***NEWS RELEASE***
For Immediate Release
May 1, 2017
CONTACT:
Beth Harrison, Hamilton Strategies, 610.584.1096, ext. 104, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com, or Deborah Hamilton, 215.815.7716 or 610.584.1096, ext. 102
Southern Evangelical Seminary President Dr. Richard Land to Attend White House National Day of Prayer Event
Evangelical Leader Says National Day of Prayer Is a Time to Unite as a Nation to Call on God; Never Before Has America Needed Healing from Violence and Controversy More Than Now
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—With the nation under new political leadership, and at a time of both national and international turmoil, Americans will come together this Thursday, May 4, for the National Day of Prayer. It will be a moment when all Americans of faith are called upon to pause and to pray for their country.
Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES, www.ses.edu) President and Evangelical leader Dr. Richard Land, along with other faith leaders, will attend the official White House ceremony on Thursday morning.
The National Day of Prayer, sponsored by the National Day of Prayer Task Force, is in its 66th year, but Americans throughout history—through the colonial Puritan days up through the Revolution, the Civil War and World Wars I and II—have been called by American leaders and presidents to days of prayer—to pray for divine intercession and blessing in times of great crisis, Land said.
In the modern era, in 1952, in the midst of the Korean War, through a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress, President Truman signed into law the National Day of Prayer as an official annual event on the nation’s calendar.
The official 2017 theme for the National Day of Prayer, which invites people of all faiths to pray for the nation, is “For Your Great Name’s Sake! Hear Us … Forgive Us … Heal Us!” from Daniel 9:19.
“As a Christian, I ask all people of faith to join me in petitioning God to hear our prayers,” Land said. “When we pray as a nation this year, we must heed the proper order as the prophet Daniel 9 instructs us, by asking God to hear us and then forgive us so He can heal us. We cannot expect God to listen to our prayers without acknowledging both His existence and our moral transgressions. James 5:16 tells us that it is ‘the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.’
“Perhaps never before have we more needed healing from the controversy and violence afflicting our nation,” Land added. “I encourage all Americans, wherever you may be this Thursday, to turn your face to God and importune Him for our nation. He is the only one who can remedy the problems that vex us as a people.”
The National Day of Prayer Task Force is a privately funded organization whose purpose is to encourage participation, communicate with every individual the need for personal repentance and prayer, and to mobilize the Christian community to intercede for America’s leaders and its families. To find a local National Day of Prayer event, visit www.nationaldayofprayer.org/events and search by zip code or city.
For 25 years, SES has been educating Christians about how to best defend their beliefs and recently announced the 24th annual National Conference on Christian Apologetics. One of the largest events of its kind, the timely theme for 2017 is “Pursuing a Faith That Thinks.” The conference is set for Oct. 13-14, 2017, at Calvary Church in Charlotte, N.C.
The conference will welcome the nation’s top apologists, who will give the thousands in attendance new presentations on studies, research, history and insight into apologetics and other intellectual, scientific and religious fields. In addition to Land and SES co-founder Norman Geisler, confirmed conference speakers include Richard Howe, Greg Koukl, Jay Richards, Hugh Ross, Frank Turek and J. Warner Wallace, along with many others.
For more information on SES, visit its website at www.ses.edu or its Facebook page, follow the SES Twitter feed, @sesapologetics, or call (800) 77-TRUTH.
###
For information on SES or to set up an interview, contact Beth Harrison, 610-584-1096, ext. 104, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com, or Deborah Hamilton, 215-815-7716 or 610-584-1096, ext. 102.