Disproving Atheism by the Prayers of Jesus: The Sinless God-man Worshiped God the Father

The very essence of prayer to God flies in the face of atheism. The nature of prayer is a call to God in Jesus Christ powered by the Holy Ghost. Within this chapter, we shall see the essence of prayer form the Lord Jesus Christ. We shall see the prayers of Jesus demonstrate God’s existence, God’s teaching, God’s communion with His Son, and God’s omnipresence and supports the explicit possibility and actuality of prayers of God’s people to the Triune God.  This is merely a brief presentation of the true reality of Christian prayer supported and confirmed by the King of Israel. 

The question arises, why did Jesus of Nazareth pray to the Father, if such a person did not exist? Moreover, why did Jesus of Nazareth communicate to the Father in prayer, if such a person, could not hear, comprehend and understand the mere prayer intentions of Jesus? If there is no justification for the prayers of Jesus, why would Jesus engage in them? Why would a man who claimed to be God Incarnate, and taught in accordance with God’s ancient commandments, and manifested perfect humility, lie or erroneously give the outward impression of praying to God, when such an activity of submission is genuinely bogus according to atheism? Is atheism right to claim, that Jesus did not communicate to a supernatural person? That the Gospel accounts in general are merely religious myth?

The Christian Scriptures are a collection of books; therefore it is not circular reasoning. Within the totality of the Christian Scriptures is an inspired special revelation from God through the work of holy man by the Spirit of truth: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17 NIV). Jesus Himself declared that His word is truth (John 17:17).  The burden of proof is upon the skeptic who denies the trustworthiness of Holy Writ.

                Atheists claim that the supernatural prayer or uncanny accounts in the New Testament Gospels are not genuinely true. If Jesus is not who He claimed to be, then the atheist has right to substantiate and cast serious reservation on the statements of Jesus opposed to His claims abut God’s existence, claims about Himself, prayer and other profound values of Christianity. However, if the claims of Jesus are true, the atheist ought to acknowledge the Truth. The atheist argues that morality can be known apart from God’s existence. If the atheist rejects Jesus, the chapter attempts to demonstrate that the atheist has betrayed his own principles, and thus shown by the face of reality itself to be inconsistent.  The prayers of Jesus speak to the reality of existence about prayer itself.  The atheist is inconsistent because he denies the reality of the Incarnate King.  The reality of Jesus is a plain and real reality that the atheist has no business rejecting because it is true based upon inerrant Scripture.

The prayers of Jesus reflect profound philosophical, theological and historical truth. Before we investigate the significance of the prayers of Jesus, we must turn to the examination of the identity of Jesus. For the identity of Jesus will demonstrate the validity, trustworthiness, legitimacy of His claims. What Jesus says is true because He is God incarnate.  The Holy Scriptures records significant essentials about the identity of Jesus. Christianity acknowledges the Hypostatic Union of Jesus refers to his two natures: human and divine in one person, Jesus Christ. In Christian thought Jesus is fully man and fully God. Jesus is not partially man and partially God. Jesus is entirely man and entirely God. Jesus is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.  The theology of the Trinity is that, God is one in essence, three in person. The three persons are co-equal, co-existing, co-eternal. The three persons existed as Jehovah God. Jehovah refers to the being of God: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In regards to Jesus, he always existed as God. There never was a time when Jesus was not God. Jesus entered into humanity through the Incarnation (John 1:1-4; 1:14 cf. Phil. 2:5-8). Jesus pre-existed before His birth in Bethlehem (Ps. 2:7; cf. John 8:58). Jesus took upon Himself the nature of man (Phil. 2:5-11). Jesus Himself acknowledged His own divinity (John 20:28-29). The apostles taught the divinity of Jesus (Col. 1:15-19 cf. Heb. 1:8). The testimony of Jesus about Himself is sinlessness. Jesus said: “Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?” (John 8:46 NASB). If Jesus is sinless, He is free from error, and if He is free from error, what He speaks is absolute truth.  His apostles proclaimed the sinlessness of Jesus (2 Cor. 5:21 cf. 1 Peter 1:19). Therefore if Jesus is fully God and fully man apart from sin or error; He must be acknowledged as possessing (divine truth without error) as totality of Holy Scripture possesses of which atheism objects.

