Does God hear the prayers of unbelievers?

[Guest shiloh357]

No. The Bible says unbelievers are indeed wicked.

"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?" (2 Corinthians 6:14).

No, you are misreading the text. Paul is not saying all unbelievers are wicked. Paul is drawing contrasts to make a point. Paul is making the point that unbelievers are as incompatible with believers (in terms of partnerships, marriage, etc.) as righteousness is incompatible with wickedness, and as the Temple of God is incompatible with idols. Nowhere in that passage are all unbelievers labeled as "wicked."

Jesus said if you are not with Him then you are against Him (Luke 11:23) it is not "sloppy theology" to say that if you are not with Christ you are an enemy of God. And as Satan is God's enemy, unbelievers are in the same company as the devil. They are on the same team, they belong to the world, and thus to the "god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Yes, but that only refers to their spiritual standing before God. That does not make them "wicked." Wickedness denotes a type of character or behavior and that behavior does not characterize ALL unbelievers.

"We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one." (1 John 5:19)

Unbelievers are captives of the devil (2 Timothy 2:26), and they follow the devil (Ephesians 2:2).

Again, that does not make all unbelievers "wicked." You are trying to arbitrarily broaden the definition just so you can call all nonChristians "wicked." Again, that is just poor hermeneutics and is a rather dishonest approach to the issue.

The Bible goes so far as to say those who deny Christ are "Antichrists" (1 John 2:22), and I don't believe there are non-wicked Antichrists.

John is talking about false teachers though. John's epistles among other things are meant to help us identify false teachers who were creeping into the midst of the church even in his day. John was not talking about all unbelievers, but his comments were aimed at those in the body who were denying the doctrines pertaining to Christ. Nothing in 1 John labels all nonChristians as "wicked."

That is like saying there are no levels of sin.

There are no "levels" of sin. A sin is a sin. When you break God's law, you break it. You don't break more or less than anyone else.

And thus, no basis for the level of suffering an unbeliever will endure in hell. And we all know there are levels of suffering in hell. (Matthew 10:15, 16:27, Revelation 20:12-13, 22:12).

It is a false assumption to believe that different levels of suffering pertain to some mythical concept like "levels of sin."

Sin is a wicked act.

The difference between a wicked person and nonwicked person is how they deal with what they have done. Wicked people sin and enjoy it and are impenitent. They habitually sin and are actively defiant against God. Wicked people know the truth, and they hate the truth and that is why they are called wicked. Wickedness is an attitude of rebellion against God. The Bible does not describe all unbelievers that way. Everyone sins, but not everyone is wicked. Not every sinner is impenitent or unremorseful.

QUOTE

Being under the devil's dominion is not what makes you wicked

What in the world does it make you - good???

It makes you his prisoner. It does not mean you enjoy sin and are actively seeking to defy God in the face of the truth. Wicked people are irretrievably evil. They have no concscince or moral compunction about their behavior.

[JCISGD]

The proof is in the tasting is it not?

My brother and brother in law who are both unbelievers with no apparent heart for God, got into difficulty while out fishing to the point they feared their lives. They told me that after of crying out to God for help,(this was an exclamation only, not repentance or even real belief that God is real), immediatley the waves were stilled and they were spared.

Yet despite my urging that God is indeed real them they still remain unbelievers.

God does hear all prayers and answers all that He wisely can. His love is not selfish and He sends the sun and the rain on the good and the wicked alike.

But He rightly denies the pleas of those who are insincere in their requests wether they are unbelievers or Christians.

I support Shilohs stance and that God does not call all sinners wicked or their prayers an abomination.

Im not convinced Cornelius can be considerd an unbeliever as he had joined himself to the Jewish faith, and this was the way of salvation untill the time of Christ. But not all of Israel were children of Abraham and only those of sincere faith and obedience.

