So far, I've just tried to show that Gothard has not made his case. At this point, I haven't shown that his thesis is false. It may be true for reasons he hasn't given us. So now, I want to say specifically why I think his thesis is false.
The first reason I think his thesis is false is because, contrary to his assertion on p. 14 that "the Bible makes a distinction between 'prayer' and 'crying out to God,'" the Bible makes no such distinction, and nowhere in his book does he even attempt to substantiate that claim. In fact, there is no distinction. To pray literally means to ask or petition. In all of the scriptural examples of people crying out to God, they were making petitions, so they were praying out loud. Oddly enough, Gothard seems to contradict his own assertion by quoting scriptures that are about praying in order to support his thesis about crying out (e.g. Daniel 9:17-19, Psalm 102:102).
The second reason I think his thesis is false is also provided by Gothard himself. On p. 27 he offers scriptural examples of when silent prayer was effective (e.g. 1 SAmuel 1:10-15) and on p. 82 he offers scriptural examples of when crying out was not effective (e.g. Psalm 22:2).
to be continued...
Part 6
2 comments:
That's because I'm persnickety! Or so I've been told. Hi, Safiyyah! Nice to see you again. :-0
Are you kidding? I love that word! It's even better when spoken out loud than when you just think it to yourself.
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