--- title: "Who was Jesus praying to?" description: "The objection “If Jesus is the Father, then who was He praying to — Himself?”, stated at full strength and answered from Scripture." url: "https://onegodapologetics.com/academy/lab/who-was-jesus-praying-to/" source: "One God Apologetics" section: "The Objection Lab" tags: ["godhead"] license: "Free to read and quote with attribution." --- # Who was Jesus praying to? > The objection, in the words its strongest advocate would use: “If Jesus is the Father, then who was He praying to — Himself?” *An objection answered at https://onegodapologetics.com/academy/lab/who-was-jesus-praying-to/* ## The objection at full strength Prayer is not a monologue. It is address: an “I” speaking to a “thou,” and Jesus prayed that way all the time. He rose before dawn to pray (Mark 1:35). At Lazarus’s tomb He said, “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me” (John 11:41). In John 17 He lifts His eyes to heaven, asks the Father to glorify Him “with thine own self,” and speaks of the Father and Himself as “we” (John 17:5, 11). He counts the Father and Himself as two witnesses (John 8:17–18). On the cross He cries, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). If the Son simply *is* the Father, these prayers are either theater or a man talking to himself. Saying “the human nature prayed” does not solve it, because natures do not pray; persons do. Someone is speaking, and someone else is listening. That is what Trinitarians mean by distinct persons. ## The ninety-second answer Not Himself. The man Christ Jesus was praying to God. Jesus is fully human, with a real human mind and will, and a real man must pray (Heb 5:7). He is also God manifest in flesh: “God was in Christ” (2 Cor 5:19). So His prayers are the genuine communion of the Son, in His humanity, with the eternal Spirit who fills heaven and earth (Jer 23:24). The distinction is between God and man in Christ (1 Tim 2:5), not between persons inside God. ## The five-minute answer This is the question Apostolic believers hear most often, and it deserves a careful answer. The answer has four parts: what Oneness does *not* say, who is praying, how the hard sayings fit, and why Trinitarians need the same answer. **1. Jesus was not talking to Himself.** Oneness theology does not teach that Jesus was the Father putting on a show, or that He prayed to Himself. That caricature assumes there is nothing in Christ but deity. Scripture says otherwise. The Son is a real and complete human being. He “increased in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:52), was weary (John 4:6), and “was in all points tempted like as we are” (Heb 4:15), though “God cannot be tempted with evil” (James 1:13). A man with a real human mind and will must pray, and Jesus did: > Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; > > — Hebrews 5:7 (KJV) Notice where Hebrews places these prayers: “in the days of his flesh.” They belong to the incarnation. Had Jesus not prayed, He would not have been a true man, and He could not be our high priest, “made like unto his brethren” in all things (Heb 2:17). **2. The one praying is the man Christ Jesus; the one prayed to is God.** Paul puts it in one line: > For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; > > — 1 Timothy 2:5 (KJV) There is one God, and there is a man who stands between God and men. That man is not a second God. He is the one in whom God dwells fully: > God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself > > — 2 Corinthians 5:19 (KJV) > For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. > > — Colossians 2:9 (KJV) And God did not leave heaven empty when He was manifest in flesh: “Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD” (Jer 23:24). So when Jesus prays, God manifested in flesh, speaking with a genuinely human voice, addresses God in His transcendence, the Spirit who fills all things. The communion is real, and so is the dependence. But it is the communion of a man with God, not a conversation between two divine persons. That is why the same Jesus who prays can say, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9), and “the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10).[^1] **3. The hard sayings fit.** In John 17:3 Jesus calls the Father “the only true God” and Himself the one “whom thou hast sent.” That is how a man speaks of God. On the cross He says “My God” (Matt 27:46), and after the resurrection He speaks of “my God, and your God” (John 20:17). No Trinitarian thinks God the Son has a God over Him in His deity; these sayings belong to His humanity. When Jesus calls Himself and the Father two witnesses (John 8:17–18), He names two testimonies His hearers could not dismiss: the man standing before them, and the Father who bore witness to Him from heaven (John 5:37). **4. Trinitarians give the same answer.** Ask a Trinitarian why the Son, if He is co-equal with the Father, needs to pray for strength, asks to be saved from death, or says the Father knows the hour and He does not (Mark 13:32). The classical answer is that He did these things *as man*, in His human nature. That is the Oneness answer. The prayers prove that Jesus is truly human. They do not prove that God is three. As for “natures do not pray, persons do”: in Oneness theology Jesus is one person, the Son of God, who is both God and man. When He prays, He prays as a man, with a human mind and will, to the God who dwells in Him and fills heaven and earth. Scripture never says the one He addresses is a second divine person. It says He is “the only true God” (John 17:3). ## The trap to avoid The most common mistake is saying, “Jesus was praying to Himself,” or treating His prayers as a demonstration staged for the crowd. It sounds like a dodge, it accepts the caricature, and it denies that Jesus was truly human. John 11:42 shows that one prayer was spoken aloud for the bystanders’ sake; it does not turn Gethsemane into a performance. Don’t say “the flesh prayed to the Spirit” either, as if Jesus were a body with God inside and no human mind or will. Give the two-natures answer: the man Christ Jesus prayed to God (1 Tim 2:5). God in flesh addressed God in transcendence, because “God was in Christ” (2 Cor 5:19) and still fills heaven and earth (Jer 23:24). And don’t deny that any distinction exists. It is real; it lies between God and the humanity He took, not between persons within God. ## A model answer Jesus wasn’t praying to Himself. The man Christ Jesus was praying to God. Paul says it in one sentence: “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” One God. One man who mediates. Jesus wasn’t an actor in a human costume. He grew in wisdom. He got tired. He was tempted in every point like we are, and God cannot be tempted. Hebrews says that “in the days of his flesh” He offered up prayers with strong crying and tears. A real man prays. If Jesus hadn’t prayed, He wouldn’t have been truly human. But that man is not a second God. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” In Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And the God who dwelt in Him didn’t leave heaven empty: “Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.” So when Jesus prays, God manifest in flesh is addressing God in His transcendence. The communion is real. It’s the communion of a man with God. And you give the same answer. When I ask why God the Son needs strength, or asks to be saved from death, or doesn’t know the hour, you’ll tell me He did that as man. I agree. The prayers prove Jesus is human. They don’t prove God is three. In John 17 the one He prays to is “the only true God,” and that God is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. ## The verses - Hebrews 5:7 - 1 Timothy 2:5 - 2 Corinthians 5:19 - Colossians 2:9 - Jeremiah 23:24 - John 14:9–10 - John 17:3 - Luke 2:52 ## Notes [^1]: David K. Bernard, The Oneness of God. Word Aflame Press, 1983; the discussion of the prayers of Christ and His two natures. ## Read the case in full - [Oneness Theology: A Working Compendium](https://onegodapologetics.com/library/oneness-theology-a-working-compendium/) — A short but complete map of Oneness theology: the one God of Israel, manifested in flesh as Jesus Christ. It works through the Hebrew and Greek of the key Old and New Testament texts, the typology of the angel, the tabernacle and the priesthood, and the apostolic practice of baptism in Jesus’ name. Each contested text is set beside the strongest Trinitarian reading before it is answered. - [Ten Objections to Oneness, Answered](https://onegodapologetics.com/library/ten-objections-to-oneness-answered/) — The ten objections Oneness believers hear most often, each stated first in its strongest Trinitarian form and then answered from Scripture. The final section tests the claim that the church always confessed three persons, with names and dates from Noetus and Praxeas to the councils of 325 and 381.