In a day and age when hurting people’s feelings is seen as the worst possible crime against humanity one can possibly commit, the Evangelical Church is leading the way in the world’s efforts to displease God. From embracing secular worldviews such as identity politics and intersectionality to softening our stance on sexually deviant behaviors, Evangelicals have no shortage of offenses to the Word of God and obedience to Scripture.
Greg Laurie, the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, a multi-campus megachurch spread throughout California and other states, including Hawaii, recently penned an article at Fox News stating that God “loves to hear our prayers” from not just Christians, but people of other faiths too. After asserting that our prayers “change things,” (rightly understood theology says they don’t) he writes,
Prayer is talking to God. For Christians, this is a privilege given to us through our relationship with the Father through his son Jesus. People of other faiths pray in different ways. And God loves to hear our prayers.
Of course, why wouldn’t someone — who sends converts at his Harvest crusades to Roman Catholic churches — want to include “people of other faiths” in his ecumenical, universalist religion? Greg Laurie and his staff are deeply ecumenical and take no qualms with Roman Catholicism — why not go ahead and include Muslims too? Jews? Hindus and Buddhists? Sheiks? I mean, they all pray to the same God, just in different ways, right?
Except, Jesus said that He is the only way to the father.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6
Those who pray to God and reject Jesus Christ as God cannot reach God. “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…
” (1 Timothy 2:5) And God does not listen to those who are not in Christ, “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.”(John 9:31) And Proverbs 15:29 says “The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.”
In an effort to be inclusive and inoffensive, Greg Laurie offends God by teaching another religion altogether.
