Is God more likely to grant a prayer request if lots of people ask for it?

After reading the title of this post, you might be wondering, “Why is Pastor Tim bothering to write about a question that should so obviously be answered ‘yes?’ Of course God is more likely to grant a prayer request if many people ask for it!” Well, I’m writing this post because—from a biblical perspective—the answer to this question is NOT obviously “yes.” In fact, the answer is a definite “maybe, maybe not.”

Let me be perfectly clear on this point before I say anything else: there is nothing we can do to FORCE God to grant our prayer requests—absolutely nothing. We cannot, through any means, bind, coerce, manipulate, or otherwise control God’s decision about our prayer requests. Now to be sure, the Bible does mention human attitudes and actions that will accompany effective prayer. A short list would include repentance (Isaiah 59:1-2), confidence in God’s generosity and goodness (James 1:5-17), obedience (John 15:7-10), persistence (Luke 18:1-8), and treating your wife properly (1 Peter 3:7; yes, it actually says that, guys—look it up!). But here’s the irony—a lack of such attitudes and actions in your life will definitely hinder your prayers, but the presence of such attitudes and actions will not definitely get your requests answered!

Now, does the number of people making a request belong in the category I just mentioned? Will a lack of larger numbers definitely hinder your prayer request? Certainly not! On the flip side, though, will the presence of larger numbers definitely assist in your request getting answered? The MOST we can say is, “maybe, maybe not.”

The one passage I’m aware of that joins together prayer and numbers is 2 Corinthians 1:11 (Note: the statement in Matthew 18:20 about “two or three gathered” is NOT a general teaching about prayer.) In 2 Corinthians 1:8-10, Paul has been speaking of his hope that God will deliver him and his co-workers from physical danger. He writes in v. 11, “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” Paul’s stated desire is that a larger number of people will become thankful to God since they have also made the same prayer request. The request answered would thus be their request as well, and they would be grateful to have it answered. I certainly have to think that, all other things being equal, more gratitude to God is better than less gratitude to God. This thought could therefore be a good motive for us to share prayer requests with others.

But does God take the potential numerical impact of a request into account when deciding on an answer? This passage simply does not say, nor does any other passage of Scripture that comes to my mind. We had better be very cautious, therefore, before we assume that a greater number of requesters brings with it a greater likelihood of receiving the request.

I wrote this post today to help you in two specific ways.

1. To help you think twice before sharing sensitive information as a prayer request.

If you’ve attended church very long, you’re likely familiar with what some have jokingly called the “organ recital”—times for sharing prayer requests that often become dominated by health concerns. When we or someone we love is facing trouble of any kind, we often want to call in the prayer cavalry right away. We want to get the word out so that other people can start praying for that person.

Those of us who are very familiar with how churches often operate can easily forget that not everyone wants to have personal, sensitive information shared quickly or broadly. Some people don’t mind this information being shared for the purpose of prayer, but some people aren’t comfortable with it. We should respect their decision without thinking their request is less likely to be answered if it’s not broadcast.  In this day when companies bend over backwards to protect our personal information, we should do the same for our friends. Make sure you have permission before you share information!

2. To help you not lose hope for your own requests.

We’ve all seen lots of prayer requests go viral on social media. People all over the world get to praying for someone they don’t even know. It can be encouraging to someone to know they have that much interest in their need.

But have you wondered if your own requests are at a disadvantage if they don’t garner that much attention? Perhaps you even put your request out there, but few people seem to pay attention. Does that influence God? Is He swayed by the number of likes, shares, and re-tweets?

I see no reason to think He is. Rather, we are assured that the God who knows the number of hairs on your head is concerned about you on a personal level. He knows what you need before you even ask (Matthew 6:8)! He is listening to you even if no one else is, so don’t lose hope for your requests if they don’t gain much notice from others. God’s children may always come with confidence to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16), even if no one re-tweets the fact that you were there.

Is "What Would Jesus Do?" The Best Question for Decision Making?

In 1896, Charles Sheldon, the minister of the Congregational Church in Topeka, Kansas, wrote a novel entitled, “In His Steps.” That novel popularized the use of the question “What would Jesus do?” as a tool for making moral decisions. This question stuck around among Christians after that time and then enjoyed a big resurgence in the 1990’s through church youth groups. It has remained very popular ever since.

