Despite the great work of past generations of Protestants, the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox belief of prayer (or requesting) help from heavenly beings (including saints and angels) is still an issue that tempts some Evangelicals to consider its validity.
FIVE WAYS PEOPLE TRY TO DEFEND PRAYING TO SAINTS
- Praying to heavenly beings (saints and angels) is not a religious form of prayer in terms of worship, but rather asking for their intercession to God.
- A saint in heaven can pray for people on earth just like saints on earth pray for each other.
- Just as there isn’t a specific verse that teaches Christians to pray to the Holy Spirit (which most Christians believe is acceptable), there doesn’t have to be a specific verse teaching prayer to saints because like with prayer to the Holy Spirit, a cumulative case gives enough justification.
- If righteous people on earth have effective prayers, how much more does a person in heaven, free from their sinful nature, have effective prayers that can aid Christians with securing God’s help.
- Great early church leaders and theologians, like Athanasia in the early 300’s prayed to persons dwelling in heaven.
REFUTING CLAIM #1: Praying to heavenly beings (saints and angels) is not a religious form of prayer in terms of worship, but rather asking for their intercession to God.
There is not one biblical passage in the sixty-six books of the Bible that teach how to “request” a heavenly being (angel or saint) for help because prayer is consistently linked to worship, which belongs to God alone. The Bible is clear that any other attempt to make contact with a deceased person or spiritual beings like angels (fallen or heavenly) falls under the forbidden practices mentioned in the Law:
Deuteronomy 18:10-11 (KJV), “10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, 11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.”
The terms used in this passage that are relevant are, “witch,” “consulter with familiar spirits,” and “necromancer.” A basic word study shows that these words covers all the different ways a person in the historic context would have considered it useful to talk to heavenly beings or departed spirits. Now if a person were to say that the words of Deuteronomy 18 don’t describe what they do when they pray to heavenly beings as a Christian, they need to answer this important question; If the kind of praying to heavenly beings that Roman Catholics do is not in the category of Moses’ prohibitions, then why doesn’t the Bible ever mention someone doing what they do, i.e., “asking departed spirits and angels for intercession”?
Space doesn’t allow me to go into the complex worldview of Jews as it pertains to the after life but they basically understood there to be an earthly/natural realm (which included the sky and outer space) and a spiritual realm that included the place of the dead (beneath the earthly realm for both for the wicked and righteous) and heaven (above the earthly realm wherever God and His angels dwelt). They believed that there were evil spirits that could come into the earthly realm just like God’s angels, however, they were not supposed to summon either of them. Nor were they to summon or attempt to contact the dead. Thus, if someone were to say, “If God wanted them not to practice something like the modern day practice of praying to saints, He could have said, ‘Don’t ask your dead ancestors or angels for help'” they don’t understand the Jewish worldview.
For a Jew, they knew their God was all powerful and was the only Creator, thus there was nothing a person or angel in heaven could do for them that their God couldn’t do. And their God was radically different from the surrounding false gods because He wanted to speak directly to them, but they had refused and asked for a meditator (Exodus 20:19-20). Therefore, it would have been pointless for God to have said to them in the desert, “Thou shall not ask your departed ancestors or heavenly angels for help” because they already knew their ancestors and even the angels were subject to God. Whatever they needed to do on earth to please God was their responsibility and all spiritual beings, including all departed spirits, were under God’s control in the spiritual realm. (Note: Most, if not all, encounters with the person called, “the angel of the Lord” in the Old Testament are pre-incarnation visitations of Jesus, the Son of God and do not change the above statements- see Genesis 48:16.)
This is a major point that cannot be overlooked. No godly person in the entire Bible ever asked a departed person or an angel of any kind in the spirit realm for help to secure a better place with God. Why? Because the passage in Deuteronomy forbad it. Take for example when Moses died, this would have been a perfect time for God to teach Joshua how to ask Moses for help, however, he said the opposite:
Joshua 1:1-9 (NIV), “1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 5 No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Notice how God is clear that Moses is dead. This meant that Moses was not going to have any interaction with Joshua even if he was still very much alive via his spirit in paradise. Joshua was to wholly trust in God’s presence and the written law- these were going to be his perfect guides. As a matter of fact, Moses was already told by God not to interact with the dead for religious purposes in Deuteronomy 18:10-11, thus God wasn’t going to contradict the laws He told Joshua to obey.
Still, some in favor of praying to saints try to dismiss the passage in Deuteronomy by claiming that the practices forbidden there have to do with the pagan practices of the nations- not a Jewish or Christian practice of beseeching beings dwelling in heaven. However, this is the same kind of failed logic that pro-homosexual apologists use when dismissing the prohibitions against homosexuality in Leviticus 18 and Romans 1. They proudly ask, “Does the homosexual attending your church fit the Bible’s description of a pagan God-hater described in these passages? Certainly not. God is not forbidding same sex marriage but rather pagan practices of sexual perversion.”
