![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2020\/09\/MosesPraying.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This is a reply to Matt Slick<\/a>: Presbyterian pastor and head of the large and influential anti-Catholic Protestant CARM<\/a> discussion forum. I am responding to his article, \u201cCan Mary hear our prayers?\u201d<\/a>. His words will be in blue<\/span>.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n There is nothing in the\u00a0Bible\u00a0that says that Mary can simultaneously hear the prayers of people all over the world, in different languages, spoken, and thought, an attribute that God possesses. But, the Catholic Church says she can. . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Roman Catholics all over the world offer prayers to\u00a0Mary\u00a0on a regular basis and expect her to hear them and intercede for them with God and Jesus. This is unfortunate because it isn\u2019t biblical. They have gone beyond scripture.<\/span><\/p>\n Not everything in the Bible or every Christian doctrine held has to be made explicit<\/em> there; the Bible never teaches that. What is required is that a doctrine must be in harmony<\/em> with the Bible, and not contradict<\/em>\u00a0it. Thus, we might observe that the Bible never states that Mary can\u2019t<\/em> do these things. Nothing in the Bible denies that God can grant extraordinary qualities such as this one to His creatures when they are in heaven with Him.<\/p>\n We know that God can hear simultaneous prayers because He is outside of time (a Catholic dogma). C. S. Lewis compared this to God being an author of a book and our being the characters in the book. The author can go away for two years and then come back to his book and its fictional \u201ctimeline\u201d as if no time has passed by. That\u2019s how God is with our prayers. He\u2019s not constrained by time because He\u2019s not in it<\/em> in the first place, as its creator.<\/p>\n The question then becomes: are we creatures also<\/em> outside of time (or do we at least\u00a0transcend<\/em> earthly time in some fashion?) when we get to heaven and enter eternity? Many philosophers of religion have thought so, on the grounds that heavenly eternity (for creatures) is not endless succession of time, but rather, the cessation of time as we know it from a particular point forward (rather like a ray in geometry). There are many mysteries about heaven, but who can say what it will be like: including our experience of time or lack thereof? It\u2019s certainly possible<\/em> that we could be outside of time: not eternally like God, but from the moment we get to heaven.<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t access the article for free, but \u201cTime in Heaven: From Glory to Glory,\u201d<\/a> by\u00a0Scott Steinkerchner OP, has an intriguing abstract:<\/p>\n This article addresses three questions: Is there time in heaven? If so, what is it like? and How does it relate to time in this universe? In dialogue with modern science, this paper argues that since Christianity believes in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting, it should also affirm that there is time and space in heaven. Thus, rather than picturing heaven as a changeless, eternal moment, it is better to picture is as an everlasting experience of advancing from glory to glory. The time and the space in heaven is not the same as the time and the space in this universe, but the relationship between spacetime in heaven and spacetime in this universe in shrouded in mystery. While in this universe time always advances in one direction, in heaven, we might be able to move both forwards and backwards in time, though always moving forward in glory. It is also possible that the saints in heaven could revisit different times on earth, making for a complex interaction between heavenly and earthly timelines that could explain how the saints in heaven can hear and respond to earthly prayers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If indeed this is true (and I see nothing in the Bible that undeniably contradicts it), then it is entirely possible that Mary and other saints in heaven can not only hear our prayers, but hear the prayers of millions, because of being in a different state vis-a-vis time. And they would be able to do so because God willed it to be that way and gave them that power.<\/p>\n The main verse The Roman Catholic Church uses to support their idea about Mary hearing prayers is found in\u00a0Revelation 5:8. . . .<\/span><\/p>\n Nothing in that verse says that anyone hears the prayers of the saints.\u00a0 It is a figurative context and is not explicit.<\/span><\/p>\n It may not say specifically that they \u201chear\u201d them, but that notion is consistent with their having \u201cthe prayers of the saints.\u201d What are they doing<\/em> with them in the first place,<\/em> if indeed (as Protestants tell us, as one of their unbiblical traditions) only God<\/em> can ever be prayed to and receive prayer?<\/p>\n Slick provides four commentaries in an attempt to minimize the clear import of this text, and even one of those (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown) admits that it is a mystery; that these saints are\u00a0\u201cemployed by God in some way unknown to us to present our prayers (nothing is said of their interceding for us) . . .\u201d. This famous commentary concedes that they possess \u201cour prayers\u201d and present them to God. This makes them intermediaries, and is completely consistent with the notion that they are indeed interceding for us, which means in turn that they heard our prayers before God did, and presented them to Him.