I could pray to YOU, iscool, to intercede for me for salvation and grace, help and healing. Intercession is all that’s implied, and intercession is not a function of personal sovereignty. With all due respect to Iscool, he/she can only pray to God on your behalf.
You can ask iscool to pray for you as they are a person here on earth and this would be in line with the examples we have in the NT; but you do not pray TO iscool; just as we do not pray TO Mary. Neither of the last two would be examples found in the NT.
You can ask iscool to pray for you as they are a person here on earth and this would be in line with the examples we have in the NT;
Hold on. Unless you can show that the NT insists that "we must always limit ourselves to examples which are explicitly found in the NT", then this idea is dead in the water. "Sola Scriptura" is an unbiblical, self-contradictory, provably false tradition of men, and no one is obliged to follow it, much less use it as a "mandatory standard" when making arguments about the Faith.
but you do not pray TO iscool; just as we do not pray TO Mary.
See my previous comment, re: the original (and core) meaning of the word "pray" (i.e. "to ask"); the modern restriction of "pray" to "God alone" is a Protestant innovation, and it's--with all due respect--a thoughtless and self-serving one.
Neither of the last two would be examples found in the NT.
Really?
"Wherefore I pray you to take some meat: for this is for your health: for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you." (Acts 27:34, KJV)
The writers of the KJV, at least, knew the proper original meaning of the word. But why restrict yourself to the NT?
Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; (Genesis 12:13)
And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. (Genesis 13:8--by the way, there's a reference of "brethren" not referring to "siblings", as an extra bonus!)
(etc.--there are over 50 occurrences of the specific phrase "I pray thee" in the KJV, alone)