T. W. Hunt, The Doctrine of Prayer. Nashville, TN: Convention Press, 1997. 155pp.
About the Author
T. W. Hunt (1929–2014) was a professor of music and missions at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX from 1963–1987). His educational ministry culminated in his working for the Southern Baptist Convention’s then-Baptist Sunday School Board (now-LifeWay Christian Resources) as a resident consultant and specialist in prayer from 1987–1994. Even while formally retired, Hunt continued to write, speak, and consult with particular attention to the subject and practice of prayer.
Summary
For Hunt our doctrine of prayer is properly understood downstream from our doctrine of God (Chapter 1). He connects the reader with the trinitarian nature of all true Christian prayer with God the Son as our chief model in prayer (Chapter 2) and the Holy Spirit as our chief aid (Chapter 3). The ways we pray, such as adoration, intercession, petition, repentance, and deliverance (Chapter 4); the questions we have about prayer, why pray if God already knows, does God hear the prayers of unbelievers, does prayer change God’s mind, and so forth (Chapter 5); and various hinderances to our prayer life (Chapter 6) are all derived from or interrelated to our doctrine of God. He provides practical encouragements toward prayer from historical examples in Scripture and applies these contemporary uses in the church and home (Chapter 7). The final chapter could be described as the pragmatic logistics of prayer. Hunt closes with helpful applications for developing a consistent and satisfying prayer life (Chapter 8).
Critical Analysis
Strengths. Hunt defines prayer in relation to the doctrine of God: “Prayer must be built on the foundation of the sovereignty and character of God” (8). His doctrine of prayer is distinctly Christian in that it is trinitarian. Hunt states with respect to the Holy Spirit, “Praying which pleases God is neither in mindless spirit nor spiritless mind, but rather it is prayer in which the mind is tuned to the frequency of the Holy Spirit, who is in control” (47). Later concerning praying in the name of Christ, he states, “His name appropriates all that is in the revealed character of God. It places us in the long line of those who have called upon the Lord’s name through history. At the beginning of prayer history, after the birth of Enosh (man in his weakness), ‘then began to call upon the name of the Lord’ (Gen. 4:26)” (78).
Additionally, Hunt notes something regarding Moses, Elijah, and Job that I have not seen in other works on prayer. All three were men lauded in Scripture for their immanent prayer lives. Yet at of stage of their lives, each of these men reached a point of praying for their own deaths. Remarkably, Hunt observes, “it is also interesting that they received great boons from the Lord following their mistaken prayers” (81). There’s certainly more room here for further study on these three men as positive, and at times negative, examples of prayer.
Furthermore, while Hunt uses the extrabiblical title “prayer warrior,” he dispels the myth that God hears some people more than others. “Many times,” Hunt states, I request prayer of certain people not because I think they ‘have influence with God’ but because I know they will pray” (86). When people use the title “prayer warrior,” they mistakenly assume God has blessed some with a special prayer gift or that God hears some more than others. Hunt adamantly rejects this notion. His book would be strengthened by rejecting the use of the title altogether.
Finally, Hunt handles the topic of prayer with brevity, which is no small task. The brevity at times, however, failed to fully introduce aspects of prayer or raised questions without adequately answering them for the reader.
Weakness. For instance, in chapter 4, “The Ways People Pray,” Hunt fails to introduce one of the most common forms of prayer, thanksgiving. He presents the forms of prayer using the Lord’s Prayer as an outline. The choice to use the Lord’s Prayer perhaps pinned him in causing the oversight. He covers five forms of prayer that are illustrated from the Lord’s Prayer: adoration (“Hallowed be thy name”), intercession (“your kingdom come”), petition (“give us this day”), repentance (forgive us our debts”), and deliverance (“lead us not into temptation”). Not only does he neglect to introduce the reader to thanksgiving as a form of prayer, the various clauses of the Lord’s Prayer—to include first three with reference to glorifying God and seeking His kingdom and will be done—could be categorized broadly within the petitionary form of prayer. As O. Hallesby notes in Prayer, “naturally, this aspect of prayer is always in the foreground. The word in the Scriptures which is most often used to designate prayer really means to express a desire” (Hallesby 1994, 138). Hunt’s decision to use the Lord’s Prayer as an outline to present the various forms of prayer unintentionally misrepresents the petitionary nature of the Lord's Prayer in its entirety and led to an inadequate summary of the various forms of prayer.
In chapter 5, addressing the various questions regarding prayer, Hunt poses the question, “Does God Hear the Prayers of Non-Christians?” In attempting to answer this “knotty question,” Hunt lists six facts. It becomes clear from the first question that Hunt wants the facts to answer the question in the affirmative. He states, “Fact 1. God loves all persons, wants them to come to him, and will introduce factors into their lives to bring them to Himself” (75). Introducing the love of God for all people (without distinguishing between his love for the world at large and his particular love for His elect) is a bit of a red herring from the start. Yes, God loves the world in a general way of speaking (John 3:16). But he also is also displeased with the wicked every day (Psalm 7:11). God also clearly states through the prophet Isaiah, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2). Rather than listing this fact and distinguishing between God’s omniscience and God’s willingness to hear the prayer of the wicked, Hunt deduces from the facts he lists that “God’s omniscience enables Him to hear all human discourse, holy and profane, and all these factors will interplay in accomplishing for a loving God those things His tenderness wants to accomplish as He hears desperate cries from the needy. He loves the widow, the poor, the stranger, and the orphan” (76). Note that this last sentence is a classic appeal to pity that avoids the question of whether God hears the prayers of the unsaved. Hunt concludes “The Christian is uniquely related to God as His child. There are many promises to answer prayer that God made solely to believers. This does not, however, limit God in His concern for all people” (77). In the end, he never answers the question because the question has changed to “does God have concern for all people.” The question was “does God hear the prayers of non-Christians.” Isaiah clearly answers this question with a “yes” in the sense of knows their prayer in his omniscience. Isaiah also answers the question with a “no” in the sense that their wickedness keeps God from hearing their prayer in the way that God hears the prayers of His elect. As Keith Mathison concludes in the March 2019 Tabletalk magazine, “God knows and hears all things, but the only prayer of the wicked to which He will listen is a prayer of genuine repentance” (Mathison 2019).
Favorite Quotations
“Prayer is the shaping force of history” (15).
“The Model Prayer begins in worship, with a recognition of God’s nature and identity. He is, above all and first of all, Father, and He is spiritual—‘who art in heaven.’ That He is in heaven does not mean that He is distant from us on earth, but that He is different from the world” (51).
“Jesus, therefore, was suggesting three attitudes which should permeate prayer—dependence, earnestness, and persistence” (58).
In speaking of the movement of prayer seen in the early church as recorded in Luke and Acts, Hunt states, “Isaiah’s ancient epithet of the temple as a ‘house of prayer’ was being fully realized in the new household of God. Paul called this new body the ‘temple of God,’ where God’s own Spirit dwelt…. The life of this body was mediated through prayer, and the dominant spirit of that continuing prayer was praise (Acts 2:47)” (111).
“Prayer, and for that matter, all our thought life, needs a shape—the shape of the mind of Christ. The most effective tool we have for shaping our thoughts are the thoughts of God as they are revealed in the Bible” (122).
“We enjoy what we are familiar with; and we choose what it is we will be familiar with” (124).
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