Prayers to the Saints?

By Mark Swarbrick

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A man who calls himself “Father Dan Reehil” is a Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Nashville who has gained a significant following through his public ministry and frequent online appearances. He maintains a Facebook page and a YouTube channel through which he promotes a number of false doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, including the practice of praying to departed saints. Not everyone, however, has viewed his ministry favorably. In 2017, a group of parents at the Catholic school where he served submitted a letter to the diocese urging his removal. Among their allegations, they described him as a “toxic narcissist” and claimed that his leadership had caused psychological and spiritual harm to children.

This article addresses one of Dan Reehil’s videos in which he encourages prayer to the spirits of the deceased rather than to God. Sadly, many people have been deceived by this teaching. It is difficult to understand why anyone would seek spiritual instruction from a Roman Catholic priest. The Roman Catholic Church now permits the blessing of same-sex unions, thereby affirming what God condemns as sin. A church that blesses sexual immorality has departed from biblical truth and is an apostate church. Believers should not receive doctrinal instruction from a man who serves as a priest in such a church. With that in mind, let us compare Dan Reehil’s teaching about praying to the dead with what the Bible says.

Does Revelation 5:8 Teach Prayers to the Dead?

In one of his videos, he begins by quoting Revelation 5:8: “The twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” From this passage he attempts to defend the unbiblical and idolatrous practice of praying to dead people. However, nothing in the context indicates that these prayers were made to these twenty-four elders or that the elders even knew what the prayers were for or who made them.

The prayers of Christians go immediately and directly God. God Himself invites us to pray directly to Him: “Call to Me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known” (Jeremiah 33:3). God is omniscient. The Bible teaches that God knows everything about us. As David wrote, “You perceive my thoughts from afar” (Psalm 139:2). He also declared, “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether” (Psalm 139:4). Later in the same psalm he wrote, “If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there” (Psalm 139:8), emphasizing that there is no place where we can escape God’s presence or His perfect knowledge of us. Jesus likewise taught that God knows us so completely that “even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:30).

Nothing about us is hidden from God. He knows our thoughts, our words, our needs, our whereabouts, and even the smallest details of our lives before we ever speak a prayer. In view of these truths, the idea that angels or the spirits of the dead are needed to carry our prayers to God is without merit. The priest’s interpretation cannot be reconciled with the biblical doctrine of God’s omniscience. It imagines that God must first be informed by saints in heaven that someone has prayed before He can answer those prayers.

The New Testament leaves no doubt about where the Christian’s prayers should be directed. Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Our Father who art in heaven” (Matthew 6:9), and promised, “My Father will give you whatever you ask in My name” (John 16:23). Through Christ’s death and resurrection, every believer now has direct access to God. As Paul declares, “For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit” (Ephesians 2:18). Because of this, Hebrews 4:16 invites us to “approach the throne of grace with confidence,” not through angels, departed believers, or any other intermediary, but through Jesus Christ Himself. Scripture also declares, “there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). While Revelation 5:8 portrays the prayers of the saints as precious before God, it does not teach that believers should pray to deceased saints or seek their intercession. Christ alone is our Mediator, and through Him every child of God has immediate, unhindered access to the Father.

The Actual Meaning of Revelation 5:8 in Context

The Catholic priest’s interpretation fails on two other counts. First, nothing in the passage says that believers should direct their prayers to angels or to the dead. Second, it completely ignores the context. Revelation chapter 5 is not about how to pray. Rather, it depicts events in heaven immediately after the Rapture of the church (which occurs at Revelation 4:1) and during the Tribulation, when God’s wrath is poured out on the earth. The context centers on the scroll containing the seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls, all of which represent God’s judgment on a world that has turned against Him.

This passage is highly symbolic. The twenty-four elders represent the Church in heaven after the Rapture while new Christian converts on earth are being persecuted by the Antichrist and a godless world. Prayers for deliverance and justice that were received directly by God are symbolically pictured as being placed on the golden altar before His throne along with incense. Then, in Revelation 8:3–5, an angel takes “the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.” Thus begins the horrors of God’s Tribulation wrath upon the earth, which is described throughout the remainder of the book of Revelation.

The point of the symbolism is to demonstrate the solidarity between heaven and believers on earth during the Tribulation and to show that the time is close at hand for God to answer their prayers for deliverance and justice. Why are the prayers symbolically pictured as being hurled down upon the earth? Why are they immediately followed by peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake? The answer is found in the symbolism itself. The thunder, lightning, and earthquake signify the coming wrath of God, while the prayers of the saints, symbolically hurled down upon the earth, signify that God is now answering those prayers by pouring out His Tribulation judgments upon a rebellious world.

