Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, reflects on an opinion piece in USA Today by Steven Petrow, titled, “Stop Gloating When Anti-vaxxers Die of COVID-19. It’s Tragic” (December 20, 2021, 7A). The piece centers on Marcus Lamb, head of Daystar Television Network, who died of COVID-19 on November 30. We are not to practice the uncivilized, unchristian ethic of dancing on someone’s grave. Unfortunately, Petrow also talks about “ineffective” means of combatting COVID-19, and one of those means that he cites is prayer. In reality, however, prayer is the most effective thing that we can do as Christians because there is no doubt that God exists—“the heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1)—and that Christ, the eternal Son of God, “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). When we pray to Him, God responds. He answers prayer. As St. John wrote, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:14–15 ESV). And St. James declared, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16 NIV).
For further study, see Christianity in Crisis—21st Century by Hank Hanegraaff https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-christianity-in-crisis-21st-century/; and Truth Matters, Life Matters More by Hank Hanegraaff https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-truth-matters-life-matters-more/
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