The Calvinist View of Prayer

Does prayer change anything? Consistent Calvinists would have to answer “no” because they believe everything has been fatalistically decreed by God before the foundation of the world.

Calvinists often say prayer doesn’t change God, rather, it changes the person praying. But that’s inconsistent. After all, according to Calvinists, everything that happens was decreed by God before the foundation of the world—including things that happen to the person praying! So a consistent Calvinist would have to say prayer changes nothing.

The Calvinist view, of course, is completely unbiblical. For example, after God had told Hezekiah to get his affairs in order because he would die, Hezekiah prayed, and God granted him fifteen more years of life (Isaiah 38:1-5). James, too, said the prayers of the righteous avail much (James 15:16). So prayer does change things, despite what Calvinist claim.

God wants a relationship with his people, and the way relationships grow is through communication. In this case, it’s through prayer. And, like any loving father, God sometimes grants his children’s requests. As Jesus said:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matt. 7:7-11).

The Calvinist view of prayer is both biblically and logically inconsistent.

By Alex Polyak, founder of Answering Calvinism, 11/24/25