ping
My observation of doings over at Hannity forums is that there are men who want to justify themselves will act as if they are open to inquiry and conversation. But if you try to reason with them they usually ignore you but turn around to restate things they’ve been saying all along to others.
One of these is mocking prayer. “God already knows what is going to happen and He causes it anyway” one might say as an aspect of annulling Man’s will and therefore his responsibility, and the proceed to say why should anyone pray, if not to go farther and stand in judgment of the Christian God ....
... please note I’m not speaking of the Muslim’s Allah ... no, to do that would be Islamophobic ... and the shock at the suggestion expressed plainly (though some time ago) that Islam is of Satanic origin still causes me to shake my head ... THOSE were some of the same folks who want to say God does evil so why should it scandalize them to say Allah is not the Lord but a fallen spirit?
... but I digress. Some say they want to know why should anyone pray. To date when I respond by asking if they ever talk to their parents none of those has ever replied.
Because really at the most fundamental level, the Gospel teaching what it does, prayer is to our Father. You talk to your dad.
There’s a story about the guy who founded the Scouts, that when he came of age his earthly father handed him a bill for all the expenses incurred in raising him, from paying the doctor at his birth till that very day. It’s said that the guy paid the bill but never spoke to his father again.
Our Heavenly Father is not like that, He not only doesn’t give us the bill for his gifts but He settled any debts we had against Him through the blood of His only begotten Son.
So what if He knows everything we will say, don’t you talk to a Father like that?
But those who want to justify themselves, they act as if their stuff doesn’t stink. They act as if just because they were born in the flesh that somehow God shouldn’t condemn them because He’s responsible for it all. Every last bad thing they accuse God of. It isn’t that they proverbially think this God has handed them the bill for being alive, but that since they’re alive any god that might exist has no right to condemn them of things he’s responsible for.
Debating with these folks is like beating your head against a wall