I reject the statement of two early posts that we cannot know the mind of God or His reasons. We cannot know the whole mind or reasons of God but He is our friend and shares Himself with those He trusts. The whole bible reveals the mind of God on a multitude of subjects and mostly they can be discovered by simple reason, or how else can unbelievers be convinced of its truth.

[Smalcald]

Yes God can do as He pleases.

The issue is that most unbelievers when they pray are not praying to God at all. So what does God say about prayers or worship offered to demons or idols?

I think that is a different matter.

An unbeliever praying specifically to another god/idol would have an agenda contrary to God's Will.

God I believe is not sitting in heaven taking messages (I'm sure) for Buddha or Krishna and answering them.

However an unbeliever who is caught in a life/death situation will often turn to God and be praying to Him to save them.

Here I am saying the person is actually making some effort to reach God of whom they have no real understanding of or have neglected for years.

How often do you hear stories like that in the News when they were asked about their ordeal. The person often says I was praying for God to save me?

Who knows maybe God did out of mercy?

We see Jesus healed the occassional non-believing Sinner to glorify His Father. Not everyone Jesus healed came back to Thank Him or put their faith in Him.

I agree so what we are really talking about here are people who have been exposed to Jesus who have a knowledge to call out to Him. They may not practice the faith, they may not have deep faith, they may not understand the Gospel, yet they have some sort of yearning of faith and will call out to the true God.l

I would agree among that subset of people, yes God hears and responds to those prayers.

Many prayers though in the world are to other Gods. The majority of people in the world who do not believe in the true God will not call out or pray to God ,but pray to some other God or Goddess or God's or fate or thier dead cat.

God is aware of those prayers as He is aware of all, but does He listen? No.

[wyguy]

Nowhere in that passage are all unbelievers labeled as "wicked."

It states very clearly, "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?"

It wouldn't have called "unbelievers" wicked, if they weren't wicked.

Yes, but that only refers to their spiritual standing before God. That does not make them "wicked."

Again, you cannot be God's enemy and be good in any sense of the word. And those who's sins haven't been covered by the blood of Jesus are wicked. Again, as the verse states clearly:

"The lamp of the wicked, is sin." (Proverbs 21:4).

John is talking about false teachers though. John's epistles among other things are meant to help us identify false teachers who were creeping into the midst of the church even in his day.

That is not what he is saying here. He says:

"Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist

[Guest shiloh357]

QUOTE

Nowhere in that passage are all unbelievers labeled as "wicked."

It states very clearly, "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?"

It wouldn't have called "unbelievers" wicked, if they weren't wicked.

It is not calling them unbelievers wicked. He is comparing the incompatibility of unbelievers and believers with the incompatibility of wickedness and righteousness. His reference to wickedness is not being used as a label. You are misreading the intent.

Again, you cannot be God's enemy and be good in any sense of the word. And those who's sins haven't been covered by the blood of Jesus are wicked. Again, as the verse states clearly:

I am not saying unbelievers are "good." I am simply saying that the Bible does not label all believers as wicked. The Bible is very careful to use the term wicked to denote people of a particular manner of behavior.

That is not what he is saying here. He says:

"Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist

[wyguy]

His reference to wickedness is not being used as a label. You are misreading the intent.

Even a cursory reading of the scripture shows that it indeed is being used as a label. "Unbelievers" and "Wicked."

That still does not mean there are "levels" of sin. Sin is sin. There are varying degrees of punishment, but the Bible NEVER claims that there are varying levels of sin. That is just something you are making up.

WHY would there BE different levels of punishment if there weren't different levels of sin?????

And you yourself stated a person who willfully sins is more of a sinner than one who doesn't. To you, that person is "wicked" where the other isn't.

And as Luke 12:46,47 says:

"That servant who knows his master

[Smalcald]

I had thought that only Catholics believed in different levels of punishment for different levels of sin? It is a Catholic concept, that is what the punishment of purgatory is about, being punished prior to entering heaven depending on how much sin you had in your life prior to death as a believer.

