Hello you all,
I heard this idea a couple weeks ago and found it fascinating.
Some of you maybe more aware of it then others, but I will outline my understanding of the story...
A Monk of praying in a monastery when his brethren that he was mentoring approached him and asked him what he was praying about. Which he replied that he was praying for someone in the past. Which those under his mentorship were confused about. He went on to explain that since God is present in all points in history at all times, that he could pray for someone or an event in the past and God would take his prayers into consideration. This makes sense, since if we can pray for the present and the future, that there should be no reason why we can't pray that God will give people of the past strength.
Any comments welcome.
Some of the problems with this theory:
1. As far as God being "present in all points in history at all times", that is a presumption that is not supported by any scripture I'm aware of.
This is not based on anything in scripture.
You would never just read the Bible, and come up with this theory.
From reading the Bible, you would only come up with the theory that God interacts with time in the same way we do, but that he KNOWS the future through his omniscience.
To go further, this idea is based NOT on scripture, NOT on logic, NOT on Philosophy, NOT on any common experience.
This is based ONLY on a certain PRESUPPOSITION that the B Theory of time is a correct theory - that temporal becoming is only an illusion, and that all points in time have always existed, and continue to always exist, independently. This is a popular theory, but there is really no evidence for this, and certainly no biblical evidence for this. The ONLY evidence we have of this anywhere is found ONLY by applying a particular model to Einstein's theories; but we can just as easily apply other models to his theories and come up with different conclusions about time.
The Bible, common experience, logic, and all known laws of logic and nature, seem to prove time moves only forward, and that all points in time do NOT contiue to exist independently.
Therefore, neither mortals nor the divine can go back in time, because there is simply nothing there to go back to.
2. We don't know everything about the nature of God, and we don't know for certain how God interacts with time, but the Biblical evidence only shows God interacting with time the SAME WAY WE DO... that time moves forward, and the old passes away, and there is no going back.
This is the ONLY way God ever speaks of temporal events.
He never gives ANY indication in scripture there is any other way to view time.
God always speaks of events as past, present or future.
God even speaks of himself as being in the present, and interacting with past, present and future EXACTLY the same as we do!
God never speaks of going back and changing the past.
NEVER.
Never, ever, ever.
God never speaks of going back and changing the past.
More in point #3.
3. God always speaks of events in relation to time, and he never changes temporal order, or attempts to undo the temporal order.
God always speaks of things that "have happened" in the past, or "will happen" in the future, and he never gets these confused, and he never changes thing in temporal order.
This is why prophecy is able to exist, because God speaks of a future that actually must occur in the future, and a past that has actually occurred in the past.
If all points in time existed perpetually, and God existed in all points of time equally, and continually... then he couldn't really speak of the future as future, or the past as past... because they would all be existing: the past would never really pass away, and the future would never really "come into being". Past and future would not really exist... but God DOES speak of these, as a stark reality, ALL THROUGH SCRIPTURE.
Biblically, as far as we can see in scripture, God seems to KNOW the future, but he seems to experience the "movement" or "passing" of time just as we do. He never grows old or tired, and he never learns anything new... but he always speaks of past, present and future EXACTLY as we do.
4. If prayer could change the past, then we'd have no need for a savior, and everything in the Bible would be nonsense.
If prayer could change the past, we could just pray for God to reach into the past and remove our past sin... no savior needed... God would just make our past disappear.
God does NOT make our past disappear; he makes our past FORGIVEN.
Jesus DID have to die for our sins, because the past HAS PASSED, and we CANNOT GO BACK AND FIX IT.
Let that sink in; if prayer could change the past, we'd have no need of a savior.
Every time I sin, I would just pray and say, "God, please make yesterday go away along with that bad thing I did", and poof, it would be gone. No savior needed.
But prayer DOES NOT and CANNOT change the past... and we all know this.
5. If prayer could change the past, we'd have the ability to change the "law of causality", and virtually undo everything in existence.
This would make no sense scientifically, philosophically, biblically, or logically.
It would virtually undo science, nature, logic, the universe, and THE BIBLE.
Conclusion:
1. A belief that prayer can reach back and retroactively change the past is untenable on every level.
2. It is contrary to direct teachings in scripture, it would negate the law of causality thereby unraveling all of scripture along with all of God's commands and even unravelling the entire physical universe, and on a personal level, it would even negate our need for a savior.
3. Very good and decent people get very confused about time, and how it affects prayer... because the nature of time is one of the most confusing and complicated concepts that humans have encountered. It may be a sin to be confused by moral issues, but it's certainly no sin to be confused by science and philosophy that is just horribly confusing.
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