Prayer and Revelation - Online Christian Library

PRAYER AND THE DIVINE NATUREIn the introduction to the previous section, I mentioned that God is defined by the sum ofhis attributes. Some of these attributes are his sovereignty, knowledge, and transcendence– or, we may say that God is all-powerful, God is all-knowing, and God is spirit. StephenCharnock is credited as having said, "It is impossible to honor God as we ought, unlesswe know him as he is." 41 Accordingly, there is an intimate relationship between prayerand the divine attributes; the former is impossible without knowledge of the latter.Let us suppose that you are responsible for making a speech at a banquet honoring adistinguished professor. Now, if you think that the professor is a man when she is awoman, if you think that her field is physics when it is history, and if you think that shecomes from Texas when she is from India, then your speech is not going to make muchsense, and both the professor and the audience would think that your speech is referringto someone else.Likewise, many people pray to "God," but if they were to describe him, what we hearmay not correspond at all to the biblical God. If this person's "God" is completelyirreconcilable with the Bible, can we say that he is praying to God, and can we say thatthis person is a Christian? The Israelites pointed to the golden calf that they had made anddeclared, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt" (Exodus32:4). But God himself disagreed.If your "God" is a "golden calf," then you are not a Christian. From the biblicalperspective, you are an idol worshiper. Of course, you can say that you are a Christian –anyone can say that – but you are not one by biblical definition. And if your definition of"Jesus" is too far off, then you are not a Christian even if you define "God" in terms ofthe biblical divine attributes.Therefore, let no one say that theology is unimportant or impractical – it is the mostimportant factor in the Christian life and the necessary foundation for the "practical"issues to be intelligible. Besides its inherent value, theology is the prerequisite for allspiritual activities, including prayer. People say that if you want to know God, then youshould pray. No! If you do not know something about God first, then you cannot pray. Ifyou do not have at least a minimal but biblical conception of God, 42 then you may just bepraying to an entity produced by your own imagination instead of the true God, which isidolatry. Thus if you want to know God, study the Scripture, then pray to this God that itteaches you about.41 Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God; Baker Books, 2000 (original: 1853).42 One should at least know enough about God so as to able to distinguish the Christian God from all othergods and religions. If one is able to reconcile the Christian God (or Christianity as a whole) with that of anyother religion or worldview, then he does not know enough about God. Of course, one will never knowenough about God in the sense that he may stop learning.29