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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
The issue of Catholics praying to saints is one that is full of confusion. It is the official position of the Roman Catholic Church that Catholics do not pray TO saints or Mary, but rather that Cat...
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Nathan Toronga
First, praying to saints and Mary is not biblical. IT IS CATHOLIC. We do not see this practice anywhere in the bible, from Genesis through Revelation. It has its origins in the author of deviant worship. Because among pagans, the dead are gods, who have access to the Creator. At death, it is assumed that a person assumes supernatural powers, exactly the lie that was said by the serpent in Eden, "you will be like God" Genesis 3:5 A. PRAYING TO SAINTS AND MARY PRESUPPOSES THAT THE DEAD ARE CONSCIOUS: This is a fundamental flaw in this pagan practice. 1. The dead know nothing, and are not capable of loving or hating the living. Ecclesiastes 9:5-6. See also Daniel 12:13, Job 14:10-12 & 21. 2. The dead remain asleep, until the last trumpet. Then the saved, the saints (who keep God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus - Revelation 12:17) will rise. And Jesus will take us to heaven. Revelation 20:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. 3. What this means is that, you cannot claim that a dead person loves you, or hates you. They cannot do either. Only in paganism is this belief held to be reality. Thus they engage in contact with demons, disguising themselves as the dear departed ones. Take heed. B. PRAYING TO SAINTS AND MARY PRESUPPOSES THAT THE DEAD ARE OMNIPRESENT. Angels are not omnipresent, and at the resurrection, we will not be omnipresent. Only our God is omnipresent. But praying to the dead assumes that they will hear prayers of people scattered across the span of the earth, at the same time! God help us. C. PRAYING TO SAINTS AND MARY PRESUPPOSES THAT THE DEAD SIT IN COUNSEL WITH THE FATHER. Only Christ and the Holy Spirit have access to Counsels of the Father (John 16:13-14). The dead remain confined in their graves - oblivious of anything, until the last trumpet has been sounded. Acts 2:29; Matthew 24:31; John 6:44. Then they will rise. D. PRAYING TO SAINTS AND MARY PRESUPPOSES THAT THE DEAD KNOW THE WAY TO HEAVEN. In pagan theology, the dead assume godship, and will be able to follow Jesus to heaven, where they will assume their places of honour among gods. In our faith, this does not hold. Our Redeemer will actually come to TAKE us at the resurrection. And He will go with us to heaven. John 14:3. Praying to the dead is a practice of paganism. IT IS NOT BIBLICAL. The Christian has ONLY one mediator between himself and God, the Man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5; 1 John 2:1. Invoking other names implies the inadequacy of Jesus as a mediator. It suggests that He needs helpers, because alone He cannot make it.This is an act of idolatry, and an attempt at mocking the Messiah. Unfortunately, idolatry is an infectious sin, and people will tenaciously cling to it. Never mind the absence of any biblical basis whatsoever for the practice. Again, God help us. 'Dear children, keep yourselves from idols'. 1 John 5:21 Bless.
