Don't be ignorant - I never said that never even implied it. Your offer to alleviate me of my ignorance has still not been taken up. Clearly we are told to pray for one another. We are not told, however, to pray to each other.
16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for (not to) each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
So teacher - please point to where any of the apostles prayed to someone who was deceased. Please show me where they instructed others to pray to the deceased.
Didn't accuse you of that (in fact, I intentionally reworded it to reflect those who, on this thread, have said that or implied it, not all...thus the statement some of you (Had I meant you, I would have said, you -- but you (gscc) are not the only one reading this thread).
Clearly we are told to pray for one another. We are not told, however, to pray to each other.
Exactly...and when we ask a saint to pray for us, that's exactly what we do. We ask for their prayers to be united with ours to God.
Think about it for a second, the word "pray" (Greek: deomai) means to ask, beg, desire, want, etc.
So when you "ask" somebody to pray for you, you are, in fact, praying that they will offer their prayers to God for you. Think about it, when Lot said to the Sodomites, "I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly," was he worshipping the Sodomites? Clearly no. The word "pray" meant "ask." When the Eunuch said to Phillip, " I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?" was he worshipping Phillip? Of course not.
Pray means 'ask' (look it up if you don't believe me). Worship, adoration, and so on is properly only given to God. But to pray that you pray for me to God is a completely reasonable, understandable, and appropriate thing.