Acts 15:18

"Saith the Lord, which doeth these things." Not "saith" only, but "doeth." Why then, it was God's work. "But the question is other than this namely, what Peter spoke more plainly, whether they must be circumcised. Then why dost thou harangue about these matters?" For what the objectors asserted, was not that they must not be received upon believing, but that it must be with the Law. And upon this Peter well pleaded: but then, as this very thing above all others troubled the hearers, therefore he sets this to rights again. And observe, that which was needful to be enacted as a rule, that it is not necessary to keep the Law, this Peter introduced: but the milder part, the truth which was received of old, this James saith, and dwells upon that concerning which nothing is written, in order that having soothed their minds by that which is acknowledged, he may opportunely introduce this likewise.

The Jews understood this to refer to the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem after the exile. But this is not true, for that temple was destroyed many times thereafter; the prophecy promises an everlasting rebuilding. Those who say it refers to Zerubbabel have not rightly understood, as if he were descended from the line of David, and this too is not true. For Zerubbabel ruled only a short time and then met the term of death. The prophecy contains a promise of eternal blessings and of the knowledge of God by all the nations, which is not fulfilled by those who lived under Zerubbabel. It is therefore plain that we must interpret this as spoken concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. For our Lord, being descended according to the flesh from David, fulfilled the promise made to David. "For the Word became flesh," (Jn. 1:14) and dwelt among us, having taken up the dwelling from David. It is therefore fitting that David's prophetic word says the dwelling will be rebuilt, and not for a short time, but for all the days of the age; and it promises to the nations the gift of knowledge of God, that is, those from the nations who have turned to Christ and have been called by the name of Christ. Others say that this was said concerning his resurrection from the dead. For when the tent that had fallen into death, that is, the flesh raised from the earth by God and Father, then the whole human form was restored to its original shape, and all our things that had fallen down were raised to a new appearance; for we were raised with Christ. Death indeed demolished all the tents. But God and the Father rebuilt in Christ. For it was not possible for our nature to be raised otherwise than by the hand of Him who shaped its beginning reaching down and fashioning it anew through regeneration by water and Spirit. (see Jn. 3:5) For it had truly fallen, a ruin incurable, and in need of that mighty hand. And he says that this need of ours will not last a short time, but for the days of an age [αἰῶνος]. For the good of incorruption is enduring in us. Then, he says, even the remnant of men after those who have believed out of Israel will have truly and by nature known God, having departed from ancient error. And he says that all the nations will be called, and upon them will be my name, upon whom it was called from the beginning, "For whom he foreknew, he also predestined," he says. (Rom. 8:29)

Whether we pray on behalf of the living or the dead, the causes which will prevent or exclude the events we pray for are in fact already at work. Indeed they are part of a series which, I suppose, goes back as far as the creation of the universe. The causes which made George's illness a trivial one were already operating while we prayed about it; if it had been what we feared, the causes of that would have been operative. That is why, as I hold, our prayers are granted, or not, in eternity. The task of dovetailing the spiritual and physical histories of the world into each other is accomplished in the total act of creation itself. Our prayers, and other free acts, are known to us only as we come to the moment of doing them. But they are eternally in the score of the great symphony. Not "pre-determined"; the syllable _pre_ lets in the notion of eternity as simply an older time. For though we cannot experience our life as an endless present, we are eternal in God's eyes; that is, in our deepest reality. When I say we are "in time" I don't mean that we are, impossibly, outside the endless present in which He beholds us as He beholds all else. I mean, our creaturely limitation is that our fundamentally timeless reality can be experienced by us only in the mode of succession.