What is Prayer and To Whom Do We Pray?
Biblically, prayer is how we communicate with God. The Bible never has a believer praying to anyone other than God. So-called prayers to false gods are depicted as being pointless and empty as false gods cannot hear or respond to prayers. God is omniscient and omnipresent. He can always hear our prayers. We are also told that the Spirit aids our prayers to God.
26 Now in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27)
The Spirit (Gr. pneuma) refers to the Holy Spirit. When we pray, the Holy Spirit knows our heart and intercedes for us. Note He always intercedes “according to the will of God.” If we have the Holy Spirit interceding for us, why would we need any other intercession?
So why do some people pray to “saints” or Mary? Is that even prayer?
We are nowhere told in Scripture, nor do we find any examples, of living men or women praying to anyone other than God and being heard. No one prays to Moses, or Elijah, or Enoch. No one prayed to Isaiah, David, or John the Baptist. When the disciples asked Jesus to tell them how to pray, Jesus addressed His prayer to “Our Father”, a reference to God the Father. Not once in the Old or New Testament does a believer pray to anyone other than God.
We are also never told that those who are in heaven can communicate with us. Attempts to communicate with the dead via seances or speaking to spirits or people who channel is expressly forbidden. Why? Because God has not provided a way for the living to communicate with the dead including those alive in heaven. When people think they are communicating with a dead relative they are actually communicating with demons. Demons do this to draw us away from God and get us to believe there are other sources of spiritual knowledge and communication.
While the Catholic church declares some people to be “saints”, that is not a Biblical designation. There is no special category of believers in heaven for whom the normal rules don’t apply. Declaring some to be “saints” is a practice of the Catholic church but foreign to Scripture. Teaching that “saints” can hear our prayers is false not only because there is no such category of believers but false because such communication is impossible. Biblically, the term “saint” is used of all believers in Jesus Christ. Not a special class of believers.
It also begs an important question. If you can pray directly to God, who already knows your heart, why would you “pray” to anyone else? God is not a human. We might sometimes think having someone else make a request on our behalf (because that person has greater status or is well-liked by the person we are making the request of) makes a favorable response more likely. The request-grantor might be more agreeable as a favor to the one asking on our behalf or is more trusting of their judgment. None of this applies to God. God knows us inside and out. He knows the every thought of our heart. God always answers prayers according to His will. He is not more or less likely to answer a prayer based on who makes the request.
Scripture does say “the prayers of a righteous man accomplishes much” but we need to understand what that means. Proverbs says to “delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” When our will aligns with God’s will for us, our prayers will be granted. A righteous man, who delights himself in the Lord, is likely praying in accordance with God’s will and thus his/her prayers will accomplish much. God hears everyone’s prayers from the worst sinner to to the most godly person. He always answers according to His will. God is no more or no less inclined to listen to our prayers as opposed to a “saints” prayer. He hears all prayers. He will only answer according to His will which is not affected by the person praying.
Why then do we ask others, in this life, to pray for us? Prayer does not change the will of God. Prayer changes us. Prayer is how we learn to trust God, seek His will, and accept it. We draw closer to God through prayer. By praying for each other we bear (Galatians 6:2) each other’s burdens and comfort and encourage each other. We are commanded to pray for each other. When I ask someone to pray for me, or with me about some need, I am talking to them or texting or writing. I am communicating with another living person. We have no way to communicate with those in heaven and we can’t pray to them as prayer is only to God.
Reasons why we don’t “pray” to “saints” or Mary:
- The Bible gives no examples of this. Never do we see anyone of faith addressing a prayer to anyone other than God. Not to Abraham or Moses or Isaiah or Elisha, or Enoch. Not to anyone other than God. Never are we instructed to pray to anyone other than God. The Bible also never mentions anyone in heaven praying for anyone on earth.
- The Bible gives no mechanism for them to hear our prayers. God is omniscient. He knows everything. God is also omnipresent. He is everywhere. Nothing is hidden from God. He knows our every thought. Mary and the “saints” are finite beings who are not omniscient or omnipresent. We have the Holy Spirit within us to hear our prayers. The Holy Spirit is God. Why would God listen to our prayers, share them with Mary or a “saint”, so that they could turn right around and talk to God on our behalf? Do you think that by “praying” to Mary or a “saint” they hear those prayers before God does? God knows our heart even before we pray. Nowhere in the Bible are we told the dead can hear or answer prayer.
- When prayer to the dead is mentioned, it is always in a very negative light. The Bible strongly condemns such prayer (Leviticus 20:27; Deuteronomy 18:10–13; 1 Samuel 28:7–19).
- The Bible teaches that there is only one mediator between God and man and that is Jesus.
- While there is a strong Biblical basis for asking other believers, now alive, to pray with and for us, there is no such basis for asking those who are dead to pray for us. We can talk to the living. No provision has been made for us to talk to the dead.
Catholics liken “praying” to Mary or the “saints” to asking a fellow living believer to pray for you. It is not the same! Mary and the “saints” may be alive in heaven but they are no longer with us on earth. Nothing in the Bible says they have the power to hear or answer our prayers. This is manmade teaching that has been added to the Bible. It is part of a Catholic tendency to create a special class of Christians (i.e. Mary and the “saints”) and ascribe to them powers reserved only for God. If this is such a wonderful thing to do, why is there not a single mention of it in the Bible? Why does not Paul or Peter talk about it?
Like so many other unique Catholic doctrines, the real basis for “praying” to Mary or the “saints” is the self-proclaimed authority of the Catholic church to add to Scripture. There is no basis for this doctrine of “praying” to Mary of the “saints” found in the Bible. This is an extra-Biblical teaching that rests solely on the claimed authority of the Catholic church. I reject their claims to such authority. I not only disagree with their interpretation of Matthew’s account of Jesus addressing Peter as “rock” and building the church upon him, but also their claim that there has been a direct line of succession from Peter to the present-day Pope. That claim rests on Catholic tradition with no clear Biblical teaching that such a succession was setup. Nowhere in Peter’s writings does he claim such authority or give instruction for his successor. Mark’s gospel (Mark got his information from Peter) does not even include Jesus calling Peter the rock and the other claims. His account of Peter’s profession of faith does not include the other parts found only in Matthew’s gospel. A strange omission if Peter understood himself to be the sole head of the church. Historically, the first bishop of Jerusalem was James, the Lord’s half-brother. The Pope was long called the “bishop of Rome” so why was Peter not the first bishop of Jerusalem? If the entire church was to be built upon Peter and his successors, whey did Peter not make a single mention of it? He wrote epistles yet never mentions this. In this writer’s opinion (and that of many others), the Catholic church reads too much into Matthew’s account and goes on to claim lasting authority based on it yet we see no clear example of it in the NT. Paul never refers to Peter as the head of the church nor do any other NT writers. This is a major teaching to be left out of the entire NT except for a couple of disputed verses in Matthew’s gospel not found in the other 3 gospels. I am not disputing that Jesus spoke those words but I am disputing the meaning of them and do not believe Jesus built the church on Peter. Peter was a godly man and an Apostle. Scripture does tell us the church is built on the “foundation of the prophets and the apostles” with Jesus Himself being the cornerstone. Aside from that one verse, Scripture nowhere else elevates Peter to a higher position than any of the other Apostles. This, and the fact that many key Catholic doctrines are not found in the Bible, is why there was a Protestant Reformation. Men (who were Catholics at the start) began to see their church departing from the teachings of Scripture and began questioning such teachings and the authority of the church. For this, some gave their lives.
Our God is Too Big 
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