That's silly, imo. If you can't change anything why not just say "Thy will be done" and be done with it?
Do you believe that all prayer is only about supplication? I am absolutely sure that Christ died for my sins, and I thank Him for that all the time. I do so in prayer.
FK: "This started with your assertion that the Bible was "wrong" for saying that God raised Christ. I maintain that the Bible isn't "wrong"
Well, if He couldn't raise Himself, but needed outside help, then He is not God. Clearly, when +Paul says Christ was raised by God, he puts Christ outside of God.
Nobody has said anything about God needing help, except perhaps for Apostolics who say that God needs the help of man to save people. :) At any rate, I know of no one else on this forum, on any side, who would agree with you that Paul puts Christ outside of God. Indeed, Paul acknowledges Christ as God when they first met.
+Paul never clearly says Christ is God. He says Christ is an "image" of God (but so are we as well!).
Paul says it LOTS of times without reference to "image":
Rom 9:5 : Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen. NIV
Col 2:9 : For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. KJV
1 Tim 3:16 : 16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. KJV
There are more, and I really think you are pushing water up hill to say that Paul didn't say (or think) that Christ was God.
Paul says it LOTS of times without reference to "image": Rom 9:5 : Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen. NIV
The Greek text says the following (in Byzantine as well as Alexandrian text-type):
Literally:
The difficulty with +Paul's languge is that in those days no one used commas, which makes his writings subject to all sorts of fanciful combinations. Maybe you can now appraciate Kolo's comment that he doesn't particuarly care for +Paul. His runon sentences are part of that reason, I am sure!
But your NIV (KJV) verse is misleading because it is doctored to make it sound as if Paul is actually saying Christ [in flesh!] is God over all.
The NAB translation is actually as close to the Greek literal statement as possible:
Notice that no matter where you place the commas, +Paul never says that Christ is God over all as your version artificially created.
It is clear that +Paul did not have a Triniatrian Christ in mind, but a Jewish meshiyah, in flesh, in His human nature only. Which is why he said that Jesus was raised by God and why the Church later changed that in the Creed to read that Christ rose instead.
Of course, the KJV's misleading translation comes from Textus Receptus, which was based on unreliable 14th century doctored Greek sources, which represent the a whole corpus of doctroed documents made to fit Christian theology better known as the "majority text."
The Scriptures are full of references to God and Messiah being One. I've been reading John 14 lately, in various versions (pick any one), and seeing in this Gospel account of Christ's Own Words (from the Father: the Father's Very Word) perfect pictures of the Trinity - the One God Who Reveals and Joins Himself to us in Three Forms, amen.
7"If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him."8Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us."
9Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
10"Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.
11"Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.
12"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.
13"Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14"If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
15"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
16"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
18"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19"After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.
20"In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
21"He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him."
22Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?"
23Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.
24"He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me.
25"These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you.
26"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.