The passage also reveals the direction in which the prayers are traveling. It shows the saints holding two things: harps and golden bowls full of incense. Where did they get these items? From God, of course. Where else? The Bible says, “Every good and perfect gift is from…the Father” (James 1:17). The golden bowls of incense are identified as the prayers of the Tribulation saints. Therefore, the prayers went directly from the Tribulation saints to God, and from there to the saints in heaven. The heavenly saints witness the incense ascending before God, illustrating that the time is at hand for the fulfillment of those prayers. But the priest’s interpretation turns the entire passage on its head by claiming that the prayers first went to the saints, who then have to help God out by transferring the prayers to Him. This is the exact opposite of what the text portrays—the prayers go directly to God, after which God gives them to the saints.

Most damning to the priest’s contention is this: nothing in this passage instructs believers to pray to the spirits of deceased saints or to angels. Such an interpretation is not exegesis but eisegesis—a Catholic priest attempting to impose Catholic dogma upon the Scriptures.

Do the Church Fathers Teach Prayers to the Dead?

After this mutilation of Holy Scripture, the priest turns to cherry-picking doctrines from the writings of some of the later Church Fathers. While these writings are historically valuable, they are not the inspired, infallible Word of God as the Bible is. Like all uninspired writings, they contain both valuable insights and false teachings. Therefore, they must always be tested by the authority of Scripture, not the other way around.

If, instead of cherry-picking isolated quotations, we examine the writings of the Church Fathers as a whole, a very different picture emerges. The writings of the earliest Church Fathers provide no support for the Catholic practice of praying to departed saints. In fact, the earliest Christian treatises devoted specifically to prayer consistently direct believers to pray to God the Father through Jesus Christ. Tertullian (c. A.D. 160–220) expounds the Lord’s Prayer and instructs Christians to pray as Jesus taught. Origen (c. A.D. 185–253) repeatedly teaches that prayer is to be addressed to the Father through the Son. Likewise, Cyprian (d. A.D. 258) follows Christ’s instruction that believers are to pray, “Our Father.” None of these early writers instruct Christians to pray to departed saints or to seek their intercession.

This silence is significant. If praying to deceased saints had been an apostolic practice, it is difficult to explain why the earliest and most influential teachers of the Church never mention it when writing entire treatises on prayer. Praying to saints was unknown during the apostolic age and for centuries afterward. The earliest evidence of Christians actually addressing prayers to departed saints does not appear until the fourth century, when the practice gradually became widespread. The historical record therefore supports the New Testament pattern: believers have direct access to the Father through Jesus Christ and have no need for additional heavenly mediators.

Even after the practice became widespread, it was not without opposition. Around A.D. 400, Vigilantius openly rejected prayers to departed saints and the veneration of relics. Had these practices truly originated with the apostles, it is difficult to imagine a respected Christian leader publicly rejecting them only three centuries later. Instead, the historical evidence points in the opposite direction. The earliest Christian writers consistently taught believers to pray directly to God through Jesus Christ, while the practice of praying to departed saints arose centuries later as a post-apostolic development.

In this regard, it must be pointed out that Dan Reehil makes a historical claim for which there is absolutely no evidence. Reehil falsely claims, without any historical evidence, that second-century Christians gathered at Polycarp’s tomb and asked for his prayers. The only surviving manuscript describing what occurred after Polycarp’s martyrdom is The Martyrdom of Polycarp. That document records that the believers recovered Polycarp’s bones, buried them in a suitable place, and gathered there annually to commemorate his martyrdom and encourage one another by his faithful example. It says absolutely nothing about praying to Polycarp or asking for his intercession. Reehil’s claim is therefore not based on the historical record. It is a fabrication, invented out of whole cloth to support a doctrine that the document itself never teaches.

Does the Transfiguration Teach Praying to Spirits?

The priest next appeals to Christ’s conversation with Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1–8; Mark 9:2–8; Luke 9:28–36) as justification for praying to departed saints. This argument fails for several reasons.

First, Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. As such, He was permitted to do things that ordinary believers are not. He accepted worship (Matthew 14:33; John 9:38), forgave sins by His own authority (Mark 2:5–12), declared Himself Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28), cleansed the temple by overturning the tables of the money changers and driving them out with a whip (John 2:13–17), and stated that He could call upon His Father to send more than twelve legions of angels (Matthew 26:53). Simply because Christ did something does not mean His followers are authorized to do the same. Christian doctrine is established by what Scripture commands believers to do, not by assuming that every unique act of Christ is a pattern for us to imitate.

Second, Jesus did not pray to Moses or Elijah. He did not petition them, ask them for help, or request that they present His prayers to the Father. Luke tells us exactly what occurred: Moses and Elijah “appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). They discussed Christ’s impending death, burial, resurrection, and ascension—the central event in God’s plan of redemption. This was a divinely appointed conversation, not an act of prayer.

Third, the entire event was initiated by God, not by man. Jesus did not attempt to contact the dead, nor did the disciples summon Moses or Elijah. God Himself caused Moses and Elijah to appear for His own purposes. There is a vast difference between God sovereignly allowing departed saints to appear and human beings attempting to communicate with them.

