St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
And do thou, oh prince of the heavenly hosts
By the power of God
Cast into hell
Satan and all evil spirits
Who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
AMEN.
Only through Jesus can one reach the Father. He is the way and the light. God the Father has given us Jesus to be our righteous mediator and lawyer before God.
It is wrong to pray to any other, but Jesus. Only through Him can your prayers be answered and condoned by the Father. Jesus paid the price and has earned it to sit on the Right hand of the Father.
Don't go putting down someone else's beliefs. It's very arrogant of you. And how dare you go and assume that person doesn't already go through Jesus. We have saints, angels, Jesus, Mary, God, all present when the baby Jesus was born. So go suck an egg.
Don't you have anything better to do than going through a post written 8 months ago? How utterly strange.....
Jesus said -- “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6)
You can't get any clearer than it coming from the lips of Jesus Himself. And, it is also written:
"And there is salvation in no other [but Jesus], for there is not another name under heaven having been given among men, by which it behooves us to be saved."( Acts 4:12)
Amen
Wow, so many “Christians” going full on hateful in the comments. Let me guess, you preach loving all, tolerance, and can quote any chapter and verse at the drop of a hat, but you’re the first to judge and insult anyone different from you. So closed-minded and not at all Christ-like. Pharisees, the lot of you.
Thats because they think 'once saved always saved'. Once they believe they accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, they can lie, steal, murder, whatever because 'they are saved'. They can memorize bible verses but ignore the content.
See how they show pride and hatred. My catholic faith teaches love and humility.
Mine too. Thank you, fren.
They also conveniently ignore the verses that convict them such as the discourse on the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist
And what about ....love thy neighbor as thyself. But I do this. And Jesus said give all you have to the poor and follow me. The man was sad because he had much and walked away.
You see, some denominations pick-and-choose what they will accept. Cafeteria Christians.
Heretics are always hypocrites. These fools think the Bible came before the church but of course are in grave error. Jesus Christ found a church not a book. That church has the authority to decide what books are in the Bible
Miss me with that Catholic papist shit. The Bible clearly states not to pray to the dead.
We definitely NEED this armor in their full on assault during this war.
Psalm 91
Amen
James says: “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects” (James 5:16-17). Thus, according to Scripture, God wants us to pray for one another. This must mean that prayer for one another cannot detract from the role of Jesus Christ as our one mediator with God.
Second, the reason that Christians have the power to pray for one another is that each person who is baptized is made a member of the Body of Christ by virtue of the Holy Spirit’s action in baptism (1 Cor. 12:11-13). It is because the Christian belongs to Jesus Christ and is a member of his Body, the Church, that we can make effective prayer.
The reason we pray to the saints is that they are still members of the Body of Christ. Remember, the life which Christ gives is eternal life; therefore, every Christian who has died in Christ is forever a member of the Body of Christ. This is the doctrine which we call the Communion of the Saints. Everyone in Christ, whether living or dead, belongs to the Body of Christ.
From this it follows that a saint in heaven may intercede for other people because he still is a member of the Body of Christ. Because of this membership in Christ, under his headship, the intercession of the saints cannot be a rival to Christ’s mediation; it is one with the mediation of Christ, to whom and in whom the saints form one body.
Some Christians–most Protestants, in fact–deny that the Bible gives support for devotion to the saints, but they are incorrect. The Bible encourages Christians to approach the saints in heaven, just as they approach God the Father and Jesus Christ the Lord: “But you have approached Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and myriads of angels, and the assembly and church of the firstborn who have been enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all, and spirits of righteous ones who have been made perfect, and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood which speaks better than that of Abel” (Heb. 12:22-24).
It is clear the Christian has approached a number of heavenly beings: the heavenly Jerusalem, the angels, God the judge, and Jesus the mediator. “The assembly and church of the firstborn who have been enrolled in heaven” and the phrase “spirits of righteous ones who have been made perfect” can refer only to the saints in heaven.
First, they are spirits, not flesh and blood. Second, they are righteous people, presumably made righteous by Jesus Christ, “who is our righteousness.” Third, they have been made perfect. The only place where spirits of perfected righteous people can dwell is heaven.
Furthermore, “spirits of righteous ones who have been made perfect” is a perfect definition of the saints in heaven. This passage is saying that, just as Christians approach the angels, God the judge, Jesus Christ, and his saving blood, so also must we approach the saints in heaven.
Does the Bible say we should approach the saints with our prayers? Yes, in two places. In Revelation 5:8 John saw the Lamb, Christ Jesus, on a throne in the midst of four beasts and 24 elders. When the Lamb took the book with the seven seals, the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb in worship, “each one having a harp and golden bowls of incenses, which are the prayers of the saints.”
Similarly, in Revelation 8:3-4 we are told that something similar happened when the Lamb opened the seventh seal of the book: “Another angel came and stood on the altar, having a golden censer, and many incenses were given to him, in order that he will give it with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incenses went up with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God.”
These texts give us a way to understand how the saints offer our prayers for us. Our prayers are like nuggets of incense. They smell sweet and good. The 24 elders around the throne, who are saints, and the angels offer these nuggets of incense for us. They set them on fire before the throne of God.
This is a beautiful image of how the intercession of the saints works. Because the saints are so close to the fire of God’s love and because they stand immediately before him, they can set our prayers on fire with their love and release the power of our prayers.
I appreciate your long explanation and you have some good points, but it seems you may as well go right to the best source God.
Lastly, who are "real" saints we should pray too? Many have been made saints by the catholic church...but that was men who chose them...and I don't think I need to reremind you how corrupt the top of the church is and always has been,, how they have rewritten history, wrong translations in bibles over centuries, lost books,, etc so forth. I mean didn't they make mother Theresa a Saint or plan too? She was a messed up piece of work.
Which "saints do you trust to be saints" to pray to? At this point you can't trust our histories. Heck I don't even know if Jesus can be safely prayed to so ill just stick with God personally. I shouldn't need to be interceded for since he knows my heart and hears me.
My non religious two cents. It might not be popular around here but it took me along time to even come back to God from the above questions I've had over the years. It took the face of evil I could no longer not see in the last 5 years to remind me God is the balance to all that. But I don't trust a man made written history. To me it is all propaganda
The definition of a saint is anyone who experiences the beatific vision. The church through the power of keys and the guidance of the Holy Spirit has a right to declare a saint
That's my point.
Well then it's a damn good point
Well put. Saints are those who have lived a life of devotion to God. They are like superheros we admire for their examples of how to live our devotion to God. Read their stories
No thanks. I don't pray pagan prayers. Intercession isn't real.