Evangelicals and Trinitarians

[Elijah John]

Jesus said:

After this manner therefore pray ye:
Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.
in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into tempation, but deliver us from evil: for thine
is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

I understand that many do not pray this prayer verbatim, and perhaps this was not Jesus intention. (after this manner therefore pray ye)

But do Evangelicals and other Trinitarians pray after this manner? Do they use the Lord's prayer even as a model for prayer?

After hearing many spontaneous and extemporaneous Evangelical prayers, I always hear "in Jesus name we pray". But seldom (if ever) do I hear any reference to the Father's name at all, in Evangelical prayer.

Why is that?

If one omits any reference to the name of the Father, is one praying as Jesus taught?

[Elijah John]

Now whether Jesus bowed to that traditon or had another reason for not explicitly including HaShem in the Prayer, King David didn't share that reluctance, and was far more explicit in the Psalms.

Your points are also interesting. However, I personally do not require people to use a particular name or refrain from it. I do not think that is what the commandments regarding Adonai's name are about. Therefore, my primary concern is that whatever name one uses, it not lead to a misunderstanding of what is under consideration, or the character of Adonai.

What's "under consideration" here is why Evangelicals, other Trinitarians and Jehovah's Witnesses, end their prayers with "in Jesus name" when Jesus did not teach this in his model prayer. He only taught that the Father's name be hallowed in prayer, not to pray in his own name.

Why favor John's Jesus over the Synoptic Jesus?

And the broader point implicit in the OP is that Christianity as we know it today is really a Johannine and Pauline form of Christianity. That is what prevailed, while the Jewish-Christians sects, (the Ebionites etc) were crowded out to the point of near extinction.

[brianbbs67]

Do not proceed in vain repetitions as the heathen do. It was a model of how to talk to God. End of story. If you want to add , in the name of Yeshua, fine. The prayer is to God.

[William]

Is the GOD so shallow as to care whether prayers end in the name of Jesus, or any other before he deems to give answer? The facts apparent are that prayers are answered even if one is not a follower of Abrahamic concepts.

Apparently a real GOD is not beholding to man-made religions and any who think otherwise are paddling around in the shallows, suckling upon the teat of their particular sects and creating ideas which seek to separate humans into sections, most of which are in opposition to each other in small marginal ways right through to seriously conflicting ways.

[liamconnor]

[Replying to post 1 by Elijah John]


The Lord's prayer remains a corporate prayer (after all, it employs the first person plural) in worship services.

In Trinitarian thought, prayers to the Son redound to the Father; neither are jealous of the other. This is true in human relations: if a father is told his son skates well, does the (good) father object, "Yeah well, I taught him everything he knows!"?

This also explains the other OP, why didn't Jesus teach others to pray to him. One could ask, why in the gospels doesn't God say, "This is my son, now listen to ME"? Indeed, when Jesus elevates himself why doesn't God the Father rebuke him? In all instances where God the Father speaks, his entire interest is in Jesus; conversely, Jesus' interests are in the Father.

Hence, according to Trinitarian thought, God is LOVE. LOVE is about "another".

"In Christ's name" is typically used when praying to the Father; it is recognizing the honor which the Father bestowed upon the incarnate Son: "this is my beloved Son". Since the major split between Christians and their mother (Judaism) was over the status of Jesus, it makes sense that the former's prayers would highlight their distinction.

[Elijah John]

Is the GOD so shallow as to care whether prayers end in the name of Jesus, or any other before he deems to give answer? The facts apparent are that prayers are answered even if one is not a follower of Abrahamic concepts.

Apparently a real GOD is not beholding to man-made religions and any who think otherwise are paddling around in the shallows, suckling upon the teat of their particular sects and creating ideas which seek to separate humans into sections, most of which are in opposition to each other in small marginal ways right through to seriously conflicting ways.

Maybe so. But this OP seeks to explore why people who claim to be disicples of Jesus hardly ever pray as Jesus taught. Or at least why they seem to prefer to take prayer lessons from the Johannine Jesus over the Synoptic Jesus.

And that is evident with the conclusion of their prayers, "in Jesus name" instead of hallowing the Father's name.