The Nephites pray to Jesus, rather than to the Father, but Jesus does not stop them. Given the model of the Lord’s Prayer and contemporary instruction to address prayers to God the Father, why did Jesus allow this “incorrect” prayer? A survey of LDS commentary on this topic shows relative agreement.
Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert Millet suggest:
The Savior had previously instructed the Nephites concerning the proper language of prayer (3 Ne. 13:9). They knew that they should pray “unto the Father, in my name” (3 Ne. 18:23), yet under the influence of the Spirit they prayed to Jesus “calling him their Lord and their God.” He was and is both Redeemer and God. In reverential worship they directed their prayers to the Savior, and he did not stop them nor correct them. It appears that, in this case, it was appropriate because a resurrected God stood in their very presence (v. 22). Elder Bruce R. McConkie has written: “Jesus was present before them as the symbol of the Father. Seeing him, it was as though they saw the Father; praying to him, it was as though they prayed to the Father. It was a special and unique situation that as far as we know has taken place only once on earth during all the long ages of the Lord’s hand-dealings with his children.”
In other words, McConkie and Millet suggest that this prayer directly to Jesus was permissible as a special instance. Thus, this occasion is not a model for our own prayers but a unique occurrence because Jesus was among them in glory.
Elsewhere, Elder Bruce R. McConkie hypothesizes a possibly analogous situation with the Old World twelve while Jesus was among them:
Perhaps it is a situation similar to that which is involved in receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost; as long as Jesus was with the disciples they did not enjoy the full manifestations of the Holy Ghost (John 16:7). Perhaps as long as Jesus was personally with them, many of their petitions were addressed directly to him rather than to the Father. Such was the course followed by the Nephites when the resurrected and glorified Lord ministered among them. They prayed directly to him and not to the Father [he then quotes 3 Ne. 19:17–18, 22]. Perhaps, also, there was a matter of propriety which would keep prayers from being said in Jesus’ name as long as he was present and going “from grace to grace” (D&C 93:13) in working out his own salvation. In any event, prayers in his name were to commence “at that day” (v. 26), meaning after his resurrection.
Donald W. Parry, professor of Hebrew Bible at Brigham Young University, also agrees that this occasion was an exception, authorized by the resurrected Savior’s physical presence:
The command to pray to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ has been accepted without reservation by the Latter-day Saints in this dispensation. In 1916, Joseph F. Smith declared that “we… accept without any question the doctrines we have been taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith and by the Son of God Himself that we pray to God, the Eternal Father, in the name of His Only Begotten Son” (Conference Report [Oct. 1916] 6). It is therefore not appropriate to pray to any other being than the Father.
If the instructions are crystal clear concerning to whom we must address our prayers, then why did the Nephites pray directly to Jesus, as recorded in 3 Nephi 19:18? The answer in part lies in the fact that Jesus is a resurrected deity. “And they did pray unto Jesus, calling him their Lord and their God.” A second explanation for the multitude’s praying to Jesus is found in his words to Heavenly Father, “they pray unto me because I am with them” (3 Ne. 19:22). It is also possible that the Saints began praying to Jesus as a natural reaction to and an acknowledgement of his glory.
John W. Welch adds some other possibilities:
Here in verse 18 the disciples pray to Jesus instead of God the Father.
Well, let’s look at chapter 19. In verse 6 he says they should “pray unto the Father in the name of Jesus. And the disciples did pray unto the Father also in the name of Jesus.” Now, verse 18: “And behold, they began to pray; and they did pray unto Jesus, calling him their Lord and their God.” I think that if you read both passages together, they are praying to Jesus in a way but knowing that they are praying to the Father through him. The way I’ve always understood that is to read verse 18 in the context of all of the instructions that have been given.
In a dedicatory prayer Joseph Smith prays to Christ also in the Doctrine and Covenants.
