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Matthew 6:5-6 lays out some rules about praying. It says that you should pray in private, "but thou when thou pray, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee".
Christians are to pray in private, with their room door closed. Matthew implies that Christians do this because Christians trust that God knows their secrets, and rewards their trust in it. Matthew precedes this with a description of how hypocrites pray in public where other people can see them praying, "that they may be seen". Praying to God in order to appear good is a way of wearing the "good guy badge" and is a selfish method to gain social esteem.
Many Christian scholars and, most of all, most Christians plainly and simply ignore these instructions [Reynolds 1988, p338]. They pray in public, for display, on television and in the media. How ironic is it that a Christian prays in public, displaying their affiliation to God, yet they ignore the instructions they believe their God has sent them? They are rebelling against God, whilst pretending to be serving it!
In case there is any doubt, Matthew 6:1-4 and Matthew 6:16-18 both back it up with some very similar text.
"The three passages, with their obvious formal similarity framed into the same speech, show that Jesus considered prayer, almsgiving and fasting as being matter between God and man, and that these actions should be performed without witness. He does not only tell his disciples what not to do, he says quite explicitly what he expects them to do.""Jesus Versus Christianity" by Alfred Reynolds, p340
Reynolds goes on to point that Matthew did not merely write down Jesus' teachings, he also wrote down Jesus' actions. And not only Matthew, either, but Mark, Luke and John all have Jesus pray exclusively away from the public. "We read that 'he left them', 'he departed', 'he went a little further', 'withdrew himself' to pray (Matthew 26:39, 26:42, 26:44; Mark 1:35, 6:46, 14:32, 14:34-35, 14:39; Luke 5:16, 6:12, 22:41). He also prayed, not publicly, but in the presence of his disciples in John 11:41-42, 12:27-28 and 17:1 to 26." [Reynolds 1988, p340]
"But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathens [nations] do. For they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking""Jubilantly, Protestant theologians use this injunction as a stick to beat the Roman Catholic with. The endless litanies of the Catholic ritual, the rosary repetitions, the prayers recited as penance - all these practices are condemned by these words of Jesus."
"Jesus Versus Christianity" by Alfred Reynolds, p342
"Telling God Things in Prayer
When we pray, we are conveying our thoughts to what we think of as God. But, if God is all-knowing then it already knows anything we say. If we pray because we are feeling insecure or frightened... God already knows how we feel. If we pray because we want God to make a friend recover from illness... then God already knows that we want it to help our friend. So what is the point of praying to God for these things? It is certainly not because it needs us to, or because we want it to tell it something that it already knows!""Vexen on how God Does Not Need Prayer or Other Things", 2004 Oct
"God knows everything - everything we say in prayer, God already knows. The point of praying is definitely not to reveal things to an all-knowing God. God acts only when God knows it is good to act, the wishes of prayer can only ever be against God's will, as I have elaborated on above. So, when prayer works, how does it work? If prayer works, then it is either coincidence (you've prayed for something that was going to happen anyway) or, you knew what was best better than God did, and God intervened! The latter is impossible. Magic, or prayers, when they are effective, must be against God's will. If you ask a Christian or a Muslim, what will they say is the magical force that acts against God's will? Satan's will. If a supernatural affect such as prayer goes against God's will, then it is Satanic. As such, prayer is either useless, or Satanic. What business, then, have theists got in praying? This is a warning to all god believers that they must be very careful of their own motives when they get together and pray for things!""Prayer" by Vexen Crabtree, 2005 March
The gospels state that Jesus stated that prayer should be done in private, so that others can not see, behind closed doors, in secret and not in public. Matthew 6:5-6 is backed up by many other versus that tell us also that this is the only way Jesus prayed. All the other gospels have Jesus pray in the same way, practicing what he preached. Matthew also says that Jesus instructed that prayer not be repetitious, with 'much speaking' 'as the heathens do'. The criticism is made many times of those who bring attention to their own prayers, so that others will think they are good: Prayer should be private. So much for Christians who say "I will pray for you", as if they're earning cookie points when actually they're rebelling against God's wishes!
Relevant Pages by Vexen:
References:
Reynolds, Alfred
"Jesus Versus Christianity" 1988. Quotes from 1993 edition, Cambridge International Publishers, London UK.
By Vexen Crabtree 2005 Dec 28