YOU:"You are wrong. I don’t know which passage you are referring to"
John 14:13
And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.
John 14:14
You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
John 15:16
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
John 16:23
In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
John 16:24
Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
John 16:26
In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.
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Now it goes against my better judgement to show you these, because I fully expect you to just crap all over them and start the whole "Argument Sketch" and just simply condradict me without offering any real substance, but you did say:
"I pointed out that there is, in fact, no such qualification in his statements about prayer in Scripture."
I say that there is, in fact, such qualification in his statements about prayer in scripture.
You are wrong, and I will explain why. Then, I intend to move on to other threads, as this one has pretty much been exhausted.
As I said in an earlier post, you wrote that I misinterpreted what Jesus was saying, arguing that Jesus said that prayer had to be “for him,” or some such nonsense. I pointed out that there is, in fact, no such qualification in his statements about prayer in Scripture. You cite quotes attributed to Jesus from the Book of John which state that prayer must be “in my name” (Jesus’s) and twist that into “for him” or “on behalf of Jesus.”
First, the biblical passages to which I was referring make no mention even of the “in my name” proviso to prayer. Let’s begin with Matthew 7:7-8, in which Jesus is quoted as follows:
“Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
Nope, no “in my name” requirement there, according to the Gospel of Matthew. Everyone who asks receives, he says.
Matthew 17:20 Jesus reiterates that same message:
“For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”
OK, Jesus says you have to have “faith,” and not much faith at that. Since a mustard seed is a tiny inanimate object about the size of a grain of salt, it is easy to see that the faith of a mustard seed is fairly small. So, Jesus’s point is that if you even have the tiniest bit of faith, you can move mountains. But, still, no need to pray “in his name.”
In case you think Jesus was speaking figuratively about moving mountains, he wasn’t. Read in Matthew 21:21-22 the following:
“I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
You can throw mountains into the sea, literally, Jesus said. Again, it takes “faith” that God will grant your prayer and you must not doubt that God will grant your prayer, i.e. you have to “believe” your prayer will be fulfilled. And not only can you pitch a mountain into the sea,you will receive WHATEVER you ask for in your prayer. That’s exactly what Jesus supposedly said, and, again, there is no mention of any need to ask for it “in Jesus’s name.”
Another apostle agrees. In fact, while none of the Gospels was likely written before 70 A.D., a generation or so after Jesus died, Christologists generally agree that the Gospel of Mark was written first. And guess what Jesus said according to Mark 11:24? He said:
“Therefore I tell you, WHATEVER you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Whoa, another evangelical claiming that Jesus said, basically, “You want it, you can have it, just close your eyes and “believe” you will get it? Yep, and not even a requirement the prayer be in Jesus’s name.
So, in sum, according to Matthew and Mark, prayers to God are granted to those who believe (with no doubt) God will grant the prayer. Granted, as you note, John wrote that Jesus added that the prayer must be “in Jesus’s name.” Why John disagreed with Matthew and Mark is anybody’s guess, but then most scholars view John as off on his own little agenda, and the Gospel of John as being the last of the gospels. In any event, all he added was that the praying person had to pray “in Jesus’s name.” The plain and unambiguous meaning of that is that the praying person needs to pray TO Jesus, or at least invoke the name of Jesus while praying to God. Nowhere does any biblical passage say that only prayers asking for something for Jesus’s benefit are granted.
Don’t bother quoting some Christian apologists who say Jesus did not mean “in my name” to be some “magic words,” or that God only grants prayers that please God. That’s not what Jesus said, according to Matthew and Mark. The apologists have to contort the literal meaning in the quotes attributed to Jesus to explain why prayer doesn’t work. Their explanation that “in my name” should not be literally interpreted, but rather should be figuratively interpreted, provides the apologist with the perfect “Catch 22” argument. It goes like this: I pray “in the name of Jesus” for a good friend or relative to recover from terminal cancer. I believe God will listen and grant my unselfish prayer for another, and of course, I live a virtuous life of great works and devotion to God and Jesus. My friend or relative dies of the cancer. Why was my prayer ignored? It wasn’t ignored, say the apologists. God and Jesus must have decided my prayer wasn’t “for Jesus,” so of course, it had to be turned down. Come on. Who are we kidding here? The correct answer is, prayers are never answered. If they seem to be, it is due to coincidence in a universe in which there is no deity.