<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">One of the kirk apologists anonymously posting under the “Princess” writes the following defense off Kirk imprecatory rituals of the past (and perhaps present). The Princess writes: </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">salvation cannot </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">be over-emphasized. No Christian has a right to dictate to God that He </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">should damn anyone. It is enough to know that some people are damned, and to </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">fear and tremble. It is enough to know that insofar as we have a living </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">relationship with God, it is purely because we are the recipients of grace, </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">without which we would be every bit as damned as Judas Iscariot. So who are </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">we to call on God to damn anyone? …</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">And I may be wrong but I cannot recall a single place in the Bible where any </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">person in a living relationship with God is shown actually praying for the </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">damnation of another person.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">And this brings me to the part of Keely's statement that is very wrong: the </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">notion that imprecatory prayer has anything to do with calling for the </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">damnation of other people. That is a complete mischaracterization and </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">misrepresentation of imprecatory prayer. Imprecatory prayer is defensible; </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">praying for someone's damnation is not.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Imprecatory prayer is nagging God to stop just sitting there on the </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">sidelines but to get up and deal with the problems that we face down here. </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">It is asking God to come in judgment, but that is not at all the same as </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">asking God to come and exercise final, eternal damnatory judgment against </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">someone. The person who prays an imprecatory prayer is well aware that </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">damnation is a theoretical outcome of God's judgment. …</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">And that is entirely defensible.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">This semantic discussion about “damnation” is sophistry in my view, obfuscating the clear problems society has with this ritual of violence in the Kirk; <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>so I don’t wish to wrangle with that (although there is evidence at the end of the prayer below against even this claim of the Princess). Please note that Kirk imprecatory prayer is prayed against people such as Doug Wilson’s local critics.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Even the personal prayers of the barbaric king in the OT were primarily dealing with people seeking to murder him, or else within the broader context of literal, bloody war. The Kirk, ironically, has not spent much time praying imprecations against violent, literally oppressive people, but rather political opponents that don’t make their community look so good.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>With that said, I will leave you with a sample imprecatory prayer that Doug Wilson recently presented as a model for the millions of conservative Christians we live in community with here in the United States.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Please compare this with the Princess’ characterization of imprecation; the primary intent is clearly at the end of the prayer: </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P><FONT size=2><FONT face=Verdana>If it is not Your sovereign purpose to destroy them through saving grace [when? Two days?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A month? A year?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Lord, please love them, but if they don’t stop bothering me in half a year then whack ‘em! This sense of temporality would have to be present for the prayer to even mean anything.], we pray that You would humiliate them and give them shame of face regardless. We pray that they would fall into the pit they have purposefully dug for us. We pray that You would turn all their plans and purposes upside down. Like Haman, we pray that they would be hanged on the gallows they have built for Your people. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>… <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=2><FONT face=Verdana>Father, we pray that You would <I>deal</I> with this situation. If it is Your good pleasure to deal with it through saving them, then that is what we would by far prefer, and it <I>is</I> what we ask for. But if it is not Your good pleasure to save them [After a year? Maybe two if we are lovingly long-suffering?], . . . <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=2><FONT face=Verdana>Father, we pray that the angel of the Lord would chase them down. We pray that You would set for them a dark and slippery place, and that the angel of the Lord would persecute them there. They have hated us without any just cause at all, and they have devised all their plots without any good reason. We ask You therefore to rise up and defend us. Stand in the pass behind us, and lower Your spear against them. Turn them back from their wicked attacks. <I>Rout</I> them, we pray. Chase them like chaff in a stiff wind. We pray that You would string Your bow, sharpen Your sword, make ready all the instruments of death. Ordain Your arrows to fly against those who persecute the righteous. Make their mischief to roll back on their own impudent heads.