Christian necromancers? Nah.
This is a very ancient practice. Since when do Christians talk to dead people?
Well, since biblical times actually. Take for example Moses. He had been dead for for a while when Christ started his evangelizing, yet he was intensely interested in earthly matters, judging by his behavior on the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9:30-31). Also, see the mysterious dead people who visited Jerusalem on Good Friday (Matthew 27:52-53). Just a few examples. At the very least this shows life after death was not boring and inactive. And it sums it up pretty well in this verse"He is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Matthew 22:32).But pray to them? Blasphemy! :ignore:
Let's continue...
The key is understanding that these people we call saints are partakers in God's nature. Why is this important? Well first let me show where it says this:
"...has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature." (2 Peter 1:14)
Does that mean only the Saints are partakers in this nature? No. All Christians are but there are some..."spirits of righteous men made perfect" (Heb. 12:23) who dwell in what Hebrews describes as "clouds" in the beginning of the chapter.
So, we know there are dead people around us and that they are made perfect.
With that said, I've heard Christians say: 1 Timothy 2:5 says"there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus."
And this is where the partakers in divine nature comes in that I mentioned above.
Mark Shea (catholic apologist) answers this very question about Jesus being mediator:
True. Not only that, Jesus is also the
one Son of God (John 1:14) and the
one High Priest (Hebrews 8). Yet he
shares that sonship, priesthood and mediatorship with us. Is there scriptural warrant for this? Yes! Where's Jesus? Seated at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 1:20). Where are we? Right next to him (Ephesians 2:6). How did we get there? God "raised us up" according to that same verse. Why? "To do good works" (like intercede for another) (Ephesians 2:10). How are we to do these good works? "In Christ Jesus" says the same verse. In other words, the prayers of us saints, whether living or dead, totally
derive from and
depend on Christ.
We know this from experience. Suppose I ask you to pray for me. Am I thereby repudiating Christ as my intercessor before God? No, I am doing his will (and so are you) by recognizing that, as a child of God, you are called to imitate him in this role as in all things. Indeed, it is precisely as you and I obey him in his command to prayer for one another that we discover Christ himself is, in the Holy Spirit, the real guide to all our prayers. We pray "through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit." And as we do, we find that, as St. Paul says, "The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will" (Romans 8:26-27). In short, the principal Pray-er is not us, but Christ himself, seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us and adoring his Father who gives us--out of sheer love--the gift of
participating in the eternal conversation between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Mark P. Shea: Saints: Our Unseen Prayer Partners