As surprising as this may sound, though, I think the popularity of this question overshadows an even better question that we could ask when facing moral dilemmas. Now, don’t me wrong—“What would Jesus do?” is certainly a fine question. It’s a far better question than “What would feel the best?” or “What would offer the path of least resistance?” Nevertheless, I think the question suffers from some drawbacks—some that stem from our response to the question, and at least one that stems from the question itself. What are these drawbacks?

1. We often assume we already know Jesus well enough to answer the question

Many people would say they’ve got a good grasp of what Jesus was all about—at least in His personal interactions, anyway. “He was all about being nice and polite, right? Inviting children to sit on his lap and what not.” If we already know Jesus so well, there doesn’t seem to be any need to take another, closer look at His example before we decide what He would do. But this is precisely where we take a massive wrong turn.

In this day, when only 32% of regular churchgoers read the Bible everyday¹, we’d better pause and think before we claim to know Jesus well. Have you ever read one of the Gospels all the way through? How about all four of them? They don’t all contain the same stories, so it’s important to read them all. If you haven’t done so yet, are you sure you know Jesus well enough to state what He would do?

If we try to decide what Jesus would do without cracking open the Bible and thinking long and hard about the question, the decision we reach could be far off the mark.

2. We over-emphasize some of Jesus’ actions and teachings and neglect others

Let’s face it—Jesus was a complex individual. We would not have predicted that all of His sayings or all of His actions would have come from the same person. The same Jesus who said He was gentle and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29) also said that He came to cast fire on the earth and wished it was already kindled (Luke 12:49). The same Jesus who took children in His arms to bless them (Mark 10:13-16) also chased other people with a whip because they desecrated a holy place (John 2:13-17).

It takes great care and deliberate effort not to create a one-sided caricature of Jesus, but many times that’s exactly what we end up with in our minds. We tend to highlight the sayings and actions that we’re comfortable with and all but ignore the ones that make us squirm. But if we don’t consider the full range of Jesus’ words and deeds when we try to follow His example, how confident can we be in our declarations about what He would do?

3. The question runs the risk of downplaying the uniqueness of Christ

When we ask “What would Jesus do?” there seems to be an assumption that we can think along exactly the same lines as Jesus; that we can weigh exactly the same considerations that He would. But for all the ways in which Jesus was similar to us, He was still different from us in some highly important ways. On some occasions, He took the actions that He did because He knew the inner thoughts of others (think of the healing of the paralytic in Matthew 9) or because He knew the future (think of Christ’s delay in traveling to Bethany before raising Lazarus in John 11). And I hardly need to mention Christ’s ability to do miracles!

Those differences present some difficult hurdles to jump in our efforts to decide what Jesus would do in our present-day situations. I don’t know the inner thoughts of others; I don’t know the future. How do I know that Jesus wouldn’t have made a very different decision than me based on His knowledge of information that isn’t available to me?

A better question

“What would Jesus do?” can be a fine question IF the preceding drawbacks are kept in mind. Obviously, we want to imitate our Lord as much as we can! But I think there’s an even better question that deserves more of our attention. It is not “What would Jesus do?” but rather “What did Jesus command?” Or even better yet, “What did Jesus and His hand-picked representatives command?” We’ve got to bring the writings of the Apostles into our decisions; after all, they are the ones whom Jesus commissioned to make disciples and “teach them to observe all that I have commanded you (Matt 28:20).” He promised that the Holy Spirit would guide them into all truth (John 16:13), so we have it from Jesus that we better listen to what the Apostles had to say.

Commands offer us much greater clarity than an example ever could. The example from a person’s actions can be difficult to apply from one situation to another—even when we know that all of a person’s actions were morally perfect, as in the case of Jesus. But commands, by their very nature as directives, point us very clearly in the right direction. Yes, we will still have to sort through some questions about the precise steps that we should take, but commands make the general outline of the path very clear.

So as you make your decisions, I would encourage you to give your primary focus to the commands of Jesus rather than His actions. Actions can be helpful illustrations of a command, and thus we can and should learn from them, but commands offer greater clarity. So lock in on the commands of Christ and His Apostles!

References:

1. https://factsandtrends.net/2019/07/02/how-many-protestant-churchgoers-actually-read-the-bible-regularly/

Cancelling Worship Gatherings--Are We Obeying Men Rather Than God?

            It’s one of the most dramatic scenes in Scripture—Peter and John, disciples of Jesus, had been arrested for preaching in His name. They stood before the highest court in their country—the very same men who had put their master to death just months earlier—and they were told “not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard (Acts 4:18-20).’” After continuing to preach, they were arrested again and asked why they had defied the court order. Their answer was straightforward and memorable: “We must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).”

