Do Evil People Pray to God?

                                                                    Absolutely!

 I started thinking about this question when I was listening to the radio and the host was discussing with one of the callers about racism. The caller stated that racism was manifested when one group had power over another and exercised it. The host said that the current Ku Klux Klan did not have power over anyone and was pretty much irrelevant with the mainstream of America and did not have any power would you consider them racist? The caller conceded the point and then went and stated that the members of the Southern Baptist Church in the 1960's were not praying to the same God in their services as the other Baptist group because the Southern Baptists had racist leanings . Most of them I am sure were praying to the Triune God. I say most because only God can judge the heart and there are unbelievers and hypocrites in the church.

 What part of Jesus Christ dying for the sins of mankind did this guy not understand? I do not advocate racism and it is one ugly sin but so are they all and I am sure that everyone in the Baptist fold who supposedly was the oppressed( as the caller called them) and the racist Southern Baptists were sinners. Guess what? Christ died for the sins of both groups and I am sure both groups would affirm this. What is apparent is that the people praying in both churches were praying to God as the sinners they were or are as some are  as they are probably still alive.

 Even better than this I am not a racist but I am evil as my sins are to many to list. Isn't that the reason Christ came to save an evil mankind( you and me) and shape them into his image? The great exchange of Christ and his righteousness for us changes one heart and soul  and I feel pretty confident Christ's change happened in the lives of some of the racists and the unfortunate victims of their sin as the Holy Ghost works within us.

 So evil men do pray to Christ! We even have had evil clergy who have done so recently. I am sinner and a saint and as an evil man I pray to Christ for forgiveness and mercy and ask Him to change me more and more each day. However, not all evil men do this!

Yeah but don't we still have to deal with the creator?

 According to the BBC a survey was taken stating that religion may become extinct in nine countrie. The problem with what the so called survey is saying is that the answer is loaded. People answered no affiliation of religion and this certainly does not discount the number of people who claim to be spiritual and to be honest even the atheist claims this. Even the atheist has a religious belief in the scientism he places his faith in . Scientism, is a religion .It definitely is because even researchers  such as one Mr.Cody who is not a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu or anything else says, " No one really knows anything about how the world got here". If you listen to many who call themselves non religious who in reality are devotees of "Scientism" evolution is the fact.Even if it can't be proven. They hold to this belief as i hold to the resurrection of Christ which is documented and is true and is not a theory. Yet they have not gotten any closer to proving their theories than before and have often lowered themselves to stating that alien bacteria are in a meteorite that was found on It is  kind of like Dawkins saying transitional lifeforms are not needed for evolution to be true. A proverbial atheist grabbing of straws. I find it a little sad that you want to grab at straws but if that is what you want to do I feel sorry for you.

 Enough bashing on the scientific religionists! What is the problem with religion today? I will only address this from a Christian perspective. In the Christian faith we are in a state of extremes. On one hand we have the non denominational, fundementalist, name it claim crowd and the other side we have the pedophiles of various Christian Stripes, higher critics of liberalism, the politically religious,  and the religiously apostates.
These various groups have unfortunately, become what the Christian faith is now known for. With all of the fullness of false teaching, crimes, theatrics and poor behavior they have managed to break down the faith of ordinary people. Ordinary people have no place to go so when the promises of these groups run out or when the people feel victimized there are only two places to go; the so called spiritiuality of the self (Gnosticism) or atheism. Either way you have a belief system just not one in a religious denomination. So what do we do to stem this tide of disatisfaction among those who want to leave the faith? The first thing we have to realize is that some will leave but others are still looking for the truth. That truth is in the true faith  found in Christ and not the faith in Christ you find on television peddled by the hucksters of TBN or anyone else on TV. You will find this true Christian Faith in God's Word and Sacrament. I am going to stop here for now but will continue later.

What We Believe is What We Practice

 If you are like most in the Confessional Lutheran Church in America you are battling the Christless, man centered, and rationalistic, "Praise Worship". coming from the theological void of evangelical experientialism. This type of worship is of course not consistent with what we believe or teach as a church and is therefore deadly to our future existence as a church of the pure gospel.

 You see we in Lutheranism unlike the emergent village and the McChurch still believe in "Grace Alone","Faith Alone" and salvation through Christ alone. We know that the works we do amount to nothing in our favor and it is Christ who justifies.

 But many outside of us run from the assurance of Grace, Faith, and Salvation through Christ and instead decide to be content with the 5 points that better you as a Christian and this includes a worship that is "Christless". This is obvious because if you go into one of these churches they are probably telling you that it is all about you when you go inside and then hearing how crappy you are. Then if that is not enough you have to try and think that you really aren't so Crappy when singing "Lord I Lift Your Name on High. To finish it off the communion you are having is treated as if it is another command you have to do rather than a meal with Christ for your sins and newness of life.

 What am I getting at here? The Lutheran Liturgy is centered around "Christ for Sinners".In otherwords,
forgiveness of sins and the joy of hearing theLaw/Gospel and receiving the gift of the Lord's Body and Blood.  This is Scriptural !With these other modes of contemporary worship our doctrine and practice change as the modes used for worship shift away from Justification, Forgiveness of Sins, and Christ for sinners and into our self satisfaction and worthiness to Christ. My worhtiness to Christ is great as is yours he died for us what can we give Him as he gave all? Answer nothing! This is not what our church believes or practices but it is the sabotage being used by bureaucrats and enthusiasts who marvel at megachurches who have been there and done that but are no longer growing themselves. They marvel at bygone decades of success that has spawned  Bad TV Shows,  False and Fad TV ministries, and films with false doctrine( Left Behind) and Christless Theology Books( Purpose Driven Life).

   It may even be safe to say that these megachurches are losing people to Eastern Orthodoxy, Rome, and other religions including Atheism. What  some these people were looking for was transcendence which is offered in the Liturgies of EO, Romanism, and Confessional Lutheranism. A foreign mode of worship to "evangelicals" that speaks of transcendence in all three and of forgiveness of sins in Lutheranism to the sinner who needs it. I say this becasue the RC don't believe in justification by faith and the EO have an entirely different take that does not speak of justification either.I do want to compliment the EO and RC because they have not allowed their litrurgy to be replaced with this "bastardized contemporary crock". These two churches have remained who they are. While some in  Lutheranism are running to undue the Refromation by embracing fad and false teaching. I am loathe to call this fad and false teaching Christian because what has invaded the so called evangelical churches as of recent is fad , false and unchristian.This is typical  of Lutheranism as it always comes to the fads late. Perhaps, because the Lutheran Fathers and many of us do not desire the fads of "milk" but "Solid Food" as Paul would say.

 Todays pastors should take a cue from Herman Sasse, " There is no more a damning indictment of a theologian than to say that he knows nothing about the liturgy". Let's start by undoing the damage that has been inflicted on us by those who want to trust in psychologists and Peter Drucker.