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=2><FONT face=Verdana>. . . <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let their table become poisonous to them, let it become a snare. Let their eyes be darkened, and judicial blindness fall upon them.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=2><FONT face=Verdana>We pray that their eyes would be blinded by You; strike them so that they cannot see. Father, we pray that You would make their loins shake continuously, that they would be seized with fear and amazement. Pour out hot indignation all over them; take hold of them tightly in Your wrathful anger. May their dwellings become empty and desolate—for whenever You chastise anyone <I>else</I>, they love to pile on as though You were not there. They persecute the one that You are disciplining, and by their talk they dismay the one who is suffering under Your hand. Add iniquity to their iniquity; make a great heap of their sins. Do not let them enter into Your righteousness. Blot them out of the book of the living. Do not record their names alongside the names of the righteous.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=2><FONT face=Verdana>God of our praise, do not hold Your peace. The mouths of the wicked and the mouths of the deceitful have joined in chorus together, and they are speaking against us with lying tongue [sure]. They are surrounding us with words of hatred, and they fight against us without good reason [right]. It is because we love You that they are our adversaries [likely], but we still give ourselves to prayer. Not only have we incurred their hostility by loving You, but we have also loved <I>them</I>, and have been treacherously betrayed by them. They returned evil for good, and hatred for love, ingratitude for kindness [in sum, here’s my enemy theology for <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Moscow</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Idaho</st1:State></st1:place>].<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=2><FONT face=Verdana>Let these wicked men come under the rule and reign of wicked men. Let Satan be continually at their right hand, accusing them. When they come into judgment, when the trial comes, we pray that the verdict of guilty would be rendered. When they cry out to You, let their prayers be reckoned as sinful. When they pray to You, let the ceiling above them remain silent. Cut short their days. When they have abused offices within Your Church, let other faithful men rise up to take their place.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=2><FONT face=Verdana>Let their children be orphaned, cut off without a father. Let their wives be widows, and we pray that their children would be desolate, having to beg their bread in empty places. We pray that the extortioner would come back at them, catching them in their plots, and taking all that they have. May strangers and aliens pillage them and leave them with nothing. We pray that when this happens, and Your hand is evident, that no one would show mercy, and that no kindness would be extended to his fatherless children. Cut off his posterity; may his name and his line come to nothing. Recall how sinful his father was, and call up again the sins of his mother. May their sins come before Your throne continually so that their name may be blotted out, and remembered on the earth no more.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=2><FONT face=Verdana>We ask for this because he is merciless. He loved to kick the poor and downtrodden, and sought to kill the broken-hearted. He loved cursing, and so give him that cursing. He detested blessing, so let blessing remain far away from him. He would put on curses like a comfortable coat; let those curses of his seep into him deeply. Tie those curses around him permanently. Let this be the clothing of all our enemies.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=2><FONT face=Verdana>Let them curse, so long as You bless. When they get up in the morning, and hear of the blessings You have bestowed on us, let them be greatly ashamed. Let confusion cover over them completely, as though it were a mantle. I pray that You stand at our right hand, and that You would always save us from those who would condemn our souls.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=2><FONT face=Verdana>We offer this pray to You in the righteous and holy name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and amen.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><BR><I>Posted by Douglas Wilson</I></SPAN><I><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 7.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> - 11/24/2006 1:04:30 PM</SPAN></I><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 7.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> | <A href="http://www.dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=3162"><B><SPAN style="mso-ansi-font-size: 7.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.5pt"><FONT color=#0f213e>Link to this post</FONT></SPAN></B></A></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> | <A href="http://www.dougwils.com/Print.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=3162"><B><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 7.5pt"><FONT color=#0f213e>Print this post</FONT></SPAN></B></A></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P></DIV><BR>
--
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://a8-asy.a8ww.net/a8-ads/adred?redirectid=mailfamily_a_target01">
<img src="http://a8-asy.a8ww.net/a8-ads/adred?redirectid=mailfamily_img_src01" border="0"alt=""></a>
<img src="http://a8-asy.a8ww.net/a8-ads/adred?redirectid=mailfamily_a8tracker01" width="0" height="0" alt="" style="width: 0px; height: 0px;"></p>