Posted: 04/24/08

Dr. Ravi Zacharias and the National Day of Prayer: Where is the Name of Jesus?

For many years I have appreciated the apologetic work of Dr. Ravi Zacharias. His skilled defense of Christianity in an age of atheism and skepticism has provided a much needed voice for truth in the academic sphere through his ministry. I have had to disagree with Dr. Zacharias in the past over his presence at the Evening of Friendship at the Mormon Tabernacle back in 2004 and now, once more, I find myself having to reluctantly disagree.

Dr. Zacharias is the 2008 Honorary Chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. As such, he both wrote and recorded an official prayer that appears on the organization's website. Dr. Zacharias' prayer can be read here. What is missing from the prayer is the name of Jesus Christ. He ends his prayer in "God's Holy Name" The absence of Christ's name is not accidental. A call to the National Day of Prayer headquarters in Colorado Springs revealed that the Honorary Chairman's prayer does not include the name of Jesus so as not to offend the Jewish participants in the event. The woman assured me that others are free to pray in Jesus' name if they desire. The organization promotes "Judeo-Christian" prayer events around the nation. Herein lies the problem.

According to the truth of God's Word, the entire counsel of God, we do not pray in "God's Holy Name" to God the Father. John 14:13-14, Colossians 3:17. We come to God the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ, who alone provides us access to the Father. NDP Chairwoman, Shirley Dobson, owes a biblical explanation to Christians around the nation as to why the name of Jesus is absent from the official Task Force 2008 prayer. We are not here as Christians to appease those of other world religions. We cannot pray as "stealth Christians" to keep from angering those who reject Christ. While other believers around the world are dying for that name, in America, Dr. Zacharias will not speak name in his official public prayer because it might "offend" a non-Christian. This is wrong.

Not long ago, Christians were justifiably outraged when the US Navy court-martialed Captain Gordon Klingenschmitt for refusing to delete the name of Jesus from his prayers while in uniform. Yet when it comes to the National Day of Prayer, these same evangelical leaders are strangely prone to a form of political correctness and Christ's name disappears. While Christians often work in the sphere of public policy with those of other religious beliefs, when we come to prayer and worship, we cannot link arms without gross biblical compromise. If the National Day of Prayer Task Force would have limited its focus to Christian expressions of the observance, this problem could have been averted. Let those of other religious views sponsor their own organizations and events. Let Christians lift high the name of Jesus and pray in His name without apology.

If evangelical leaders want God's help in the midst of America's deepening national crisis, we must come to Him on His terms, not ours. Either God's Word is truth, or it is not. There is no middle ground. There are no special interfaith prayer models in Scripture for pragmatic evangelicals hoping to maintain conservative political coalitions. Such tacit denial of Jesus Christ will court God's righteous wrath, not His blessings. We cannot place cultural concerns before Scriptural truth.

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

-Philippians 2:10-11

By Ingrid Schlueter Email: vcyproducer@aol.com Click here for bio and archived articles