Posted on 06/10/2017 8:12:43 AM PDT by ealgeone
Question: "To whom are we to pray, the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit?"
Answer: All prayer should be directed to our triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches that we can pray to one or all three, because all three are one. To the Father we pray with the psalmist, “Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray” (Psalm 5:2). To the Lord Jesus, we pray as to the Father because they are equal. Prayer to one member of the Trinity is prayer to all. Stephen, as he was being martyred, prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). We are also to pray in the name of Christ. Paul exhorted the Ephesian believers to always give “thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). Jesus assured His disciples that whatever they asked in His name—meaning in His will—would be granted (John 15:16; 16:23).
We are told to pray in the Spirit and in His power. The Spirit helps us to pray, even when we do not know how or what to ask for (Romans 8:26; Jude 20). Perhaps the best way to understand the role of the Trinity in prayer is that we pray to the Father, through (or in the name of) the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. All three are active participants in the believer’s prayer.
Equally important is whom we are not to pray to. Some non-Christian religions encourage their adherents to pray to a pantheon of gods, dead relatives, saints, and spirits. Roman Catholics are taught to pray to Mary and various saints. Such prayers are not scriptural and are, in fact, an insult to our heavenly Father. To understand why, we need only look at the nature of prayer. Prayer has several elements, and if we look at just two of them—praise and thanksgiving—we can see that prayer is, at its very core, worship. When we praise God, we are worshipping Him for His attributes and His work in our lives. When we offer prayers of thanksgiving, we are worshipping His goodness, mercy, and loving-kindness to us. Worship gives glory to God, the only One who deserves to be glorified. The problem with praying to anyone other than God is that He will not share His glory. In fact, praying to anyone or anything other than God is idolatry. “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols” (Isaiah 42:8).
Other elements of prayer such as repentance, confession, and petition are also forms of worship. We repent knowing that God is a forgiving and loving God and He has provided a means of forgiveness in the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. We confess our sins because we know “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9) and we worship Him for it. We come to Him with our petitions and intercessions because we know He loves us and hears us, and we worship Him for His mercy and kindness in being willing to hear and answer. When we consider all this, it is easy to see that praying to someone other than our triune God is unthinkable because prayer is a form of worship, and worship is reserved for God and God alone. Whom are we to pray to? The answer is God. Praying to God, and God alone, is far more important than to which Person of the Trinity we address our prayers.
Some of us did in the past, but not anymore. It's more commonly called necromancy. I have no intention of being a necromancer. I don't think an active duty necromancer can go to Heaven. 🔥😂 They can believe whatever they want. I just have no plans to join them. 😫
“The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.”
Oh trust me. I know exactly what I'm missing.
The Rosary showed up in 1214 and was given by an apparition claiming to be Mary. Some 1114 years after the last Apostle died. The Catholic cannot claim "Tradition" on this.
There are about 50 prayers TO Mary in the Rosary compared to about 10 or so to God.
The emphasis in this "prayer" is to Mary...not God.
But the claim that "no problem cannot be solved by the Rosary" contradicts the New Testament and Bible in general.
We are not to engage in vain, repetitious prayers which is what the Rosary is.
Christians have been given the means to solve any problem....that is prayer TO God.
5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. James 1:5-8 NASB
6Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:6-7 NASB
6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 NASB
That the Roman Catholic does not rely upon the clear directions given in the New Testament about praying TO God and instead places more faith in an apparition is very telling.
**Yah but you don’t know whether they are in heaven or hell...**
Very true. And I don’t recall hearing about praying to St. Abraham, St. Moses or St. Elijah.
I mean, if the saints in heaven can hear and help, those would be the first ones I’d try to get in touch with. You KNOW they made it!!
I've repeated no errors. You claimed, as many Catholics have been mistakenly taught, that you don't pray TO Mary.
I provided several examples of prayers written by Roman Catholics that show the Catholic does pray TO Mary.
To be clear, authentic Catholics only recognize the Triune God as Creator and Savior. The Advocate (Holy Spirit) is also God, but works through the living, including Mary. There is a huge difference between “worship” and “honor”.
We have no evidence that Mary is being used as she is in Heaven. She cannot hear our prayers. She cannot answer any prayers. She can do nothing for a believer on this planet.
The Roman Catholic goes way beyond honoring Mary.
The only way we should honor Mary is to count her blessed as recorded by Luke. Anything beyond that goes beyond honor and moves into worship.
