Posted on 05/15/2008 11:46:31 AM PDT by Terriergal
UNDATED (AP) — Coordinators of this Thursday's National Day of Prayer are taking hits from both sides.
Jews on First and the Council on American Islamic Relations accuse the National Day of Prayer Task Force of turning the day into an evangelical event that excludes others. The Jewish and Muslim groups are calling for alternative gatherings that are more inclusive.
Meanwhile, conservative Christian hosts on the VCY America Radio Network are criticizing the honorary chairman of this year's National Day of Prayer, Doctor Ravi Zacharias, for posting an official prayer that concludes “in God's holy name” instead of “in Jesus' name." They call that a "betrayal” that suggests that the event's organizers are “ashamed of Jesus.”
Leaders of the National Day of Prayer Task Force say others are free to organize prayer events that fit their own religious perspectives.
An Update on the NDP and the Battle over Jesus Name (National Day of Prayer NDOP) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2016411/posts
She has a radio broadcast on this issue here: http://www.crosstalkamerica.com/shows/2008/04/national_day_of_prayer_task_fo.php
Even a National Day of Prayer ends in controversy.
“The National Day of Prayer Task Force offices admitted to Crosstalk’s producer that Jesus’ name was omitted because it was a “Jewish/Christian event”, and they didn’t want to offend the Jewish participants. Host Vic Eliason noted that in Israel, the name of Jesus is widely used in relation to the Christian holy sites and that Jews would hardly expect Christians not to mention Christ’s name in their prayers. The Zacharias ministry blamed the omission of Christ’s name on the Task Force’s guidelines that did not allow the name of Jesus.”
I listen to “let my people think” often and i am suprised that ravi fell to the guidelines and just declined the honory chair!
Ping, brother!
Anyone familiar with Dr. Zacharias (Ravi) knows he is NEVER ashamed of Jesus.
yes i agree and as i said,i’m suprised he did accept the position of chair which conditoned leaving Jesus’s name out of the prayer.
frankly i do not ever think piper,beggs,spraul,macarthur or any other soli teacher to have done so.
go to the cross-walk link and listen to this being discussed.
Boy, all this ecumenicalism just gives me the warm fuzzies!
...and is so ignorant of the nature of God. Only one faith can be right, and all the others are false and lead to Hell.
Does God wish for us to stand side by side with those that preach falsely, and lead others to His justice and damnation? Any that preach ecumenicalism are willing to let those in desperate need of the Gospel to eternally burn, and are ignoring the Lord and His Great Commission to their shame.
don’t worry bother,soon we’ll have a caucas designtion for those who want to hold hands,singing kumbya around the camfire,eating smores.
Ravi has always prioritized his life and ministry to reach the maximum number of people. He very carefully avoids going into certain shall-we-say controversial subjects in his teachings because he has a focus on reaching as broad a group as possible, and emphasizing certain theological subjects would get in the way of that.
I suspect that's what's happening here. Ravi isn't denouncing Yeshua; he's just not going to risk derailing the dialog by insisting on putting His Name into a communal prayer and thus making it needlessly exclusionary to the Jewish participants. His long-term goal, to introduce people to the Messiah and remove barriers to them accepting Him, remains the same.
Shalom!
It would be an interesting exercise to look at all of the prayers in the New Testament, and count the number that end with “in Jesus’ Name.”
Ravi is led by God’s Spirit. When you listen to him (Ravi) respond to questions or listen to his ‘sermons’, you realize that Ravi issues the message of the scriptures, the Grace of God in Christ, and God’s Spirit works on the individual minds hearing the teaching. This same characteristic ‘coordination’ is found in Paul’s letters and it is an interesting study to look at how many times Paul ended a letter with ‘this we pray in Jesus’s name’.
In case someone is wondering, I would have preferred Ravi ending his offering the same way Paul ended the letter to Philemon, but there it is, Ravi was addressing a far wider audience that Paul didn’t realize his letter would eventually reach.
So the Jews and Muslims will be having their own celebration together? LOL
I would commend to his attention these verses:
Matt 7:13-14: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Ravi long ago entered by the narrow gate. Now he’s making himself all things to all men so that he might bring a few through the gate with him.
Except at the NDOP, apparently.
I agree, this is one of the only things I have a beef with him about, but this is a BIG one.
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