Evidence · Case 04 · The Trinity
Jesus is worshiped and invoked by name
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Disciples worship Jesus after he walks on the water and the wind ceases as he boards the boat, and again after the resurrection. Stephen, dying, prays directly to Jesus. Paul describes the whole church as those who “call on the name” of Jesus. The Greek verb for worship here, proskyneo, can also mean simply to bow or pay homage, and it is used of humans elsewhere, so the argument does not rest on the word alone. It rests on the pattern: Jesus accepts what an angel refuses in Revelation 22:9, and heaven gives it to God and the Lamb together in Revelation 5.
Sources
Matthew 14:33, NASB.
Acts 7:59, NASB.
1 Corinthians 1:2, NASB.
Objections & responses
- Stephen’s dying words are in Acts, written decades later by a believer with an agenda. And “calling on the name” in 1 Corinthians 1:2 could be a formula of allegiance, not prayer.
Acts is later and its author is a believer, granted. The stronger evidence is Paul, who is earlier and firsthand. He prays to the Lord for the removal of his thorn (2 Corinthians 12:8), ends 1 Corinthians with the Aramaic prayer Maranatha (our Lord, come), and describes Christians as those who call on the name of the Lord, which in Joel 2:32, the passage he is quoting, means calling on YHWH in prayer. Allegiance and prayer are not separable here: calling on a name for salvation is what one does to God.