In this article, we will consider the following matters:

• If we have sufficient faith, will God give us anything for which we ask?

• Should we always pray privately?

• Is worshiping on Sunday, rather than on Saturday, a violation of one of the Ten Commandments?

• Does God ever condone the worship of an idol?

• Does God ever approve of human sacrifices?

If We Have Sufficient Faith, Will God Give Us Anything for Which We Ask?

There are a number of scripture passages that seem to indicate that God will give Christians anything they ask for in prayer, if their faith is strong enough.  [Note:  When we quote Scripture in this article, we use the wording in the New King James Version of the Bible, except when we quote a non-biblical source that is using Scripture from a different version of the Bible.]

The Bible records the following statements by Jesus Christ regarding prayer:

Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will     . . . say to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea,” and it will be done.  And all things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. (Matthew 21:21-22)

For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he asks.  Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask for when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.  (Mark 11:23-24)

[W]hatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.  (John 14:13-14)

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  (John 15:7)

Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He   will give you.  (John 16:23-24)

The problem is that, despite what these verses say, the prayer requests of many Christians are not granted.  The question is, why?

With regard to the scripture passages cited above, it can be argued that Jesus Christ was speaking to only His 12 Disciples.  In other words, what Jesus said may have been applicable to them alone, not to all of His followers.  In fact, the Bible contains no scripture passages in which Jesus makes similar promises regarding prayer that are clearly directed to anyone other than His 12 Disciples.

However, the following are similar promises about prayer that are clearly directed to Christians other than the 12 Disciples of Jesus Christ:

[W]hatever we ask we receive from Him [God], because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.  And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.  (1 John 3:22-23)

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him [Jesus Christ, the Son of God], that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.  (1 John 5:14-15)

Therefore, the promises the Bible makes regarding prayer seem to be applicable to all Christians.  If this is true, then the question of why the prayer requests of many Christians are not granted still needs to be answered.

Norman Geisler, Ph.D., and Thomas Howe, M.A., provide some insights about this matter.  On page 373 of their book entitled When Critics Ask, they state,

[A]ll difficult passages should be interpreted in harmony with other clear statements of Scripture.  And it is clear that God does not promise, for example, to heal everyone for whom we pray in faith.  Paul wasn’t healed, though he prayed earnestly and faithfully (2 Cor. 12:8-9).

[W]hen the rest of Scripture is taken into consideration there are many conditions placed on God’s promise to answer prayer in addition to faith.  We must “abide in Him” and let His Word “abide in us” (John 15:7).  We cannot “ask amiss” out of our own selfishness (James 4:3).  Furthermore, we must ask “according to His will” (1 John 5:14). 

Therefore, it is important to fulfill the conditions, in addition to faith, that are necessary for our prayers to be answered.  These conditions are basically two types:  (1) having a right relationship with God, and (2) having a right relationship with other people. 

Having a right relationship with God necessitates being willing to submit to Jesus Christ and to live according to what He taught.  Let's look again at John 15:7, in which Jesus Christ declares, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”  Bill Bright, a well-know Christian leader, in his publication entitled How to Pray, explains the meaning of abiding as, “simply walking in the Spirit, with no sin unconfessed and with a spirit of total availability to God.” 

Having a right relationship with other people necessitates loving them, which includes forgiving them.  In Mark 11:25, Jesus asserts, “[I]f you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.”  This verse suggests that, unless we are willing to forgive other people, we won’t be able to have a right relationship with God, and therefore our prayers are not likely to be answered.

Finally, if a request we make through prayer is not being granted, we should trust God to have a definite reason for not answering our prayer request as we want, or at least not when we want it answered.  God is not only sovereign and omniscient; He is also the essence of agape love.  Therefore, we can trust Him to do what is ultimately best.         

Should We Always Pray Privately?    

In Matthew 6:6, Jesus says, “[W]hen you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

Some people interpret this passage to mean that prayers should always be private rather than public.  However, this point of view does not give adequate consideration to verse 5, which states, “[W]hen you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites.  For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.  Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.” 

Verse 5 indicates that what is wrong is the motive of those who pray.  On page 333 of their book, Geisler and Howe address this matter, as follows:

It is not public prayers which Jesus condemned, but ostentatious prayers.  He was not opposed to people praying in appropriate public places, but in conspicuous places.  It was not the place of prayer so much as the purpose of their prayer that Jesus spoke against, namely, “that they may be seen by men”. . . .

At least two scripture passages clearly indicate that Jesus prayed audibly in public.   Both are found in the book of John.

John 11:41-42:  This prayer was in the presence of various Jews at the tomb where a man named Lazarus, a friend of Jesus, was buried.  These verses state,

Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.  And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.  And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by, I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.”

