Is it even Biblical to Pray for a Person’s Salvation?

[IceAndFire1328]

I would like to start a new thread based on this article. The original can be found at:

http://biblehelp.org/prayperson.htm
(Use by permission of author)

Is it even Biblical to Pray for a Person’s Salvation?

Recently, someone told me that it is not Biblical to pray for someone’s salvation. He said that the Bible instructs us to pray for more laborers, but it never instructs us to pray for the salvation of specific individuals. This got me curious, so I started taking a closer look at this subject. When I asked others about their thoughts, I got responses ranging from, “Yes, of course. God desires that we intervene on the behalf of others,” all the way to, “Definitely no; what ARROGANCE!!!!”

The Bible, of course, has to be our final authority. So, what does it say? …


[NOTE: I did not include the rest of the article because of its length. It is, however, very important to read the rest of the article to understand the discussion being made on this thread. The article can be found at: http://biblehelp.org/prayperson.htm ]

 

[salzer mtn]

I could give you this scripture in 1 John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his WILL, he heareth us: And if we know that he heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. And then i could give you this scripture to back up the other scripture pertaining to God's will. 11 Pet 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promice, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not WILLING that any perish, but that all should come to repentance.

 

[quantumfaith]

I am not really sure how to answer, I really like Salzer's answer. My personal prayers are such that God would use me to point people to Christ rather than to have to trip over me on the way to spend eternity somewhere.

 

[Greektim]

I would like to start a new thread based on this article. The original can be found at:

http://biblehelp.org/prayperson.htm
(Use by permission of author)

Is it even Biblical to Pray for a Person’s Salvation?

Recently, someone told me that it is not Biblical to pray for someone’s salvation. He said that the Bible instructs us to pray for more laborers, but it never instructs us to pray for the salvation of specific individuals. This got me curious, so I started taking a closer look at this subject. When I asked others about their thoughts, I got responses ranging from, “Yes, of course. God desires that we intervene on the behalf of others,” all the way to, “Definitely no; what ARROGANCE!!!!”

The Bible, of course, has to be our final authority. So, what does it say? …


[NOTE: I did not include the rest of the article because of its length. It is, however, very important to read the rest of the article to understand the discussion being made on this thread. The article can be found at: http://biblehelp.org/prayperson.htm ]

One of my favorite passages in light of God's sovereign election in Rom. 9 is Rom. 10:1

10:1 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God on behalf of my fellow Israelites is for their salvation.

So to answer the question, it seemed Paul did.

 

[SolaSaint]

Phm 1:6 and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.

This is the closest I could find to praying for salvation.

 

[HeirofSalvation]

The Apostle Paul prayed for the salvation of others, as Greek pointed out. That passage is in Romans chapter 10. vs. 1

 

[pinoybaptist]

One of my favorite passages in light of God's sovereign election in Rom. 9 is Rom. 10:1

10:1 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God on behalf of my fellow Israelites is for their salvation.

So to answer the question, it seemed Paul did.

A salvation which is NOT the eternal salvation that Christ secured in behalf of all His people, Jew or Greek (to use Paul's terminologies).

 

[Greektim]

A salvation which is NOT the eternal salvation that Christ secured in behalf of all His people, Jew or Greek (to use Paul's terminologies).

???? So Paul wasn't talking about the salvation of his Jewish brothers??? Maybe go back and read Rom 9:1-5 then just to see how the context makes it clear.

 

[HeirofSalvation]

Ask God for what you WANT!!! Name it and claim it.

Look at what Moses said to God when God CLEARLY told Moses that he was going to forget his promise to Abraham and build a Nation through Moses.... One thing Moses NEVER said was "If it be thy will" or "Thy will be done"...he argued with God, he told God that he would embarass himself amongst the heathen and in the eyes of the Egyptians etc... if God reneged on his promise to the Israelites....

Forget one's Theology for a second....just look at the Scriptures themselves.

Moses argued with God, and Moses won the debate....the Scriptures state that God changed his mind...That's Scripture.

 

[HAMel]

If we were not to pray for the lost what would be the point of it all?

The final paragraph of the link provided is as follows:

"In conclusion, I want to bring up one final verse. Galatians 2:6 says we are to bear one another’s burden. One of the greatest burdens of all should be our concern for the eternal destiny of the people around us. Let’s bear the burden of a lost world and pray for their salvation."

Perhaps our prayers should follow the path of scripture at Psalm 34:17.

"The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles."

To "cry" out as in distress. To literally "cry"!

Cry out for those loved ones who have gone astray! Do it for their own benefit.

 

[Zaac]

we pray to God for all sorts of other stuff. Why would we not pray to Him for someone's salvation.

When someone is sick, we pray for healing. What's sicker than someone infected by unforgiven sin on the way to death and destruction?

It kinda reminds me of the question why do you repent and ask God's forgivenss again and again if when He saved you, He forgave all your past, present and future sins?

