It Breaks Our Hearts

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

St. Peter's Pastor, David Benke, has been there for us in prayer for a long time. He has prayed on his knees in the sanctuary; he has prayed for us on the streets. He has prayed for us and with us in our hour of need, at our bedsides, in our living rooms during home Bible study, at cottage meetings with muslim imams and hindu pandits in attendance. He has prayed because he is our pastor, and because he has a living relationship with the living God. And do you know what? We have prayed for him as well. All of us pray in the Name of Jesus. And all of us at St. Peter's, from pastor to people, know that It's OK To Pray.

That's why we are so troubled when pastors of the same denomination attack Pastor B for praying. We know him to be a man of prayer. And it's a good thing to be a man of prayer! My dad, Gerald Holder, who is St. Peter's head elder, attends a prayer group at our church, and he holds Pastor B up in prayer every week. We have been taught to pray. We have been taught that It's OK To Pray.

Pastor Don Matzat was forwarded a very troubling article from a pastor who has offered to make his article available to all who request it. In what follows he responds to the article point by point. Why are a few pastors of the Missouri Synod so angry that Pastor B was at Yankee Stadium and offered a prayer? Do they oppose prayer? Why do they speak of Pastor B's prayer in Jesus' name as being "fully pagan" and slander our pastor by speaking of him as "anti-Christ?" Why do they twist his words? I don't know. None of us at St. Peter's know and we are hurt by this. It breaks our hearts! All we know is that we are going to keep on praying - and pray FOR those who oppose Pastor B and all of us who feel he did the right thing - in the precious Name of Jesus!

Sonia Holder, President
St. Peter's Lutheran Church

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Dr. Benke's Prayer

by Rev. Jeffrey Allan Gross,
Pastor of Trinity-Worden & Zion-Carpenter, Illinois.

with response by

The Rev. Donald G. Matzat
Pastor of Zion Lutheran Church, Bridgeville, PA

Dr. Benke's Yankee Stadium Prayer on September 23, 2001, measured by God's Word & our ancient Faith, couldn't have been worse. If this prayer had been suggested by a seminary student to be prayed at a funeral where, for example, the family had both Christians & Jews, that seminary student would have been flunked. In such a context, like that of the Yankee Stadium Inter-faith Prayer Service, where the dead are being mourned, such a pastorally insensitive prayer is horribly damaging to the faith of Christians, and confirms unbelievers in their false beliefs about God. Were a pastor in this situation to compound this terrible prayer by inviting a rabbi to also pray for the departed he'd further aggravate the damage by confirming the Jewish family members in their false opinion that one can be saved through descent from Jacob (which most Jews have not), and weak Christians will have their faith harmed by being told / shown that there is another path to heaven other than Christ.

Response: Why is it so hard for people to realize that in this nation of ours we gather together around the common belief in a God. Our motto is, "In God We Trust." I am a part of a nation that acknowledges the existence of a Supreme Being. This acknowledgment, as the basis for law and morality, produces civil righteousness. God rewards such civil righteousness with temporal blessings. To compare Dr. Benke's prayer at Yankee Stadium with a prayer spoken at a funeral under church auspices is mixing apples and oranges.

Below are the main Scriptural reasons why Dr. Benke's Prayer was false, damaging, and indeed, a fully pagan prayer which confirmed numerous heresies and many listeners in their unbelief. First, He prefaced his prayer saying the earlier prayers by pagan teachers to their false gods had made everyone stronger. How exactly prayer to false idols will strengthen anyone, much less offer the hope of the resurrection of the dead, which hope God only offers through Jesus Christ, is beyond belief. To commend these false teachers in their prayers to idols does grievous harm to not only Christians, but also to Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, etc., all who hear a supposedly Christian theologian approving of the prayers of their pagan clerics as making them stronger spiritually.

Response: Why is it necessary to continue to insult people of other religions by calling them "pagans?" I saw no idols at Yankee Stadium, with the exception of the monuments in center field. To speak of Jews and Muslims as "pagan idol worshippers" is absolutely contrary to the manner in which the New Testament tells us to engage people of other religions. Where is the respect for people for whom our Lord Jesus died?

Where in Dr. Benke's prayer are the words "stronger spiritually" to be found? Why add something to a text that is not there? Is the author of this article suggesting that people of other religious convictions derive no emotional or psychological strength from the practice of their religion?

He also praises a god (whose 'god'? of the Jews? Moslems? Buddhists? Hindus?) for making Yankee Stadium that day "a House of Prayer." When any Christian hears the phrase "House of Prayer," instantly they think of a church and a church service. They also think of praying to the True God. Dr. Benke & his supporters have since wanted you to believe that the Yankee Stadium interfaith prayer service (so called by the secular media, and called by New York's Mayor "A Prayer for America") was just a 'civic event.' Yet in his actions that day, Dr. Benke clearly proclaims Yankee Stadium to be a house of prayer just like a church, where religious rituals occur, not civic events.

