Posted on 04/25/2003 12:52:40 AM PDT by Stop Legal Plunder
Public prayer vigils are popular for "people of faith" on the left and the right to make statements of support or protest for various things. Are such vigils appropriate? Perhaps for pagans. But apparently not for Christians, according to the Bible:
And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synogogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. [Matthew 6:5-7]
Religious leaders who hold prayer vigils, often by candlelight, before the Supreme Court to protest objectionable rulings such as Roe v. Wade are also holding their vigils for political purposes to be seen. That's why they send out media alerts to the press. And that's why the verses quoted apply directly to them.
Without a doubt. But public prayer vigils (i.e. not held in churches or church member homes) aren't done for public repentance.
Just read this part. Jesus is pointing the reason why He says to go pray in private. It is in opposition to the practice of the Pharisees and other self-righteous religious leaders of the time who prayed in public just to be seen. The purpose of a prayer vigil is not just to be seen, but to make a public acclamation of faith, in opposition to things like legalized abortion. So I don't think Jesus would have problem with that, nor would He have a problem with devout Christians speaking up for unborn babies.
Not in my Bible. In it all the words of God, all being equally the words of God, are in the same color, black. No human division for marketing purposes. And thus, to my knowledge, no violation of Revelation 22:18.
The hypocrites were also making a public acclamation of faith (otherwise how could they be hypocritical?). Their sin was misuse of prayer to be seen. There is no sufficient excuse for choosing to pray to be seen. If a Christian wants to demonstrate peacefully for political reasons that's fine, but he shouldn't pray in public for political reasons. Spiritual weapons shouldn't be crippled into political tools.
Hmmm.... you do have an interesting point there. I definitely can see how that can be abused. You have started an interesting discussion here, and I think it may get a lot of responses.
Thank you. I hope it's interesting and important. My reason for the post is not to anger those who have taken affirmative steps in the political arena to fight evil. I commend that. But as Christians we are called to, and righly held to, a higher standard. Part of that standard is to remove the planks from our own eyes before calling for the removal of the specks from others' eyes. We need to repent of our own disobedience to God's law before we rush out to call unbelievers to obey it.
You've got me thinking about this point. Abortion is an obvious evil in our society, and prayer is one of our spiritual weapons against evil (fasting and almsgiving are two others). Should a "true" Christian only use prayer as a weapon against the evils of abortion in private, or do they also have the moral and political obligation to speak up against the evil/injustice? If two are more are gathered in His Name, whether in public or private, He is present, as He also said in the Gospel.
I believe if you'll double check the context of this reference, you'll find it refers specifically to elders exercising church discipline rather than to any two believers gathered together for some other purpose.
I apologize to Ff-150 for my injudicious choice of words in response to his (or her) post.
A big AMEN to that! We also are called to heal the wounds that are in Christ's Body, which is His Church. Who makes up the Church? All believers, regardless of denomination. That is why it pains me, as well as many others, when so-called "Christians" use scandal in other parts of the Body to go on the attack. Case in point, the Catholic priest sex scandal.
One of the positive things that I read about recently is the action by Presbyterian teenagers in Jacksonville, Florida. In response to the scandal, these teens wrote letters to the priests and deacons of their area, thanking them for their service and assuring them of their prayers in the midst of the nation scandal. The teenagers said they were motivated by Paul's words in 1 Corinithians 12:26, which states that when one part of the Body of Christ suffers, the whole Body suffers.
The author of the article that I read which mentioned this "incident" said, "Unless we are determined to serve those whom the Lord calls His "little ones," He will have part in us. We have no right to call upon His name, though we call ourselves Christians." I know some don't consider Catholics to be "Christian," but Jesus calls us to love ALL of our neighbors, whether they are "Christian" in their definiton of the word, or not. We do need to take care of our own disobedience before we tell nonbelievers to obey it. Otherwise, we are no better than the Pharisees.
We don't have sufficient evidence to say for sure that God responded to those prayers; perhaps he was responding to the prayers of others quietly at home. But even if there were no others, sometimes God, in his kindness and mercy, uses the bad to accomplish good. But that is not, therefore, a reason to do more bad things, that God might use them. As it is written,
"What shall we say, then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!" [Romans 6:1-2a]
Becky
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