Acts 7:59
Acts 7:5959While they were stoning him, Stephen appealed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
JWs acknowledge that Stephen addressed Jesus in his dying moments but argue this was a vision-based request to a nearby spirit being, not prayer in the religious sense. Prayer, they insist, belongs exclusively to Jehovah. Stephen was speaking directly to the Jesus he saw in the vision of verse 56.
Stephen's dying words — "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" — echo ("Into your hand I entrust my spirit"), which is addressed to Jehovah. Stephen consciously addresses to Jesus the words David addressed to God. This is one of three independent witnesses to prayer directed at Jesus: Paul "three times entreated the Lord" (, where the response mentions "the power of the Christ"), and John prays "Come, Lord Jesus" (). Three authors, three contexts, same practice. If Jesus is not God, the New Testament records and approves of systematic idolatry. in the NWT itself uses the word "making appeal" — a prayerful act directed at Jesus, not merely a conversational remark.