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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
While there is no verse which explicitly states, "You shall not pray to angels," it is abundantly clear that we are not to pray to angels. Ultimately, prayer is an act of worship. And, just as ange...
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Jean Email
Angels are not to be worshipped. Here are the two biblical reference which explicitly forbid this practice: "Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, (Colossians 2:18 NKJV) "Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, “See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” (Revelation 22:8, 9 NKJV)
Shantkumar S. Kunjam
I do not want here to answer as an unbeliever would. I am a believer and I have a privilege of direct access to God, my heavenly Father (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6). I can directly talk to God and enjoy His fellowship, whether personally or in the community of fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord. I do not need any intermediary to relate with my Father in heaven. Now, the angels are only sent by God to my service (Heb. 1:14). My Father knows all my needs and He has already commanded the angels to meet all my needs. When I need to talk to my Father, even just for talking sake, will it not be both insulting to my Father and belittling my status as His child if I ask any servant to go to my Father for my need? The departed saints, even the holiest of them, are not resurrected yet. Only their spirits are before the throne of God, their souls are resting under the altar of God and their bodies are still in this earth (Please prayerfully read here Rev. 6:9-11 and 7:9-14). There is no possibility of communicating to them at this time of their disintegration. As a father of four daughters, father-in-law of four sons and grandfather of six children I enjoy their individual and joint communions. The same is true, I believe, with our heavenly Father. He likes and enjoys our individual and community fellowships with Himself. So we need to pray to God as individuals and we can request our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord to pray for us.
William M. McCoy
Clearly, we are not to pray to angels. "Do you not know that we will judge angels?" I Corinthians 6:3
Andy Mangus
The Bible explicitly tells us "who to pray to, whom to address our requests to and whom will 'hear our prayers directed to Him and Him alone in Heaven'. Bottom line is this: We are to understand that God is God, the Father, our creator, our redeemer, our "everything". And, we are told in the Bible, 'His Holy Word of eternal Truth', that He is a jealous God!--a Very! Jealous God!-- and that we are to "Worship Him only and Him alone, for only He is just and only He is worthy to be praised". For He is God, the Father, God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit! Point being is this: we are NOT to "worship", give 'worship praise' to angels or person/beings to any 'high place' other than to Heaven above, in which and where "God, our Father in Heaven sits on His Throne and Jesus is sitting at His right hand". As 'It is written, We will judge angels in Heaven"; they are God's heavenly servants and are to do his bidding in many assignments, etc. --Andy--
Leon Penny
I worship and pray to God because there is only one God. The first commandment orders us not to have any gods above God. There is a verse that says "Ask and it will be given,Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you". Angels cannot do this nor can they offer salvation. Angels are messengers, protectors and comforters. I' m sure that you recall that in the account of the birth of Jesus, Angels came to Mary and Joseph. An angel announced the birth of Jesus, Angels attended to Jesus after the temptation and 40 days in the wild. Hebrews 13.2 to paraphrase "Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers because you may be serving angels. The angels sounded the alarm at Sodom. Hope that this helps some,.
Joe cattani
I don't think one should worship angles or Saints, but I see nothing unbiblical asking the Virgin Mother to intervene in one's behalf. We consistently ask pastors, priest, ministers, family, and stangers to pray to God in our behalf.
Vincent Mercado
Supporter
While we pray during worship, prayer is NOT worship. For Catholics, the definition of prayer is "to ask imploringly; beseech" and "to make a devout or earnest request for", while the definition of worship is "to offer a sacrifice." So when we say, "worship no one but God", we mean "offer sacrifice to no one except God." And when we pray to angels, "protect us as we sleep", it is a devout request for protection, not worship.
Maylyn Dy
I use the NIV or NASB when I read the bible but here is the NRSVCE version: The Absurdity of Idol Worship 9 All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit; their witnesses neither see nor know. And so they will be put to shame. 10 Who would fashion a god or cast an image that can do no good? 11 Look, all its devotees shall be put to shame; the artisans too are merely human. Let them all assemble, let them stand up; they shall be terrified, they shall all be put to shame. 12 The ironsmith fashions it[c] and works it over the coals, shaping it with hammers, and forging it with his strong arm; he becomes hungry and his strength fails, he drinks no water and is faint. 13 The carpenter stretches a line, marks it out with a stylus, fashions it with planes, and marks it with a compass; he makes it in human form, with human beauty, to be set up in a shrine. 14 He cuts down cedars or chooses a holm tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it can be used as fuel. Part of it he takes and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Then he makes a god and worships it, makes it a carved image and bows down before it. 16 Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he roasts meat, eats it and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Ah, I am warm, I can feel the fire!” 17 The rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, bows down to it and worships it; he prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god!” 18 They do not know, nor do they comprehend; for their eyes are shut, so that they cannot see, and their minds as well, so that they cannot understand. 19 No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals, I roasted meat and have eaten. Now shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” 20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded mind has led him astray, and he cannot save himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a fraud?”
