In the latest edition of his Friday Church News Notes, David Cloud states that Southern Baptist pastor Dan Yeary “did not pray in Jesus’ name” when he gave the closing prayer at the Republican National Convention. Specifically, Mr. Cloud reports, “The Bible says there is no access to God except through Jesus Christ, but this Southern Baptist pastor didn’t pray in Jesus’ name.”
I can recall several prayers from the Bible, but I can’t recall any which close with “In Jesus name. Amen.”
Mr. Cloud, like most fundamentalists (myself included), goes a long way to establish the authority of Scripture over tradition, but by requiring the word “in Jesus’ name” to be present in a prayer for the prayer to actually be in Jesus’ name, is not Mr. Cloud elevating his tradition to a level of authority reserved only for the Scriptures?
What do you think? Does prayer require the words “in Jesus’ name” for it to be so? The question also extends to baptism; does baptism require the baptizer to recite “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost” for the baptism to actually be in God’s name?
God knows how he prayed and what the condition of his heart. Too many Pharisees in the church it causes the world to laugh at us and not take us seriously.
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carol: I haven’t a problem with rebuking, reproving, or correcting fellow Christians — the Scriptures demand we fight for the truth in this manner — however, the basis of that correction must forever be the Scriptures themselves.
David Cloud is a fundamental, independent Baptist; he operates a fairly major literature ministry which exposes the a lot of error within the modern church — problem is, he often takes this way too far by “exposing” things which are by no means error.
In actuality, that encompasses far too much for me to expose here — he has whole books defending the mistaken (and cultish) tradition of King James Onlyism or attacking contemporary Christian music — but every now and again he publishes something which I can’t ignore.
I respect that he wants to be a “watcher” within the Christian community — there are far too few of them — but somebody’s gotta watch the watchers, you know?
Who is Mr Cloud and how daring is he to criticize how a fellow believer prays? There are something I just don’t want to have to give an account for, criticizing how another Christ followers prays is one of them.
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Mr Cloud is referring to what I guess is John 14:12-14 in a very literal way. I say it but not every time I pray and I would hope that God’s answer to my prayers wouldn’t hinge on 3 simple words. If I am IN Christ – In His will then I would be doing and praying In HIs NAME.
I must admit though that I have heard another beleiver pray and when they didn’t close their prayer with “In Jesus name” it bothered me a little so I still have some work to do with that.
As far as baptism, I have known some friends in the Pentecostal circle who whole-heartedly believe that the only way to be baptized is “In the name of Jesus only” and they will tell you that even if you are baptized in the name of the Godhead you have not been baptized rightly until you are re-baptized in the name of Jesus
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