- “…Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught His disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.” {Luke 11:1-2}
- “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” {Ephesians 5:20}
- “…we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” {1 John 2:1}
- “Jehovah, the eternal, self-existent, uncreated One, Himself the Source and Sustainer of all, is alone entitled to supreme reverence and worship. Patriarchs and Prophets, 305” {Ellen White: SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 7A, p 439.2
- “The great Jehovah (the Father) has proclaimed from His throne, ‘This is My beloved Son.’ Matthew 3:17.” {Ellen White: Desire of Ages, p. 579.4}
- “…it is God (the Father), the only true and living God, to Whom our worship and reverence are due… Let the brightest example the world has yet seen be your example, rather than the greatest and most learned men of the age, who know not God, nor Jesus Christ Whom he has sent. The Father and the Son alone are to be exalted.” {Ellen White: The Youth’s Instructor, July 7, 1898 par. 1, 2}
Here are the following facts. As an answer to the question of how to pray to God, Jesus unequivocally says that we should pray to God the Father! He doesn’t tell to us that we should pray to the God of the Trinity and He also doesn’t tell us that we should pray to the holy Spirit!
But we do see elsewhere that our prayer should be to the Father in the name of His Son, Who is our Intercessor. Of course, prayer also belongs to Jesus. Why don’t we see that we should pray to the holy Spirit? Why did Ellen White and our pioneers, and most Adventists, never directly pray personally to the holy Spirit? Why are we seeing prayer to the holy Spirit becoming a more and more common practice these days?
- “…he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him.” {John 9:35,38}
- “…Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” {Revelation 5:12}
- “And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb…” {Revelation 5:8}
- “…Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb…” {Revelation 5:13}
Even though subject to the Father, Jesus is of course without a doubt God, according to the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy:
- “Fallen men, in one sense, could not be companions for Christ, for they could not enter into sympathy with His Divine nature, and hold communion with the world’s Redeemer.” {Ellen White: Signs of the Times, December 11, 1879, par. 3}
- “I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.” {Hosea 11:9}
Here we can see clearly that Jesus, as the Son of God, a Divine Being along with the Father, is worthy of glory, honor, and prayer – even while He was here on Earth. We know according to Revelation 19:10 that only Divine Beings are worthy of worship and prayer! Nevertheless, the Bible emphasises the Truth that God the Father is the Supreme Ruler, which the pioneers also confirmed:
- “And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to Him That’s at on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever.” {Revelation 4:9}
- “Let no one, therefore, who honors Christ at all, give Him less honor than He gives the Father, for this would be to dishonor the Father by just so much, but let all, with the angels in heaven, worship the Son,having no fear that they are worshiping and serving the creature instead of the Creator.” {E. J. Waggoner: Christ And His Righteousness, p. 24, 1890}
Nowhere in either the Bible or the Spirit of Prophecy will you find any example of prayer to the holy Spirit or a command to pray to the holy Spirit. Isn’t it strange: if He was really an autonomous Divine Being, doesn’t He deserve direct prayer? Trinitarians, who in the meantime have begun to, contrary to the Bible, to pray directly to the holy Spirit, argue that they do it because there is “implicit Biblical support” for it. But we know that for everything that Jesus did, He clearly said, “It is written…”!
Another argument used to try to explain the lack of prayer to the holy Spirit in the Bible, is that, within the plan of salvation, the holy Spirit took on the “role” of the one who withdrew and renounced Himself from being honored or directly visible. Why did He have to renounce being directly visible? The Bible says that the Father and the Son are Spirit, but they are visible as well!
This is all nonsensical, since Jesus, even when He completely humbled Himself as He walked the Earth, still received direct prayer! The Bible and Spirit of Prophecy confirm the truth that only the Father and the Son receive prayer, and we will never find a description of the holy Spirit as a being or as someone we can pray to – not even after the mission and plan of salvation are completed. Sadly, some ignore these clear and true facts!
Did Ellen White ever emphasise the importance of kneeling in prayer to God?
- “Both in public and in private worship, it is our duty to bow up on our knees before God when we offer our petitions to Him. Jesus, our example, ‘kneeled down, and prayed.’ And of His disciples it is recorded that they, too, ‘kneeled down, and prayed.’ Stephen ‘kneeled.’ Paul declared: ‘I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ In confessing before God the sins of Israel, Ezra knelt. Daniel ‘kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God.’And the invitation of the psalmist is: O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.“ {Ellen White: Review & Herald, November 30, 1905, par. 16}
This Text is part of the book First Commandment OR Trinity? – Encyclopedia of Evidences of the Old Trampled Truths of All Areas