[
Deut 18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.]
JL: Charmers, conjuring,
sorcery, consulters with spirits or wizards and
necromancy etc, are all condemned in the Bible and by the Church.
there is no instruction or example in the New Testament of praying to dead saints. Some bring up the transfiguration incident. But Jesus is Lord of the dead and the living and thus it doesn't apply to him. Secondly consider the state they are spoken of being in. For dead saints are spoken as being asleep. If they are asleep, they are not listening to you. They don't have contact with what goes on here.
[Mk12: 26 And
as touching the dead, that they rise:
have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush
God spake unto him,
saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?
27 He is
not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do
greatly err.]
JL: If the dead are asleep and cannot know or hear as you say, how could a living human being converse with a bodily dead saint in heaven? St John conversed with and elder=saint in heaven.
[Rv5:5 And
one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.]
[Mk9:4 And there appeared unto them
Elias with Moses: and
they were talking with Jesus. 5 And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.]
Christ spoke to two bodily dead OT prophets who would not have been in heaven but Abraham’s Bosom, the abode of the dead before Christ opened the gates of Heaven when he ascended and took the OT saints into heaven. In the following scripture we clearly see angels and elders=saints in heaven offering up the prayers of saints on earth.
[Rv5:6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. 7 .. 8 When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and
the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.]
In Rv5:6-8 incense are prayers of
saints on earth and the twenty-four
elders are saints in heaven. It is the elders=saints in heaven who are offering up the incense which are the prayers of the saints on earth. In Rv8:3 it is an angel offering incense with the prayers of the saints on earth.
[Rv 8:3 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 the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, which came with
the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.]
[Mk15:34 And at
the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying,
Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is,
being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
35 And
some of them
that stood by, when they
heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias.
36 And
one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink,
saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down.
37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.]
No one seemed to be outraged or said this man is a blaspheming idolater when they
mistakenly thought Christ was calling on the dead prophet Elias.
[Hb12:22 But
ye are come unto mount Sion, and
unto the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and
to an innumerable company of
angels, 23
To the general assembly and
church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and
to God the Judge of all, and
to the
spirits of just men made perfect, 24 And
to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and
to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.]
Now having an high priest over the house of God we have access through the veil His Flesh by prayer to the Holy of Holies and may come boldly into the holiest by the blood of Jesus and all those in heavenly Jerusalem even to the spirits of just men=saints made perfect.
[Hb10:19
Having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20 By
a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us,
through the veil, that is to say,
his flesh;
21 And having an
high priest over the house of God;]
