Yes, I understand the distinction. There are several reasons why Lutherans have avoided seeking the intercession of the saints since the beginning.
First off, we don't see any benefit to it. God hears and answers our prayers according to his will. While scripture contains examples of God, in effect, changing his mind following the prayer of one of his children, we believe that in the end, God is so much wiser and knowledgeable than we are, his will is almost certainly going to turn out for us in the end much better than we could have ever imagined.
Also, there is no indication in scripture that God requires additional voices agreeing in prayer to accomplish his will.
If that is what you believe, then don't do it. But if one is going to be critical of the Doctrine of the Communion of Saints, then one should find out what it means instead of making false assumptions. There are enough indications of prayers to dead people in scripture, while sola scriptura doesn't have any.
Prayer is more for us than for God. While it may be beneficial for a congregation or a family to come together and pray corporately in order to form a corporate acceptance or agreement over some issue, it's not like God is more likely to answer a particular prayer a certain way just because there are a multitude of petitioners as opposed to only one.
It's up to God whether or not He answers the prayer, be it from a whole congregation or just one person, or one who is with God. Saints in heaven have no power to answer prayers; this is one big misunderstanding among Protestants.
And then, particularly in the case of asking for the intercession of departed saints, we see no command, promise or example of this practice in Holy Scripture.
I'll list some.
Lutherans like to be very certain about our doctrines and practices, and we scour the scriptures to ensure that our practices reflect the truths revealed to us in scripture.
Not in the absence of Lutheran tradition.
First of all, we look for a command, either straight from the Father or from Jesus Christ preferably, to institute a particular practice.
If there is a command, we look for a promise attached to the practice in question. God never breaks his promises, and we take God at his word when he promises to act in certain circumstances or through certain means. We hold God to his promises, fully believing that he is willing and able to fulfill them.
We then look for examples in Holy Scripture which record the instituted practice and the fulfillment of God's promises through that practice.
You are talking about sola scriptura.
This is why Lutherans have fewer sacraments than RCC or EO. While Holy Baptism and Holy Communion are commanded for his Church by Jesus Christ, with the promise of salvation and forgiveness of sins, as demonstrated in the narrative accounts of scripture, other practices of the Church considered by some to be sacraments, such as marriage and holy orders, do not meet these criteria.
Another topic.
Asking the intercession of the saints is never commanded in scripture, there is no specific promise attached to it, and we have no universally accepted example in scripture to show that it was ever practiced.
It’s indisputable that Jesus indeed plainly teaches the very thing that you claim is nonexistent in Scripture. In His story of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31), we find our compelling proof text:
Luke 16:24 (RSV) And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Laz’arus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.’
This is the Abraham of the Bible — long dead by that time –, being asked to do something by a “rich man” (16:19, 22), traditionally known as Dives (which is simply a Latin word for “rich man”). His answer was, in effect, “no” (16:25-26). Having failed in that request, Dives prays to him again for something else:
Luke 16:27-28 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father [KJV: “I pray thee therefore, father”], to send him to my father’s house, [28] for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’
His request is again declined (16:29). He argues with Abraham (16:30), but Abraham reiterates that what he asks is futile (16:31). All of this reveals to us that not only can dead saints hear our requests; they also have some measure of power to
carry them out on their own (though no doubt by God’s power). Abraham is asked to “send” a dead man to appear to the rich man’s brothers, in order for them to avoid damnation.
Abraham doesn’t deny that he is
able to potentially send Lazarus to do such a thing; he only denies that it would
work (by the logic of “if they don’t respond to greater factor
x, nor will they respond to lesser factor
y”). Therefore, it is assumed in the story that Abraham had the ability and authority to do so on his own. And this is all taught, remember, by our Lord Jesus.
The fact that Dives is dead (in the story they are both in
Hades or
Sheol: the intermediate netherworld) is irrelevant to the argument at hand, since standard Protestant theology holds that no one should make such a request to anyone but God. He’s asking Abraham to send Lazarus to him, and then to his brothers, so that they can avoid his own fate.
That is very much a prayer:
asking for supernatural aid from those who have left the earthly life and attained a greater perfection. Also, rather strikingly
(and disturbingly for Protestant theology), God is never mentioned in the entire story of Lazarus and the rich man. It’s all about Dives asking / praying to Abraham for two different requests.
