Saint Intercession/ prayers from Saints


Many protestants preach against Saint intercession :"they can't do anything for you, their dead . A dead man or woman cannot hear your prayers ." Well once again, they fail to read scripture . I am going to go over a few verses in the old and new testament that can help all of you better understand Saint intercession .I will use a couple of old testament verses ,and a couple of New testament verses to help you all better understand the churches teaching on Saint intercession.
The books I will be quoting from in the old testament will be Tobit and 2 Maccabees . And I will be quoting Hebrew and Revelations for the New testament .
When many protestants think of Saints interceding for us , they believe that the church teaches that the saints act on their own account . Lets get one thing straight, saints do not act unless God tells them to act on our behalf . Yes they can pray for us of course .When it comes to doing something for us it is from God's direction . I have pointed out that Mary in Revelations 12, interceded for us when she prevented Jesus from being killed in her womb. I first told you all of this in my Mary "mother of God " blog . If you read that chapter in Revelations you will see that God protected her from the devil (who is the dragon)who went off to wage war on her offspring (us ).Some say that the saints cannot hear our prayers . One would only have to read Paul's letter to the Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1: " ... we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses" . According to Paul , they can hear our prayers after all . Remember whenever I can use Paul's teachings to prove the Church teachings right I will do so. And when you read the book of Revelations chapter 5 verse 8 , you will see that Saints pray for us :" Each of the elders held a harp and gold bowls filled with incense ,which are prayers of the holy ones ." Holy ones means saints . Everyone who goes to heaven is a saint, not just the canonized saints we see in books ,and are remember for their ways of Christ .A good old testament verse in the Bible to uses for Saint intercession and prayers from them is 2 Maccabees chapter 15 verse 12-16 :"What he saw was this, Onias ,the former high priest ,a good and virtuous man,modest in appearance ,gentle in manners ,distinguished in speech ,and trained from childhood in every virtuous practice ,was praying with outstretched arms for the whole Jewish community . " Onias was a high priest who was killed by an enemy .He is here in this verse interceding in prayer for the Jewish people .At this point he was already dead . yet with God's approval he was able to intercede in prayer for the Jews . Now lets see what it says in verse 13-16: "Then in the same way another man appeared ,distinguished by his white hair and dignity ,and with an air about him of extraordinary ,majestic authority . Onias then said of him, "This is God's prophet Jeremiah ,who loves his brethren and fervently prays for his people and their holy city ." Stretching out his right hand ,Jeremiah presented a gold sword to Judas . As he gave it to him he said ."Accept this holy sword as a gift from God ;with you shall crush your adversaries."
Now this group of verses alone confirm Saint intercession . Notice how Jeremiah not only prayed for his people after death but also interceded with God's order ,when he gave the gold sword to Judas and told him it was a gift from God . This book of course not accepted by the protestants .But to justify the books as scripture and to prove them God breathed, take a look at my blog on the deuterocanonical books . Another deuterocanonical book that confirms Saint intercession as scripture , is Tobit . It is a story about Saint intercession .
The Arch angel Raphael , is sent by God to help this woman and this man . The woman was married 7 times and each time on her wedding night, the men were killed by a demon . Tobit is in bad health and prays for death , The woman by the name of Sarah , gets fed up with her situation and prays for death as well . God hears the prayers and send Raphael to intercede for them .Tobit sends his son to bring money back to him from a place he had deposited in . Raphael guided him to where he needed to go. Tobiah ends up marrying Sarah .With Raphael's help, the demon was defeated because he gave Tobiah special instructions on how to defeat the demon . In the end of the books, it is pointed out how the intercession was done from God's approval and orders :"When you did no hesitate to get up and leave your dinner in order to go and bury the dead , I was sent to put you to the test .At the same time ,however ,God commissioned me to heal you and your daughter in law ,Sarah . I am Raphael ,one of the seven angels who enter and serve before the glory of the Lord. "(Tobit 12:13-15) And if you read on to verse 18 ,you see that he confirms, that it was God's instruction that he intercede: " When I came to you it was not out of any favor on my part , but because it was God's will."
So when a protestant tells you that dead people cannot hear you , tell them that people, who go to Heaven , can hear you . Tell them that there is a great cloud of witnesses according to Paul (Hebrews 12:1) with a gold bowl filled with incense with their prayers (Rev 5:8 ) . Tell them that these saints do not act alone , but with God's instruction ( Tobit12:13-15) .Tell them that they can pray for us as well help us with God's instruction ( 2 Macc 15:12-16 ) Now I know you may have a problem with quoting these books , since protestants do not accept them however use the information from my blog on the deuterocanonical books to help you prove them God Breathed.

May God Bless all of you, Frankie