More on the Global Day of Prayer

Following on with the previous article which shows the serious problems inherent in the Global Day of Prayer, which should give any Christ-honoring believer pause and much deliberation when considering whether to take part, here is an article written by my friend and brother-in-Christ Chen Wenxian (surname underlined), on his blog.

In his blog entry, he shows how the Global Day of Prayer committees have misquoted Scripture (Hab. 2:14) and twisted it to mean what it does not mean. I sincerely doubt that the people involved REALLY meant for this Global Day of Prayer event to pray Hab. 2:14 as it ought to be prayed according to the context; which is to pray for God's glory to be shown in the judgment of evil individuals and nations, and that His church is to be stand firm and faithful throughout. Last I have looked, the website uses this verse to pray for the blessing of the nations, which is about as far from judgment as anyone can get. Therefore, from the misquotation and misapplication of this verse Hab. 2:14 and the verse Is. 66:18 as shown in my previous missive, the committe involved are found to be guilty of serious eisegesis and the mishandling of God's Word. It is my hope that they repent of this and turn to Christ and His Word alone.

Now, with regards to his article, I would like to just state that I DO subscribe to the Apostle's Creed — as it was meant to be understood by the Apostles, that is. I do not criticize it but its usage, as the passage of time since its inception has seen the emergence of various heresies which is not addressed by this short creed. Its language has thus become inprecise and ambiguous for the modern Christian, resulting in heretics being able to agree with the wording of the creed.

What makes its usage by the Global Day of Prayer Singapore committee disastrous, however, is that they do not even quote the Apostle's Creed correctly on their website! The correct rendering of the Apostle's Creed as usually recited today reads thus:

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

Notice the difference between the phrase "he descended into hell" as seen in the proper rendering of the Apostle's Creed and the improper rendering on the website with the phrase "he descended to the dead", which both may have different meanings. John Calvin, in his Institue of the Christian Religion, writes regarding this phrase that it expresses the spiritual torment that Christ goes through for us Christians, which is possibly correct. However, this explanation is not compatible with the improper phrase of "descended to the dead", thus the Global Day of Prayer has added their own interpretation of what the phrase "he descended into hell" as found in the Apostle's Creed means, which may not be correct. Unless the Global Day of Prayer has geniunely make a mistake, such a move is disingenuous, to say the least.

In conclusion, with all this amount of error in the Global Day of Prayer movement in Singapore and elsewhere, Christians are strongly discouraged from going to it and/or supporting it in any way. For Christians who should have a heart to pray for their churches, their peoples, their countries and the world, you may want to consider coming together for prayer with other like-minded believers who know the real needs of our land (Hint: it does not consists of blessings upon blessings) independently of the Global Day of Prayer movement. We could come together to pray for an awakening in our land; for the clear proclaimation of the whole counsel of God, including the "offensive parts" of Scriptures, and for repentance in our churches, for judgment begins at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17).