Bible Contradiction? Should you pray for everyone?

 

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Should you pray for everyone?

Here are the two answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:

Yes, you should pray for everyone.

“First of all, then, I urge that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made in behalf of all people,” (1 Timothy 2:1)

No, there are some people you shouldn’t pray for.

“So as for you, do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not listen when they call to Me because of their disaster.” ( Jeremiah 7:16)

“So as for you, do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not listen when they call to Me because of their disaster.” (Jeremiah 11:14)

“So the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for a good outcome on behalf of this people.” (Jeremiah 14:11)

(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

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

1. When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction.  A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time.  To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
2. One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible.  See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions.  Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do.  But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
3. The skeptic tries to pit 1 Timothy 2:1 as affirming the claim “you should pray for everyone” against three passages of Jeremiah 7:16, Jeremiah 11:14 and Jeremiah 14:11 as affirming “there are some people you shouldn’t pray for.”
4. We must examine if the skeptics cited the verses properly for their claims.
   1. The skeptic cited Jeremiah 7:16, Jeremiah 11:14 and Jeremiah 14:11 correctly as affirming “there are some people you shouldn’t pray for.”  Both Jeremiah 7:16 and Jeremiah 11:14 state “do not pray for this people.” Jeremiah 14:11 states “Do not pray…on behalf of this people.”  So we see all three verses does show some people are not being prayed for.
   2. 1 Timothy 2:1 does affirm the claim “you should pray for everyone” since among the things done on “behalf of all people” is prayers and intercessions.  What “all” means will be discussed below.
5. It is also important to know who it is that is that is being told to pray and not to pray.
   1. The three verses of Jeremiah 7:16, Jeremiah 11:14 and Jeremiah 14:11 all are addressed to Jeremiah concerning his prayers.  We know this because the verb “pray” in the Hebrew is third person masculine singular plus God is the One doing the addressing as seen directly in Jeremiah 14:11 that mentioned “the Lord said to me” while in Jeremiah 7:16 and Jeremiah 11:14 the first verse of their respective chapter mentioned “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying” (Jeremiah 7:1 and Jeremiah 11:1).
   2. In 1 Timothy 2:1 Paul is the one who is writing according to the first verse (1 Timothy 1:1).  Paul is writing this letter to his associate Timothy according to 1 Timothy 1:2.
6.  Knowing the context of who is being addressed is important because logically speaking it is not a contradiction if someone tells one person to do something and another person to do something else.  For instance it is not a contradiction for a restaurant owner telling one person to cook and another to take orders of customers; they are commands given that are different, but they are not a contradiction because its given to different individuals (the cook versus the waiter).  Likewise we have the same thing here with two different individuals being given different commands.
7. Also the time of when God addressed both Timothy and Jeremiah as to pray or not to pray was different and therefore with different circumstances.
   1. Paul was writing to Timothy during the church age as the Gospel was advancing in the Roman Empire.
   2. Jeremiah was told not to pray anymore for His ethnic Jews since God was tired of the sins of HIs people and was going to judge them which was a prophetic truth Jeremiah already knew so there’s no point to pray contrary to God’s will when its clear what God wanted.   Jeremiah being told not to pray for others is not arbitrary.
8. Also the purpose of God telling Timothy and Jeremiah what to do and not to do with prayers for others are different.
   1. 1 Timothy 2:2b tells us that Timothy is to pray “so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.“
   2. Jeremiah’s case was because God already reveal He was going to judge the nation for their sins.
9. Taken together the different individuals being addressed in different time, circumstances, with different commands or prohibition for different reasons is far from being a contradiction and any skeptics who think there is a contradiction here needs to revisit the definition of what’s a contradiction from above.
11. 1 Timothy 2:1 was cited to support the claim that “you should pray for everyone.”  A superficial look would seem that “all” would mean “all” in the sense of all without a single exception.  But a closer look at the Greek word for “all” here indicate the Greek term has its particular meaning.
    1. The word for “all” here in the Greek is πάντων.
    2. Typically in our English vocabulary the meaning of “all” is understood as “everything without exception.”  But we want to know what the Greek word means and its lexical range rather than just the English word to translate the Greek term.  The Greek word does not necessarily mean English sense that we often understand it.  The Greek term can mean “all sorts of… (various categories)” in a sense that doesn’t require the meaning of “every/all (with no exceptions).”
    3. The use of the Greek adjective of πάντα and its various declined form does not necessarily have to take the meaning of “every/all (with no exceptions)” in its usage in other verses.
       1. For instance 1 Corinthians 10:23 states “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.”  Clearly Paul doesn’t mean everything is lawful with no exception.  If that was the case there would be no such thing as sin.  Rather the Greek function of “all” often refer to every sort of class or categories.
       2. 1 Corinthians 13:7 is another example.  See our discussion in our response to the alleged Bible contradiction “Should we believe in unseen things?“
       3. 1 Timothy 6:10 is a third example.  See our discussion in our response to the alleged Bible contradiction “Is money good or bad?“
       4. John 21:25 is a fourth example.  See our discussion in our response to the alleged Bible contradiction “Does the gospel of Luke contain everything that Jesus did?“
       5. John 15:15 is a fifth example.  See our discussion in our response to the alleged Bible contradiction “Did Jesus tell his disciples everything?“
       6. A sixth example see our discussion in response to the alleged Bible contradiction “Should we believe everything?“
       7. A final example can be seen in our response to “Was Jesus a ransom for many or a ransom for all?“
12. This idea of “all” as “various sort” can be seen in the context of 1 Timothy 2; not how  in verse 2 it lists types and kinds of people, in a way that is consistent with what I’m arguing about here of how “all” should be understood.
13. Just in case someone think our consideration of the lexical range of the meaning of the Greek term πάντων is illegitimate because we are saying the word has more than one meaning consider how English and any other natural language also have words with more than one meaning.  Consider the example of the English word “whopper,” “love” and ““left.“
14. Thus there is no contradiction here.  Seems like the skeptics need to learn from our post How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
15. We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity.  The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible.  In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview.  Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”