Praying: In Jesus’ Name & In The Name of The Father, Son And Holy Spirit (Non-exhaustive)

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Praying: In Jesus’ Name & In The Name of The Father, Son And Holy Spirit

October 14, 2012 article edited for an entry on academia.edu for February 11, 2023

Non-exhaustive analysis

Often when professional Christian speakers as in Reverends, missionaries, professors and others pray, they pray in Jesus' name, or in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. 

'They might pray in the name of the 'Heavenly Father' or 'our Lord', Lord, or simply in the name of God or to God, is often used.

Is this acceptable? Or should from a trinitarian perspective, should God always be strictly addressed as in Matthew 28: 19:20, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

English Standard Version (ESV)

¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Millard Erickson in 'Christian Theology' expresses a Biblical, orthodox (not meaning Orthodox Church here) position on the Trinity via the  Council of Constantinople (381). Erickson (1994: 335). A formula ὑποστάσεις was expressed, which expressed three separate persons that exist simultaneously in three modes of being or hypostases. Erickson (1994: 335). The idea being the Godhead is undivided in essential nature, in divided persons. Erickson  (1994: 335).

There are three distinctions within the triune God, but only one divine nature and therefore only one God. There is not tritheism. There is not modalism or Sebellanism, as the persons of the trinity are simultaneously existing and not interchanging among one another. Jesus does not become the Father, for example. Greek scholar Walter Bauer defines 'Hupostasis' the original word: ὑπόστασις, εως, ἡit from the Greek as substantial nature, essence, actual being, reality. In the context of Hebrews 1: 3 the Son of God is the exact representation of God’s real being. page 847.

Erickson further explains that each member of the Trinity is quantitatively equal. Erickson (1994: 337). This would be in spiritual essence accepting that God the Son took an additional human nature in the incarnation in order to accomplish the atonement and resurrection and also his future Kingship. This does not in any way alter the divine nature of God the Son or the Trinity. Erickson points out that the Son did subordinate himself to God the Father as fully human while on earth, but this was an aspect of will. God the Son did not become less than God the Father, or less God. Erickson (1994: 338). Similarly, even though the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and is named the 'Helper' in the Gospel of John in the New American Standard Version as well as the English Standard Version, this does not mean the Holy Spirit is any less Almighty God. In that instance, functionally the Holy Spirit willingly takes that position.

One of my Theology professors at Trinity Western, at the Seminary, stated that although he was fully trinitarian, in his opinion, the Holy Spirit was not meant to be addressed primarily in prayer. Instead the prayer needed to take place through the Holy Spirit to God the Son as he is the mediator between God and humanity as Hebrews mentions. This view certainly is not without merit as the Holy Spirit as God indeed is to focus persons on Christ and his atoning and resurrection work he has done for the chosen that believe.  However, because God is of one substance and nature and therefore Christ was and is the fullness of deity in bodily form (Colossians 2: 9), if one is a trinitarian Christian and addresses a prayer to the Holy Spirit it can be reasoned that it certainly be understood by God the Father and God the Son as well.

Boice mentions that correctly and Biblically, Christians do pray through Jesus Christ. Boice (1986: 488-489). And they pray in the Holy Spirit.  'Prayer is communion with God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. But it is also in the Holy Spirit'. Boice (1986: 489).

I would reason that it is always Biblical and spiritually correct to pray in a triune manner as Jesus set out out in Matthew 28:19-20, but that to not necessarily use that exact formula by praying in Jesus' name, to the Lord, to the Father, 'Heavenly Father' or God is not Biblically and spiritually wrong because to pray to any aspect of God, to any of the three Biblical distinctions or persons of God, as God is of one essence and nature, is to pray to God as one God.

BAUER, WALTER. (1979) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, Translated by Eric H. Wahlstrom, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press.

BLAISING, C.A. (1996) ‘Monarchianism' in Walter A. Elwell (ed.), Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Books. 

BLAISING, C.A. (1996) ‘Nicea, Council of (325)’ in Walter A. Elwell (ed.), Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Books. 

BOICE, JAMES, MONTGOMERY (1981) Foundations of the Christian Faith, Downers Grove, IVP Press.

BOWMAN, ROBERT M. (1990) Why You Should Believe in the Trinity, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.

BROM, ROBERT H. (1983) The Eternal Sonship of Christ, San Diego, CIC 827. 

BROMILEY, G.W. (1996) ‘Trinity’ in Walter A. Elwell (ed.), Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Books. 

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ERICKSON, MILLARD (1994) Christian Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.

FRANKE, JOHN R. (2005) The Character of Theology, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids. 

GRENZ, STANLEY J., DAVID GURETZKI AND CHERITH FEE NORDLING (1999) Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, Downers Grove, Ill., InterVarsity Press. 

HUGHES, PHILIP, EDGCUMBE (1990) A Commentary On The Epistle To The Hebrews, Grand Rapids, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

SCHRECK, ALAN (1984) Catholic and Christian, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Servant Books. 

STRONG, J. (1890)(1986) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Pickering, Ontario, Welch Publishing Company. 

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TURNER, H.E.W. (1999) ‘Sabellianism’, in Alan Richardson and John Bowden (eds.), A New Dictionary of Christian Theology, Kent, SCM Press Ltd.