Christians pray to God expecting He listens. But what about the Buddhist mother praying for her sick child, the atheist crying out in a foxhole, the Muslim on his knees five times a day? Does God hear them? Does He answer? Pick a side and defend it — because the stakes are enormous either way.
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Add your commentI was not a Christian when my two-year-old daughter stopped breathing. I screamed at a God I wasn't even sure existed. She lived. You tell me He wasn't listening. You go ahead and say that to my face.
The person who quoted John 9:31 — that's a blind man who hadn't even met Jesus yet speaking from his cultural assumptions. It's not a theological declaration from Christ or the apostles. Using that as your proof text is like quoting Job's friends as God's opinion.
cornelius. acts 10. a gentile, not yet a Christian, whose prayers went up 'as a memorial before God.' AN ANGEL TOLD HIM THAT. if you think God wasn't hearing cornelius before peter showed up you need to reread your bible slowly
my grandfather was a Cherokee traditionalist. prayed his whole life in ways that didn't look Christian. died peacefully, said he felt held. I was a seminary student at the time and I remember sitting with that and having no good answer. I still don't. I just trust that God is more just than my theology sometimes.
Of course He hears them. God hears everything — He's omniscient. The real question is whether He responds in the way He responds to believers. There's a massive difference between hearing a prayer and being in covenant relationship with the one praying. Even the Psalms make that distinction.
I spent 15 years as a missionary in Southeast Asia. The question of whether God hears the prayers of Buddhists and animists is not abstract for me. I've watched people come to Christ specifically because they said they prayed to 'whatever god is real' and had an encounter. I don't have a clean systematic theology for it. But I can't dismiss what I saw.
If God equally hears and answers everyone's prayers regardless of faith, then tell me plainly: what exactly does saving faith accomplish? What is actually different about the Christian life? Because if the answer is 'nothing practically, just theological status,' then either the gospel is meaningless or you haven't thought this through.
The Cornelius example is actually the strongest biblical case here and I'm surprised more people don't use it. God didn't just hear Cornelius — He acted on it. That whole passage wrecks the 'members only' position pretty thoroughly if you're willing to sit with it.
nobody here talking about isaiah 65:24 — 'before they call I will answer' — that's GOD speaking about people who aren't yet fully in right relationship with Him. He's initiating. He's hearing before the prayer is even finished. act like the God of the Bible is stingy with His attention and you've got a small god.
God is not a vending machine for Christians only lol. He makes the rain fall on the just AND the unjust. Jesus said that. If He sends rain on everybody maybe — just maybe — He also hears everybody. Basic consistency.
That missionary testimony is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night honestly. Either God is bigger than our theological boxes or He isn't. And if He is — which I believe — then maybe we need to hold our doctrines a little more loosely and our God a little more in awe.
The question isn't whether God *can* hear non-Christians — obviously an omniscient God perceives everything. The real question is whether prayer without faith in Christ accomplishes anything in the spiritual economy of redemption. And if you think it does, you owe us an actual exegetical argument, not feelings and anecdotes. I'm genuinely asking. Where is it in the text?
honestly the whole debate assumes God is sitting in heaven with a switchboard routing calls. He's not. He's actively working in every human life — believer, unbeliever, all of it — drawing people toward Himself. prayer isn't a hotline you need credentials for. it's a human cry toward something bigger. God meets that. full stop.
ok but cornelius was described as a God-fearer who gave alms and prayed to the God of Israel. he was already seeking the God of the Bible specifically. that is NOT the same as a Buddhist or an atheist. please be precise with your comparisons
Here's my problem with the 'God hears everyone' position: it flatlines the entire category of intercessory prayer. Why would Paul command us to pray for unbelievers if they could just pray for themselves and be heard equally? The whole logic of intercession assumes something different is happening when a believer prays versus when an unbeliever does.
There's a distinction in Reformed theology between God's general providence and His particular salvific relationship with believers. Yes He's sovereign over all events. That doesn't mean every cry in the dark is a two-way dialogue with the living God. These are not the same category and conflating them muddies both.
Holding your doctrines 'loosely' is just a polite way of saying you're willing to let them go when they get uncomfortable. Doctrine isn't a box we put God in — it's a description of how God has REVEALED Himself. If you're willing to toss that whenever a story moves you, you've made experience your authority, not Scripture.
john 9:31 says 'God does not listen to sinners.' thats literally in the bible. case closed for me
Look, I get the emotional weight of stories like that, and I genuinely don't want to be cold about it. But the argument 'something good happened after I prayed so God heard me' has serious logical problems regardless of who's doing the praying. Correlation isn't causation. Sick kids sometimes survive. That's not a theological proof.
that's actually a fair point and I haven't heard it put that way before. gonna think on it.
Should Christians pray to saints — or is asking Mary and the dead for help straight-up idolatry?
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Do humans have an immortal soul — or did the church steal that idea from Plato and dress it up as Scripture?
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Does God choose who gets saved, or do you choose God — and is Calvinism secretly making God into a monster?
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