confuse myself and believe all sorts of funny things is great.
Indeed, it seems likely to me that such divine communications were highly exceptional even in Bible times.
Of course I recognise that Christians better than I differ from me on this.
I hope that helps?
thank you for your response..i appreciate you taking the time to clarify your thoughts for me...i was a little confused as to what you meant.
I think it's also a fair comment you infer, Marc, that, although the Bible gives examples of God speaking directly to people, this is never referred to as prayer.
Prayer is one-way. The other way is called revelation, is it not (normally through the Bible)? The two may very well happen at the same time (most usually, for example, as we read our Bibles and pray for understanding or in response as we go).
Maybe I'm splitting hairs, though.
Sounds v sensible to me, Dave.
Nothing wrong with some helpful and necessary (hair-splitting) disctinctions!
Post a Comment