Why do religious people pray to God "through (or in) Jesus' name" if they believe that Jesus is God?

Growing up in a church we were taught about the trinity: god, jesus, and the ‘holy spirit’. To be honest I never much understood it myself but they are seen as together and separate at the same time. So they are all one collective unit but also can be individual units. In a similar way, Hindus believe their many gods are all representations of the same single deity.

You’ll go nuts if you try to “figure out” the Trinity, but the short answer to your question is that Jesus said to do it that way (John 14:13):

“Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

How could you hope that something that makes no sense prays senselessly?

@Mariah Not so much like that. He’s the son of god, but at the same time god, and the Holy Spirit is him too. A super holly threesome!

Not all Christians pray like that. Some say in Gods name or in Our Lord and Saviour Jesus or Yahwey or in the name of the Father , Son, and Holy Ghost or even Jah or our Heavenly Father. They are all the same and mean the same thing. Some Christians have a formal set way they always pray so their prays sound the same in how they address God. Others not so much.

Christtians do not yet understand God and his christ, this is why they do such. They have taken varied scripture and put it together as a complete book. from which they again take piece of scriptures and put it together to form a doctrine.

This they do because they have not understood the GOD which is ONE abd Christ which again is the same ONE.

So the only thing complete whih they have is confusion which is evident in their various denominations based on their varying teachings.

That is why they say such.

There are Biblical quotes that pertain to praying in the name of Christ.

John 14:6 “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

John 15:16 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you.”

I John 2:1 “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

My understanding is that it is acknowledgement of the death of Christ, the Son, another facet of the Father. In order to understand prayer in the name of Christ, you have to first understand the Trinity.

In learning of the Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit/Ghost are three Facets of one God. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all God, but there is only one God.

I don’t think Christians believe they are supposed to understand it fully. 3 Parts of a Whole that are all Whole on their own tends to be beyond human comprehension, as our logic does not allow us to see and believe that. This site offers some good insight into the Trinity.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a Christian. I was raised Catholic and taught Christianity in a private school.

@Taciturnu : Thank you for your thoughtful answer. :)

I’m confused about the Trinity doctrine, but more so because there is nothing in the bible that talks of it. All the bible says is that Jesus is the son of God; God’s “first fruit”, the first of creation, etc. and Jesus often prayed to his Father; the scriptures even point out that he prayed to his Father privately. Why would he pray to himself?

There are other scriptures that some intellects have pointed to as being indicative of Jesus being God. This doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, because of two things:

1. According to the bible (God’s inspired word) in the book of first John chapter 4, verse 8 (1John4:8) “God is love.”

The kind of love that God has for us isn’t based on how smart we are. He inspired the scriptures (2Tim3:16) and wanted everyone to know about him. Not just the smart ones. Actually, the bible talks about that, too.

In the book of Matthew, chapter 11 Jesus was talking to the crowds of people gathered and one of the things he said was this, in verse 25 (Matt11:25) “At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.” (taken from the Amplified Bible translation) or this from the New Living Bible translation: “At that time Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike.” Or from the New World Translation, “At that time Jesus said in response: “I publicly praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intellectual ones and have revealed them to babes.”

There are many translations out there, and my question above wasn’t to encourage debate on them. They’re all fairly similar, and point to simple things.

I think what Jesus was saying was God loves the simple ones. The message Jesus was preaching was not only for the intellectual people, but for everyone. Not to be made more difficult or obscure, but to be taken as he said it.

and 2. Why, if God is loving, and intended for all to know of him, confuse everyone (including the not-so-intellectual people) by inspiring the bible writers (40 of them, in total) to write that Jesus is the son of God, if that was actually not the case?

Psalm chapter 37 and verse 11 says, “But the meek (patient, humble, gentle) shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” (King James translation)

There are many references in the bible that suggest our salvation through Jesus’ sacrifice does not rely upon our ability to ‘read between the lines’. Jesus when answering a question his disciples posed about who the greatest was in the kingdom of the heavens, said, “Truly I say to You, Unless You turn around and become as young children, You will by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens.”

Children don’t read between the lines. They take everything at face value, and if it doesn’t make sense to them, they as a question.

I think God loves us enough to ensure that his inspired word be easily understood by even the least of intelligent people. If we love others enough to make things simple to understand, how much more so would our Creator, considering he gave us that ability (to love) in the first place?

Sorry for the tangent. :)

I have never understood this. When Jesus was on Earth, he prayed to His Father (who was also himself, whatever). I believed this was his corporeal method of communicating with God and people went through him because he was teaching the word of God – they would not have learned of God without Jesus and they had to go through Jesus to prove their true devotion to Christianity. Once Jesus returned to Heaven and was reunited with His Father, it seems to me any prayer is now going to the same place simultaneously. This is all, of course, merely the meanderings of my mind.

Some denominations say, “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

The best explanation I have heard of the Holy Trinity is that it is like an egg – shell, egg and yolk. Maybe Jesus is the shell, so you have to go through it to get to the yolk of God.