Emo Tenorio
In my opinion the very short answer is NO it's not biblical, in fact it's quite the opposite. The teaching of precepts that appear mythical and heretical and are no where in scripture or distorting that which is, to form a doctrine you want. Is just another folly of man, the addition of various narcissistic theatricals to oppose the Lord's true teachings of His simple divine grace. Jude 1 Galatians 3:1 In the Lord's true freedom....warrior on
Jeremiah Kaaya
Prayer to "Saints" or "Mary" is not Biblical. It is not written anywhere. It is false doctrine, at least according to the holy scriptures. First of all, we should never communicate with the dead because there is no reason to do so. A dead person is helpless and how could it be that the living has to resort to them in prayer. Our LORD Jesus clearly commanded us to always pray in His name and none else. Saint or no saint, we all look to Jesus for all. In the book of Acts 1:14, Mary mother of Jesus was one of the people that waited on the visitation of the Holy Spirit, meaning she was also very wanting in many spiritual things and she needed the visitation of the Holy Spirit in order to be able to go about her Christianity. Some one may ask here why don't we count them holy when they died in Christ? Who tells who a saint is? Only God knows who a saint is because only Him knows the hearts of men. We have all the power to change many things while we live, after death, nothing can be done at this stage. A dead person is dead and can't therefore help himself, how can he then be able to help the living. When we let Jesus into ourselves, we live again. And when we die in Jesus, it is the body that dies, the spirit lives. For someone to pray through another person other than Jesus, they do so through the person they knew while that person lived. However, when he/she dies, that person is no longer the one known hitherto, you should not therefore rely on them for any spiritual matters. Jesus died and rose again from the dead. We pray directly to Him because He is alive, we are confident He can respond to our prayers because He is alive. Jesus said in the book of John 14:6; He is the way, the truth, and the life. No body besides Him will ever have access to the Father without Him (Jesus). No mediums. Mediums have never been of God. Additionally, Jesus emphatically confirmed this in John 14:12-14; that whatever we pray in His name, that He will do. By this, Jesus was trying to bring our mind to order because He knew such issues of mediums would prop up. Many people in christian related religions have still been misled. There is no where in the Bible where either the Apostle Paul or Peter ever directed us to pray through them. They actually also prayed to Jesus, meaning they too looked to Jesus for their spiritual enrichment. When some one tried to interrupt Jesus while He taught with the visitation of His mother and brothers in Mark 3:33-35, Jesus had this to say; who is my mother, who are my brothers except those who do the will of God. What Jesus meant was that spiritual matters have nothing to do with how you relate with anybody, they only have to do with how you relate with God through His Son Jesus CHRIST. Many people had thought/still think that by virtue of Mary being the mother of Jesus, Jesus would/can easily listen to them through her. Jesus dymistified this notion. It is the thing that the attendants at the wedding at Cana in John 2:1-6, tried to insinuate. Jesus quickly dealt with this because He knew it would one time be misleading to many. We the living can't change any dead person's destiny, neither can any dead person change any living person's destiny. All is done and finished here (John 3:18). Only Jesus if we look to Him has the power to change our destiny because He shed His blood for that very cause. We should therefore only pray to Jesus the CHRIST, the Son of the living God, not to any "saint" nor "Mary". People and religions which pray to anybody other Jesus CHRIST the Son of the Living God, do so for other reasons, only known to them, not Christian. God bless
JD Abshire
Attempting to communicate with the dead in any manner is nothing more than a type of witchcraft. Practitioners were referred to in the Bible as having a familiar spirit (A. necromancer, one who evokes the dead). Leviticus 20:27 "A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them." 1 Timothy 2:5 "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;"
Vincent Mercado
Supporter
Is prayer to saints / Mary biblical? OH YES! All throughout scriptures, we hear instructions to pray for one another, intercede for each other, asking others to pray for us. We hear this IN CHURCH in teaching and in practice, to pray with each other, to pray for one another. Intercession for another brother's or sister's concern. Asking God to heal a friend's mother's sickness. Asking God to bring a family member into the Church. Asking for God to provide a stable job for our children. We intercede daily for our friends, family members, government leaders, our enemies, etc. We ask our friends to pray for us as well. We can can anyone, any saint, both on Earth and in Heaven to pray for us. We can ask our parents, our relative, our Mother Mary, to pray for us.
Al Mark
A proper interpretation of the Bible is key to its application. Luke 20:38 “Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” We cannot use this as a reason to say we can pray to saints. The context is that those who are no longer physically alive are alive to God, but that does not mean they are alive to those in the physical world - we are not God. We don’t relate to those who have passed on in the same way that we relate to those who are still alive physically. We can’t have conversations with them, or we are in the same boat as Saul, when he asked about Samuel through a medium in 1 Sam 28:11-15. The teaching is clear that we do not contact people who are no longer part of the physical world – Deut 18:10-12 says no to witchcraft, sorcery, necromancy or mediums. If God calls these abominations, which is one of the strongest terms for things repugnant to God, it is clear that we should not be engaged in trying to contact anyone no longer in this world.
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