M
mdgspencer
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I have wondered myself how saints can hear all the prayers made to them at the same time. This is one Catholic’s response to this situation, at “catholic bridge”:
"If only God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, how do Saints hear a million requests for intercession at one time?
The best way to respond to this “million prayers at once” objection is to describe something in our lives. We have a little computerized recording studio. A friend of mine knows nothing about computers and when he heard our CD he said:
Hey how is it that you are singing all those voices and playing all those instruments at the same time. You are not omnipresent!
We explained to him that it takes us 150 hours to record a 3 minute song. With the computer we record each instrument and voice one after another and then mix them all together into this 3 minute song. So the measure of time we use to record the song is not the measure of time that people perceive when they hear the song on the radio. The recording was not made in “real time.”
Heaven is not in “real (earth) time.” Heaven is outside of earth time!
On one of our songs, I (Hugh) am singing 75 voices and playing 60 music tracks at the same time because we do not record in “real time.” That does not make me “omnipresent!” If we can do this, heaven can figure out how to respond to multiple requests for prayer because they are not handled according to “earth time.”
Calling on the Saints is not like calling the help desk for your internt provider, where they say “due to unusually high call volume there may be a wait time of 10 minutes, you are 8th in queue.” Heaven doesn’t work that way. It is outside of earth time.
The great scientist, Einstein describes the physical universe in 4 dimensions, length, width, depth and time. Jesus said “My kingdom is not of this world,” therefore it makes sense that it is outside of time. The universe is a big place, omnipresence implies being everywhere in the universe and beyond at one once. A saint’s ability to hear a bunch of requests for prayers at once doesn’t infer omnipresence. It just means they are outside of time like everyone else in Heaven.
Catholics don’t think people have to have omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence in order to be in heaven? Scripture tells us there are many levels of authority in heaven. (archangels, angels, cherubim, seraphim, etc.) Evangelicals believe angels know what is happening in different parts of the earth at the same time, yet they are not omnipresent. Catholics believe people in heaven are out of time and are enabled to observe and hear what is going on in the earth (which is expressly indicated in Scripture - at least the observing. The “hearing” is a valid deduction). Being out of time is more than sufficient to overcome the standard “million prayers at once” objection. (1)
Heaven is not like the “help desk call center”, where you sit in the queue waiting for them to answer while you listen to bad music on the phone.
There is no prayer queue in heaven…
Oh, and they speak English perfectly in heaven too, they understand."
"If only God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, how do Saints hear a million requests for intercession at one time?
The best way to respond to this “million prayers at once” objection is to describe something in our lives. We have a little computerized recording studio. A friend of mine knows nothing about computers and when he heard our CD he said:
Hey how is it that you are singing all those voices and playing all those instruments at the same time. You are not omnipresent!
We explained to him that it takes us 150 hours to record a 3 minute song. With the computer we record each instrument and voice one after another and then mix them all together into this 3 minute song. So the measure of time we use to record the song is not the measure of time that people perceive when they hear the song on the radio. The recording was not made in “real time.”
Heaven is not in “real (earth) time.” Heaven is outside of earth time!
On one of our songs, I (Hugh) am singing 75 voices and playing 60 music tracks at the same time because we do not record in “real time.” That does not make me “omnipresent!” If we can do this, heaven can figure out how to respond to multiple requests for prayer because they are not handled according to “earth time.”
Calling on the Saints is not like calling the help desk for your internt provider, where they say “due to unusually high call volume there may be a wait time of 10 minutes, you are 8th in queue.” Heaven doesn’t work that way. It is outside of earth time.
The great scientist, Einstein describes the physical universe in 4 dimensions, length, width, depth and time. Jesus said “My kingdom is not of this world,” therefore it makes sense that it is outside of time. The universe is a big place, omnipresence implies being everywhere in the universe and beyond at one once. A saint’s ability to hear a bunch of requests for prayers at once doesn’t infer omnipresence. It just means they are outside of time like everyone else in Heaven.
Catholics don’t think people have to have omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence in order to be in heaven? Scripture tells us there are many levels of authority in heaven. (archangels, angels, cherubim, seraphim, etc.) Evangelicals believe angels know what is happening in different parts of the earth at the same time, yet they are not omnipresent. Catholics believe people in heaven are out of time and are enabled to observe and hear what is going on in the earth (which is expressly indicated in Scripture - at least the observing. The “hearing” is a valid deduction). Being out of time is more than sufficient to overcome the standard “million prayers at once” objection. (1)
Heaven is not like the “help desk call center”, where you sit in the queue waiting for them to answer while you listen to bad music on the phone.
There is no prayer queue in heaven…
Oh, and they speak English perfectly in heaven too, they understand."
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