English 
Chinese 
Dutch 
Arabic 
Spanish 
Portuguese 
Russian 
French 
Italian 
German 
Japanese 
Continue reading with a subscription
Get unlimited access to all our premium content and exclusive features.
Enjoy unlimited access, cancel anytime.
Summary
- To call on the name of Jesus is to pray to him as Lord, trusting him to save and to help.
- The phrase begins in the Old Testament: “then began men to call upon the name of the LORD” (Genesis 4:26).
- To invoke is to call on someone by name for help; the Greek verb is epikaleomai, “to call upon, to invoke.”
- Peter and Paul took Joel’s promise, “whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered,” and spoke it of Jesus (Acts 2:21, 36; Romans 10:9–13).
- Praying in Jesus’ name means asking on his account and by his will, “not by bare mentioning of his name” (Westminster Larger Catechism 180).
- The name is not a spell: the sons of Sceva used it without knowing Jesus and fled “naked and wounded” (Acts 19:16).
- The Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner,” is the Orthodox Church’s usual way of calling on his name.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- The Holy Bible, King James Version, quoted from Bible Gateway: Genesis 4:26, 12:8; Exodus 20:7; Psalm 116:3–4, 13, 145:18; Joel 2:32; Matthew 1:21, 7:21–23; Mark 16:17; Luke 18:13, 18:38; John 14:13, 16:23–24; Acts 2:21, 2:36, 3:6, 4:10–12, 7:59, 9:14, 9:17, 16:18, 19:13–16, 22:16, 25:11; Romans 10:9–13; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Philippians 2:9–10; Colossians 3:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; 1 John 5:14.
- Mark 16, with the editors’ note on verses 9–20, in the English Standard Version.
- Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, with Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance: epikaleomai (1941).
- Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament: qara (7121).
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 430–435 and 2663–2669, the Holy See.
- Orthodox Church in America, The Jesus Prayer, from The Orthodox Faith, volume IV.
- The Westminster Larger Catechism, questions 180–181, and The Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 21, Orthodox Presbyterian Church edition.
- The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689), chapter 22.
- Martin Luther, The Small Catechism, the Ten Commandments, Book of Concord.
- Frederick G. Holweck, Holy Name of Jesus, Catholic Encyclopedia (1910), New Advent.
- Catholic Culture, 3 January: Optional Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, with the prayer of the day from the Roman Missal.
Response
-
Bernard Versteeg
JHWH was Jehovah , the father of Jesus . So we do not pray to Jesus but to Jehovah in Jesus name.
Leave a Reply