John 17:1-26:  This prayer was in the presence of Jesus’ disciples while He was teaching them. The first two verses in this passage set the tone, as follows:

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come.  Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given him.”

Several other passages are clear that Jesus prayed publicly, but they are not conclusive as to whether or not He prayed audibly.  Among these passages are the following:

Matthew 14:19:  Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes.

Matt. 15:35-36:  And He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.  And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks . . . . [Note: Mark 8:6 has very similar wording.]

Matthew 26:26-27:  And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”  Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them. . . . [Note:  Mark 14:22-23 has very similar wording.]

Luke 3:21:  Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened.

We conclude that Matthew 6:5-6 does not teach that all forms of public prayer are inappropriate.  What this passage does teach is that ostentatious prayer is not appropriate.

Is Worshiping on Sunday, Rather Than on Saturday, a Violation of One of the Ten Commandments? 

The fourth of the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses (Exodus 20:8-10) instructs that worship is to be on the seventh day of the week, which is Saturday.  So, why do Christians worship on Sunday?

Gleason L. Archer, on page 116 of his book entitled Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, says,

[T]here is no suggestion even in the New Testament that the Ten Commandments are not binding on the conscience of Christian believers. . . . In the absence of any divine instruction to the contrary, we may assume that the fourth commandment is still binding on us.  But the real question at issue is whether the sanction of the seventh day Sabbath has been by the New Testament transferred to the first day of the week, which the Christian church generally . . . honors as the Lord’s Day, otherwise known as the Christian Sabbath.

Archer goes on to declare on pages 117-118,

As the Lord’s Supper replaced the Old Testament sacrament of the Passover, as the death of Christ replaced the sacrifice of animal offerings on the altar, as the high priesthood of Christ . . . replaced the priesthood of Aaron and constituted every born-again believer as a priest of God, so also in the case of this one commandment out of the ten, which was in part at least ceremonial, there was to be a change in the symbol appropriate to the new dispensation. . . .

Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week, according to all four Evangelists (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1).  Thus Sunday took on special importance as the weekly day of celebration for the triumph of the Resurrection.

After Pentecost it seems that the Christian community continued to celebrate the seventh-day Sabbath as before, by gathering with other Jews (both converted and unconverted) for the reading of the Torah, for preaching, and for prayer. . . . They joined in synagogue worship on Saturdays because they felt themselves to be Jews, even though they believed in Christ. . . . But they also met on Sunday mornings for worship and Holy Communion. . . .

Geisler and Howe provide further support for Sunday worship.  On page 77 of their book, they assert,

Jesus said in correcting the distorted view of the Pharisees, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).   The point which Jesus made is that the Sabbath was not instituted to enslave people, but to benefit them.  The spirit of Sabbath observance is continued in the NT observance of rest and worship on the first day of the week.

[A]lthough the moral principles expressed in the commandments are reaffirmed in the NT, the command to set Saturday apart as a day of rest and worship is the only commandment not repeated.  There are very good reasons for this.  New Testament believers are not under the OT Law (Rom. 6:14; Gal. 3:24-25).  By His resurrection on the first day of the week (Matt. 2l8:1), His continued appearances on succeeding Sundays (John 20:26), and the descent of the Holy Spirit on Sunday (Acts 2:1), the early church was given the pattern of Sunday worship.  This they did regularly (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2).  Sunday worship was further hallowed by our Lord who appeared to John in that last great vision on “the Lord’s Day (Rev. 1:10).  It is for these reasons that Christians worship on Sunday, rather than on the Jewish Sabbath.

Does God Ever Condone the Worship of an Idol? 

Didn’t God command Moses to make a bronze serpent as an idol for the Israelites to worship, in violation of the second of the Ten Commandments? 

The second of the Ten Commandments forbids making and worshiping idols (see Exodus 20:4-5).  However, God commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent (see Numbers 21:8-9a), which the Israelites apparently worshiped subsequently (see Numbers 21:9b and 2 Kings 18:4).  Thus, it seems as if God condoned both the making and the worshiping of an idol.

With regard to the account presented in Numbers 21:8-9, it is inconceivable that Jesus would have given credibility to behavior that violated God’s Commandment against making and worshiping idols.  If Moses’ actions with regard to the bronze serpent had violated that Commandment, it would be unthinkable to believe that Jesus Christ, in alluding to His eventual crucifixion on a cross, would have said in John 3:14-15, “[A]s Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man [i.e., Jesus Christ Himself] be lifted up, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” 

Geisler and Howe provide a reasonable explanation to reconcile this matter.  On page 107 of their book, they assert,

God did not command Moses to make an idol for the people to worship but a symbol to which they could look in faith and be healed.  Later, the people made this symbol into an idol.  But this does not make the symbol wrong.  After all, people have worshiped the Bible. 