@Supacase : I like it. The egg analogy. The shell is not the egg, the yolk is not the egg, the goo is not the egg. However, put together, they’re part of a whole object. Kind of like a country club. The grounds are not the country club, the activities are not the country club, the people are not the country club, but put together, they’re part of a whole. So in essence, the analogy points to Jesus being a part of a ‘team’, and not actually God himself. Makes sense. :)

“In the name of X” generally comes into play when you’re dealing with delegated authority – the rather clichéd “Stop, in the name of the law” comes to mind.
If I recall correctly, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are more than just facets of a single entity, but less than wholly separate individuals. We are granted the authority to speak directly to God the Father by affiliation with Jesus.

In my belief and what I was taught is that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are literally three separate individuals with one purpose. That is why Jesus was able to pray to God, he’s not praying to himself.

It gives a better understanding of why we pray through Jesus Christ. He’s the mediator between us and Heavenly Father. Many religions (if not all) fully reject this belief, especially the catholic church with the trinity (which I can not wrap my brain around.)

One thing I forgot is that the reason we pray through Jesus Christ is because he went through Gethsemene praying to the Father to take our sins AND pains, then died on the cross for us. Because of this great sacrifice God made him our mediator and Savior.

God is a god of order, not confusion. To me the secular Trinity (God and Jesus and Holy spirit is one) is very confusing.

The creation of the Trinity, from early church days, was a way to unify the followers of Christ. Many early followers of Thomas believed that God was inside each person, because man is created in God’s image. If you actually focus on the lessons of the teaching of Jesus and the cultural aspects of the time he lived in, there as a strong belief that good things happened to people because they were good, and bad things happened to people because they were bad. You have money, job, position = good person. Poor, afflicted, out-of-work = bad. The actual core lessons of Jesus are diametrically opposed to this correlation: on do unto others, the last shall be first, loaves and fishes, workers in the vineyard, prodigal son, moneylenders in the temple, good samaritan.

The Holy Spirit is man being created in God’s image, and as such, each person should be treated in a way that is mindful that God is in them. God is omnipotent and incomprehensible to man, who only understands things of man. In order to enable man to understand how he should be living, God chose to deliver the message through Jesus, who in the small brain of man and the cultural norms of the time, was construed to be the Son of the Father and therefore, the emmisary of the Father’s message. If you are truly a Christian, you should be practicing the lessons of the teachings, not getting caught up in the rhetoric. The lessons are simple, the practice is hard. A place in heaven exists for those practice the teachings in their daily life. Do the deed, don’t get hung up on the word.

Back under my agnostic rock…

Hi, I’m LDS (Mormon). We personally believe that Christ, our Heavenly Father, and the Holy Spirit are three different beings united in purpose. Why would Jesus pray to himself when he was on the earth?

We say our prayers to God in the name of Christ because he is the mediator between us and our Heavenly Father because he suffered for us to atone for our sins. In ending our prayers with Christ’s name, we become witnesses of Christ and take upon us his name.

@JessK I’m LDS also and I said the same thing up above, but you’re far less wordy than I am. :-)

Prayer is indeed a precious, weighty, serious privilege, and all well-informed Christians are familiar with the basic rules that govern it. Prayers must be addressed to the one true God, Jehovah. They must be said in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. To be acceptable, they must be offered in faith. Yes, “he that approaches God must believe that he is.” Moreover, one’s prayers must be in line with God’s will. (Hebrews 11:6; Psalm 65:2; Matthew 17:20; John 14:6, 14; 1 John 5:14) And from Scriptural examples, we learn that prayers can take the form of praise, thanksgiving, petition, and supplication.
Why should prayers be said in the name of Jesus? Because it is through Jesus’ ransom sacrifice that we have the opportunity to become reconciled to God thereby Jesus is the mediator, just as Moses was the mediator between the Isrealites and Jehovah God.
Jesus is NOT God but God’s son. This can be verified at Matthew Ch. 3 v 17 when at the time of his baptism a voice out of heaven said, “This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved”, see also Luke 3 v 22,
Also, the night of Jesus’ death he prayed to his Father, read the Chapter 17 of Gospel of John, v 3 especially reads: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth Jesus Christ.” This prayer indicates that Jesus and God are two separate beings, not part of a trinity.
If you want to know more, please do not hesitate to email me privately.

Consider that God is inclusive…exists in all things as all things…not too big a stretch…but especially so in those who have attained to union with him through contemplation, devotion, meditation, prayer, selfless service, etc. Consider that one who is “one with the father” is a conduit to the experience of the Father and more directly comprehensible to the person praying than GOD who as an abstract who may be difficult to comprehend and address your prayers to… as opposed to one who has shared your humanity and is recognizable to your senses and your heart…all that said, I personally believe that any prayer from the heart is always heard…that God can be addressed in your own heart but can more easily be relied upon in the figure of one who has “become one with the Father” and with whom one can have a personal relationship and that GOD and his compassion is… closer to you than your own breath…lots of love