Praying to Saints? - Praying to those who are already in Heaven?

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PeaceByJesus

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Judge not, lest ye be judged.
Which is abused by those who hypocritically judge those who censor others for sin or false teaching. In context the warning is against the very thing those typically invoke it are engaging in, that of hypocritical judging, that of warning that "with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged..Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?"
Matthew 7:1-4

But which is not censoring beholding the mote that is in thy brother's eye and pointing it out in correction, but of first considering oneself how we may be guilty in some way of the same, and confessing that, and correcting it:

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. (Matthew 7:5)


And which is the only way we are to obey the commands to judge, as "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." (Ephesians 5:11) One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; (Titus 1:12-13)

I may not be guilty of one matter of self control, but be guilty of another, and thus while i can condemn one who justifies such as not being sin, yet i must have compassion on those struggling to overcome such sin.
 
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amariselle

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He led by example on Mt Tabor.

Incorrect. Jesus was not praying to Moses and Elijah at His transfiguration, neither did He once tell His disciples to do so.

Jesus' transfiguration was a revealing of His glory as the one and only Son of God, and a fulfillment of prophecy. Witnessed by the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah).
 
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AvilaSurfer

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Oh please. When it suits you, you want Scripture to be literal. When you want wiggle room, not so much. Nice dodge.
 
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Faith Alone 1 Cor 15:1-4

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Your high priest now is Jesus Christ , pray to him and he will pray to Father for you , moreover he will pray to Father for you even before you ask him to pray for you that's how good it is to have such high priest like him

Hebrews 4:14-16

Jesus know how hard it is to be sinless , he had to be sinless for 33 years and he knows what we feel when we are tempted.
 
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seashale76

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Didn't read past the first page. However, I'm not one to keep coming up with new posts for the same old topics- so here is an older post of mine.

I pray thee, to hearken unto my post.

There are around six different Greek words that are usually translated into English as 'prayer'. These words encompass supplications, interecessions, thanksgiving, etc. Prayer to the saints IS NOT WORSHIP! I Timothy 2:4 upholds the practice of intercession for others, and we are quite cognizant of the fact that Christ's mediation is what makes intercession possible.

The saints are alive in Christ. Mary, the Theotokos (God bearer) does intercede for us through prayer, as do ALL the saints. When a person asks the Theotokos, or any other saint, to pray for them, it is just like when we ask for anyone else to pray for us. Those in the Church are ALIVE in Christ, because God is the God of the living and not the dead.

As the Paschal Troparion says: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!

Scriptures relating to saints being alive in Christ, et cetera:
Also, on a related note, we don't pray to the dead but for the dead. Scripture supports it.
This is considered to be a direct reference to a prayer for a departed person in the NT:
So, there you have it. The saints are not only alive in Christ, but we also pray for the departed. Scripture supports this and some of us take this seriously and literally. Believe it or not, just don't make the mistake of claiming we're doing something we really aren't doing, such as not going directly to God in prayer, because we very much do.
 
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Monk Brendan

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My dear sister, I completely agree with you. Asking saints to intercede for us to God is found NOWHERE in the 66 books of the Bible

Of course, there are really 73 books in the Bible, and if you read them, there are reasons to pray for the dead. For instance,

and they turned to supplication, praying that the sin that had been committed might be wholly blotted out. The noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened as the result of the sin of those who had fallen. He also took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering. In doing this he acted very well and honorably, taking account of the resurrection. For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. ...

The noble Judas they are talking about is Judas Maccabeus, and the quotation is from 2 Maccabees 12:42-45New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)
 
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buzuxi02

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Then it's obvious that not only is your reading incorrect so is your pseudo scriptures. The KJV,?? Let me guess it's a perfect translation of the Hebrew and Greek ? And this is why those into bibliolatry after reading your KJV reject the Trinity while others uphold it, some reject soul sleep while others uphold it, some reject as sexual immorality while others claim it's all good from a biblical point of view. Isn't it amazing how you westerns can take both sides of all these issues and all claim your bible told you so. And for good measure the Holy Spirit lead all of you to these contradictory positions. Sorry but do the world a favor and stop reading your bibles.
 
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amariselle

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Seriously?!

Do you know how many people have died so that we can have the blessing and the privilege to read God's inspired word? Do you know how many people, even today, would give everything just to be able to do so?

Do you know how desperately the world needs to hear about the hope of salvation in Christ contained in the pages of the Bible? And yet you would say something as ugly and horrendous as that. Despicable.

Romans 10
 
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salt-n-light

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YES. COMPLETELY YES. STOP PRAYING TO THE DEAD.
 
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seashale76

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I disagree that people should stop reading their bibles. God can and does use the scriptures to draw people to Himself. It was actually reading the scriptures that started to cause me to question many of the doctrines with which I was raised. Many don't know better- because this very American Christianity is all they have ever known. They literally cannot conceive of another way. I've often found Evangelical types will take scriptures literally that are not and will make other scriptures metaphorical that are literal. It's like, in their effort to distance themselves from anything that seems too liturgical and historical (which they are indoctrinated to be biased against), they throw the baby out with the bathwater and attempt to reinvent the wheel, to their detriment. God can overcome this. Stopping the reading of the scriptures is not the answer.
 
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Traveling teacher

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GOd rebuked Peter for wanting to make an idol to Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration.....
GOd hid the body of Moses and took the body of Elijah!!,
Why did He do this????????

So they woudnt make idols of dead saints????
 
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Phil 1:21

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I have read the deuterocanonical texts, including the passage you quoted. What is conspicuously missing from 2 Maccabees is any mention of whether or not their actions yielded any results or if such actions were pleasing to the Lord. We need to understand the difference between descriptive and prescriptive. The fact that nowhere does God command anyone to do that tells us the account from 2 Maccabees, assuming it’s accurate, is descriptive.
 
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