Bible Contradiction? Do Christians know how to pray?

Last week’s post on Bible contradiction was more technical since it involves Hebrew to resolve the Bible contradiction but this current post doesn’t require knowledge of the original language.

Today’s post will tackle the question that the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: “Do Christians know how to pray?”

Here’s the two answer they pointed out which led the skeptic to believe that there is a contradiction:

Yes, Jesus taught them how to pray.

9 “Pray, then, in this way:‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread. 12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.[For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’] Matthew 6:9-13

No, they don’t know how to pray.

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; Romans 8:26

(Note: Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

Let’s take a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:

• As always when dealing with alleged Bible contradictions, we must remember what constitute an actually contradiction.  A contradiction is when there are two or more claims which denies each other in the same sense at the same time.
• Right away we see that even if we grant the skeptic’s premises that “Jesus taught Christians how to pray” and “Christians don’t know how to pray” both these premises are not contradictory since both are not mutually exclusive claims.
  • Being taught something doesn’t necessarily mean you know the thing that was taught.  You can receive instruction while simultaneously not know the instructions.
  • For example think of the all too common scenario that it is possible for some students to have been taught algebra but they still do not know what they were taught (or at least at the beginning).
  • Another example is when individuals are taught something but then they forget it.  In this example the person has been taught but still don’t know that skill.
  • At this point this alleged Bible contradiction has already been refuted on the basis that the two given premises are not even mutually exclusive.
• But we must go deeper.  We should consider what’s the context of the passages cited.
  • The passage that was quoted by the skeptic to demonstrate Christians do know how to pray comes from Matthew 6:9-13.  Here in the context it was Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry after His baptism and temptation with Satan in the wilderness.
  • The passage that was quoted by the skeptic to demonstrate Christians do not know how to pray comes from Romans 8:26.  The chapter of Romans 8 focuses heavily on the Spirit’s ministry in the lives of believers.
• In considering the context, we should keep in mind who are the people that the verses are talking about.
  • According to Matthew 5:1, the people who were hearing Jesus teaching on prayer in Matthew 6 were “His disciples.”  This was during the early part of Jesus’ ministry.
  • The “we” in Romans 8:26 is the author Paul including himself along with the believers in the church in Rome (Romans 1:1).   However given the subject of the epistles to the Roman church, Paul here is going over God’s salvation for Jews and Gentiles (Romans 1:16) so it is best to understand Romans 8:26 as referring to all Christians.
• Knowing the original referents in Matthew 6 and Romans 8 means there’s not necessarily a logical contradiction going on here.
  • Again those who were taught by Jesus to pray in Matthew 6 were some of the early followers.  They were some but not all the believers.  So one can’t say that all believers have already been taught Jesus’ instructions on how to pray already.
    • It is possible some Christians might be well instructed on how to pray but still others might not know Jesus’ instruction of how to pray as taught in Matthew 6.
    • For example some believers, such as young believers, might not have been fully taught of how to pray in a biblical manner as they should be.
    • Also there might be illiterate Christians such as those in certain mission field who haven’t or can’t read Matthew 6 instruction on how to pray.
  • Keep in mind I’m not saying Christians shouldn’t learn to pray from Jesus based upon the passage of Matthew 6.  I’m merely making the observation that not all Christians in general were taught by Jesus to pray in the instance of Matthew 6 nor have all Christians at this moment have been taught from Matthew 6, something that the skeptic’s stated premise seems to be implying (“Christians in general has been taught by Jesus how to pray”).
• Even if Christian has been instructed on how to pray from Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6, there is still not a Bible contradiction between Matthew 6 and Romans 8:26.
  • There’s different aspect or sense of “knowing” that we must take into account.  Being aware of them resolves the apparent dilemma.
  • Keep in mind that there’s moments in life when people know the general principles for something but might not know how to apply it in specific instances.
    • Note the instances in Romans 8:26 which Paul said “we do not know how to pray as we should:” It is during moments of “our weakness.”
    • In moments of our weaknesses we can develop “tunnel vision” or have the “fogs of war.”  Thus we aren’t praying as we should.
    • As an analogy from the physical world think about how someone who knows how to drive (he receive proper instruction and passed the DMV test) but he might not know how to drive out of a dangerous scenario to avoid an accident.  Here we see there’s different sense of “knowing” in which the person simultaneously knows and does not know how to drive as he should.
  • We all have the intuition that there’s a difference between knowing something in a book smart sense (which can be merely theoretical) and knowing something in a streetwise sense (that is, the wisdom of applying it practically).
    • One can be book smart but not street smart (in the sense mentioned above).  It’s not a contradiction here that one knows in one sense and not know in another sense.
    • The same is true with someone knowing academically the teaching of Jesus on prayer but not know fully as he should how to apply it practically.  So there’s no dilemma between Matthew 6 and Romans 8:26.
    • Instead of a typical caricature of a skeptic’s claim of a contradiction, here we see that Romans 8:26 is a rich verse that account for the reality of shades of knowledge and instances where people can fail in their knowledge of how to pray.  It is realistic, which is what we expect from the Word of God.  Note also the encouragement in Romans 8:26 is that the Spirit prays for us when we are struggling.

This belongs to the list of apparent contradiction rather than actual contradiction.  In an ironic twist this post is an example of how some skeptic can “know” some contents of the Bible but not know the Bible as they should.

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