            The conviction summed up in those words has lived on in the soul of the body of Christ ever since. Untold numbers of Christians have given their lives for violating prohibitions against preaching the message of Jesus Christ. This decision of the apostles has formed part of the bedrock of Christian ethics—if a human authority commands us to disobey God, we must instead disobey the human authority.

            These days in the United States, our churches are shutting the doors of our buildings due to recommendations (or in some places, mandates) from human authorities against gathering in groups. Perhaps these steps have forced you to ask the question, “Are we obeying men rather than God?” Could it be that we are being disobedient to God by cancelling church gatherings to comply with the dictates of human authorities? I believe the answer is “no,” and here’s why:

We are not being asked to change our message, only our methods—and even that is only temporary!

            Take a close look again at what the apostles were commanded in Acts 4:18—do not speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Our churches in the US have not been given any such order by the government. No restrictions have been placed on us regarding what we teach; the restrictions simply effect one method of how we teach—namely, by gathering in large groups. I don’t think we’re being unfaithful to God by making this temporary change to our teaching methods.

            In fact, the changes required right now may end up with churches expanding the reach of their teaching ministry! Churches that have never given much thought to how they use technology are being forced to now, and I’ll bet our churches will find ways to leverage the good aspects of technology for the glory of Christ. Many churches will probably make some changes that they’ll decide to keep once we are again “free to move about the country” (apologies to Southwest Airlines!).

            So don’t worry about the faithfulness of your church leaders right now. Do pray for them often, as we are all facing some bewildering situations right now. May God lead us and guide us for His glory and for our good.

Assessing Anger in Our Parenting

            For many of us, parenting is the last remaining frontier in which our anger has not been fully tamed. We’ve beaten anger back off the shores of friendship and even the wide plains of marriage, but it remains entrenched in the wild, untamed hill country of parenting. We don’t like it, don’t want to admit it, and even feel downright ashamed about it, but nevertheless, anger remains in our words and our actions toward our kids.

            Some parents among us grew up facing anger from their parents, and they swore up and down that they would not repeat those sins once their chance to be a parent came along. Yet here they stand with a bewildered look on their face as they have to admit once again, “I sound just like my dad (or mom).” It’s like the struggle that the Apostle Paul described in Romans 7:15—“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”

            Why do we find such anger boiling up within us? Biblically, the answer is pretty simple—our hearts tell us that we deserve to be treated like God Himself, but our kids have different ideas. Please note: it is not that our kids make us get angry. They don’t have any such control over our actions. Rather, they simply act in ways we don’t like and we choose to react in anger. Our anger is always our own fault, not theirs. We have to accept responsibility before there will be any hope of change.

            How do we start to defeat this anger in our hearts? The process is not easy, but I believe it begins with this realization: anger cannot and will not produce any good results in our relationships with our children. None. Zero. As long as we entertain any thought that our anger might produce something good, we will lack the determination to put our anger to death. It’ll become like that can of random screws in your garage—you hang on to them because maybe, just maybe, they’ll come in handy someday. If you treat anger that way, you’ll be surprised just how often you pull it down off the shelf.

            Why am I so confident that anger will produce no good thing in your relationship with your kids? Take a look at James 1:19-20: “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” That last statement is true both in me and in others. My anger doesn’t lead me toward godliness, and it doesn’t produce godliness in others, either.

            At least not true godliness—the kind that flows from the heart. Anger can be so deceptive in this way because it can produce an imitation of godliness. Our kids tend to shape up after we’ve unleashed a verbal barrage on them. It looks like it accomplished something, so we’re tempted to keep doing it. But “shaping up” shouldn’t be our goal as Christian parents. Cleaned-up behavior on the outside with dirty hearts on the inside isn’t what we’re aiming for. The grand, audacious, mind-blowing goal of this thing we call parenting is to lead our children to love God with everything they’ve got and to love others like they love themselves. Anger will not move us one inch closer toward that goal, though it might knock us backward by several yards.

            Now, we can all thank God that He so often accomplishes great work in our children’s hearts in spite of our anger. That is glory to Him, but it is no credit to us. We don’t want to use His kindness as some excuse to not get serious about putting our anger to death. While this isn’t the whole answer, the process at least starts in us when we look in the mirror and say, “I don’t have this all figured out, and I may not know yet what I’m going to do instead, but whatever it is, I will not speak or act in anger toward my kids again.” Will we still blow it at times? Probably, but praise God that the repentant heart will always find forgiveness through Christ! A humble confession to our kids will also do worlds of good—for them and for us. Time to stop reading and go find that mirror!