                God the Son existed before man existed.   It is hardly inconsistent for the God-man to be submissive to the God the Father; for the God-man humbly submitted to His Beloved Father.  Within the family, a wife is submissive to her husband, yet both are equal in value.  So too, then, the God-man is co-equal with the Father yet submissive.  The Holy Spirit is submissive to the Father and the Son yet co-equal with the Father and the Son.  What a radical Christian thought it is for the God-man to converse to the Father!  If you wish to understand prayer, look to Jesus.  If you wish to comprehend how to pray, look to Jesus.  Why, oh man, do you deny His example?  Perhaps you call Him a good teacher, yet you do not follow His good ways.  How inconsistent!  Your ways of rejecting the gospel light is a sure indication of divine judgment.  This does not demonstrate three “Gods,” but One God Who is Eternally Self-Existent.  Jesus said “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30 KJV).  Jesus is of the same substance as God the Father.  He is the God-man who died and who lives forevermore.  God created the “heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). The Incarnate Son of Man demonstrates who he is by His divine words and actions. Jesus believed He was God in human flesh. Jesus believed in the existence of the Father (John 17) and in the Holy Spirit (Gen. 1:2). Jesus spoke of God on many occasions. He was called Immanuel which means “God with us” (Matt. 1:23; cf. Is. 7:14). Jesus makes a plethora of statements of the pronouncement of God’s existence. In Mark 12, Jesus rebukes the religious leaders because of their bogus tradition, which was alien to Him, His teachings, the written Word of God. In accordance with what Jesus said, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?” (Mark 12:24 NIV).

                The New Testament exhibits unique circumstances of prayer by Jesus of Nazareth. The Holy Scriptures define prayer in basic terms, as a request and general communication to a heavenly God on behalf of the believing individual. The New Testament provides actual accounts of Jesus’ prayers. The New Testament demonstrates prayer by Jesus in connection with the existence of God. Jesus in the New Testament Gospels provides confident models of prayer of the existence of God and the legitimacy of prayer. The prayers of Jesus demonstrate that, communication between God and man is a genuine actuality. The prayers of Jesus displays further that, prayer is an opportunity to establish, possess, maintain a personal relationship with a transcendent God.

                The consistent demonstration of Jesus in the action of prayer exhibits Jesus’ commitment to a work of obedience. The nature of the prayers of Jesus are thanksgiving (John 11:41-42), adoration (Matt. 11:25-27) and intercession (John 17:1-26). If Jesus is God incarnate as the Gospels reveal, is it not true that the Father is real?  There is perfect unity between the Father and the Son.  Jesus prayed in the act of intercession for His people. The prayers of Jesus are always answered in accord with the will of the Father; for He always does what is pleasing to the Father (John 8:29).  Jesus is the Impeccable One; He did not have the capacity to sin or error.  His prayers represent perfect efficacious petitions.  Jesus committed Himself to the Father in righteousness, trustworthiness, high esteem. Jesus gave adoration to the Father. Jesus worships God as He Himself appropriately commands (John 4:23). Jesus also prayed at His baptism by John the Baptist (Luke 3:21- 22), previous to choosing the apostles (Luke 6:12-16), at Jesus’ transfiguration (Luke 9:28-29) and within Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36-42). Jesus prayed on a mountain (Matt. 14:23), in secret (Luke 5:16) and taught about prayer (Luke 11:1).  As Jesus prayed to the Father, Christians ought to pray to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

                Jesus believed and acknowledged the existence of God in recorded history in the New Testament. Jesus Himself believed to be God incarnate. His signs attested His divine identity in a sure divine fashion.  Jesus provided credible substantiation of His resurrected self, and spoke about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). Jesus by His own testimony is sinless, free form error or mistake. His bodily resurrection guarantees His teaching about Himself and other profound religious matters are necessarily true. Ipso facto! Therefore all the teachings of Jesus about Himself and His overall teaching vitae are propositionally true. If the atheist truly holds to morality or ethics, the atheist cannot deny the truth for the reality of truth itself (i.e., the preponderance of Jesus’ evidence in Holy Scripture) and, ethics by which he claims to philosophically hold. Jesus Christ is Incarnate Truth.  Submit, then, to the King of truth!

