God's plan is sovereign, singular, eternal, all-encompassing, and encompassing of His acts. It is sovereign in that He has the right and authority to carry out whatever comes under the definition of that plan. It is singular in the sense that He only has one. He does not have a main plan, with a backup plan stuck aside somewhere in case the first one does not work. His plan is eternal because it has always been and will always be. It is all-encompassing because it covers everything, even many of the trivialities of a person's life. Finally, His plan encompasses all of His acts. It is carried out in accordance with His nature. It is good, wise, and best for everyone.
In his book, "Christian Theology," Mr. Erickson speaks of prayer and attempts to show how it relates to God's Providence. In short, the author has considered the effect that prayer has on God's plan. Based on the description of that plan in the preceding paragraph, if it is both singular and eternal, then His plan never changes. Yet, the Bible suggests that prayer can cause some things about God and perhaps even about His plan to change. So such instances in Scriptures really mean that either God or His plan has actually changed? If so, then some of His attributes, such as those of His omniscience and constancy, are seriously challenged. Consequently, the answer about either Him or His plan changing must be no!
To the end of resolving this conflict, Mr. Erickson makes two observations about prayer and its importance. First, he notes that once God has willed a particular end that He can also will the means toward accomplishing that end. In his discussion, he uses the examples of Peter walking on the water, also the healing of a servant and a woman who was hemorrhaging. By these examples, Mr. Erickson is merely suggesting that God had willed for those miracles to occur. Therefore, He had also willed the recipients to pray the appropriate prayers to obtain what they needed or wanted. Second, the author states that prayer causes the person praying to develop the right attitude toward God's will. It is a way by which an individual can communicate agreement and acceptance of God's will to the Father.
To an extent, Mr. Erickson's comments seem logical. Yet, his views, if one is not careful, can easily conflict with what has traditionally been called the free will of man. If God wills a particular end and then makes a person prayer toward that end, then one can quickly reply by saying that God has willed some people to be saved and others to be lost. At that point, passages like II Peter 3:9 and Romans 10:13 become either a big contradiction to basic theological teaching or a great misunderstanding to the same. To not fall into this easy trap, one must understand that God's plan encompasses His acts, not His person. Concerning teachings like those from the Books of II Peter and Romans, one can better state God's plan by not saying that He has willed for a particular person to be saved, but instead by saying that His unchanging, singular, eternal plan is to save all those who call upon the Lord. By being careful with our language and analysis, a person can more appropriately acknowledge the sovereignty of God's unchanging plan without diminishing the free will of man.
Tom of Spotswood "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (I John 5:12)
Index to Selected Essays And Book Reviews
Lesson 26 - Erickson's Moderately Calvinistic View Of God's Plan
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