Protestant theology also generally teaches that we can’t talk to anyone who is dead, let alone make intercessory requests to them.
- Yet King Saul talked to the dead prophet Samuel (1 Sam 28:12-15),
- Moses and Elijah appeared at the Mount of Transfiguration (Mt 17:1-3),
- the “Two Witnesses” of Revelation (11:3-13) came back to life again (and talked to folks);
- so did those who rose after Jesus’ Resurrection (Mt 27:50-53), etc.
We conclude, then, that Jesus sanctioned “prayer to” dead men for requests. That is the traditional notion of “communion of saints.”
Additionally, there is nothing in scripture that indicates that the Church Triumphant has any direct knowledge of events in time on earth. We know that they pray for us, but in order for them to hear our requests for intercession, they would need to have an ability approaching omniscience that only pertain to God himself.
“Witnesses” of Hebrews 12:1 (Communion of Saints)
1)
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Joseph H. Thayer, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 4th ed., 1977; orig. 1901, 392) defines it — as used in this verse — as follows:
“One who is a spectator of anything, e.g. of a contest, Heb 12:1.”
[Strong’s word #3144; similar usages cited by Thayer: Lk 24:48; Acts 1:8; 1:22; 2:32; 3:15; 5:32; 10:39; 13:31; 26:16; 1 Pet 5:1 –
the sense is indisputable in these other verses]
2) Word Studies in the New Testament (Marvin R. Vincent, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1980; orig. 1887; vol. 4, 536), another standard Protestant language source, comments on this verse as follows:
‘Witnesses’ does not mean spectators, but those who have borne witness to the truth, as those enumerated in chapter 11. Yet the idea of spectators is implied, and is really the principal idea. The writer’s picture is that of an arena in which the Christians whom he addresses are contending in a race, while the vast host of the heroes of faith who, after having borne witness to the truth, have entered into their heavenly rest, watches the contest from the encircling tiers of the arena, compassing and overhanging it like a cloud, filled with lively interest and sympathy, and lending heavenly aid.
3) Word Pictures in the New Testament (A. T. Robertson [Baptist], Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1932, vol. 5, 432), comments:
‘Cloud of witnesses’ (nephos marturon . . . The metaphor refers to the great amphitheatre with the arena for the runners and the tiers upon tiers of seats rising up like a cloud. The martures here are not mere spectators (theatai), but testifiers (witnesses) who testify from their own experience (11:2,4-5, 33, 39) to God’s fulfilling promises as shown in chapter 11.
[Note that the notion of “spectators” is the primary metaphor — the arena —
so that both meanings: that of spectators and witnesses in the sense of example are present. Neither can be ruled out]
4) Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, (ed. Gerhard Kittel & Gerhard Friedrich; tr. and abridged by Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1985; 567), an impeccable and widely-used linguistic (non-Catholic) source, states:
“In Heb. 12:1 the witnesses watching the race seem to be confessing witnesses (cf. 11:2), but this does not exclude the element of factual witness.”
So our four non-Catholic language references all confirm that the element of “spectatorship,” which lends itself to the Catholic notion of communion of saints, where saints in heaven are aware of, and observe events on earth, is present in Hebrews 12:1, and cannot be ruled out by any means, on the basis of a doctrinal bias.
In the Confessional document, the Defense of the Augsburg Confession, the invocation of the Saints is directly addressed as follows (in the universally typical polemic style of the times):
Article XXI (IX): Of the Invocation of Saints.
[...]
4] Our Confession approves honors to the saints. For here a threefold honor is to be approved. The first is thanksgiving. For we ought to give thanks to God because He has shown examples of mercy; because He has shown that He wishes to save men; because He has given teachers or other gifts to the Church. And these gifts, as they are the greatest, should be amplified, and the saints themselves should be praised, who have faithfully used these gifts, just as Christ praises faithful business-men,
5] Matt. 25:21,
23. The second service is the strengthening of our faith; when we see the denial forgiven Peter, we also are encouraged to believe the more that grace
6] truly superabounds over sin,
Rom. 5:20. The third honor is the imitation, first, of faith, then of the other virtues, which every one should imitate according to his calling.
