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Every LCMS Congregation received an
invitation from "Jesus First" to designate Sunday, September 22,
2002, as prayer Sunday. Who wouldn't applaud such a noble request
until one discovers it's really a bait-and-switch? They should have
titled it, "Its OK to politic on Sunday."
The "Jesus First" question, "Is it OK to pray?" raises
another question, "What is prayer?" Not once in their
four-page document does "Jesus First" refer to prayer as an act
of worship.
"Jesus First" has applied the "pro-choice" position to
prayer. It is OK to pray, but they never said it was worship.
"Jesus First" has turned prayer into a human ritual; a wish list
of politically correct opinions not intended to be worship. At
Yankee Stadium, Dr. David Benke called the stadium "a house of
prayer," but not "a house of worship."
Question 201 of the LCMS 1943 Catechism asks: "What is prayer?"
Answer: "Prayer is an act of worship . . ." The revised
1991 LCMS Catechism no longer defines prayer as a act of worship on
question 194.
"Jesus First" is promoting blasphemy. They want prayer
that is not intended to worship the true God.
Why can't they call prayer worship? The reason is that President
Benke and President Kieschnick would be guilty of promoting joint worship
with Moslems, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists in Yankee Stadium in violation
of Article VI.2 of the LCMS Constitution.
Therefore, "Jesus First" promotes prayer that is not intended to
be worship.
The President of Valparaiso used the same reasoning when he claimed that
prayers from Jewish, Moslem, and LCMS clergy were offered in Resurrection
Chapel, but was not worship.
"Jesus First" claims to be Lutheran, but Luther taught that
prayer was worship regardless of location.
"And in John 4 [:24] he tells the Samaritan woman, 'Those who worship
God must pray to him in spirit and in truth.' The Father desires such
worshipers." LW42:19
Why should "Jesus First" concern itself over trifles like prayer
being a act of worship? They have already endorsed Dr. Waldo
Werning's blasphemous new teaching on the Trinity. If "Jesus
First" isn't concerned about who God is, why should they be concerned
about defining prayer as an act of worship?
The LCMS, by the direction of the LCMS President and a majority of the
COP, has now distinguished itself as the only known church body not to
teach that prayer is an act of worship.
Before the Lord destroys the LCMS, according to Zechariah 12:4, He will
first drive its "leadership" mad. As Theodore Laetsch
writes in his commentary on this verse, "They are deprived of their
reason, of the power of strategic planning, by their insane fury, their
fanatic hatred of the Lord and His Church. Already the ancient
heathen has a proverb: Whom the gods would destroy they first drive
mad." (page 480)
Luther writes about prayer and worship as follows:
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"External, gross sins
are relatively insignificant when compared with the
doctrine that one should become pious by means of works and by
worshiping
God according to our reason. For this dishonors and
blasphemes the innocent
blood more than anything else. The heathen committed a far greater
sin by
praying to the sun and the moon, which they regarded as the proper
worship
of God, than by sinning in any other way. Therefore the piety of
man is
sheer blasphemy of God and the greatest sin a man commits.
Thus the ways
now current in the world-the ways, which the world regards as
worship of God
and as piety-are worse in the eyes of God than any other sin. This
applies
to the priests and the monks and to what seems good in the eyes of
the world
yet is without faith. Therefore it is better for him who does not
want to
obtain grace from God through the blood never to appear before the
eyes of
God. For by doing so he only angers the Majesty more and
more." LW:30:36
"Where the Son of God is, there Christ is; where Christ is,
there the Father
is. I conclude that 'in Him the whole fullness of the Godhead
dwells,' Col.
2:9. Thus everything in the Old Testament looks to the worship of
Him who
sits above the cherubim. They were always compelled to turn toward
the mercy
seat when they prayed. This was a figure. Christ says that He was
concealed
under that figure. John 14:6: 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the
Life.' For
it pleased the Father that all the fullness should dwell in Him,
Col. 1:19."
LW30:223
"The God who does such marvelous things is our God. This God
we worship. To this God we pray. He is that God at whose command
the whole universe was born. Why, then, do we tremble if this God
is kindly disposed toward us?"
LW13:91
"Only that prayer is acceptable which breathes a firm
confidence and trust
that it will be heard (no matter how small and unworthy it may be
in itself)
because of the reliable pledge and promise of God. Not your zeal
but God's
Word and promise render your prayer good. This faith, based on
God's words,
is also the true worship; without it all other worship is sheer
deception
and error." LW42:77 |
Kittel's "Theological Word Dictionary of the Greek New
Testament" states that the Greek word for "worship" (proskuneo)
in the New Testament, includes prayer. "This new reality into
which the Son alone sets us is to control prayer. There is no longer
to be any exclusive place of worship, but prayer is still to take place at
specific places and with specific gestures." (Vol. VI. Page 764).
Kittel also recognizes prayer as worship in Rabbinic Judaism on page 763.
The current WELS catechism, page 290, question 329 asks: "What is
prayer?" After citing two passages, the answer states: "Prayer
is an act of worship in which we speak to God from our hearts."
We have to wonder how the WELS came to this wisdom.
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