Frederick Thomas
Praying to angels? Maybe if Jesus is overloaded. However we are requested to pray for each other or ask the pastor to pray on behalf of us or standing proxy for someone. This kind of prayer build fellowship amongst us. Now we always agree on the prayer been made by saying amen I agree with what I heard the prayer is praying on behalf of me. If I ask an angel to pray for me I can't say amen because I can't hear. In Corinthians they we rebuked for speaking in an unknowm tonge because the hearers don't understand and can't say amen with them. I can't hear an angel when he pray for me and I can't agree on what I don't hear. So I will ask someone in my presence who I can hear and understand and I can agree with in my little faith with him who have more faith and say amen to that.
Jay Saunders
Why would anybody pray to an angel or mother Mary for that matter? They are not our high priest or our Heavenly Father. We have a high priest that prays and intercedes on our behalf, Jesus Christ, and now by the way of Jesus Christ we can pray directly to the Heavenly Father in Jesus' name. One of the many provisions provided through Jesus Christ was adoption in the family of God by the confession of faith by the Father's redeemtive works through Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul puts it this way. We have the right to cry "Abba Father," which means in our language of today Daddy or Papa. You can't get more intimate than that. Through Jesus Christ we have become the adopted children of God and the seed of Abraham by faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We now live by faith not by sight. We can now have a loving, intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father and His Son by and through the Holy Spirit. There is no other way but by and through Jesus Christ that our God, Lord and Father can hear us. If it were not so I would tell you nothing.
Myron Robertson
To properly answer this question from scripture we must first properly define from scripture two words which Christians very seldom define properly and from scripture. These two words are pray (or prayer) and angel. First we will look at the word angel. Most of modern Christian angelology comes from Greek and other Pagan religious philosophy, and what little scripture is used to teach it is twisted out of the old Hebrew context to fit current Christian belief. Both the Hebrew word malak and the Greek word angelos mean messenger. Neither of these words actually contains any connotation of anything further, such as an angel being a spiritual being. That connotation was well established in the day of Jesus and the apostles, but is not actually a part of early Hebrew thought. Some of what is translated as angel in the early stories can be seen by comparing the same story in another passage of scripture or from historical writing to have been human messengers, and not even necessarily sent by God but instead to have been sent by a prophet or other godly person. The example that immediately comes to my mind is Genesis 32:1, 3. In each of these two verses the same word is used, translated once as angel, when the messengers met Jacob and once as messenger when Jacob sent some forward to speak with Esau. The book of Jasher (Referred to in Josh 10:13 and 2 Sam 1:18) says these "angels" were servants of Rebecca who were sent by her to intercede between Jacob and Esau, (Jasher 31:71-77). Jacob followed their advice then sent his own servants as messengers to Esau. God's human messengers are usually called prophets or seers in scripture, but I have occasionally found passages where upon further searching I have found the word malak applied to such men and occasionally translated as angel by Bible translators. This simply shows the bias and opinion of the translators, not the actual usage by God, and since most Christians will not dig into the original language, other sources and often not even an entire passage of scripture this gets missed. Next we define prayer. The Hebrew word here is palal. It specifically makes reference to petitioning a court to intercede in a dispute, but can also mean to pass judgment (for or against) a person. When you pray to God you are petitioning the divine court. When you file suit in a human court you are praying to the governing authority, all of which are empowered and authorized by God (Romans 13:1) so even though they rule by the law of man instead of the law of God you are indirectly praying to God. Seen in this light, the decree of Darius in Daniel 6 was unwise, but was not the terrible blasphemy that Christians like to claim. The empire reached from the Mediterranean sea to Afghanistan or farther east. By biblical reckoning lower governmental official and priests are all judges. Darius decree said that no one could file any petitions with any lower judge for 30 days. For all practical purposes he stopped all governmental functions in the empire for 30 days since few people could travel to file their petitions with him. His vanity had very far reaching effects which he had not bothered to consider. God's law gives authority in the earth to man. A heavenly witness is not enough to establish facts on the ground (so to speak); an earthly witness is also required in agreement. This is why God does nothing without first revealing his plan to his servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). Jesus had all authority in heaven and earth and so will his body, being judges of men and angels (1 Cor 6:3), but for now they are some of the messengers of God's judgment for or against us. That still does not mean we should (or should not) be praying for them, but the authorities God has placed over us to rule us by world government or by the church are human. Our prayers should be directed to God directly or to those he has empowered to serve us in his government(s) - especially the church leadership.
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