My Questions to Protestants 9-2-08

This is the next installment of my theological musings posed as questions to my Protestant brethren. Today's topic is the oh-so-caustic topic of saints and the prayers in reference to them. While many Protestants (wrongly) think of prayers to the saints as an act of necromancy, the position held by Tradition and all those that have come before us beg to differ on the matter.

The following battery of questions should provide an impetus for thought.

1) When we die here on earth, are we dead forever?

2) When we die, are we closer to or farther from God?

3) Isn't is a common practice for people to ask for another's prayers or to pray for another person asking for such prayers?

4) taking into consideration question 1 in regards to question 3, why is it such a bad thing to ask out eternal brothers and sisters, far closer to God than ourselves, to pray for us and ask for their intercession with God?

5) Why is it that if we are nt to be enamored with the ways of the world but instead to prepare for the next life in a pious way, what reason do you have for disavowing and denying the intercession of those that have passed on before us?

While we are on the topic, let us review the Apostle's Creed, which is (as far as I know) the oldest Catholic (OK, I guess we can say Christian as well...) creed.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.

Amen.

Notice that line there "the communion of saints." That is a direct reference to all of the appropriately justified and mortally expired kinsfolk interceding on our behalf.

Need Biblical proof? This article does a bang-up job explaining all of it.

http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2003/0312frs.asp

Good explanation of the fallacies of the Protestant argument.

http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1990/9011fea2.asp

As far as my private (and fallible) searches have concluded thus far, I believe that 2 Timothy 1:3 is referencing prayers for saints, Hebrews 12:1 shows us that many witness us, Revelation 6:9-10 tells us that saints deliver prayers in the form of incense and Romans 8:26-27 is pretty clear that we really don't know how to pray and that saints often intercede for us. In addition, James 5:16 is also nice because who can be more righteous than someone that has attained heaven?

So there you have it, we can see that the communion of saints is in reference to one big spiritual community. As usual, any feedback and/or arguments would be nice.

Also, the read count is a little low so if you are up to it, send the blog link along for all to see.

Off to bed for me.

-N8