This Present Darkness
By Frank Peretti
Crossway Books
As with part 1, I should note that I am reviewing the recently
free audiobook from Christian Audio (which is no longer free, but was at the time), not the print text. The audiobook is heavily abridged, so there
are undoubtedly subtleties in the text that didn’t make it to the
recording. But since it’s been years,
perhaps a decade or more, since I read the book, I will refrain from reviewing
the full text.
Prayer and Power
One major theme of this book is the power of prayer. Throughout the book, the angels are encouraging
the saints to gather in prayer, and are in fact waiting to act until they have
more prayer support.
Honestly, the book is a good reminder of the power of
prayer. The Reformed worshipper is
tempted to over-emphasize God’s sovereignty and under-emphasize God’s use of
means to accomplish His will. This is
not a weakness in the theology itself, but the practice of it. Almost all Christians will lean toward one
ditch or the other on this one. On
extremes, some charismatics think their prayers to be the deciding factor in
all (or most) things, while Hyper-Calvinists might not think they matter at
all.
It is good for Reformed people in general and my in
particular to be reminded of the importance of prayer. God has ordained all things that will come to
pass, yes, and at the same time He has ordained the means by which that
happens. Prayer matters, and it is
something we should engage in fervently!
But . . .
But.
Peretti says something here about prayer that really keeps
me from recommending this book wholeheartedly.
Toward the end, the angel Tal is fighting against a demon, and he is
losing the fight. He asks God for
strength, which is good, but the way that strength is to come is downright
disturbing. He prays to God to tell the
saints to pray for him (Tal).
You heard me right.
He prays to God not that God would give him strength to persevere in the
fight, but he prays that God will let the saints know that Tal is needing
prayer so that he can have strength.
Just let that sink in.
He’s wanting God to ask the people
to use their power to help him, not
praying for God’s power.
That is just about one of the worst theologies of prayer
that you can have.
Let’s be clear – the power does not come from the
saints. God may use, as means, the
prayers of the saints to accomplish His will, but that is not where the power
is. The power is in God. He will do as He pleases, and none can stop
Him. If He wishes Tal to be victorious,
He does not need prayers to be made for that to happen. He can and will accomplish it.
But this is the logical conclusion of the charismatic side
of the ditch, the side that teaches that God needs our prayers and cannot act
without them. That He needs us to “step
out in faith” in order to accomplish His will.
I don’t think most would be so honest as Peretti here, but his story
illustrates the problem with that – in this story, God doesn’t have any power,
men do. God is impotent to do anything
but to pass on the request like an errand boy to the people who are really
calling the shots – the praying saints.
This is a vivid illustration of why this particular error is
so dangerous, and we should be very wary of any theology that teaches that we
are in control of God’s will by our cooperation with it or our prayers for
it. God has not left the course of
redemptive history to the whims of sinful men.
He will use our prayers, He will use our voices, and He will use our
actions, all as means to accomplish what He desires, but He remains in control
of all things.
Overall
This is a fun book – entertaining and exciting. There is a lot right in the book as well, and
it has a very good depiction of angels and demons that should cause us to think
more deeply about these truths. Peretti
makes a very large error in his theology of prayer, so I would recommend
reading it with discernment and a critical eye to the theological points there.
Will of God being determined by the prayers of the saints
instead of the other way around.