7] These true honors the adversaries do not require. They dispute only concerning invocation, which, even though it would have no danger, nevertheless is not necessary.
No, it isn't necessary. It isn't "necessary" that family members help each other.
James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. There is nothing in scripture that says the righteous have to have a pulse. There is nothing in scripture that erects a "Berlin Wall" between heaven and earth. There is nothing in scripture that says our heavenly reward is being deaf, dumb and blind. Some reward that is. Who is the most righteous: a holy minister or a person who is with God?
8] Besides, we also grant that the angels pray for us. For there is a testimony in
Zech. 1:12, where an angel prays: O Lord of hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on
9] Jerusalem? Although concerning the saints we concede that, just as, when alive, they pray for the Church universal in general, so in heaven they pray for the Church in general, albeit no testimony concerning the praying of the dead is extant in the Scriptures, except the dream taken from the Second Book of Maccabees, 15:14.
Verse 11 says the dream or vision was worthy of belief.
Moreover, even supposing that the saints pray for the Church ever so much,
10] yet it does not follow that they are to be invoked; although our Confession affirms only this, that Scripture does not teach the invocation of the saints, or that we are to ask the saints for aid. But since neither a command, nor a promise, nor an example can be produced from the Scriptures concerning the invocation of saints, it follows that conscience can have nothing concerning this invocation that is certain. And since prayer ought to be made from faith, how do we know that God approves this invocation? Whence do we know without the testimony of Scripture that the saints perceive the prayers of each one?
11] Some plainly ascribe divinity to the saints, namely, that they discern the silent thoughts of the minds in us. They dispute concerning morning and evening knowledge, perhaps because they doubt whether they hear us in the morning or the evening. They invent these things, not in order to treat the saints with honor, but to defend lucrative services.
12] Nothing can be produced by the adversaries against this reasoning, that, since invocation does not have a testimony from God's Word, it cannot be affirmed that the saints understand our invocation, or, even if they understand it, that God approves it. Therefore
13] the adversaries ought not to force us to an uncertain matter, because a prayer without faith is not prayer. For when they cite the example of the Church, it is evident that this is a new custom in the Church; for although the old prayers make mention of the saints, yet they do not invoke the saints. Although also this new invocation in the Church is dissimilar to the invocation of individuals.
The Church does not place expectations on Catholics to have any devotion to any saint, we do it because we are a family, and it's effective. So she certainly does not have any expectations on non-Catholics Christians who don't.
Eph. 3:14-15- we are all one family ("Catholic") in heaven and on earth, united together, as children of the Father, through Jesus Christ. Our brothers and sisters who have gone to heaven before us are not a different family. We are one and the same family. This is why, in the Apostles Creed, we profess a belief in the "communion of saints." There cannot be a "communion" if there is no union. Loving beings, whether on earth or in heaven, are concerned for other beings, and this concern is reflected spiritually through prayers for one another.
Rom. 8:35-39 - therefore, death does not separate the family of God and the love of Christ. We are still united with each other, even beyond death.
Matt. 17:3; Mark 9:4; Luke 9:30 - Jesus converses with "deceased" Moses and Elijah. They are more alive than the saints on earth.
Matt. 22:32; Mark 12:27; Luke 20:38 - God is the God of the living not the dead. The living on earth and in heaven are one family.
Luke 15:7,10 – if the angels and saints experience joy in heaven over our repentance, then they are still connected to us and are aware of our behavior.
John 15:1-6 - Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. The good branches are not cut off at death. They are alive in heaven.
1 Cor. 4:9 – because we can become a spectacle not only to men, but to angels as well, this indicates that angels are aware of our earthly activity. Those in heaven are connected to those on earth.
Dan. 4:13,23; 8:23 – we also see that the angels in heaven are also called “saints.” The same Hebrew word “qaddiysh” (holy one) is applied to both humans and angels in heaven. Hence, there are angel saints in heaven and human saints in heaven and on earth. Loving beings (whether angels or saints) are concerned for other beings, and prayer is the spiritual way of expressing that love.
I've given explicit proof text for Intersession of the Saints, which is by no means exhaustive. But you don't have
explicit proof text supporting sola scriptura, the basis for most of your post, the foundation of Protestantism.
