I know this topic has been gone over several, several times, but I need some help. I put this in the “Ask an Apologist” section, but I looked at the rules afterwords to discover that I had not followed them at all, so, I don’t think my question will be answered. Anyway, here it is.
I’m talking to someone about praying to saints and how they offer our prayers up to Jesus. My “base” verses are these:
Revelation 5:8
“8 And when he had opened the book, the four living creatures, and the four and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints”
and Revelation 8:4
“4 And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel.”
These verses are not sufficient because they don’t explicitly state that the saints in heaven are offering up the prayers to Jesus. Could you guys help me figure out a way to show how these verses substantiate my views along with suggesting more verses? I’d like to stick with these, but of course I’ll gladly except any other verses that help prove this belief. Thank you!
Pax,
Zach
Praying to Saints and the Communion of Saints Proved from Scripture
1. Every Christian is a member of the Body of Christ
“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:4-5)
“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)
And we are joined with Christ through baptism
“having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.” (Colossians 2:12)
“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4)
“for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Galatians 3:27)
2. All Christians are connected through the Body of Christ
“If
one part
suffers, every part
suffers with it; if
one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”
(1 Corinthians 12:26)
“If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you” (2 Corinthians 2:5)
3. Physical death does not separate us from the Body of Christ
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
4. There is only one Body of Christ in Heaven and on Earth
“by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” (Ephesians 2:15-16)
“There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:4-5)
5. The Church is the Body of Christ
“And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” (Ephesians 1:22-23)
“And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy” (Colossians 1:18)
6. Just as we can pray for one another, we can suffer for one another because we are all connected in Christ
“Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. (Colossians 1:24)
7. If you can ask a member of the Body of Christ on earth to pray for you, then you can also ask someone who is a member of that same Body of Christ in heaven to do the same for they are not “dead” at all.
“He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive." (Luke 20:38)