Why I (Usually!) Preach Through Books of the Bible

This week, I’m doing something that I don’t often do—I’m preparing a series of sermons focused on a topic rather than a specific book of the Bible. The topical approach has not been the norm for my preaching ministry, though I do like to preach a topical series from time to time—usually when I’ve just wrapped up one book and just before I start another. It’s a good way to deal with a subject that might be a common struggle, a hot-button issue, or a very thought-provoking question.

I’m going to venture to say that preaching through books of the Bible is not as common as it used to be. I might be wrong, but I’d be surprised if I am! In light of that observation, I thought I’d offer a brief explanation as to why I stick with the book-focused approach most of the time. I have two main reasons why.

#1—Everything God said is important, and preaching through books will force me to teach on all of it eventually.

Focusing on topics leaves a lot up to the wisdom and discretion of the preacher. While that doesn’t have to be bad, it certainly could be—and I think it’s more likely to be problematic than a book-focused approach. If I consistently focus on topics, I have to frequently decide what is most important for my congregation to hear. But what criteria should I use to make that decision? Do I go with whatever people want to hear? Do I go with what I think they should hear? Do I go with what seems to be most interesting to the broadest group of people? Of course, I do have to ask those questions when I decide which book to preach on next, but they tend to come around less often with a book-based approach, and once I’ve answered them and selected a book, the content of my sermons is guided by whatever is in that book. Thus, there is less that is simply up to my discretion.

The topical approach can also suffer somewhat from the personality, interests, and—frankly—the boldness of the individual preacher. For example, I tend to think that apologetic topics are more interesting and important than most people do, so I’m sure I would gravitate toward such topics more often than what might truly be helpful for my congregation. Also, with the topical approach, controversial subjects can be easily avoided. Do you dread the thought of preaching on hell? Then simply never bring it up as a topic!

Avoiding controversial subjects is much less likely with the book-focused approach. For example, I’ll be starting a series through the Book of Romans in a few months, and in the very first chapter I’ll have to deal with the subject of homosexuality! Later on, the book will force me to talk about the proper response to government, and it will take me through a passage that is hotly contested in the Calvinism-Arminianism debate.

I suppose you could say that the book-focused approach is simply an attempt to offer my congregation a well-balanced diet. We all know how important a well-balanced diet is for our physical health; as it turns out, it’s vital for our spiritual health as well. There is purpose and value in everything that God inspired in the Bible. We might not easily see the value in each passage, and so we might neglect some of them—which would end up being to our detriment.

#2—Preaching through a book helps my audience learn how to study the Bible for themselves.

As I preach through a complete section of a book—whether a paragraph or a whole chapter—my audience gets to hear how I make observations about the passage and then draw those observations together to form an interpretation. Though they don’t realize it, they get to hear the proper process of Bible study presented to them week after week, and eventually they start to catch on. As they learn by example, over time they start to internalize some of the training that I’ve been blessed to receive at a seminary—and all without having to attend classes themselves!

This learning-by-example happens on a grand scale as a sermon series winds its way from the first verse of a book to the last. The book-focused approach highlights and illustrates what might be the most crucial interpretive principle of all—keeping statements in their original context. As I move though a passage, my audience gets to hear the full context of each statement—and not just on any given week, but from week-to-week as well as I simply pick up where I left off last time!

This learning process is much harder to replicate in a topical series since these series tend to draw from all over the Bible—and not just from week-to-week, but sometimes within the same sermon. Now to be sure, sometimes it is very important to see how various verses from different books fit together. Topical sermons can be very useful for presenting such connections, but it is rarely possible to touch on the context of all the various verses that I might pull together. Thus, my audience is left a bit more in a position where they just have to take my word for it that I’ve interpreted those verses correctly. By tracing one context through the course of a book, there’s a greater likelihood that they can see the correct interpretation for themselves.

And so, while I appreciate using the topical approach from time to time, chances are that if you ever catch one of my sermons, you’ll find me working through a book, saying things like, “As we saw last week in the previous verse.” If you didn’t catch the previous week’s sermon, you’ll know just where to look to get caught up!

Tips for Bible Reading

            At the start of a new year, many Christians make a renewed effort to read their Bibles. This is a fantastic desire and one that is absolutely worthy of your greatest effort! There are perhaps no other New Year’s resolutions that would have greater long-term benefits for your life. But most important, to live faithfully as a Christian, you’ve got to know what your Master wants you to do! Reading the Bible is the way to discover God’s will for your life, so it’s a vital habit.

