James A. Harding: What Kind of God Do We Pray To?
Author: Bobby Valentine | Filed under: Christian hope, Church History, Holy Spirit, James A. Harding, Kingdom, Prayer, Restoration History
James A. Harding: What Kind of God Do We Pray to?
James A. Harding was a legendary evangelist, debater, and co-founder of Nashville Bible School (David Lipscomb University) and founder of Potter Bible College. During his prime, Harding was one of the most influential men in the Churches of Christ.
What is often not remembered about Harding is that he was a prayer warrior. Harding cultivated prayer believing it to be the most powerful tool available for Christian living in this present age. Indeed for Harding prayer was the “secret” weapon or power that is granted to disciples of Christ and through prayer Christians literally co-author the future of the world with God.
Prayer for Harding was rooted in the belief that the Creator of the Universe was the Abba of the Christian. As our Abba he is just as active and involved in the world today as he was in the days of the Patriarchs or the Apostles.
“I believe that God loves his faithful children with a very great love. I believe he is near to them, takes great pleasure in them, knows their needs perfectly, and that he can supply their wants at any time, any where, under any circumstances. Indeed, I believe he loves these faithful children so much he guards them with a perfect care.” (Harding-White Discussion, p. 3)
Prayer, for Harding, was not simply rooted in a belief that God exists. Real prayer is instead rooted in passionate faith in a certain kind of God . . . a God who is “the gentlest and most loving, the most just and most merciful of all fathers.”
But, unfortunately, not all Christians (in Harding’s view) believed in this gentle, gracious, and attentive Father. In fact many were trading the God of the Bible for more rational and scientific God of the present age. The God these folks believed in used to be active in the world: at one time long ago he created the world, at one time long ago he would alter the path of the world in response to the cry of a saint, at one time God would get his hands “dirty” but that was long ago.
These modern Christians believed that God had replaced his hands on approach with a more distant, and reasonable, management style and governed only through the rule of law. Everything was done according to “laws” and even God was subject to these “laws.” This perspective is known as the infection of deism. Harding described this prayer destroying phenomena.
“Now a few people seem to be under the impression that all divine interventions have ceased since the death of the Apostles, and that since then there have been no super mundane or super-human influences known on earth. They think God gave the word and stopped – a very low and very erroneous conception of the reign of Christ . . . God has not changed in the least from all eternity. He is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. He has always loved and blessed those who love him and serve him in trusting faith” (Prayer for the Sick, The Way, May 9, 1901, p.41).
Harding laments the invasion of this modernism invading the church that banishes God to a book (even if that book is the Bible!) or the distant past.
“I feel sorry for those who are afflicted by these blighting, semi-infidel materialistic notions, that leave God, Christ, the Holy Spirit . . . wholly out of the Christian’s life — for those who think all spiritual beings left us when the Bible was finished, and who think we now have to fight the battle alone. Some of these people pray, but what they pray for is more than I can tell, unless it is for the ‘reflex influence.'” (Atlanta-God’s Providence-The Holy Spirit, Christian Leader and the Way, June 19, 1906, p. 9).
What a radical statement by one of the “pillars” of the Churches of Christ. Harding would suggest that it is Satan who has actually convinced religionists that God had subjected the world to “law” and then withdrew.
Harding was constantly calling for faith, simple trusting faith, in the Father who is revealed in the biblical narrative. He is the God we worship, he is the God we pray to. He remains the God of 2 Kings 20.1-11 (a story also related two other times in the Hebrew Bible, 2 Chronicles 32.24-26 and Isaiah 38.1-8).
More on Harding . . . and his amazing words on prayer later. See also my book with John Mark Hicks, Kingdom Come: Embracing the Spiritual Legacy of David Lipscomb and James Harding.
Shalom,
Bobby Valentine
April 24th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
Excellent; worth reading…Thanks for bringing this information about Harding to our attention.
April 24th, 2006 at 9:01 pm
I think this guy would be horrified at the way some describe our Father as up there waiting to slam somebody into hell. Yes, we are to do our best to obey God but like He says in Hosea 6:6 He doesn’t want our sacrafice and burnt offering. He wants us to love Him.
April 24th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
I had never heard of Harding. It seems he knew what a relationship with God was all about. That is a great perspective of God and prayer. Was deism something that hung around in America since the first five presidents or so were deist? Or was there other major influences for England? I am glad God isn’t like the deist believe.
April 24th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
Bob,
What a delight to have you come by. I hope the blog was a blessing.
Liz,
There are MANY things about the contemporary CofCs that would “horrify” Harding. But Harding was a strong advocate of grace and the indwelling Spirit as we shall see.
C4,
I don’t know whether to be “offended” or “shocked” that you have never heard of Harding! Perhaps that is hyperbole. Harding University is named for James A. Harding. C3 attended Harding Graduate School with me. Fortunately I know you will buy my book on Harding asap in order to fill in all the gaps, 🙂 (big smiles, btw).
Deism is quite subtle and even more deadly spiritually. A number of the “Founder Fathers” of the USA were in fact Deists. Harding is wrestling with a move that replaces the Holy Spirit with the Bible. The Spirit indwells through the Word . . . this is a subtle form of deism. One that Harding rejects forcefully too. There is a serious modernistic strain that runs through much of the theology of Churches of Christ in the 20th century and this is what Harding is protesting. He lost that fight for much of the 20th century. However there is a contemporary move that is “restoring” a healthier, and I believe more biblical, view of spirituality.
Keep coming back . . . you are almost considered a “regular” now.
Shalom,
Bobby Valentine
May 11th, 2006 at 3:09 am
Wow, Bobby! That is seriously volatile information you’re setting free! Keep up the good work, hacking the microfiche.
May 11th, 2006 at 3:12 am
Nick,
It is good to see you again. I have been missing you. Thanks for the kind words . . . thanks for reading.
Shalom,
Bobby Valentine
July 26th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
Bobby, great piece. Thanks for sharing…At times I wonder if the CoC hasn’t forgotten its heritage when I read some of the postings from the “legends.”