“Logic” does not dictate that if they can hear us, we should be able to hear them. They are with God, enlightened intellectually and otherwise in a manner we cannot imagine.
There is absolutely nothing in Scripture that says my mother cannot hear and see me, or that she does not pray for me.
I have seen many Scripture verses about the dead trotted out as though they addressed this question. And they DON’T. They are about the finality of death—from OUR side of the grave. They have nothing to do with the experience of the blessed in heaven.
The only reason modern Protestants think it is self-evident that the dead are DEAD! DEAD! DEAD! is that the reformers wanted to stamp out devotion to the saints. In large part, the motive was to wipe out HOLIDAYS for the serfs. With devotion to the saints stamped out, that made about a hundred more working days a year. And the rich were relieved of subsidizing feasts. Protestants have been relentlessly propagandized on this point until it seems self-evident. But it is entirely irrational to believe that the blessed in Heaven are LESS loving than we are to each other! There is NO Scriptural or rational basis for the belief that they are deaf and blind to us.
There is absolutely nothing in Scripture that says my mother cannot hear and see me, or that she does not pray for me.
Then the burden is upon you to show where Scripture does tells us to pray to our departed ones and that they can indeed hear us and do indeed pray for us. It has to be a clear verse and in context of the passage.
The only reason modern Protestants think it is self-evident that the dead are DEAD! DEAD! DEAD! is that the reformers wanted to stamp out devotion to the saints.
You've never heard me say they are dead. We have a number of passages that suggest otherwise. Some passages say they are asleep. Some say they are dead. To be quite honest I'm not sure it matters for believers. Our destination is Heaven...that's all that matters.
Do we have examples of anyone on the NT praying to Moses or Abraham or Elijah?
Now as far as being devoted to the saints, that's where catholicism goes beyond the Word....again. Why should we have devotion to the "saints" as Catholicism has surely redefined the word to mean something other than what the Bible defines it to be? Saints are believers according to Paul.
How about we just stay devoted to Jesus and I think we'll be ok?