[givennewname]

The proof is in the tasting is it not?

My brother and brother in law who are both unbelievers with no apparent heart for God, got into difficulty while out fishing to the point they feared their lives. They told me that after of crying out to God for help,(this was an exclamation only, not repentance or even real belief that God is real), immediatley the waves were stilled and they were spared.

Yet despite my urging that God is indeed real them they still remain unbelievers.

God does hear all prayers and answers all that He wisely can. His love is not selfish and He sends the sun and the rain on the good and the wicked alike.

But He rightly denies the pleas of those who are insincere in their requests wether they are unbelievers or Christians.

I support Shilohs stance and that God does not call all sinners wicked or their prayers an abomination.

Im not convinced Cornelius can be considerd an unbeliever as he had joined himself to the Jewish faith, and this was the way of salvation untill the time of Christ. But not all of Israel were children of Abraham and only those of sincere faith and obedience.

I reject the statement of two early posts that we cannot know the mind of God or His reasons. We cannot know the whole mind or reasons of God but He is our friend and shares Himself with those He trusts. The whole bible reveals the mind of God on a multitude of subjects and mostly they can be discovered by simple reason, or how else can unbelievers be convinced of its truth.

In John 3:16, it says for God so love the world that he gave his only begotten Son..... it says God so love the world, and not only believers...

It also states that While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us... it means he loves every one... and before you became a believer, you were an unbeliver and Christ heard your prayers to save you

[Smalcald]

I think the bible does make a distinction between wicked and simply sinful unbelievers, but of course from our perspective it is not relevant, as they are both walking corpses, dead in trespasses and sins.

There is no punishment levels there is no levels of heaven, there are not relevant levels of sin; we are either covered by the grace of Christ or not. I think it is a very human notion that heaven and salvation are not enough, to seek to be a "big man" in heaven or to think one will get something special that other believers will not get, it is like asking to sit on the right hand of Christ as His disciples asked, it is a human prideful notion in the first place.

[Guest shiloh357]

QUOTE

His reference to wickedness is not being used as a label. You are misreading the intent.

Even a cursory reading of the scripture shows that it indeed is being used as a label. "Unbelievers" and "Wicked."

No, a cursory reading shows that he is comparing three things:

Believers vs. nonbelievers

Rightesouness vs. Wickedness

The Temple of God vs. Idols.

A cursory reading of the plain and simple sense of the text shows that just righteousness and wickedness are wholly incompatible and that just as the Temple of God and idols are wholly incompatible, in the same way, believers and nonbelievers are wholly incompatible.

WHY would there BE different levels of punishment if there weren't different levels of sin?????

And you yourself stated a person who willfully sins is more of a sinner than one who doesn't. To you, that person is "wicked" where the other isn't.

When a wicked person bears false witness it is no more sinful than when you bear false witnesses.

Different sins have different consequences, but all of those who don't know Christ will suffer the same hell no matter how good or bad they were in this life.

Again, if they were, then that old woman who lived a decent life yet did not accept Christ suffers just as much as Mao, Stalin or a Hitler in hell.

The reason for that is that the good woman, for all her good works, was no closer to bridging the gap between her and God than Hitler or Stalin.

To you, the sins of stealing a candy bar and murdering a person are exactly the same.

No, that is not what I said. I did not say all sins are the same. I said they are all equally sinful. There is a difference.

Sin is what defines a wicked person's behavior. Just simple sin. "The lamp of the wicked, is sin." (Proverbs 21:4).

You need to learn how to perform good hermeneutics. The entire verse says "Haughty eyes and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked, is sin." The lamp of the wicked is their inordinate pride. Wickedness is reckless and recognizes no restrictions and no authority over its actions. For that reason, the wicked person is arrogant in their committal of evil. This verse is not saying anything I haven't already said.

And as Luke 12:46,47 says:

"That servant who knows his master