Systematic Theology – Creation and Providence

Creationism and Prayer

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 12 of 17

Track: #12

Year:

Dictation Name: 12 Creationism and prayer.

Our subject will now be creationism and prayer. Whenever we are prayerless we are falling victim to the common tendency of all men who are sons of Adam, in other words to claim autonomy from God. When we’re prayerless we are in effect saying that we trust in our own resources to deliver us. Prayer for us then becomes a duty and not an necessity. When we see God as our creator and redeemer, and we know our absolute dependence on Him prayer for us is then a necessity. But whenever and wherever man is ruled by a spirit of autonomy He is then capable of self-prayer only. Now what is self-prayer, well self-prayer is worry, it is anxiety, it is fretting, it is cudgeling our brains to ferret out an answer or the secret of salvation within ourselves. Our Lord tells us “which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?” But when we believe ourselves to be autonomous; or if we act practically on the belief in our autonomy, though we profess to believe in God, then we are marked by anxiety.

It’s not surprising that existentialist philosophy has a great deal to say about anxiety. It sees anxiety as one of the basic factors in the mind of man and in the condition of man, with good reason. If man is autonomous, if he is the master of his fate and the captain of his soul, then he has a great deal to be anxious about, because everything depends on him. Then indeed he will be sleepless. After all, if the government of your life depends upon you it’s pretty difficult to go to sleep. How do you know what will happen to you? Your mind will be going this way and that way trying to plan out and figure out the future, and determine the course of events. Sleeplessness is a part of anxiety, and the roots of anxiety are in an existentialist mentality, in a belief in autonomy.

Now the sad fact is that existentialism has recognized this fact. Existentialism says very definitely that anxiety is the concomitant of human autonomy. And yet Christians delude themselves by saying they are anxious about things because they are sensitive souls. They are marked by anxiety because they’re so responsible, but anxiety seeks to do, our Lord says, what only God can do. To perform miracles and to govern by acts of providence the course of human affairs. Worry and anxiety are marks of prayerlessness. They mark the man who seeks to be master of his own fate. What happens that when we are anxious, we are marked by anxiety and we have the aspirin age. There is a marked correlation between these things and unbelief, what signals the development and the growth of existentialism in our culture? Well as man has progressively wandered away from Christian faith, whether by open profession of unbelief, or by practical sense of autonomy and a practical unbelief while professing to believe in God. He is become more and more anxious, and more and more sleepless, and more and more dependent on artificial solutions to the problem of prayer and faith; and so aspirins, and liquor, and drugs, and sleeping tablets, become the human remedies which substitute for faith and prayer.

The alternative to prayer is very clearly anxiety and worry. These are marks of practical godlessness. To be prayerless is to see ourselves as autonomous. TO believe in our autonomy is to deny creationism. The practical denial of creationism is prayerlessness because it says that we are not created by God and therefore we are not totally dependent upon Him. If we believe the first chapters of Genesis we believe that we are totally the creation of God, and therefore we must rely upon Him totally. To pray therefore is to give a practical affirmation of our faith in creationism and in the creator. Because we are creatures all our lives and our being are part of his decree and of his concern. To separate ourselves from that faith is to separate ourselves from life. Scripture tells us in such verse as Genesis 2:17 and in Romans 6:23 that the penalty for sin is death. Proverbs 8:23 says that all they who separate themselves from God, and who hate God, love death. But the redeemed of God who move in terms of that faith in God and in Christ their redeemer know themselves to be God’s creatures, and they depend upon Him, and dependence means prayerfulness.

How then shall we pray as the redeemed of the Lord? Now when you read manuals on prayer they have a great deal to say about the components of prayer; praise, thanksgiving, petition, and so on, all of which are sound. But too often these analyses are dealing with formal prayer. But the essence of all these components of prayer can be summed up on two things, dependence and communion. These include all else. How then do we pray? Well Paul gives us very good instructions in several passages. In Philippians 4:6 “Be careful or anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” I Thessalonians 5 verse 14-18 “14 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. 15 See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. 16 Rejoice evermore. 17 Pray without ceasing. 18 In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

What is Paul telling us? First, anxiety or carefulness is forbidden. We are told, we are commanded, not to be anxious. It is practical unbelief. It is the alternative to pray, that why I like the old saying “why pray when you can worry?” Makes good sense, or “Why worry when you can pray?” Make your needs known to God with Thanksgiving. Then second Paul tells us, obey His word, encourage the fainthearted, rebuke the unruly and support the weak. Render good for evil, and the good is to be defined in terms of God’s law word. Third it says rejoice evermore, at all times and all things. This is the victory which overcomes the world, even our faith. And so we are to give thanks in all things because as Romans 8:28 declares “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to His purpose.” And then we are told, finally, “pray without ceasing.” Now this does not mean, what our Lord condemns, much speaking in prayer. What praying without ceasing means is to have continual prayer, or communion, with God. How do we do this? I’ve referred to this at other times; it’s the practice of sentence prayers.

All day long as we face problems we say to ourselves “Lord give me grace and patience as I deal with this.” Or “Lord, I don’t know the answer to this problem, show me the way.” Or “Lord this is something that’s too big for me, I don’t know how to handle it, give me strength and give me wisdom to cope with it.” Or “Lord I thank Thee that didst enable me to be patient, or to be understanding, or to solve this situation.” All day long you’re open to God. You ask for His help, you thank Him. This is what it means to pray without ceasing; it means walking with God. And you see here you have in these four things as Paul sets them forth both dependence and communion, and together they lead to growth.

Moreover we pray best when we pray in God’s own words. This is why the reading of the whole of scripture is so important. The more we read the Bible the better we can pray, and of course we have a book of prayers which are also Psalms in the Bible, the book of Psalms. And the more we read the Psalms, the more readily we too can pray, because here we have God’s own inspiration in the prayers of saints of old. We are God’s creation, we are not autonomous. Without communion and dependence we are dead men; and this is why prayerfulness is basic to life. It means we recognize the source of life and the source of all our solutions.

Remember, I said there is a correlation between the anxiety and the dependence by man on everything from aspirin to drugs in our time. Men in these things seek an alternative to God. What does this tell us? Autonomous man cannot be autonomous. He may claim to be autonomous, but he cannot be. And if he will not depend upon God he’s going to depend on such things as drugs. If he will not pray to God, he will go in effect to human chemistry and to human devices with his prayer “relieve me of my anxiety.” That’s what prayer is about and hence the urgency and necessity of prayer. Prayer is closely linked therefore not only to providence, but also to creationism.