6
whole position is established.
11
Because of the intensely personal relationship that God has freely and lovingly
entered into with his children, our prayers genuinely affect him.
12
Thus for open theists, what we
bring to God in prayer can truly make a difference in what happens in the future. Pinnock
argues,
In prayer God makes himself dependent on us, in a certain sense, and allows himself to
be affected by our praying. What happens on earth affects what happens in heaven.
13
As examples of cases in which God genuinely responds to the prayers of his people, Sanders
cites the following texts: Exod 8:13, 31 in which God removed a plague at the request of Moses;
Exod 32:10-14, in which God changed his mind in response to the prayer of Moses and did not
destroy the Israelites after their sin with the golden calf; and 2 Kgs 20:1-6, in which God
changed his mind and granted Hezekiah 15 additional years of life in answer to his prayer.
11
Clark Pinnock, "God Limits His Knowledge," in Predestination and Free Will: Four
Views of Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom, ed. David and Randall Basinger
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 152.
12
Thus Sanders says, "Our prayers make a difference to God because of the personal
relationship God enters into with us. God chooses to make himself dependent on us for
certain things" (The God Who Risks, 271).
13
Pinnock, Most Moved Mover, 172. In support of this claim, Pinnock cites Matt 18:18
("I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you
loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.").