DAFENDING PRAYING TO THE SAINTS..

DEFENDING PRAYING TO THE SAINTS

Kevin Gemma

Usually when it comes to the doctrine of the prayers to the saints Protestants would demand the Catholic by saying something like, “Show me in the Bible where it says to pray to Mary or the saints!”.

First there are a couple assumptions that needs to be challenged here. And second, Catholics are not obligated to prove it from the Bible because the Bible itself teaches not all of God’s word is handed down in scripture. It was also handed down through sacred oral tradition (2 Thessalonians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 11:2; 2 John 1:12; 2 Timothy 2:1-2; John 21:25). Although we aren’t obligated to prove every teaching from scripture I still believe the doctrine of the intercession of saints can still be argued for from scripture using biblical inferences.

🔶TACKLING PROTESTANT ASSUMPTIONS

But before we get to the argument we must first tackle some Protestant assumptions against prayers to the saints

1 - Everything must be explicitly taught in scripture otherwise it isn’t true.

This mindset operates under the presupposition that sola scriptura is true which cannot be the case as the scriptures I referenced in the beginning shows otherwise. Second even if sola scriptura were true, the belief that every christian teaching must be explicitly taught in scripture is still itself not taught in scripture. There are no explicit verses that teaches Christ has two wills and nor are there explicit verses that tells us to pray to the person of the Holy Spirit. But we can use biblical inferences to come to the conclusion of those teachings just like we can use biblical inferences to come to the conclusion of prayers to the saints.

2 - There must be an example in scripture of someone practicing a teaching.

The problem here is that the scriptures doesn’t teach that there has to be an example for someone practicing a christian teaching in order for it to be true. For example, we don’t see any examples in scripture of someone teaching what the canon of scripture is. We don’t see any examples of someone in scripture of someone teaching that divine public revelation ceases after the apostolic age. We don’t see any examples of anyone practicing prayers directly to the person of the Holy Spirit. And we don’t see any examples of people practicing alternative ways of baptism when one has absolutely no access to running water.

3 - The word “pray” only has one meaning.

There are many Protestants who assume that the word “pray” is only restricted to one definition that applies only to God. The original definition for “pray” simply means: “to ask” or to “make a request”. Since we are operating under this particular and original definition, praying to someone who’s not God isn’t always a sin.

Here’s one example where we see Jeroboam praying to his wife, yet it wasn’t sinful: ““And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam; and get thee to Shiloh: behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, which told me that I should be king over this people.” (1 Kings‬ ‭14‬:‭2‬ ‭KJV‬‬)

🔶THE MAIN ARGUMENT FOR THE INTERCESSION OF THE SAINTS

The Scriptures commands Christians to make prayers and intercessions (1 Timothy 2:1). No where in the Scriptures does it say that once a Christian have passed and left this earth then they have ceased from making prayers and intercessions. In fact that would be a direct contradiction since the Bible tells believers to be imitators of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1, Ephesians 5:1). And since Christ intercedes for us in heaven to God (Romans 8:31) then the believers who are with him in heaven would imitate Christ and intercede for us to God as well. The Scriptures also say those in heaven are like God (1 John 3:2). Therefore we can ask the saints in heaven to pray for us.

🔶EXPOUNDING ON THE ARGUMENT

We know the saints have the ability to pray for us because there are fully conscious of what’s taking place on the earth as we speak:

1) In the book of Revelation we see saints in heaven are praying to God about what happened on earth:

““And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:9-10)

This proves that prayer does not cease for the believer after physical death and proves St. Paul’s commandment of imitating Christ (as well as 1 Thess. 5:16-17) does not only apply to Christians on earth.

2) Saints in heaven collects our prayers from earth and offers them to God:

“And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.” (Revelation‬ ‭5‬:‭8 KJV‬)

The elders in heaven here are depicted as priests, which gives us insight to the nature of the prayers being offered. Their status as priests is suggested by the number “twenty-four,” which calls to mind the twenty-four divisions of Levitical priests (1 Chronicles 24–25) and the offering of incense, which was a priestly duty (Exodus 30:1; Number 7:84–86, 16:8, 10–11).

“And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.” (Revelation‬ ‭8‬:‭3‬-‭4 KJV‬)

“I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One.” (Tobit‬ ‭12‬:‭15‬ ‭KJV)

3) There is joy in heaven when sinners repent:

“I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” (Luke‬ ‭15‬:‭7‬ ‭KJV‬‬)

How can there be joy in heaven if the believers there aren’t aware of the current events on earth? Now Protestants would object that this verse is talking about angels (Luke 15:10). And they're correct. However the verse doesn't say that *only* angels rejoice. Plus it's silly and contradictory to the scriptures to think that Christians in heaven don't get to partake in this joy. Because #1 One of the fruits of the spirit is joy (Galatians 5:22-23) and the Holy Spirit dwells within believers in Heaven. And #2 Christians in heaven are still members of the body of Christ. St. Paul said when one member of the body is honored then all of the members rejoice with it (1 Corinthians 12:26).

4) In the book of Jeremiah we see Rachel weeping for her generational children on earth many centuries after she passed away:

“Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.” ‭‭(Jeremiah‬ ‭31‬:‭15‬-‭16‬ ‭KJV‬‬)

5) There are multiple other passages that shows that the saints in the afterlife are aware of earthly events and have the ability to intercede for people on earth:

See also: Hebrews 12:1, Revelation‬ ‭19‬:‭1‬-‭5, 2 Maccabees 15:12-14; Jeremiah 15:1; Hebrews 12:22-23; Luke 16:19-31