Response: "When any Christian hears the phrase 'House of Prayer,' instantly they think of a church and a church service." This is simply not true. When Christians who happens to live in a major metropolitan area hear the phrase "House of Prayer" they think of churches, synagogues and mosques. Another name for a synagogue is "Beth Tefilah" which means "House of Prayer." To say that Yankee Stadium became a "House of Prayer" is a literal fact.

Of course Yankee Stadium was a civic event because the civil government hosted it. It was certainly not a "church event."

At civic events as described by the Synodical resolution to which Dr. Benke appeals, prayer is just an incidental sideshow to the real event. So, at a graduation, the people gather to have / see diplomas conferred, with the prayer being an unnecessary, though desirable, element to the main purpose. So also at a presidential / gubernatorial inauguration: the point of the gathering is to swear an official into office. The prayer is not needed to accomplish this main purpose of the inauguration. The Yankee Stadium interfaith prayer service had no such civic function or property. There was no inauguration of elected officials, no handing out of diplomas, no fireworks or Fourth of July parade, no baseball game. The Yankee Stadium event had no other purpose except for clergy of various faiths to unite in their prayers to a generic god in whom we are all supposed to believe and to whom we are all to pray.

Response: I suppose we should expect resolution 3-07A to list every imaginable civic event in which prayer is offered. If I may be somewhat sarcastic, perhaps this man does not understand what the Yankee Stadium event was about. The event was called by the Mayor, if you remember, because two big (very big – even bigger than a crop-duster) airplanes (while they were in the air) crashed into two very big buildings (I mean, very big. Bigger than your local court house) in lower Manhattan, which is an island east of New Jersey and one of the boroughs (similar to a county in Illinois) which make up a city called New York. There were no diplomas to pass out. They could have inaugurated the new Mayor. It does seem to me that fireworks would have been out of place. And the Yankees (one of the baseball teams from New York) cancelled their game. In this context, you are right in saying that prayer was not "an incidental sideshow." Question: Is prayer ever an incidental sideshow?

Next, he thanks God for sending just "A" son, not The Only-Begotten Son, to help human beings, so that given the setting / audience, Dr. Benke placed our Lord Jesus Christ on the level of all the pagan prophets / divinities, whom the false teachers all call 'sons' of 'god' in some sense or another. Dr. Benke later covered up his real words "a son" by claiming on his website that he said "your Son." To my knowledge, Dr. Benke has yet to retract this untruthful recounting of his actual words.

Response: Retract? Go to the St. Peter's Lutheran Church website and you will find the accurate rendering of the prayer. There are numerous references in the New Testament where Christ is referred to as "a Son." For example, Hebrews 3:6: "But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house;" or Matthew 12:6 "He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, `They will respect my son.'" To say that God sent "a Son" speaks of the relationship, not of the number. This argument is Pharisaical nit picking.

Next, he agrees with the Jewish rabbis present that God should open heaven to dead rescue-workers not through Christ but by "extending Jacob's ladder" to them! This confirms the rabbis false teaching that God will accept into heaven people claiming to be Jacob's descendants. John the Baptist and Christ rejected this, saying, "God can raise up children of Abraham from these stones)

Response: Any knowledgeable Christian who hears the phrase "Jacob's Ladder" will immediately reference Christ. "Angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." How can this reference have anything whatsoever to do with the descendants of Jacob being saved? This is beyond any scope of human reason.

Next, he preaches / prays to 'god' to open heaven ("extend Jacob's ladder") "to those who ascended the stairs" amid the flames to rescue victims of the Moslem attacks. The first false teaching to which you must subscribe to believe the True God would favorably answer such a prayer is that people still living in this world can influence God's Judgment upon the soul / life of a person who has been dead for some time. A Roman Catholic who believes in purgatory would readily make / accept such a prayer. Yet this false teaching is nowhere in Scripture, and the True God does not accept such requests. To make such a request, that God admit someone into heaven long after the person has died, shows Dr. Benke's prayer rejects proper Christian teaching on life after death and God's Judgment upon the soul / life of a man based only on his faith in Christ Jesus, not on good works.

Response: We always pray in this manner. We commend people to God after the fact of their death. We pray that God would receive them into his eternal kingdom. This is not to say that we believe that our prayer of commendation in behalf of the deceased is intended to rescue them from purgatory.