The kneeling before the "statues" of Mary, the prayers TO Mary, lighting candles before these "statues", relying upon Mary for your salvation are all acts of worship.
In summary, you’re like the guy in the joke: sitting on the roof in the flood waiting for God’s help, refusing the rescues by the helicopters (which were sent by God).
Hint: Mary and the saints exist to help YOU.
Hint: Christians have the Holy Spirit and Jesus constantly interceding for us as Paul notes in Romans 8:26-27 and Romans 8:31-35.
Perhaps you don’t feel you need to ask for help.
As a believer in Christ I ask for HIS help. But I do so in accordance with what is revealed in the New Testament.
11This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Ephesians 3:11-12 NASB
This really comes down to this: does the Roman Catholic have faith that if they approach God He will hear and answer their prayers?
Are you sure you’re worthy of God’s saving grace?
No believer is worthy of His grace. Yet He still offers it to us.
; so you are perfect and never slip up?
Nope. Never claimed to be perfect. However, as a believer in Christ my sins, as all other believers, have been wiped away by the blood of Christ (Colossians 2:13-14)
God. 1st Commandment.
Yes...Christians are to pray FOR each other....not TO each other. There is a difference.
You tell us...is Paul wrong in what he writes:
9that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” 12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” Romans 10:9-13 NASB
Prayer to Our Lady of Perpetual Help
O Mother of Perpetual Help, thou art the dispenser of every grace that God grants us in our misery; it is for this cause that He hath made thee so powerful, so rich, so kind, that thou mightest assist us in our miseries. Thou art the advocate of the most wretched and abandoned sinners, if they but come unto thee; come once more to my assistance, for I commend myself to thee. In thy hands I place my eternal salvation, and to thee I entrust my soul.
Count me among thy most devoted servants; take me under thy protection, and it is enough for me. For, if thou protect me, dear Mother, I fear nothing;
not from my sins, because thou wilt obtain for me the pardon of them;
nor from the devils, because thou art more powerful than all hell together;
nor even from Jesus, my judge, because by one prayer from thee He will be appeased.
But one thing I fear: that in the hour of temptation I may through negligence fail to have recourse to thee and thus perish miserably.
http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=321
The New Testament tells us this:
28And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
32He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
33Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies;
34who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”
37But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:28-29 NASB
To whom do you place your trust? An apparition claiming to be Mary telling you to place your trust in it...or the Son of the Living God?
I have placed all my hope and trust in the Only Begotten Son of the Living God.
Amen. Pretty clear and simple isn’t it?
Yep, golden calf and all that.
What a bunch of Catholic rationalization.
Once their bodies have stopped functioning on this earth, they are out of our reach and we are forbidden to try to contact them. God never specified as to their location, either heaven or hell. Necromancy, contacting or communicating with people who have died, whose bodies stopped functioning here on this planet is forbidden.
When you go to a funeral and look at a body that is embalmed and laying in a coffin, is it not dead?
Do you think either God or the writers of Scripture did not know what the word *dead* meant?
BTW, ALL dead people are alive somewhere in the spiritual realm.
Are you sure you’re not praying to someone in hell or purgatory?
I’ll tell you, I have yet to meet someone who can rationalize disobeying clear commands of God like some Catholics.
If you don’t trust God’s promises to hear and answer our prayers enough to take them to HIM as Jesus commanded, then I guess your only option is try some other means, but it’s certainly not Scriptural.
“It was written when God’s Spirit came upon men, moving them to record His Words”
Where was it stated in the Scripture that the New Testament was written this way? Or are you using your intellect to derive something not in the Scripture?
You are doing the same thing you accuse us Catholics of doing.
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 2 Timothy 3:16 NASB
I agree with you. I was making a point - we are not worthy and need the help of others.
But if no help is needed, and we are already saved by the work of the Cross, with no “earning” needed, can we commit all the evil we want?
ROTFLMAO! You funny!
Y’all ever been asked to pray for someone?
HAHAhahaha.....
You really funny.
Who selected, or guided the selection of, that letter to Timothy? Who selected Luke’s writings, John’s, etc? That is, where is the selection of these specific writings detailed in Scripture?
HAHAhahaha....
We need the help of Christ. We Jesus and the Holy Spirit praying for us. It doesn't get any better.
But if no help is needed, and we are already saved by the work of the Cross, with no “earning” needed, can we commit all the evil we want?
This article may be of interest to you. I posted it earlier in the week. It is called,"Is eternal security a license to sin?"
https://www.gotquestions.org/license-sin.html
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