h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, Sam, seeing as how you are not going to comment on them, I'll do it myself. Having list the Roman Catholic defense of prayers to saints, I'll now try to refute them from an Evangelical point of view. After all, only by knowing how your ‘enemy’ will attack you will you be able to hold an upper hand. And as Paul stated in 1 Thessalonians 5:21, ‘Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.’

Well, first of all we are told to pray to God. For example, in Philippians 4:6 it states:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Or in Acts 8:22 it states:

‘Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord’

We are also told that righteous people pray to God (Acts 10:2; Romans 15:30 etc).

I also think I may have been wrong about that passage in Deuteronomy. While it does condemn necromancy, it also forbids consulting with the dead which could count as praying to the dead. But we are also told in 1 Samuel 18 about Saul speaking to Samuel even though he was dead and this is considered sinful. We also read Samuel telling Saul in verse 16 that if God refuses to help, he cannot help. So why should we pray to saints instead of God? If God refuses to do anything then the saints won’t help.

The verse I used in Revelation does suggest that people in Heaven are praying. But it doesn’t mean they can hear us or are praying for us personally. It is probable that they are just praying for the people of God in general or perhaps the saints already in Heaven. They are praying with them to God.

We could also argue that praying the Rosary is not the same as asking a friend to pray for you. In the Rosary, you pray Hail Mary 50 times. You would never ask a friend to pray for you 50 times.

So that is a quick attempt to refute the Roman Catholic position of praying to Saints.