“In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.”’ Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying, ‘Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.’ And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ‘Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, “Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, ‘I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD. I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”’ Then Isaiah said, ‘Take a cake of figs.’ And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.”
God says that 15 years were added to Hezekiah’s life. However, in Calvinism’s fixed and unchangeable decree, nothing can change from whatever was originally decreed, and so how would Calvinists explain something changing, unless they don’t really believe anything changed at all, but was only made to look that way to Hezekiah. But, then, how could God be truthful in saying to him, “…you shall die and not live”? The alternative is that Calvinism is wrong and not everything is fixed by God. Surely, God knows the end from the beginning, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that God caused it all. Outside of Calvinism, the conclusion is that God meant what He said but was moved to compassion to relent when Hezekiah humbled himself and prayed. So, prayer changes things.435 That’s why Determinism seems to be an odd way of reading Scripture. According to Determinism, this was an entirely scripted event, despite the appearance of God experiencing a moving event and adding more time to his life.
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435 See also the topical discussion on “Prayer.”
[This post has been excerpted with permission from Richard Coords, Calvinism Answered Verse by Verse and Subject by Subject, © 2024.]
