In a recent podcast, Dr. Gavin Ortlund made his case for why he believes praying to the saints is unbiblical, ChurchLeaders reports.

Ortlund runs an online ministry called Truth Unites where he deals with controversial issues such as this.

Praying to dead saints is a position long held by both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. They believe that people can ask Christians who have died, particularly those designated as saints, to pray for them.

They point to passages such as Revelation 5:8, where John saw saints in heaven holding bowls containing the prayers of the people on earth and offering them to God:

When He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. (Revelation 5:8 NASV)

Catholics teach that these heavenly saints must have heard these prayers in order to present them.

Catholics also believe that since Mary is the mother of Jesus, she has her Son’s ear and praying to her can be particularly effective.

In countering this argument, Ortlund points out that the Bible is full of individuals who would certainly meet the qualification of saints. This includes Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Daniel, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Solomon.

Yet despite this long list, we do not have a single example of anyone in the Bible praying to one of these deceased saints for help.

When Joshua encountered the Amorites in the Promised Land, he didn’t pray to Moses for help. The Bible is very clear, that Joshua petitioned the Lord (Jehovah):

Then Joshua spoke to the Lord on the day when the Lord turned the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,

“Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
And moon, at the Valley of Aijalon!”
¹³ So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
Until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies. (Joshua 10:12-13 NASV)

Ortlund points out that, “The latter prophets didn’t ask for the intercession of David. The apostles didn’t ask for the intercession of the Old Testament saints.”

In fact, the Bible does the exact opposite. There are many passages that condemn any attempt to contact the dead such as Deuteronomy 18:10–11.

Ortlund adds that prayer and intercession is a major Biblical theme. People were not only encouraged to pray, but even taught how to pray.

“Every time and without exception, prayer is unto God alone,” Ortlund noted. “And we have no biblical example of praying to or asking for the intercession of departed believers.”

Ortlund then addressed Revelation 5:8 and points out an important distinction.

 “Them praying for us and us praying to them are two different things,” Ortlund said. “But these get conflated so many times, or it will be assumed that one entails the other.” 

Ortlund added that there are also no examples of the early church fathers praying to the deceased apostles. Many of whom were personally discipled by the Apostles.

Though they often recorded their prayers, there are no instances of them praying to the apostle Paul or the apostle Peter or even James, the Lord’s brother, for help or guidance.

“Polycarp didn’t ask for the intercession of the Apostle Paul,” Ortlund said. 

According to Ortlund, prayers to the saints did not show up until well into the fourth century and what started as a slow leak, eventually became a flood.

Ultimately, prayer to the saints was based not on Biblical evidence, but rather Roman Catholic tradition.

According to the website, European Catholics in English (ECE), “Tradition is one of the fundamental pillars on which the Catholic faith is built.”

“In the Catholic Church, God’s revelation comes to us through two main sources: Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition,” ECE added.

It points to the Second Vatican Council which stated that “tradition and Scripture ‘must be accepted and honored with equal devotion and reverence.’”

While the Catholic church insists that tradition and the Bible have equal authority, when tradition contradicts the Bible, it is tradition that invariably wins.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus constantly confronted the traditions introduced and enforced by the Pharisees. They were making up new rules that were found nowhere in the Bible.

This resulted in Jesus condemning their traditions with these words, “Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that” (Mark 7:13 NIV).

According to Mounce, the Greek word, akuroō, translated as nullify in this verse means “to deprive of authority, annul, cancel.”

Traditions such as prayer to the saints literally cancels the power of the word of God.