Likewise, the one who wants to pray to persons in heaven will say, “Does Deuteronomy 18 really describe the practice of Christians asking departed saints for help? Certainly not. God is only forbidding the pagan practice of interacting with the dead- which are really demonic spirits.”
However, the truth is that both homosexuality and communicating with the dead are sinful not because the pagans did it but because it is against God’s created order. God’s order for sexuality is found in the beginning when he made them male and female to join together in a monogamous marriage (Genesis 2:24). And concerning prayer to heavenly beings, God taught Moses that religious prayer and initiating spiritual contact was reserved only for God (Deut. 18:10-11).
As a result, people with unbiblical practices are missing the heart behind God’s commands by looking for loopholes. If this was the right way to apply God’s commands- only forbidding what matched the historic context of the command 100%, then orgies could have been allowed in the Jewish context, along with sacred prostitution as long as they were done in the name of the true God and not the false pagan gods. Once again, this was not how Jews derived their morals and practices- looking for loopholes. Rather the standard practice for God’s people has always been to only affirm what the Bible affirms and remain silent where it is silent. The one claiming their practice is biblically grounded must clearly show where their practice is affirmed and practiced in the Bible (not where it can fit in the cracks).
We shouldn’t try to see how much we can slip in-between the historical cracks of previous commands because that would be arguing from silence. Arguing from silence is mostly fallacious in biblical discussions because one could fit all kinds of things into the silent areas of the Bible (even though I believe the Bible is not silent in this issue). It is better for Christians to base their morals from the specific commands of God to general applications. One does this by understanding the specific commands in their historical context and then prayerfully seeing how to make them into general rules for the times in which they live. Otherwise, Christians could do whatever practices they wish as long as they didn’t break the exact commands forbidden in the context of a command.
Here are just some of the practices that could have been allowed in Israel if the Jews thought the way people who pray to saints do today in regards to Deuteronomy 18:10-11:
- Jewish witches and wizards. As long as the witches and wizards used the name of God in their spells and incantations they could have been good because they were not the pagan kind of witches and wizards God was against in Deut. 18. (Sadly, this actually exists now for some Romans Catholics who practice “Santeria” and some Jews who practice “Kabbalah.”)
- Role play as angels and saints so God’s people can pray to them because they represent heavenly realities. The Jews could have called it, “Sacred Role Playing.” In other words, if praying to, kneeling before, and kissing statues and images get a pass today because they are “sacred,” then why didn’t the Jews do sacred role playing in the desert and in the temple?
- Make official religious prayers to departed animals, especially one’s pets. Since God allowed animals to speak in the past and certain creatures in heaven have animal like features, why didn’t the Jews pray like the Hindus and start asking their deceased animals to help them?
Do you see how silly the Jews could have been if they based their doctrines on the silence of the Bible rather than God’s direct commands and examples? The reason why we never read about Abraham asking Adam for help, Moses asking Abraham for help, and Daniel asking Jeremiah for help is because the prohibition of Deuteronomy 18:10-11 meant that initiating contact with departed people and heavenly beings, by whatever means, was forbidden. It is the same reason why they didn’t build a pool in the temple in the area with a waterslide. They were commanded in regard to spiritual matters to follow the Law without trying to sneak in things where they found empty space. God was not okay with people making up their own forms of worship. As a matter of fact, we learn that whenever people broke God’s protocols for worship and spiritual practices people were severally judged.
Take for example the incident with Uzzah touching the ark and being killed by God (2 Samuel 6:6 & 1 Chronicles 15:13). God never said what to do if the ark was about to fall off a cart. However, the specific rule of only having the Levites carry the ark applied to the general rule of not touching ark if you weren’t a Levite- even if it was going to fall of the cart (which it should have never been on). Likewise, God might have never said specifically what He’d do if you started praying to heavenly beings, but He was clear that you were not supposed to contact anyone in the spiritual realm except for Him- hence the New Testament formula for praying to the Father, in Jesus’ name, by the power of the Holy Spirit (how is anyone still confused?).
For this reason, I believe it was an evil spirit that came to Saul via the witch of Endor. First, notice the Bible states that God had already determined not to answer Saul’s cries for help (+++++). Why would God change his mind and then affirm Saul’s evil intent by granting him a visitation from Samuel initiated by a witch?
Second, if we would not accept this kind of practice today as legit- then why would we affirm it in the past. Saul was clearly outside of the will of God. Just imagine if a pastor was in sin and couldn’t hear God’s voice, could he go to the local witch and ask her to conjure up Billy Graham for advice? Certainly not! And if he said Billy Graham did appeared to him after the witch did her magic, would you actually believe it was Billy Graham? God forbid!
Third, the spirit who appeared as Samuel was wrong- Saul was not killed by his enemies but rather he killed himself. The spirit spoke in generalities and gave him the false hope of an honorable death. That is why I believe he wanted to kill himself once he was injured in the battle because he realized that he had been deceived and was too prideful to repent and come back to God.
