Praying to Dead Saints

Q: Some Christian denominations teach that you can pray to your loved ones or to saints who have died and they will hear you. Where does this teaching come from, and is it true?

By Pastor Ken Burisek, The Ole Country Church, Medford, Wisconsin
Email: kburisek@wildblue.net
This question brings to mind a number of facts and fantasies that people might have about being in contact with the dead - regardless whether they are saints or loved ones now in eternity.

Some folks like to think of their dead relatives as watching out for them from above, like some kind of guardian angels. There are a number of verses in the Bible that tell us not to try to communicate with the dead. The dead are those human folks who have already died and passed over to the other side - whether it be to heaven or to hell. The Bible warns us not to try to communicate or to pray to them. The biggest reason is pretty obvious: even though they may be in heaven, they are not omnipresent like God is. Even if someone should try and pray to them, there is no way that person would be able to even hear their prayers to begin with unless God would allow it or God would transmit the prayer to them somehow.

Jesus Himself specifically told us that we are to pray directly to God the Father if we have any specific needs that must be met. There is not one verse that I ever found where God ever told anyone that we could pray to dead saints. If God the Father wanted this as an option, ...