#ModernTheology: Why I Think People Get Prayer Wrong - God's Actions & People's Witness are in Different #Tenses @CopelandNetwork #PastTense #PresentTense #FutureTense #Tension
I sometimes see posts (on Facebook, Twitter etc.) telling everyone that they 'need everyone to pray for me' or -telling everyone 'Thanks for all the Prayer that made something good happen,' and I have to "bite my tongue to keep from responding" (or more-accurately 'resist the temptation to type into a reply') 'OH NO YOU-DO/THEY-DID NOT!'
Because Prayer DOES NOT MAKE GOD ACT nor CHANGE THE ACTIONS GOD HAS ALREADY PLANNED! 'What Prayer actually does' is "remind the pray-er (and anyone who hears the pray-er) that good things are destined to occur if the people who need them both/either wait for them and/or reach out & take them."
So 'those posts are focusing wrong' (or 'I'm missing the fact that Christians actually know the prayers are only reminders'): "The prayers" they're talking about are actually 'reminders that good things are ahead' (usually "that the people's immune-systems are still working the way they usually do" or "that the people's future well-being depends upon choices we hope others make"). Prayer doesn't make things happen in the future, it reminds hearers that things happened in the past.
'That word' (below-hyperlinked to a post on 'how Prayer is sometimes right') is built on an even-deeper source ... something crucial that firms the foundation upon which our lexicon stands ...
The word “Tense” (Past-, Present-, Future-Tense) is built on words that mean “a Portion of Time” (Temporal).
The words “Tense, Tension” are built on words that mean “to Stretch” (in a State of Nervous Tension, Stress along Lines of Electromotive Force).
Though Kenneth Copeland Ministries often 'goes along with' the Christian misbelief that "Prayer makes things happen," 'they' (specifically, Brother Kenneth) also frequently explains 'how Prayer actually works'—echoing the words of Lord Jesus Christ:
... whoever may say to this mount, Be taken up, and be cast into the sea, and may not doubt in his heart, but may believe that the things that he saith do come to pass, it shall be to him whatever he may say.
That is to say, 'One does not "command the mountain to crumble into the sea," but one knows that the mountain shall crumble into the sea & can confidently say it does crumble into the sea (like a magician can 'tell' the rabbit to appear in the hat).
Know anything else interesting about that? Comment!
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