Some might ask why the witch was so surprised to see the spirit if it wasn’t Saul. I believe it was because she probably made a living deceiving people into thinking she could talk to the dead but didn’t. However, this time a real spirit appeared for all to see because God was handing Saul over even more to the devil. Remember that during the time of King Ahab in 1 Kings 22:19-23 it states that God sent a lying spirit to deceive the prophets. This spirit most likely was an evil spirit and was allowed around God’s throne like how in Job 1:6-12 Satan was around God with a plan to tempt Job. Notice the similarities between the three passages:
1 Kings 22:19-23 (NIV), “19 Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. 20 And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’ “One suggested this, and another that. 21 Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will entice him.’
22 “‘By what means?’ the Lord asked. “‘I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said. “‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the Lord. ‘Go and do it.’ 23 “So now the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The Lord has decreed disaster for you.”
Job 1:6-12 (NIV), “6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” 8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
9 “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” 12 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.”
1 Samuel 28:3-22 (NIV) 3 Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in his own town of Ramah. Saul had expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land.
4 The Philistines assembled and came and set up camp at Shunem, while Saul gathered all Israel and set up camp at Gilboa. 5 When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart. 6 He inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets. 7 Saul then said to his attendants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her.”
“There is one in Endor,” they said.
8 So Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman. “Consult a spirit for me,” he said, “and bring up for me the one I name.”
9 But the woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?”
10 Saul swore to her by the Lord, “As surely as the Lord lives, you will not be punished for this.”
11 Then the woman asked, “Whom shall I bring up for you?”
“Bring up Samuel,” he said.
12 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!”
13 The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?”
The woman said, “I see a ghostly figure coming up out of the earth.”
14 “What does he look like?” he asked.
“An old man wearing a robe is coming up,” she said.
Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.
15 Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?”
“I am in great distress,” Saul said. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has departed from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do.”
16 Samuel said, “Why do you consult me, now that the Lord has departed from you and become your enemy? 17 The Lord has done what he predicted through me. The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to one of your neighbors—to David. 18 Because you did not obey the Lord or carry out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this to you today. 19 The Lord will deliver both Israel and you into the hands of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also give the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.”
20 Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, filled with fear because of Samuel’s words. His strength was gone, for he had eaten nothing all that day and all that night.
21 When the woman came to Saul and saw that he was greatly shaken, she said, “Look, your servant has obeyed you. I took my life in my hands and did what you told me to do. 22 Now please listen to your servant and let me give you some food so you may eat and have the strength to go on your way.”
Furthermore, Paul even warned in 2 Corinthians 11:14 (NIV), “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” It is clear that Saul and his encounter with “Samuel” was really with an evil spirit. Just think about it- what is more likely? Option A: God took back his silence and spoke to Saul via Samual being conjured up by a witch? or Option B: Saul was deceived by an evil spirt summoned by a witch because he was under God’s curse?
If someone were to say that Jesus’ meeting with Elijah and Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17 somehow shows a crack in Deuteronomy 18, remind them that Jesus did not pray to them, ask them for help or invite them to come. The passage simply states that they came with the Father to affirm the work of Jesus starting the New Covenant in the presence of the three disciples. Once again, if this was supposed to be repeated or affirm an open a door of communication with heavenly persons why didn’t the disciples pray to those in heaven or include in their epistles instructions to communicating with Elijah and Moses? This is because they knew it was a special occasion and not something initiated by prayers to heaven. This should be no surprise because God sent angels all the time to His people for various reasons, but once again, no one ever initiated the angelic visits with prayers and incantations- including the two times in the gospels that angels came to assist Jesus (++++ & ++++).
Also, if someone were to say that when Jesus cried out to God on the cross and the Jews thought he was crying out to Elijah and thus this meant that this practice was common to them. Remind them that the Jews of Jesus’ day also believed reincarnation was a true belief and that birth defects could be the result of sin in a previous life (++++ & ++++). The question isn’t, “What did superstitious Jews believe in Jesus’ day?” but rather, “What did the Bible teach- especially in the law of Moses concerning contacting spiritual beings?”
Finally, below are just a few of the many passages that teach Christians how to pray and none of them teach us to ask for the help of saints and angels in heaven:
- Deuteronomy 4:7-8 (NIV), “7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?”
- Psalms 5:1-3 (NIV), “1 Listen to my words, Lord, consider my lament. 2 Hear my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. 3 In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.”
- Psalms 32:6-7 (NIV), “6 Therefore let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found;
surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them. 7 You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” - Jeremiah 29:11-14 (NIV), “11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.”
- Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV), “9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
- Philippians 4:4-7 (NIV), “4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV), “16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
BOTTOM LINE: It doesn’t matter if the person praying to heavenly beings calls it religious prayer or not- they are in direct violation of God’s Word to only pray and communicate with God in heaven.
