Should Christians expect God to grant prayers?

[AgnosticBoy]

Over the last 2 years, I've had to deal with a lot of friends/family that lost loved ones due to Covid-19. Many of them are Christians and they of course prayed for their loved one to be healed. Many of them expected God to act. It was common to hear, "God will heal her". I question if Christians should expect God to act or is it valid to just think that God can act?

In my view, if God can say no or not act, then Christians should not be claiming that God will do this or that. But rather, in response to prayer, there should only believe or claim that God can do it. Isn't it God's will after all?

For Debate:
1. Is it biblical to expect God to answer a prayer with yes?
Or is it biblical to not assume that He will answer it?

 

[Chapabel]

God answers every prayer that is prayed by His saints. The answer, however, is sometimes 'yes'; sometimes 'no'; and sometimes 'not now'. Like any good father, there are times when God has to say 'no' to our prayers. The reason is not because He is incapable of answering our prayers as we want, but like a good Father, God knows what His will is and what is best for us. When a saint becomes sick and his/her family earnestly prays for God to heal them and they die, it must be remembered that God provided the ultimate healing for that dear saint. Not only are they no longer suffering in pain, they are rejoicing in Heaven in the very presence of God. They are totally healed while we are still in the land of the dying. I wouldn't want my loved ones keeping me alive and suffering in this world through prayer when I could go on and be with Jesus in Heaven where there is no pain, no sorrow and no more tears.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

God answers every prayer that is prayed by His saints. The answer, however, is sometimes 'yes'; sometimes 'no'; and sometimes 'not now'. Like any good father, there are times when God has to say 'no' to our prayers. The reason is not because He is incapable of answering our prayers as we want, but like a good Father, God knows what His will is and what is best for us. ...

I agree with the most of your reasoning, and that's even going by my secular standards. If anything it shows that I can accept or even like some of the theological details of the Bible, without accepting that God exists (I don't have any proof either way). In other words, just because some parts are shown to be false or problematic, that doesn't mean that all of it is.

I take it that your responses to the debate question is that it is wrong for Christians to say what God will do towards their particular prayer requests.

 

[Chapabel]

For starters, nothing in the Bible is shown to be false. While it may be problematic for some, the Word of God it true from Genesis to the maps.

The Bible does not teach that God is a genie in a bottle that pops out and grants out every wish. We can pray earnestly and fervently, but if our prayer does not align with His will, His answer will be ‘No’. (I John 5:14).

 

[AgnosticBoy]

For starters, nothing in the Bible is shown to be false. While it may be problematic for some, the Word of God it true from Genesis to the maps.

I respectfully disagree. In some cases, it depends on how one interprets a particular passage(s).

The Bible does not teach that God is a genie in a bottle that pops out and grants out every wish. We can pray earnestly and fervently, but if our prayer does not align with His will, His answer will be ‘No’. (I John 5:14).

 

[Chapabel]

Ok, what in the Bible has ever been shown to be false?

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Ok, what in the Bible has ever been shown to be false?

I'll answer in general here, but if you want specifics, then we can start another thread. In general, it is problematic to make your claim because we first have to ask which Bible are we referring to? For instance, the Ethiopian Bible contains the book of Enoch. The early Christians also had different collections of books that made up their Bible. The Bible canon that most Christians accept today was not agreed upon until about 4th century CE.

Secondly, even if we have the correct collection of books, but we don't have their original versions. What we have are copies of copies. Here's a sum up by Dr. Daniel B. Wallace, professor of NT studies, (source)

Ancient scribes who copied the handwritten texts of the New Testament frequently changed the text intentionally. Although unintentional changes account for the vast majority of textual corruption, intentional alterations also account for thousands of corruptions. In some cases, to be sure, it does seem that the scribes were being malicious. But these instances are few and far between. The majority of the intentional changes to the text were done by scribes who either thought that the text they were copying had errors in it or by scribes who were clarifying the meaning, especially for liturgical reasons.

 

[Chapabel]

Let’s stay with the Protestant Bible we have today. Catholics include the Apocrypha in their Bibles.

As far as scribes changing the text, the article you provided went on to say the majority of changes were to harmonize the scriptures. As an example replacing “he” with “Jesus” to clarify the reading.

Concerning your claim that all we have is copies of copies…you are correct in that we no longer have the originals, but what we do have are thousands of manuscripts that agree in over 90% of their writings. The largest differences are in punctuation, word order and spelling. Thousands of manuscripts written on three different continents over a period of centuries, and they all agree in over 90%. There are enough manuscripts that we can be confident in the message of the Bible. Here’s a link to support the reliability of the Bible: https://reasonabletheology.org/reliability-bible-4-quick-thoughts/

And here is a wonderful video that supports the reliability of the Bible:

So yes, go ahead and start a new thread with specific examples of the Bible being in error.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Is it biblical to expect God to answer a prayer with yes?

Chapabel already gave a good answer to this question (read that here), but I see another issue even if we expect God to say yes some of the times. The problem I see is that some Christians expect that "yes" to come down to them in a miraculous or supernatural way. I've read the Bible cover to cover and I've found nothing in it that says that God will answer in a miraculous way. The response can come in a simple and/or natural way, like God using a family member or doctor to get you to take the right medications.

One of the most dangerous things I've seen Christians do is neglect medical care due to thinking that God only works through miracles and not also medicine.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Is it biblical to expect God to answer a prayer with yes?

The answer, however, is sometimes 'yes'; sometimes 'no'; and sometimes 'not now'. Like any good father, there are times when God has to say 'no' to our prayers.

If God wants to answer the prayer a natural way, I think some Christians might interpret the answer as a "no". I say that because many Christians tend to expect for their prayer to be answered in a supernatural way. Some think if it's not that way then it couldn't be possibly be from God. It couldn't possibly be God's answer if all you gotta do is take the medication that the doctors gave you.