                Dear atheist, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you a message of good news.  The good news is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  His gospel is about grace, truth, forgiveness.  Repentance is turning from sin to Christ.  Confess your sins to God through Christ crucified:  “…repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15 NASB).  Will you surrender to Christ and give your life to Him?  Will you live a life of faithful obedience to Him?  Will you be zealous in constant and faithful repentance?  Does your life fall under the approval of Christ?  Is your thought life consistent with godliness?  Turn from your life of sin.  I rightly assume you are sinner.  We are moral creatures, and there will be a sure Judgment.  It approaches; the question is, will you be ready?  You stand now in the spiritual clothes of a sinner.  How shall you stand before a sinless, holy, just, righteous God?  Tell me, you suppose your scheme will avail before God if such a judgment is true?  No mere human argument conceived can get you out of His judgment.  You must turn to Christ, and be forgiven.  Do not think “I choose what to do with Christ.”  No, my friend, it is Christ Who will choose what to do with you.  But all of humanity has the sure responsibility to repent: “…repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15 NASB).

A Letter to Jesus Christ

Dear Incarnate God,

      I have been delivered by Thy blood and righteousness imputed to me by faith alone.  No matter what I belong to Thee wholly and redemptively.   I have union with You by faith alone.  Love lasts forever.  I would love to hug You and rest on Your chest and be the apple of Your eye. I hope to grow in love.  I am one of Your elect and set apart.  There is no way I am delivered apart from Thy love but I am delivered by Thy love alone.  Thou knowest all things like Peter said and thou knowest that I love Thee. 

      I was redeemed by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  It is by Thy free love and mercy and compassion that I stand delivered before Thee this day.  My goal for the last day of my life and for the Last Day of Judgment is to be quitted and give a good testimony to the Lord, knowing I am cleansed by His blood and share a good testimony like Demetrius of Third John.

      I am redeemed from my nature.  I was set free.  I was made whole.   I have been forgiven and cleansed. Oh, how precious is the name of Jesus.  It brings sweet peace to my heart and soul to merely mention Thy name.  I was blind but now I see.   I carried a great burden upon my back.  No one cures the spiritual pain of the soul like Jesus.   Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world but to forgive and save by His free grace.  He saved my soul countless times from the world, flesh and the devil.   I used my time with focus on basketball and little time on godly concerns.  I also had a wrong view of the nature of man and repentance because of family and Rome but my dad tried to help.  I am sorry this was the case about the wrong.   I was someone who decided to follow Jesus at different times in my life but especially the late summer of 2004.  I decided to really to seek to know Him and I thought I should follow Jesus.  I am unsure why it was 24 when I decided to follow Jesus but struggled with unbelief.  I think it happened this way because it was providential.  At the age of 25 I was able by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to gain assurance of salvation.  You saved me not by stained works of righteousness but by Your unconditional love that means to me “I will stay with You no matter what” is what I will never leave you nor forsake it means.  It is Your unconditional love and divine election.  It was not anything I have done but by Your mercy.  You saved a particular people by the awesome work of Jesus alone in His unified merit.  Your unified merit covers me.  The Spirit made me born again through the Word in taking out a heart of stone and giving me a heart of flesh to believe and repent.  You gave me by Your Spirit Your unified merit.  I remember You showed it to me at the camp assault in the midst of great tribulation for me.   You also did not leave me to myself but preserved me and kept me with Your people since I was born again.  I give my crown to Thee and cast it before Thy feet.  I desire to sing praises, rejoicings, blessings and thanks for all eternity.  

