The National Day of Prayer Has a False Gospel Problem
Today is the National Day of Prayer. Tens of thousands of gatherings are happening across the country. Flags are out. Proclamations have been signed. Politicians are posting Scripture. And tonight, a 90-minute broadcast from the U.S. Capitol will air with "faith leaders from across the American religious landscape" united under the theme, "Glorify God Among the Nations."
I am not against prayer. I believe in prayer with everything in me. I preach it, I practice it, and I would be dead without it. Prayer is not the problem. The problem is who you are praying with, and what god they are praying to.
Tonight's broadcast — and the Rededicate 250 event coming May 17th, which the National Day of Prayer Task Force is already formally co-signing — should alarm every Bible-believing Christian in this country.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron represent an institution that, at the Council of Trent, placed a formal curse on anyone who believed that justification is by faith alone. Rome still teaches that salvation is something you maintain — through the sacraments, through penance, through merit earned over a lifetime. It still teaches that the Mass is a propitiatory sacrifice. It still teaches that Mary is a co-mediatrix. This is not a different expression of the same Christianity. This is a different gospel. "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:8).
Samuel Rodriguez — president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference — is a documented member of the International Coalition of Apostolic Leaders, a flagship organization of the New Apostolic Reformation. The NAR teaches that God is raising up a new generation of apostles and prophets with fresh revelation and spiritual authority over nations, cities, and churches. That is not a minor charismatic quirk. That is a direct assault on the Word of God — the Bible you hold in your hand is finished, sealed, and sufficient. "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book" (Revelation 22:18).
Jentezen Franklin is a Word of Faith and prosperity gospel preacher — a regular on the TBN circuit alongside Copeland and company. His theology treats God as a divine vending machine and fasting as a spiritual lever to pull. It is works-righteousness with a Pentecostal accent, and it is not the gospel.
And evangelical names like Franklin Graham and Jack Graham are lending their platforms to this moment — Graham has a prayer featured on the official NDOP site today. They're not correcting it. They're endorsing it. That's not a small thing. That's not generosity. That's compromise.
Nobody wants to say it with flags waving, but God does not hear the prayers of those who approach Him through a false mediator, a false gospel, or a false christ. The Scriptures are not ambiguous. "Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth" (John 9:31). A Roman Catholic cardinal praying through Mary to a Jesus whose sacrifice must be perpetually re-offered in the Mass is not praying to the God of the Bible. A NAR apostle claiming fresh revelation beyond Scripture is not submitting to the God of the Bible. A Word of Faith preacher treating God like a cosmic contract partner is not worshipping the God of the Bible.
Putting these men on a stage together and calling it a "National Day of Prayer" does not make it prayer. It makes it a civic ritual with religious decoration.
"But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth"
(1 Timothy 3:15).
The pillar and ground of the truth is the church. Not a task force. Not a Capitol building. Not an ecumenical broadcast coalition. The local church, gathered under the authority of Scripture, standing on the gospel of Jesus Christ, preaching it plainly to sinners who need it. That is where revival comes from. Not from a prayer event that trades the truth for a crowd.
Every genuine awakening in church history began with a return to the Word — not a platform unification. Whitefield didn't partner with Rome to reach England. The Reformers didn't invite Cardinals to co-sign their prayer meetings. They separated. They stood. They preached. And God moved.
"Why can't you just be thankful people are praying?" or "Isn't any prayer better than no prayer?"
No. It is not.
"I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour" (1 Timothy 2:1-3).
The Bible commands us to pray for our nation and its leaders. I do. Our church brings the men and women who have political authority before the throne of God by name. That command is not in question. What is in question is whether a stage full of false teachers constitutes an answer to it.
And I want to be clear about where I stand — I am a Bible-believing Baptist. I'm not a Protestant and I'm not a Calvinist. Whitefield was both. I don't hold his theology. But I'll borrow his backbone. The principle stands regardless of where he landed on election: when men of God have drawn a line between the truth and a lie, God has honored it. That is all I am saying.
Someone will quote John 17 — Jesus prayed for unity, they will say, and here you are dividing. But read the prayer. "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word" (John 17:20). The unity Christ prayed for is unity among those who believe through the apostolic word — the same word the Father gave to Christ, Christ gave to the disciples, and the disciples gave to the world in preaching and writing. That word is the Scripture. He did not pray for unity with those who add to that word, subtract from His finished work, or approach God through a mediator He never authorized. Unity built on a false gospel is not the answer to John 17. It is a violation of it.
"Judge not, that ye be not judged" (Matthew 7:1). But Paul named Hymenaeus and Alexander by name and delivered them to Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme (1 Timothy 1:20). John named Diotrephes by name (3 John 9). Christ called the Pharisees blind guides and children of hell to their faces. Naming false doctrine is not a violation of Matthew 7. It is what shepherds do. A watchman who sees the sword coming and says nothing — God holds him accountable for the blood. "But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand" (Ezekiel 33:6). That is not judgment. That is faithfulness.
God is sovereign, some will say. Maybe He will work through this anyway. Maybe He will use this moment in spite of its compromises. Perhaps. God is sovereign. His grace is beyond anything I can measure. But His sovereignty is never a warrant for our disobedience. We are not called to build platforms for false teachers and trust Him to sort it out. Saul offered an unauthorized sacrifice and called it necessary. God was not impressed with the reasoning. "Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee" (1 Samuel 13:13).
A prayer offered in the name of a false gospel is not better than silence. It is worse, because it gives people confidence that they are right with God when they are not. That is not love. That is cruelty wearing the mask of tolerance. The most loving thing a pastor can do is tell the truth. Tell it clearly. Tell it before the broadcast airs, before the Mall fills up, before people walk away convinced that America just had a move of God because the flags were waving and the cameras were rolling.
The church is not called to be popular. She is called to be faithful. She is called to hold the truth when the whole world is celebrating a counterfeit version of the gospel. And when she does that — when she stands firm and preaches that a man is saved by grace through faith in Christ and nothing else — she is more powerful than anything happening on the National Mall today. She is exactly what this country needs.
So pray for America. Pray in your church. Pray with your family. Pray to the God of the Bible. Pray through the only Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. That is the National Day of Prayer worth having.
Pastor Fortunato
Founding Pastor & Preacher of the Word
Pilgrim Baptist Church — Cookeville, Tennessee