The saints

I thought I would continue my thoughts from my last post. This concerns praying to or asking the saints to intercede for us. This practice started back in the earliest days of Christianity. It is shared by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, other Eastern Christians, and some Anglicans. If you put this group together, it is more than three-quarters of all Christians.

In Revelations 5:8 John sees the saints in heaven offering our prayers to God under the form of "golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." We believe these saints,who are interceding on our behalf, are offering our prayers to God. We are asking the saints to pray for us. The word "to pray" means "to ask".

In Revelations 8:3-4, it says "Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a gold censer. He was given a great quantity of incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the holy ones, on the gold altar that was before the throne. The smoke of the incense along with the prayers of the holy ones went up before God from the hand of the angel."

To me, these two verses in the Bible show the twenty-four elders, who symbolize faithful, obedient believers, and also angels offering to God the prayers of us on earth. This suggests they are interceding with God by presenting to Him our prayer needs.

Please remember, Catholics believe there is only one mediator of redemption who is Jesus Christ. But if you can ask someone on earth to pray for you to God, why not be able to ask someone in heaven who has already had their santification completed, for "the prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects."(James 5:16).