      You said that You would never cast us out if we come to You.  I have come to You in search of forgiveness.  I give my soul to You that You make me right with You.  I repented of everyday of my life in regards to total depravity and original sin that removed a great burden like Christian in Pilgrims Progress. I know it’s free and You forgive even sins I am not aware of.  I use to wonder if I could come to You with anything I have done wrong.  I believe You are the Man of Proverbs that is closer to a brother and a most excellent friend.  So I can come to You with everything that I have done in hope of forgiveness.  I rely on no subjective vision to say “I am forgiven” but like my mentor, Dr. Martin Luther, I rely on the written Word of God alone that clearly says I am forgiven by Your free grace.  However, there is others among us that hate free mercy like Rome.  I can easily prove this and You taught it.  It is a serious matter.  I want nothing more then to live for You.  Amen.

      I also judged myself in light of the written Word of God in the OT and NT as I went along the way as I lived on earth as a sheep, desiring to be at the right side of God’s people.  I judged myself by the Spirit of God who enables me to repent by His loving-kindnesses.  I did this so I would not be judged at the Last Day.   I saved the judgment for living on earth instead of waiting to be judged at the Last Day.  I believe there is no judgment for the elect and that means no judgment for me.   I praise You that the Spirit of God enabled me to repent.  I know I am not judged but desired to give an account to my life in the spirit of awareness, knowledge and success in redemption by Thy Word and Spirit.  The view is changed from judgment of reprobates to the elect in accessing knowledge and progression in godliness, holiness, uprightness and getting right with God to fulfill all divine and practical righteousness by the Spirit of God and the Word of God.

      I learned about sin and God and his only beloved Son in the Bible and I believe the doctrine of sola scriptura.  All these doctrines have at its core is “to God alone be the glory.”  I was unable to believe because of my nature.  You know the nature of man well and You know that the nature of man is darkness.  However, You know the light of the world because it is You.  I do not mean to say that I am condemned by mentioning darkness.  I am simply saying what the Bible says.   You saved a lost sinner as me.  All I desire this day is Thy acceptance.   I love Your redemptive grace because it sets me free.  There is a separation between common grace and redemptive grace.  I am thankful for both.   I want to be with You no matter what because for me there is no condemnation, forsakenness, damnation and leftness.  I did not enlist in Your service to be a goat or a wolf but a true sheep.  In justification I cannot get any more right with You in Your unified merit which is more than enough for a sinner to get right with You.  In glorification we get a perfect nature and a perfect heart but in regeneration we still have a heart that is imperfect heart.  It requires faith and repentance over our sin corrupt, unrighteous and non-good natures. I used Your Word to investigate what I need to repent of and I trusted in Thy work as Savior and Lord.  Thank You for Your eternal pre-existence, birth, life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, cessation and intercession to the uttermost.  I am not worthy to wear the crown so I cast it to Thy feet.  It means that You alone are worthy O Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world!  I am one of Your elect because I have evidence of being born again: faith and repentance.  I realized Your free boundless grace, mercy, forgiveness, love, tender mercies, compassions and loving-kindnesses.  I began to understand that I am forgiven and that if You are a God ready to pardon and forgive I should always go on the side of repentance or on the side of the Gospel even if I was not sure.  I thought I should take advantage of the forgiveness of Christ because He died freely.  We overcome Satan by our testimony and blood of the Lamb as it says in the book of Revelation.  The Bible says if we remain faithless He remains faithful.  If we think we are condemned in our hearts but we are not condemned God knows all things and knows we belong to Him.  I desire to hear Gospel promises and rest on Your chest like Beloved John.  We discussed about what I would do in heaven and how if something was not granted on earth, it would be granted in eternity.  I hope that this will happen and a hope is an assured thing.   This is my little testimony and I believe You are faithful to me. Thank You and I praise You because I know I am forgiven.   Amen.  In Christ Your friend.  Amen.  Sheltered in my Refuge, amen.