[Resettozero]

You give him too much credit. He doesn’t have the leading of the Holy Spirit to reveal the understanding of the Word of God. Thus, he tries to make man as confused as he is about Scriptural matters that are revealed to the Saints...us.

He is not worthy of any worship.

[Boogieman]

“You give him too much credit. He doesn’t have the leading of the Holy Spirit to reveal the understanding of the Word of God.”

Sure, but I spoke merely of his knowledge of the Word, not necessarily understanding. My point is that Satan clearly is not as cartoonish as some would depict when it comes to holy things, if he has the entire Bible memorized. To believe he is like some vampire recoiling from crosses is, I think, extremely foolish.

[ealgeone]

The Catholic position simply applies these Scriptural teaching to the entire Body of Christ, while the standard Protestant position says that these teachings don't apply to the parts of the Church that are already in Heaven. The view goes awry in calling for us to ignore an entire portion of the Body of Christ: urging us not to pray for the faithful departed, and not to ask the Saints in glory to pray for us. Scripture calls for us to “have the same care for one another,” to suffer and triumph with the other parts of the Body. The Saints' glory is ours; our struggles are theirs.

The catholic position ignores the Biblical position on this issue.

We do not have any injunction or example of praying to the departed believers.

Praying for the departed does them no good. Their destiny is determined at death. They either die as a Christian and will go to Heaven, or they will die as a non-Christian and go to Hell. Once your earthly body stops working it is too late.

If the catholic position were correct, then the simple thing to do would be to pray everyone into Heaven. This would completely undercut every teaching in the NT about how one comes to faith in Christ.