Further, not all “images” are idols.  Religious art contains images but is not thereby idolatrous.  God also instructed Moses to make cherubim (angels) for the ark [i.e., the holy receptacle that contained the Ten Commandments and a couple of other items of special religious significance to the Israelites], but they were not idols.

What about crosses or depictions of Jesus Christ in pictures or sculptures?  Should we regard them as idols?  The Adult Learner Guide for spring 2010 states on page 63, “The Second Commandment forbids idolatry in all forms.  Idolatry is attributing God’s essential nature to something that isn’t God. . . . [N]o shape in the heavens or on the earth . . . can adequately represent God.”  This stance is supported by Exodus 20:4, which indicates that idols include “any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath.”  This would include crosses and depictions of Jesus Christ in pictures or sculptures.  Furthermore, Exodus 20:5 says with regard to idols, “[Y]ou shall not bow down to them nor serve them.”  And, since crosses and depictions of Jesus Christ are idols, we should not bow down to them. 

Does God Ever Condone Human Sacrifices?

In Leviticus 18:21; 20:2 and Deuteronomy 18:10, God admonishes the Israelites not to make human sacrifices of their children.  Leviticus 20:2 states that the penalty for making such a sacrifice is death.  However, in a couple of other scripture passages (Genesis 22:2 and Judges 11:30-39), God seems to encourage, or at least condone, human sacrifices.

First, let’s consider Genesis 22:2, in which God says to Abraham, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”  [Note:  When we quote Scripture in this article, we use the wording in the New King James Version of the Bible, except when we quote a non-biblical source that is using Scripture from a different version of the Bible.]

Archer, on page 96 of his book, asserts,

It is a mistake to interpret Genesis 22:2 as a command by God for Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar.  On the contrary, God actually (through His angel, at least) restrained Abraham’s hand just as he was about to plunge the knife into his son’s body, saying, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” (v.12, NASB). While it is true that the Lord instructed Abraham previously to present Isaac as a burnt offering . . ., and Abraham himself undoubtedly understood it as a command to kill his son on the altar, the point at issue was whether the doting father was willing to surrender even his only son (begotten by Sarah) to the Lord as a proof of his complete surrender.  But v.12 is conclusive proof that Yahweh had no intention that Abraham should actually go through with this human sacrifice.  It was simply a test of his faith.

On page 51 of their book Geisler and Howe note, “it was Abraham’s willingness to surrender his son, not the actual killing of him, that satisfied God’s expectations for Abraham.”  They go on to mention the following somewhat controversial additional considerations:

[T]he prohibitions . . . were specifically against the offering of one’s offspring to the pagan god Molech.  So it is not strictly a contradiction for God to prohibit offering one’s offspring to Molech and yet asking Abraham to offer Isaac to Him, the only true God. . . . God alone is sovereign over life (Deut. 32:39; Job 1:21), and therefore He alone has the right to demand when it should be taken. 

[I]t is not morally wrong for God to order the sacrifice of our sons.  He offered His own Son on Calvary. . . . Indeed, even our governments sometimes call upon us to sacrifice our sons for our country.  Certainly God has an even greater right to do so.

Now, let’s address Judges 11:30-39.  Verses 30-31 state,

And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, and said, “If You will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands, then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord’s, and I will offer it us as a burnt offering.”

Subsequently, verses 32-33 tell about Jephthah’s defeat of the people of Ammon.  Then, verses 34-38 describe what happened when Jephthah arrived at his home.  The first person to come out of his house to meet him was his daughter, who was his only child.  After Jephthah explained to her about the promise that he had made to God, she told him that she was willing to allow him to do as he had promised, but she requested that he allow her to be alone for two months – a request that her father granted.  Finally, in verse 39, Jephthah’s daughter returned home after two months, “and he carried out his vow with her which he had vowed.”

On page 164 of his book, Archer provides the following commentary regarding Judges 11:30-39:

It would have been altogether unthinkable for Jephthah or any other Israelite to imagine that he could please God by committing such a heinous and abhorrent abomination in His presence or at His altar.

Equally incredible is the notion that God, foreknowing that Jephthah was intending thus to flout His law and trample on His covenant, would nevertheless have granted him victory over the foe.

What, then, actually did happen if Jephthah did not offer up his daughter on the altar? . . . [T]he whole record of the manner in which this vow was carried out points to her dedication to the service of the Lord as a lifelong ministrant [i.e., one who ministers] at the national sanctuary.  Judges 11:37-38 states she was allowed a mourning period of two months, not to bewail her approaching death, but rather to lament over her permanent virginity. . . . As one set apart for tabernacle service . . ., she would never become a mother; hence it is emphasized that “she knew no man” (Judg. 11:39).  This would have been a pointless and inane remark if in fact she were put to death.