 

[Scarlett O.]

The OP may or may not be back to view the responses here. I noted when I first saw it that he posted the same question, duplicate post, and same user name at another forum that I inhabit.

So, out of curiosity, I googled the title question and found that this guy is has been literally everywhere in that last few days joining message boards (at least 17 that I found) and posting the exact same post - and not coming back to join in the discussion with anyone.

The question seems sincere and is worth discussing, but I'm nor sure that the OP will read them, but I sure a lot of others will.

And yes, I believe that we should pray for God to save people - individually and corporately.

When I pray for specific people to be saved, I usually pray for God to:

• bind strongholds in their minds, hearts, and lives
• soften their hearts
• send laborers to help them and disciple them
• keep them from evil

How could it NOT be biblical to pray for God to save people?

 

[Oldtimer]

Scarlet wrote:

And yes, I believe that we should pray for God to save people - individually and corporately.

How can it be unscriptural to pray to God to touch the heart of someone who is lost? There doesn't seem to be any material question about praying to ask for His healing touch on a failing physical heart.

 

[Scarlett O.]

How can it be unscriptural to pray to God to touch the heart of someone who is lost? There doesn't seem to be any material question about praying to ask for His healing touch on a failing physical heart.

That's a good point.

 

[Revmitchell]

The OP may or may not be back to view the responses here. I noted when I first saw it that he posted the same question, duplicate post, and same user name at another forum that I inhabit.

So, out of curiosity, I googled the title question and found that this guy is has been literally everywhere in that last few days joining message boards (at least 17 that I found) and posting the exact same post - and not coming back to join in the discussion with anyone.

The question seems sincere and is worth discussing, but I'm nor sure that the OP will read them, but I sure a lot of others will.

And yes, I believe that we should pray for God to save people - individually and corporately.

When I pray for specific people to be saved, I usually pray for God to:

• bind strongholds in their minds, hearts, and lives
• soften their hearts
• send laborers to help them and disciple them
• keep them from evil

How could it NOT be biblical to pray for God to save people?

Might be the owner of that site. This way there are more hits on the site, more links to the site, and its ranking in search engines can be bumped up.

 

[Yeshua1]

A salvation which is NOT the eternal salvation that Christ secured in behalf of all His people, Jew or Greek (to use Paul's terminologies).

Paul prayer to God were that His own people, Jews, would receive Yeshua JUST as he did, as the Messiah of God...


there is ONLY one salvation here!

 

[Yeshua1]

I could give you this scripture in 1 John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his WILL, he heareth us: And if we know that he heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. And then i could give you this scripture to back up the other scripture pertaining to God's will. 11 Pet 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promice, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not WILLING that any perish, but that all should come to repentance.

for hasn't the Lord ordained that the prayers are in the salvation process, that He has them in there as part of the method used to reddem the sinners to being saved by the Cross of christ on their behalf?

 

[Tom Butler]

The answer to the OP must take into consideration the attributes of God.

One of those is immutability. God does not change, and the implications of that fact are enormous. Numerous scriptures state this specifically and unequivocally.

If that is the case, then what God reveals as his will today has been his will from eternity. When God saved me when I was nine years old, it was the culmination of a decision made before the world began.

So, how to we deal with those verses which speak of God's repenting (Ex 32:14, for example)? God's response, you remember was to a plea from Moses to spare the children of Israel for their idolatry with the golden calf.

J. P. Boyce, a Baptist theologian and first president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. said that God's "repenting" is an anthropomorphic expression, intended to convey His anger at sin and his "warm approbation at the repentance of those who had sinned against him Passing from God's displeasure to His pleasure is brought about by a change in man, not God.."

Boyce goes on to say:

[ Prayer does not change God. It changes us and the things and circumstances with which we have to do; but it does not change God.

We will neverWe shall never have the right attitude toward God so long as we think of prayer as a means of getting God to do things he did not intend to do. So far. So far from prayer changing the will of God, we must pray according to his will if we expect to get an answer. John tells us 'this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us' (I John 5:14)

It is the Holy Spirit that causes us to pray (Romans 8:15), and it is to the Holy Spirit that we should look for leadership in the things we pray for (Romans 8:26)

Prayer, then, is the work of God in our hearts getting us ready
for the most profitable use and grateful enjoyment of His blessings. It is His
own key, with which He unlocks the flood-gates of the river of His blessings.
In God's wise counsels before the foundation of the earth He ordained
prayer as one of the means for the accomplishment of His will. Prayer no
more changes God than the faith of the repentant sinner changes God. Both
are simply means in the working out of God's eternal and immutable
purpose.

So, should we pray for the salvation of a sinner? By all means.




:

 

[saturneptune]

Interesting, this issue is one where hypers and regular Calvinists go seperate ways.

 

[Alive in Christ]

Is it even Biblical to Pray for a Person’s Salvation?

Of course it is biblical.

Perfectly acceptable