You aren’t even listening. Forget your red herring of what you project on other posters’ responses and reply to me directly for once… I never said it was ineffective, and neither did anyone else.
Again, your faulty logic hinges on this strawman of Christian belief: that God must do whatever He’s told. You can’t even argue based on real Christian beliefs, but I’ll give you this… If the only way you see talking to God to be “effective” is to be able to selfishly manipulate Him into doing whatever you want (as you and all other atheists seem to) then yes it WOULD be ineffective… then again, so would “praying” to anyone else for that matter.
Yes, I said “pray” to other people… I advise you look it up before you give me the typical ignorant response.
Very well said exoflare. I’ve been reading Imagine23’s responses vicariously through you and others in this thread quoting him.
Imagine23 is apparently mistaking prayer with something akin to rubbing Aladin’s lamp. He doesn’t even seem to recognize how the adversary tempting our Lord
three times in the
wilderness actually reflects the arabic concept of the jinn offering
three wishes either.
Our Lord knew exactly how the adversay works-- in offering to “grant his wishes”, the adversary would have effectively taken hold of the Son of God if our Lord had allowed the adversary to fullfill what he was asking the Lord to receive.
The adversary is subtle. Very subtle. The most subtle being in the garden-- so subtle that many no longer believe that he even exists.
What many people do not realize is that when the adversary stands before people and states “
Your wish is my desire”, he is not intending to grant the desired wishes of the people he stands against. In other words, the wishes of the person being tempted are not what the adversary desires to grant
Instead,
in total opposition to how he presents himself, the adversary is looking to implant his own desires within the person he is offering his power to. In other words, the adversary is quite literally looking to implant his own desires into the person being offered a chance to fulfill these wishes. More specifically, the
person’s wishes are the
adversary’s desires manifesting within them-- not vice versa.
The Lord, however, works in the complete opposition to this
devilish wishful thinking. The Lord is most sublime and the prayers that people pray, if they are truly inspired of the Holy Spirit, are the very subliminal desires within which the Lord himself has manifested within those who are truly praying as the Spirit moves them to do so. More specifically, the
person’s prayers are the
Lord’s desires manifesting within them-- not vice versa.
Ironically, Imagine23’s understanding of prayer actually more accurately reflects the
devil’s ability to tempt others than it does the
true prayers from Christians talking with God.
Nonetheless. as Jesus said, not
my will be done but
thy will be done-- and those moving by the Spirit, such as you and I, do understand this. Imagine23, however, since he is not moving by the Spirit, does not understand this distinction between the
subtle temptations of the adversary and the
subliminal motions of the Spirit.
It requires faith, the vision of the Spirit, to distinguish between the spirits-- and Imagine23 does not have the faith to see this. Nor does he really seem to care to understand this distinction more clearly either.
Why are you so afraid to answer my simple question?