Praying to saints assumes that there are, in fact, human beings already in heaven. These human beings, however, would presumably not have a resurrection body since the final resurrection has not happened yet. So they are disembodied spirits, like Casper the Friendly Ghost, who hover and help whenever we call on them.
There are two notions of what happens to the believer immediately after death.
1. A few isolated Scripture verses seem to support the idea of an immediate experience of what Jesus described as “Paradise” to the penitent thief. The Apostle Paul says in one place that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The reference to the “great cloud of witnesses” in Hebrews 11 is probably more poetic and figurative from the perspective of Hebrew culture.
2. The preponderance of the New Testament teaches the bodily resurrection of Christ and the fact that those who belong to Him will one day be resurrected as well. Usually the Apostle Paul describes death as sleep as we await the last day when Jesus returns and we will be raised bodily and then face the judgment. The Gospel hinges on the good news of Christ’s resurrection and what it means for us.
Praying to saints is built solely on the slim evidence of shoddy exegesis for position 1 above. The notion that people are currently living it up in heaven as disembodied spirits is more pagan and Greek in origin than Christian.
The reason the Bible says that Jesus is the only mediator between God and humanity is because Jesus is the only human currently in Heaven. How can saints hear our prayers when they have no ears? Humans have ears. I don’t know about angels or demons. But I do know that God created human beings with ears. Now, if the saints have ceased to be human, then they are of absolutely no use to believers on earth whose only hope is the resurrection.
At funerals we comfort one another with bad theology. We say Aunt Susie is in heaven with God when what we should say is that Aunt Susie, who died in the faith and fear of Christ, is in God’s care. Aunt Susie like all those saints can’t hear you if you called to her and if somebody came along and said, “You know you can talk to Aunt Susie”, you would be naturally suspicious that you were dealing with a charlatan and you would be right.
Who are the saints? You and I are the saints along with all those who have taken Jesus at his Word. You and I will survive our death only by hanging on to the One who has beaten Death and has interceded to God the Father for us. God gives the gift of faith in Jesus to those who will trust Him. The truly saintly people would never intercept a prayer intended for Christ. The notion is absurd and contradicts the very character that recommends them. True saints point us to the sufficiency of Christ to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
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