Thank you, Phinneous, for your post. This tradition is further supported by 2 Macc. 15:12-16 – the high priest Onias and the prophet Jeremiah were deceased for centuries, and yet interact with the living Judas Maccabeas and pray for the holy people on earth.
In a later comment posted to this thread, freeper editor-surveyor states: Prayer to the dead is called necromancy, and is forbidden. When you pray to the dead, you are just attempting to contact another hopelessly lost soul.
Without any doubt Scripture condemns "necromancy." Consider Deuteronomy 18:10-12. The problem arises with the attempt to apply the term necromancy indiscriminately to mean all manner of communication with those who have died. This is an improper usage of the term. Dictionaries define necromancy as "conjuring up spirits" or "communication with the spirits of the dead in order to foretell the future, black magic or sorcery." When Catholics pray to saints, we do not "conjure up" spirits or tell fortunes. In fact, the Catholic Church is in complete agreement with the Bible when it condemns consulting "mediums" and "wizards."
Those who claim that God prohibits communicating with the dead in any sense run into a serious problem. Jesus would clearly be guilty in Luke 9:29-31.
According to Deuteronomy 34:5, Moses was a dead guy! And yet Jesus was communicating with him and Elijah about the most important event in human history—the Redemption. There is no contradiction here as long as one makes the distinction that is very clear in Scripture: there is an essential difference between going to "mediums" or "wizards" to conjure up the spirits of the dead and communicating—as Jesus did—with those we either hope (if they have not been canonized) or believe (if they have been canonized) died in friendship with God.
Do you understrand that account in Luke 9:29-31? If so then can you answer a few questions abut it? Such as...
Where did Moses and Elijah come from seeing tha they both had died? And where did they go after this meeting?
Why these two in particular?
I’d be greatly interested in your answers since this is offered in support of the idea one can pray to dead saints?
Uh; I do NOT see Jesus PRAYING to these 'dead' men...
Luke 9:29-31
29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.
30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. 31 They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.
Gotta love that pagan twisting and turning!
Contacting the dead is necromancy.