            Many Christians who make this renewed effort also set the goal of finishing the entire Bible in one year. Though the timing of such a project is not the most important detail, it is an important goal to seek to read through the entire Bible. I don’t wish to load anyone down with guilt, but it is a great shame and embarrassment to the Christian community that so many adult Christians have never read the entire Bible. I realize the causes for this situation are diverse—including legitimate reading difficulties for some—but for a good number of folks, misplaced priorities are the likely culprit.

            It is also true, however, that many Christians have never received advice on how to read the Bible—particularly for a project like reading the whole book! I hope to give you such advice in the rest of this column. My prayer for you is that you will embrace the goal of reading the entire Bible and that with the following thoughts in mind, you’ll be successful—whether it takes you one year or five!

Use a translation that makes for good reading.

            Your first criterion for choosing a translation should be accuracy—does it accurately express the meaning of the original Hebrew and Greek in English (or Spanish or German)? Even with this criterion in mind, however, not all translations are created equal! Some of them provide a more pleasant reading experience than others—which is important when you’re trying to read longer portions of the text.

            I preach from the English Standard Version (ESV) because I think it is a highly accurate translation in modern English. But I must confess that it’s vocabulary and style are a bit clunky in some places. It doesn’t always have a great flow to it. In my opinion, the gold standard today for pleasant reading with good accuracy is the Christian Standard Bible (CSB). I use the CSB for my own daily reading plan, and I enjoy it a lot.

            A smooth style and flow for reading really are helpful, so keep this thought in mind. But whether you grab the King James, New King James, NIV, NASB or something else—just keep reading!

Don’t be afraid to skim!

            This advice may sound strange coming from a pastor, but I think it’s true. Feel free to skim through the text when you might otherwise get bogged down and be tempted to give up. While it is good to give careful attention to what you’re reading, the main goal of reading through the whole Bible should be to get a big-picture understanding of the main storyline.

            Think of this process like advancing through a college curriculum. When you take freshman classes in college, your classes have names like, “Introduction to (such and such)” or “Survey of (such and such).” You’re given a big-picture understanding of your subject first; only in later years do you work to master the details.

            Reading through the Bible is like your “Introduction to the Bible” class. Yes, get all the details you can, but focus on grasping the overall storyline. And if you hit a point where you feel like putting your Bible on the shelf, it is far better to skim than to give up.

Follow a “Star Wars” approach for your reading plan.

            What on earth do I mean by that statement!? Think of the order in which Episodes 1-9 of Star Wars were released. We learned the middle of the story first in Episodes 4-6, which also introduced us to the main character of the entire saga, Luke Skywalker. Then, the beginning of the story was released in Episodes 1-3, with the end of it all being finally revealed in Episodes 7-9.

            When you set out to read the Bible, consider reading the middle of the story first, which would be found in the Gospels. Yes, it may seem odd to start in the middle, but the Gospels will help you get very familiar with the main character of the entire saga—the Lord Jesus Christ. Also, the Gospels are easier to read than the first few books of the Old Testament. Starting with slightly easier reading can help you build momentum toward your goal of reading the whole Bible, and that momentum can help you keep going when you hit sections that are more difficult.

            After you’ve read the Gospels, go back to the beginning of the story and read the Old Testament. Portions of the Old Testament are challenging, but since you’ve read the Gospels, you’ll at least know where the overall story is headed—toward Jesus Christ! Finally, finish the project by reading the remainder of the New Testament. You’re understanding of it will be greatly enhanced by the knowledge you gained from the Old Testament!

Listen to a recording of the Bible.

            We have a great resource today in audio recordings of the Bible. These recordings are a great help to anyone who finds reading especially difficult, and they’re a tool that allows anyone to get the Bible on their mind while doing other tasks. Use them while you’re running an errand to Dodge, while you’re on the tractor, while you’re driving to a ball game, or anytime that you have an opportunity to listen.

            You can find good audio recordings for free on the YouVersion Bible app. This app also allows you to access many different translations of Scripture for free. You likely have your smartphone with you all the time, so download this app and turn your phone into a Bible!

If you’ve read through the Bible before, read through it again chronologically.

            If you’ve read through the Bible before and you’re setting out to do it again, let me encourage you to read it this time in the order in which the books were actually written. Our English Bibles do not print the books in the order in which they were written—they group them together by similar themes or shared authorship (e.g. the letters of Paul are all grouped together).