I suppose it is proper, if you wish to pray to Jesus in some sense. Jesus is God; he is a member of the trinity. I don’t mean that in a sectarian sense, but he is a member of the Godhead. Some prayers are prayers of thanksgiving; some prayers are simply prayers of expression of devotion. One could certainly pray to any exalted being in that sense, I suppose.
These reflections yield some commonalities. There is unanimous agreement that we are commanded to pray to the Father in the name of the Son, not directly to the Son. Since Jesus allows these prayers to him, it is an exception to be explained by the unusual circumstances. However, Welch points out that Joseph Smith prayed directly to Jesus while dedicating the Kirtland Temple on March 27, 1836 (D&C 109:34, 42). This second scriptural occasion also technically violated the “order” of prayer, therefore calling the whole solution into question.
Interestingly enough, however, that dedicatory prayer helps provide a more complete solution to this particular issue. As Joseph Smith gave the dedicatory prayer for the Kirtland Temple, he obviously addressed the Father (D&C 109:4, 10, 14, 22). However, in verses 34 and 42, he addresses “Jehovah” (using that name, not “Jesus”). Our contemporary doctrinal understanding is that Jesus’s premortal name was Jehovah/Yahweh. According to James E. Talmage:
Jesus of Nazareth, who in solemn testimony to the Jews declared Himself the I Am or Jehovah, who was God before Abraham lived on earth, was the same Being who is repeatedly proclaimed as the God who made covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the God who led Israel from the bondage of Egypt to the freedom of the promised land, the one and only God known by direct and personal revelation to the Hebrew prophets in general.
The identity of Jesus Christ with the Jehovah of the Israelites was well understood by the Nephite prophets, and the truth of their teachings was confirmed by the risen Lord who manifested Himself unto them shortly after His ascension from the midst of the apostles at Jerusalem. This is the record: “And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto them saying, Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.”
This is how Welch read Joseph’s words as addressed mostly to God the Father with two occurrences of addressing “Jehovah” and, hence, “Jesus” under his premortal name. However, Joseph probably did not have the same understanding. Talmage clarified the doctrinal identification of Jesus Christ and Yahweh at least by 1915 (first printing of Jesus the Christ), and it is now official Church doctrine. A close reading of Section 109, however, suggests that Joseph Smith was using Jehovah as a title for the Father. Verses 29–43 are addressed to “O Lord,” but the specific “Lord” is both “Holy Father” and “Jehovah.” The clearest way of understanding this prayer is acknowledging that Joseph saw them as interchangeable titles.
This example also helps clarify the Nephites’ prayer to Jesus. They were not praying to Jesus, who had completed his mortal mission in Palestine but to Yahweh-Messiah. Beginning with the original manuscript’s designation of Mary as the “mother of God,” the Nephites had understood their coming Messiah to be their God (Yahweh). Although Jesus has made it clear during this visit that there is a distinction between the Father and the Son (3 Ne. 11:7, 25, 36), Nephite scripture had not emphasized this differentiation. They understood God the Father as “the Most High God” and Yahweh as the son of the Most High God. Nevertheless, Yahweh was Israel’s “father” when the context was between Yahweh in heaven and Israel on earth. (See “Excursus: The Nephite Understanding of God,” following 1 Nephi 11.)
Beginning with Jesus’s appearance in the New World, a similar shift in terminology and emphasis occurred. The presence of Jesus/Yahweh in their midst speaking of his father required accepting a new level of precision that was reflected in their vocabulary.
The Nephites are therefore praying to their Messiah (Yahweh) whom they always understood as their God. For this reason, they were “calling him their Lord and their God.” Jesus would not have stopped them from praying to him because he comprehended that their understanding was in transition. Some may have immediately understood the distinction between the Father and the Son; but this concept would not yet have become clear to others, especially those who had not been present on the first day.
Even for those to whom the distinction was clear, the Messiah’s miraculous presence in their midst had an emotional weight that overrode doctrinal understanding. At that moment, what counted was the yearning in the hearts—that un-subject-ed prayer and soul-felt yearning focused on this deified being among them.