...Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this Day our daily Bread. And forgive us our Trespassings, as We forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into Temptation, but deliver us from Evil.
This is a comon prayer among many christians, and in many churches. It is how Jesus thought us to pray, and the prayer is in Matthew, 6.10-14. But rarely did I ever hear this prayer among JWs! Why is that?! I have a theory! I`m definitely not sure about it, but I would like to hear comments:
The prayer starts of with "Hallowed be thy Name". In another thread, DefD used this as an example of why the God of the NT is also YHWH (or as JWs would say it, "Jehovah"). The fact that even Jesus told us to "hallow gods name", was something that he used as an argument against the Trinity-doctrine. Ok, but how about the rest of the prayer? My point is, that the prayer Jesus is teaching his followers, is quite unlike a prayer you would say to the God of the Old Testament. Some of the sentences catches my attention:
"Give us this day our daily bread": "Bread" is mentioned quite often in the NT. At the last supper, they are eating bread, and once, Jesus fed five thousand people with five breads and two fishes. Nowhere in the OT could I find anything particular about "bread".
"Forgive us our Trespassings, as we forgive those who trespass against us": This sounds nothing like the God of the OT, but more like Mathew 5.38-39: 5:38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 5:39 But I say to you, do not resist the evildoer. But whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well. " So, Jesus is in fact here spaking against the OT!
"And lead us not into Temptation, but deliver us from Evil": This sounds a lot like when Christ himself was tempted. Satan offered him the entire world, and Christ definitely was tempted.
My question is: When we pray "our Father which art in Heaven", is it more likely (the rest of the prayer taken into consideration) that we are praying to God, as in Jahve, or to God, as in Jahve, Christ and the holy spirit? The God to which we are here taught to pray, sounds nothing like the god of the OT. And to me, it seems that many of the things we are taught to pray about, is related directly to Jesus` own life.
(I`m not sure whether Christ was tempted before or after he taught this prayer, or if he did the bread-and-fish-trick before or after this prayer, but seen from a christian viewpoint, I don`t think it matters) To spell it out: Is this the god of trinity, or is it Yhwh? To me, it looks more like the trinity-god. Which could easily explain why it isn`t a prayer JWs use.
Am I onto something? Or is it all... ?