            Instead of just reading cover-to-cover or even following my “Star Wars” approach, find out the order in which the books were written and read them that way. It is very informative to read the Old Testament Prophets, for example, in the context of the events during which they were actually written rather than simply leaving all their writings until the end of your Old Testament reading.

            You can search online for a chronological list of the books of the Bible, or you can also purchase a special Bible that has the books printed in chronological order. For several months now, I’ve been reading through the Day by Day Chronological Bible from Holman Publishers and I have really enjoyed it. Whether you find a list for free or purchase a special resource, the chronological reading approach will sharpen your understanding of the overall storyline of Scripture.

May God bless you in your efforts to know His Word!

Are you dissatisfied with both Calvinism and Arminianism? There's another option you should consider...

            For roughly the last 400 years, Protestants seeking a systematic understanding of the doctrine of salvation have basically had their pick of two options—Calvinism and Arminianism. This dilemma has often been unsatisfactory to all but the most dyed-in-the-wool adherents of each system because no matter which system you chose, you would eventually run across passages of Scripture that your system didn’t explain very well. Despite that fact, we’ve felt like we’ve basically just had to pick one or the other and live with its flaws because there didn’t seem to be any other options.

            Could it be that we’ve been caught on the horns of a false dilemma? Is there actually another option to consider—one that can capture the stronger points of Calvinism and Arminianism in a biblically accurate, logically coherent way? I have come to believe that there is, and it is a system known as Molinism.

            Molinism takes its name from the 15th-century Jesuit priest, Luis de Molina. Yes, that’s right—the way through this Protestant impasse may be to rediscover the thinking of a Jesuit priest! The Protestant version of Molinism—to no one’s surprise!—does not embrace every detail of Molina’s theology. It is built upon his unique contribution to the concept of God’s omniscience—namely, the doctrine of middle knowledge. This doctrine asserts that before God ever chose to create this world, He already possessed an accurate and certain knowledge of every decision that every free creature would make in any given circumstance. Molina further asserted that God possessed this knowledge NOT through any process of learning, but simply on the basis of His complete knowledge of His own imagination. Since we are products of God’s imagination, He could know us completely without having to “wait and see” what we would choose, so to speak.

            As you can see, the doctrine of middle knowledge is built upon a prior commitment to the idea that humans possess libertarian human freedom—or in other words, the power of contrary choice. These phrases simply mean that for any choice you make, you could have made a different choice than you actually made. For example, when you made the choice to wear the shirt that you’re wearing today, you could have actually chosen the other shirt that you were also considering. Libertarian human freedom stands at odds with theological determinism (or compatibilism), which asserts that God has ordered all things in such a way that for any choice you make, you could not have made a different choice than you actually made. Theological determinism is the position of logically-consistent Calvinists. I say “logically-consistent” because your average Calvinist in the pulpit or the pew is very inconsistent in his philosophical beliefs. He appreciates Calvinist perspectives on ideas like eternal security and election (as do I), but he would shy away from the full implications of Calvinism’s denial of libertarian human freedom. Yet he does this without realizing he is straining the bonds of logic.

            But let’s get back to Molinism! While Molinism embraces libertarian human freedom, it does not sacrifice a strong view of God’s sovereignty. It affirms that God is in control over all things—even the free choices of humans! This union explains why I’ve come to think Molinism has such promise—it logically and biblically unites libertarian human freedom with a strong view of God’s sovereignty. According to philosopher William Hasker, “If you are committed to a strong view of providence, according to which, down to the smallest detail, things are as they are because God knowingly decided to create such a world, and yet you also wish to maintain a libertarian conception of free will—if this is what you want, then Molinism is the only game in town.” This is precisely what many Christians want after carefully reading the Bible. It seems obvious that God is in control of all things AND that humans make real choices which they could have decided differently. Molinism helps us understand logically the conclusions that so many people have reached biblically.

            Since you might now begin to Google “Molinism,” let me just say that I don’t agree with everything that is promoted under this banner. If you are interested in studying Molinism further, I would recommend Kenneth Keathley’s book Salvation and Sovereignty as a great starting point. If you have mostly understood what I’ve written in this blog post, then you will be able to track with Keathley’s book. Plus, his book is a book, so he goes into more detail to explain ideas than I have in just this one blog post. I may write some additional posts on this topic, but if this post has already piqued your curiosity, you would do well to read Keathley’s book.