The 2008 Honorary Chairman of the National Day of Prayer, Dr. Ravi Zacharias, is refusing to pray in the name of Jesus Christ in his prayer posted on the official NDP website. Dr. Zacharias' prayer can be read here. A receptionist with the National Day of Prayer in Colorado Springs stated that the Honorary Chairman's prayer does not include the name of Jesus so as not to offend the Jewish participants in the event, and that others are free to pray in Jesus name if they desire. Contrast that betrayal of Jesus Christ with the faithfulness of the first martyr, the Apostle Stephen, who died in a hail of stones for his fearless preaching of Christ crucified to the Jewish religious leaders of his day.

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. We pray to God the Father in the name of His only Son, Jesus Christ, who alone provides us access to the Father. It is appalling that Dr. Zacharias is willing to capitulate to the un- Scriptural, interfaith ecumenism and discard the name of Jesus. 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 prayer. We are not here as Christians to appease those of other world religions. We cannot come to God except through His Son's righteous merits. To pray as "Christians" in any other way is both a farce and a mockery. While other believers around the world are dying for that name, in America, Dr. Zacharias will not even breathe that name in his official public prayer because it might "offend".

If evangelical leaders want God's help in the midst of America's deepening national crisis, we must come to Him on His stated 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 evangelical activists hoping to maintain conservative political coalitions. Such tacit denial of Jesus Christ will court God's righteous wrath, not His blessing. Dr. Zacharias owes an apology to those throughout history who have paid the ultimate price for their fealty to King Jesus. May God grant repentance to those pragmatic evangelicals who 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