Praying to and asking for prayer from people and angels who are in heaven.

[TaylorDonBarret]

In practice, most catholics actually do pray to Mary. but, the official church position is that praying to her is wrong.. but asking her for prayer is great. so there is a difference between what happens in practice and what is officially taught.

but i do not want to address the idea of praying to mary. we all know that is absolutely wrong and anti-biblica.

i do want to address this idea of asking people who are supposedly in heaven (we do not know for sure who is in heaven).

the old testament scripture that condemns speaking to the dead does still apply. however, we should make a distinction between being a old testament times when dead saints were in fact dead; and now that Jesus has risen and all saints who have died are in heaven.

back then, it was impossible for a dead person to hear you because they were dead. but now, it may be possible for a dead person to hear you... because some dead people (the dead saints) are actually in heaven. there is some possibility, we dont know whether its true or not though, that saints in heaven can watch, listen, and maybe even take part in the affairs of earth.

so when someone believes that they know a certain person who passed away is actually in heaven (for example, most people agree that mary is probably in heaven) then asking that person, who is very much alive in heaven (if they are in heaven) to pray for them is really not so different from asking your brother or your sister to pray for you.

now, i am not approving of this practice. but i would like to have an open, honest, biblical discussion about it. i think this is one of those issues where you have two polar opposite views and neither of them are reasonable.

my position is that i have no idea whether or not people in heaven can hear us, see us, or pray on our behalf. for that reason, combined with the fact that no one in the bible ever encouraged us to ask the people in heaven to pray for us, i do not practice it. on the other hand, while i think its almost positively a useless behavior that God disapproves of, i do not think it is such an outrageous and extremely sinful thing for some people to engage in... just so long as they are not actually praying to the person but just asking the person to pray for them.

what say you?

 

[Dovegiven]

I believe the only possible contact with departed saints is in a scenario of
Luke 9:28-31 (KJV)
28 And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.
29 And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.
30 And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias:
31 Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.

and with angels as told many times in scriptures. And we can speak to and converse with demons. But those people departed whose bodies are in the grave are off limits.
We have no approval to attempt it. Fortune tellers, sorcerers, witches and the like are fond of trying to communicate with the dead for favors.
Whether it is a beloved parent, spouse, child, we'd love to have pray for us there, we have a greater Advocate there, Jesus. God hears our prayers,
so why ask others who are in heaven without a tear or worry to do that for us? Is it not given to tell the living around us of our needs, to request prayer from them (James 5).
But Jesus taught us to pray to the Father in his name.

The really big problem I am concerned about is so few Christians pray or desire help through prayers. It seems to be the most awkward thing for folks to do when asked.
In my opinion prayer is for the living, not involving the dead, even though their spirit and soul is alive in Heaven. Some we think might be in heaven might be in hell.
How would a person know that any results of prayer to the dead to pray for us doesn't involve deception from Satan, who can appear as an angel of light?

Lots of opinion there, I know, just saying.

 

[amadeus2]

The problem for us may not be so much in speaking to those who have passed on hopefully to a better place as it is with the means or pathway we use to do so. Is not Jesus to be our 'go-between'? Is not the Holy Ghost to be our Leader? Where He goes, is that not where to I am to follow, even in speaking to those who are no longer here in the flesh with us?

Those who are alive are the ones we can certainly talk to... here or there. The ones whose bodies of flesh died may, however, have received Life here through Jesus and therefore have never died. Those, of course, who never received Life, or lost the Life they did receive before leaving this body of flesh, have been continuously dead anyway, so why would we want to speak with them?

 

[Chad]

Why would anyone pray to anyone in heaven other than Jesus? How ignorant. Can they answer your prayers better then Christ? Can they do more than Christ? Christ is all and paid a brutal cost on Calvary to restore our relationship with God. Why pray to anyone other than Christ? No excuses. Catholics have it all wrong too. They're full of excuses why they ask Mary or saints to pray for them. Nonsense.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. - John‬ ‭14‬:‭6‬

 

[judge not]

According to the bible nobody is in heaven yet.
Heaven is not promised to the saints.
Where does it say we will go to heaven when we die.
But there is plenty of Scripture telling us we will be
Reigning on earth with Christ after His second coming.

 

[Johnlove]

Why would anyone pray to anyone in heaven other than Jesus? How ignorant. Can they answer your prayers better then Christ? Can they do more than Christ? Christ is all and paid a brutal cost on Calvary to restore our relationship with God. Why pray to anyone other than Christ? No excuses. Catholics have it all wrong too. They're full of excuses why they ask Mary or saints to pray for them. Nonsense.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. - John‬ ‭14‬:‭6‬

Shad, the body of Christ are those who are alive, dead, and those who are to come.


Jesus is not limited by time, and his people alive, dead and who are to come, are his body.


We pray for each other here, and those who have died are alive in Christ also, so all one does is ask others in the body of Christ to pray with and for him or her.


Jesus is not a God of only those who are living here on earth.