Seth Udinski, FISM News
At the 2023 National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, President Joe Biden’s speech espoused an apparent universalist pluralism at an event that has, for the duration of its history, exhibited Judeo-Christian roots.
Biden attempted to appeal to people of all faiths, undergirding his universalistic tone with paraphrases from the Bible and sprinkling it with Judeo-Christian language.
Join me at the National Prayer Breakfast as I deliver remarks. https://t.co/Ky6Xxd03OM
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 2, 2023
He said,
More religions, more races, more diversity than ever before in our history. People of all faiths, some people of no faith. Gay, straight, immigrant, Native American. Differences express the infinite creativity of God, who is able to see His reflection in countless ways in different people.
Biden touted a “universal message of hope, of joy, of love.” He said,
Whether you’re Christian, whether you’re Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, or any other faith, or no faith at all, it speaks to all of us as human beings who are here on this Earth primarily to care for one another, look out for one another, and to love one another.
He continued, highlighting a theme to which he has returned for the duration of his presidency: the “soul” of America:
What’s the soul of the nation? The soul is the breath, the life, the essence of who we are. The soul makes us us. It’s embodied in the sacred proposition: we’re all created equally in the Image of God.
The 2023 Prayer Breakfast also featured Pastor Jim Cymbala of Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York City. Cymbala contrasted the president’s remarks with an unabashed call for the members of Congress to repent and turn to Jesus Christ for salvation.
He said,
You need the Lord. Did you hear me? You need the Lord. Not only I need the Lord – you need the Lord. We all need the Lord.
Author’s Biblical Analysis
Friends, there is little need for me to add to Pastor Cymbala’s words. You and I need the Lord.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. – Ephesians 4:4-6
There is no other way unto salvation, no other name upon which sinners can call to be redeemed. Contrary to the president’s affirmations of “people of all faiths’ and “people of no faith,” there is “one faith, one Lord, one baptism,” one way that sinners can be plucked from darkness to light.
It is through King Jesus alone.
This is a simple plea for the gospel. Friends, Jesus Christ came to save sinners like you and me. He lived the life we could not live and died the death we deserved to die to propitiate God’s wrath, wrath we deserved to receive in full. He rose again, conquering sin and death and making us right in the eyes of God.
There is no other way to salvation. Praise God for sending us His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to “save a wretch like me!”
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” – Acts 4:8-12