Even worse is Dr. Benke's appeal here that God accept sinners into heaven on the basis of some heroic work for their fellow man which they have done in this lifetime. Such a request rejects faith in Christ and the work of our Lord which HE accomplished for sinners during His lifetime. This one, single appeal overthrows the whole Christian religion, and marks Dr. Benke's prayer as a pagan prayer to a false god, a god who accepts people into heaven apart from Christ, on the basis of one or more good works which they have done during their lifetime!!

Response: Here is what Dr. Benke prayed: "O Heavenly Father, we pray at this time that You might extend Jacob's ladder for those who ascended the stairways to save us, as others escaped the fire and flames." Where is the causal relationship between "ascending the stairways to save us" and "you might extend Jacob's Ladder?" How can one conclude that the one causes the other? The only way you could arrive at that conclusion is if you are specifically reading a text in order to "put the worst construction upon it." Dr. Benke further prays, "O Tower of Strength, open innocent and victimized hearts to the sacrifice of the Innocent One; pour Your consolation upon the traumatized, especially our children." This is a very gracious way of praying for the salvation of the people who do not believe in Jesus.

To add "in the precious Name of Jesus" to such a pagan prayer is blasphemy, for it violates the First and Second Commandments, and totally rejects the entire Gospel & Faith of Christ & the Church. One does not pray in Jesus' Name to open heaven on the basis of good works!

Response: I would not accuse a brother of blasphemy for there is, in my mind, no sin that is more offensive to God than to blaspheme the precious name of our Lord Jesus. In my opinion, in this case, what is far closer to blasphemy is to write such a piece as this, intentionally designed to defame a brother in Christ, to denigrate people of other religious convictions, to twist, distort and add to the words of a prayer so they mean something they were not designed to mean, and have the audacity to dedicate your piece "To Christ alone, Who is God over all, with His Father and Holy Spirit, be the glory, prayer, & praise!" Perhaps this is getting very close to blasphemy.

One does not pray in Jesus Name to open heaven apart from faith in Jesus, His work & merits. These clear truths of Scripture, the nature of the True God, proper prayer, and the Gospel of Christ clearly demonstrate that Dr. Benke's prayer did not contain 'a few mistakes' or "could have been said better" (as Dr. Kieschnick defended the prayer before our Spring 2002 SID Pastors Conference). Further, these Scriptural truths about true Christian Prayer as it relates to faith in Jesus Christ as the only reason we are beloved of God each day, and the only reason we will be accepted into God's heavenly mansion with Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob, show that, contrary to Dr. Benke's defenders, Dr. Benke did not pray "very, very much and very strongly in the name of our Lord and Savior," as the new Atlantic District President would have you believe. To the opposite, because of those with whom he gathered to pray, those who were listening to the prayer, and above all the content of his prayer, Dr. Benke's prayer could not possibly have been worse, even if he had also orally added the name of Allah / Vishnu / Buddha alongside that of our Savior, Jesus Christ. For Dr. Benke's prayer did approve of the teachers/teachings of these idols, and so did also add their name alongside Christ as the one through whom we are saved.

Had Dr. Benke prayed differently, had he begged God's forgiveness for sins for the sake of Christ, had he asked God to forgive the sins of false teachers and instead open the hearts of their hearers to Christ as the Only God, the Only Savior, and the Only Prophet, he could have gone into Yankee Stadium that day and given a clear witness to Christ. Yet Dr. Benke prayed against Christ that day. He asked God to open heaven apart from Christ, and so to open heaven against Christ's live & work. Dr. Benke deceived Jewish, Moslem, Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian listeners that day by claiming the prayers of false teachers offered to false, man-made gods can some how strengthen sinners.

By doing so, Dr. Benke robbed his listeners of the hope of Christ, the hope of the Resurrection, and confirmed untold thousands of unbelievers in their rejection of Christ Jesus, the Only True God. We pray for Dr. Benke's repentance. We pray those who heard his terrible prayer will another day hear a true prayer about Christ, offered to Christ alone, so they will join us in Christ's Resurrection to come.

To Christ alone, Who is God over all, with His Father and Holy Spirit, be the glory, prayer, & praise!

Response: My motivation in responding to this piece of Pharisaical sophistry is to defend a man who, both procedurally and theologically, did the right thing. Having dealt with this issue for the past seven months, of this fact there is absolutely no doubt in my mind.

But, I do not understand what motivates a man, who claims to be a Shepherd of the Flock of our Lord Jesus, to so blatantly take the words of a fellow pastor, spoken as a prayer in behalf of bereaved people, and twist them, read into them what is not there, and, contrary to the Eighth Commandment, put the worst possible construction on those words to arrive at the conclusion that the man who prayed them "prayed against Christ," blasphemed the name of Jesus, and offered a "fully pagan" prayer? What, may I ask is in the heart of a man who does this? May God forgive him.

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