In Reply to: Re: Praying against people posted by Carol on August 14, 2004 at 14:33:05:
I'm trying to remember which of the OT prophets called curses down on the wicked, probably Jeremiah or Isaiah, one of those guys.
The one verse I remember is the one that says "I will bless them that bless you and curse them that curse you", but isn't that God speaking to the prophet, not the prophet's declaration? It seems like cursing and stuff is supposed to be left in the hands of God.
Didn't Jesus say "Vengeance is mine saith the Lord, I will repay"?
I mean, I once 'prayed against' my worldly, systemite backslidden mom. How twisted is that? To teach a child to pray against their mother? It caused me years of emotional damage from which I am just recovering, and it was damned hard to tell my mom about my past prayers against her.
Another point, if the prophets did call down curses on the wicked, I don't think it was done lightly, or loosely. But we did it very loosely, without much seriousness or realization of the possible negative effects of our words. In other words, they were vain prayers cause I don't think we really considered them powerful enough to cause damage to our enemies, does that make sense? They were so shallow that they didn't do anything anyway.