<\/p>\n Otherwise, why are they involved at all? Neither Slick nor his four commentaries have proven otherwise. If only God can be prayed to, and only directly, why in the world<\/em> would Scripture present such a scenario? It seems like this would be the last<\/em> way to portray it if Protestant assumptions are correct.<\/p>\n . . . does the text actually say that they hear the prayers? No, it does not.\u00a0 The saints in heaven offering the prayers doesn\u2019t mean that they can hear the prayers of people on earth.\u00a0 The Roman Catholic Church has read a doctrine into the text.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s perfectly plausible and consistent to assert that they heard<\/em> prayers, if they possess<\/em> them. And it is because of things we do know: having been informed by Scripture. We know that saints are intensely aware of earthly events, like spectators in an arena, watching (see my paper on Hebrews 12:1<\/a>). If they have such an awareness, it simply cannot be ruled out that they could hear our prayers, as part of that, and can function as intercessors for us. Jeremiah 15:1 (RSV) implies that Moses and Samuel could intercede after their death:<\/p>\n Then the LORD said to me, \u201cThough Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Abraham \u2014 after His death \u2014 is prayed to (asked for intercession) in a story (not a parable) told by Jesus Himself (Luke 16<\/a>). So is the prophet Samuel (by Saul<\/a>). Thus we know, with direct, explicit Scripture, that dead saints 1) observe us, and 2) can be prayed to. What more does one need? This being the case, it\u2019s altogether fitting and plausible that Mary the Mother of God the Son Jesus, would be particularly involved in such loving intercession, by God\u2019s will.<\/p>\n Now, even if it were\u00a0possible<\/em>\u00a0that this verse could be interpreted to mean that the saints in heaven can hear Christians\u2019 prayers, which I don\u2019t assert is legitimate, it still does not mean that Mary can hear the prayers of people all over the world, simultaneously, both thought and spoken, and in different languages.<\/span><\/p>\n I explained how that is entirely possible and plausible, in the first section above.<\/p>\n If the people in heaven are aware of the prayers, it doesn\u2019t say how they are aware.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t have<\/em> to. All we need to know is that they are<\/em> aware. If they are, then they are involved in the process, regardless of the \u201chow\u201d and the \u201cmechanics\u201d of it. We know it is through God\u2019s power.<\/p>\n I am aware that my friends pray to God but I don\u2019t know what those prayers are unless they tell me. I cannot read people\u2019s minds nor do I hear the prayers they give to God unless I\u2019m physically present with them and they\u2019re speaking out loud. So, the Roman Catholic church is stretching the verse beyond its intent and not being logical in its examination.\u00a0 The Catholics are committing the interpretive error called\u00a0eisegesis.<\/span><\/p>\n None of this logically follows because of the difference of being in heaven and in a different relation to time, compared to being on earth, and because we know that dead saints can receive intercessory requests and present (as we would expect) them to God.<\/p>\n Roman Catholics say that heaven is not like it is here on earth and that we don\u2019t know what Mary can and cannot do in heaven; therefore, they say, why can\u2019t she hear our prayers and answer them.\u00a0 But this is an argument from silence. We should not argue from what we\u00a0don\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0know. We should argue from what we\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0know. To argue from what we do\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0know opens the door wide to saying anything.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s a valid deduction (which is arguing from what we know) from philosophy of religion, based on what we know from Scripture<\/em>: speculation on the nature of eternity and what it will be like for creatures in heaven. We know it will be extraordinary and that we will have glorified bodies and that now we only \u201csee through a glass darkly\u201d as Paul stated, and \u201ceye has not seen\u201d etc. what God has prepared for us. And we have scriptural examples of Abraham and Samuel being asked to pray for us after their deaths. These<\/em> are the relevant passages that Slick needs to grapple with, but he appears utterly unaware of them.<\/p>\n For example, the Bible does not say anything about life on other planets. Therefore, should we conclude that there\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0life on other planets?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We can\u2019t know for sure, based on the Bible<\/em>, but it also doesn\u2019t rule it out<\/strong><\/em>, which is why C. S. Lewis argued that it is entirely possible and not ruled out in the Bible.<\/p>\n This is why the Bible says that were not to exceed what is written (1 Corinthians 4:6). It sets the scriptures as the guide that should not be exceeded.\u00a0 Our admonition from Scripture is to use the word of God as the footstool upon which we build our truths, not the ignorance of what heaven\u00a0might<\/em>\u00a0be like and then use it to justify a teaching about Mary is not supported in Scripture.<\/span><\/p>\n\n