There is also a good youtube video someone put together on the subject. From a European reader of Slice of Laodicea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txDEZ42tLM0
Years ago, I lived in the DFW area of Texas and attended a Friday morning men’s Bible study at a large, north Dallas church. Each year, in January & February, Tony Evans would be the guest speaker for 4 - 8 weeks, getting what he called his “annual Anglo fix”.
Evans told of a time he was invited to open the Dallas City Council with prayer and was warned NOT to mention the name of Jesus Christ (that’s His proper name, don’t ya know). Evans replied that he understood the rules. When he prayed at that meeting, he petitioned Jesus Christ by name, in the name of Christ, because there’s not other name, no other Lord Who can hear prayers; asking Christ to convict the people present of sin and call them to repentance, to save people and bring glory to Himself - closing in the powerful name above all names.
He was not asked back.
His point was that it’s far better to be well regarded by the Lord than by “powerful” men. I would add, this applies to “powerful” men in the church as well as those in the world.
Not only should Peter have denied Jesus three times, Paul never needed to spend the rest of his life proclaiming Jesus to both Jews and Gentiles!
Why would either man be crucified by Rome -- it was for the name of Jesus!
Hundreds of Christians prayed and sang the name of Jesus as they were torched, slashed and eaten by wild animals.
Wouldn't it have been much easier not to claim Jesus for all of these martyrs for His name?
Certainly, they would have not "given offense" to those present and saved their own lives in the process (much less not "offending" other non-believers) however, we are told that to lay down our lives for the name of Jesus is to save it.
"If you are ashamed of Me, I shall be ashamed of you before my Father." (paraphrase)
Slice has been all over this for several weeks now and I applaud Ingrid Schlueter for her tenacity in sticking with this. That FOF would go this route doesn’t really surprise me, they’ve been about money and power for some time now. That Ravi Zacharias would sign on to it, though, surprised me very much.
At least Peter had the excuse of being in fear for his life. Ravi and Shirley deny Jesus Christ before men just so they can continue to hang out with the cool kids (so-called) and get lots of national publicity and accolades.
As I posted elsewhere, can anyone cite an example of a New Testament prayer that ends with “in Jesus’ Name.”???