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So we are not praying to saints as having any kind of power in themselves--

Yes you are. You are praying to them as if they are omniscient. Otherwise, they would not have any idea that you are praying to them.

If a million are praying to them, how do they sort it all out? How do they know when one is praying at 6am and another at 2:30 pm?

If you had a million talking to you could you keep it straight? Would you know the 2000 who were voicing your name at 2:30 in the morning?

Why wouldn't you know? Because you're not omniscient. You are ascribing omniscience to them.

Yes you are. You are praying to them as if they are omniscient. Otherwise, they would not have any idea that you are praying to them.

You were an Army chaplain? Does one gun's being bigger than another mean it can do anything and everything?

Knowing more than you doesn't mean knowing everything. This is a logical error. That they know they're being prayed to doesn't mean they know everything.

Similarly if A is stronger than B we cannot conclude that A is omnipotent.

Consequently praying to the saints neither implies or requires a belief that they are omnipotent, just that they can do stuff I can't do. And that stuff is a gift from God.

Also, check out Augustine on time and eternity for help on how they "process" a gazillion prayers coming at them at once.

Yes you are. You are praying to them as if they are omniscient. Otherwise, they would not have any idea that you are praying to them.

That doesn't follow. All they have to know when I am praying to them is that I am praying to them. No omniscience is required whatsoever. Just a *higher* level of perception than you and I have here on earth...considering these folks are in heaven and perfected by grace, I hardly think that is too much to ask.

The standard explanation, and one which makes the most sense, is that God grants the saints the capacity to hear prayers that are addressed to them. It is not any ability of theirs, but a free gift of grace.

If you had a million talking to you could you keep it straight? Would you know the 2000 who were voicing your name at 2:30 in the morning? Why wouldn't you know? Because you're not omniscient.

Well, I can't walk through walls or go through the day without sinning either, and yet I fully expect to do those things in heaven. Do you not expect to have a higher understanding of things in heaven?

The saints are glorified. This has a profound effect on their nature.

Saints are not onmiscient. We do know that there is rejoicing in heaven over the repentance of sinners, and there may be millions of people repenting of multiples-of-millions of sins throughout the ages. That suggests that people in heaven are smarter than they were on earth. Not omniscient, but smarter.

I certainly hope I won't stay as ignorant as I am now, for all eternity.

Yes you are. You are praying to them (dead people) as if they are omniscient. Otherwise, they would not have any idea that you are praying to them.

If a million are praying to them, how do they sort it all out? How do they know when one is praying at 6am and another at 2:30 pm?

If you had a million talking to you could you keep it straight? Would you know the 2000 who were voicing your name at 2:30 in the morning?

Why wouldn't you know? Because you're not omniscient. You are ascribing omniscience to them.

What sound logic you have there, Pastor x. I never thought of it that way before (my husband's favorite line from me to him.)