... But from a Calvinistic standpoint, it's merciful when God disrespects our foolish, self-destructive choices. Hitchens' basic problem is his failure to act in his best interests. As such, a Calvinistic prayer for his salvation would be coherent with Reformed theism, although it might well be incoherent with freewill theism...
There are several glaring issues with that thought, first of which comes to mind is the idea that a Calvinist would state a lost man is not acting in his best interests. In Calvinist thought,unredeemed man is unable to act in his best interests because God has decreed that he cannot. Linking that inconsistency with another noted above, why would a Calvinist think that his personal prayer would ever have any influence upon the decisions of God regarding a lost soul? The Calvinist can pray for a man's salvation and the LORD leaves him to depravity making the prayer ineffectual and of no purpose given the decision to leave the man to eternal damnation was made before the foundations of the world according to Calvinist theology. Several noted Calvinists have claimed that prayer is an ordained method of evangelicalism along with the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ yet if the doctrine of reprobation advanced in Reformed circles is true, then most prayer is of no consequence. God would be putting people through the paces, so to speak. It is illogical and leads me to believe that many Calvinist pray only because they are instructed to, out of obligation rather than desire for souls to be saved.
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