Praying to Saints - Hebrews 12:18-24; thisCatholic Explains

This video seeks to show how the Bible supports one of the most misunderstood aspects of the Catholic understanding of the Communion of Saints: praying to them.

Passages come from the Revised Standard Version (Catholic Edition) of the King James Bible, copyrighted 1977.

Hebrews 12:12-13, 18-24 - Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. ... For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers entreat that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, "If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned." Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I tremble with fear." But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel.

Exodus 17:10-13 - So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat upon it, and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; so his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

More videos on Bible-passages about the saints:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=546256F8A4B24ED6

More Catholic doctrines explained from the Bible:
http://www.youtube.com/profile_play_list?user=thisCatholic

The song is "Bittersweet" by this band:

Within Temptation

off their CD "Mother Earth". I got it from the library, so there's gotta be some sort of fair-use policy or public-property thing: just so I don't get sued.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• jesus
• god
• christ
• catholic
• christian
• saint
• saints
• prayer
• praying
• communion

[CBALLEN]

The Catholic doctrine seems a bit like necromancy which is totally forbiden.We are not to try and talk to the dead we believe are in Heaven or the dead we believe are in Hell.We are to pray to the Father through the Son,the one and only mediator.If you try to pray to the dead Satan can trick you as an angel of light.

[thisCatholic]

Necromancy is conjuring up the dead. Catholics do not conjure up the Saints. See Catechism of the Catholic Church #2116: "All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future."

What do we do? We ask the Saints in heaven to pray for us, because we know from Scripture that they can hear us and we know from Scripture that prayers are powerful. There is nothing "necromantic" about that.

God bless!

[phatbob71]

hi thiscatholic,

no where in the context of these passages does it say that we must pray to saints. These passages are not about prayer offerings. The blood of Christ speaks on behalf of sinners.

Can you also give me biblical evidence for the assumption, first holy communion, confirmation and purgatory.

oh yeah, and the sign of the cross, when people touch forehead, chest, and then their shoulders.

''you must be born again''

thanks

Christ has done it all.

[thisCatholic]

Hebrews 12 says to lift your hands in prayer (12:12) to all of heaven (12:22-24), all of the saints and angels, not to God alone. How is that different from praying to saints?

And keep looking for videos about your other concerns. Maybe they'll pop up soon! :)

God bless!

-thisCatholic

[phatbob71]

i dont see how catholics get praying to the saints from this text. In the context of this chapter, the author first talks about endurance and perserverance in the faith, and being disciplined by God as a beleiver. In the second part, he compares the mount sinai with mount zion, ''to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant''.

[thisCatholic]

The reason is because of the connection that the author makes between the two parts. You are correct that the first part is about endurance and perseverance in the faith, but in verse 12 he says that we should PRAY for the strength to persevere; then, in the second part, he says that in praying, we do not come to God alone but to all the Saints and angels. And that is precisely the Catholic doctrine: that we can approach all the saints and angels in our prayers, rather than God alone.

[hiyosilver100]

@thisCatholic I can agree with you here.The apostles(saints/all of us?)were told to go and heal the sick&cast out demons.If,for Believers"to be absent the body is to be present with the Lord"their souls exist in Heaven,does the exhortation of Jesus to them to heal and cast out stop?The danger is thinking that the 'saints' heal of their own power and forgetting that they do any chores only with the permission&power of God.There are many indications that 'saints'(Padre Pio, etc)consistently help.

[ghostdancer1984]

brother, i couldn't have said it any better then that. amen.

[AbaloneKid]

There is one mediator between God The Father and man and that is Jesus Christ . And what of God The Holy Spirit when we need help here. Are we not to ask for anointing or do you teach us we have no such right?

What saint is in their glorified body NOW?

Not until Jesus calls us Home will we have such a state.

All the dead in Christ await that moment.

We pray to our Father in Jesus name JUST like He instructed us. Our Father gives us what we need according to His perfect will for us.

[AbaloneKid]

Everything I have said here is scriptural. What is your purpose in sending believers to the dead who are resting and waiting for the promise of bodily resurrection? Send them to The Lord Of Glory who sits on the right hand side of His Father and our Father as our High Priest. He hears our confessions and The Father responds through His Only Begotten Son. I cannot understand what you are doing here? It is NOT correct doctrine.