Fourth, the conclusion of the Transfiguration completely undermines the priest’s argument. As Peter suggested placing Moses, Elijah, and Jesus on equal footing by building three shelters, the Father interrupted him, declaring, “This is my beloved Son…listen to Him!” (Matthew 17:5). Then the vision ended, and “they saw no one but Jesus only” (Matthew 17:8). The Father’s command was not to seek Moses or Elijah but to listen to His Son.

If the priest’s interpretation were correct, we would expect the apostles to teach believers to pray to departed saints after witnessing the Transfiguration. They never did. Throughout the New Testament they consistently direct believers to pray to the Father through Jesus Christ. The priest has once again read a doctrine into the text that simply is not there. The Transfiguration provides no biblical support whatsoever for praying to departed saints. Instead, it magnifies the unique glory and authority of Jesus Christ and directs all attention to Him alone.

Finally, Dan Reehil argues that because the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and spoke with her, believers should pray to the spirits of the dead. This argument is without merit. First, Gabriel was an angel, not the spirit of a deceased human being. Second, Mary did not pray to Gabriel. She did not summon him, petition him, or ask him to carry requests to God. Gabriel appeared at God’s command and initiated the conversation. The passage records a divinely initiated visitation, not a human attempt to communicate with a heavenly being. It therefore provides no support whatsoever for praying to departed saints.

Prayer is Worship

Prayer is not merely a means of communication. Throughout Scripture, it is presented as an act of worship. David prayed, “May my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice” (Psalm 141:2). Under the Old Testament law, incense and sacrifices were sacred acts of worship offered exclusively to God. By comparing his prayer to incense and the evening sacrifice, David identifies prayer as an act of worship offered to the Lord. The book of Revelation reinforces this same truth by once again portraying prayer as incense ascending before God’s throne, one of the central acts of worship under the Old Testament.

So we see that prayer is identified in Scripture as an act of worship, and Jesus declared, “You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve” (Matthew 4:10). Therefore, prayer belongs to God alone. It follows that directing prayers to Mary, angels, or the spirits of departed saints is idolatry. It offers to created beings an act of worship or religious service that God has reserved exclusively for Himself. Scripture never authorizes such a practice. On the contrary, it consistently reserves worship—and therefore prayer—for God alone.

Prayers to the Dead is Necromancy

Deuteronomy 18:10-12 forbids attempts to communicate with the dead. It is called necromancy. Catholics argue that necromancy only means attempting to conjure up the dead in order to work spells, but the truth is that the Bible forbids any communication with the deceased. The definition of necromancy is this: “Necromancy is the practice of attempting to communicate with the spirits of the dead.” That is why the NIV translates Deuteronomy 18:10-12 as: “Let no one be found among you who…consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord.”

Young’s Literal Translation has it: “seeking unto the dead.”

The Berean Literal Bible: “a seeker of the dead.”

New American Standard Bible: “consults the dead.”

Literal Standard Version: “seeking to the dead.”

That is exactly what Catholics do with Mary. A common practice of Catholicism is to redefine terms in order to get away with violating Scripture. They pretend necromancy does not refer to communication with the dead.

Roman Catholics often argue that praying to departed saints is not necromancy because they are not attempting to receive messages from the dead but are merely asking the saints to pray on their behalf. Even if that distinction were granted, it immediately breaks down in actual Roman Catholic practice. The Roman Catholic Church has officially approved numerous Marian apparitions in which Mary—who departed this life nearly two thousand years ago—is said to have appeared and communicated messages, prophecies, warnings, instructions, and requests to the living. This goes far beyond simply asking a departed saint to pray. It involves claimed communication between the living and a departed human being. That is precisely what God forbids in Scripture. It is necromancy.

Prayers to Mary Constitutes Worship

Catholics claim they don’t worship Mary, they only venerate her. Such semantics does not invalidate Scripture or reality. Veneration and prayer on your knees before a statue is idolatry. “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them” (Exodus 20:4-5). If calling worship “veneration” makes it okay, then why didn’t Paul just tell the Athenians to go on serving their idols, so long as they call it veneration instead of worship?

Furthermore, Catholic literature is full of prayers to Mary that are clearly worshipful supplications. For example, consider these prayers to Mary taken from The Glories of Mary, a fully authorized publication of the Roman Catholic Church. Its latest edition is published by the Catholic Book Publishing Company of New York and officially stamped by the Vicar General, the Archdiocese of New York.

“We have confidence but in thee, O most faithful virgin. O great Mediatrix of Peace between men and God…O Mary, sweet refuge of poor sinners, assist me with thy mercy. Banish me from the infernal enemies and come thou to take my soul and present it to the eternal judge. My queen, do not abandon me, I give you my heart and soul. Mary, blessed virgin, immaculate queen, I dedicate my family forever to thy service. I appoint thee ruler of my whole house. Bless us, defend us, provide for us, counsel us, comfort us, assist us in our infirmities, especially in the sorrows of death. Grant that we may go to heaven.”

Think about what is being said: “O great Mediatrix…Immaculate queen…I give you my heart and soul…grant that we may go to heaven.” That is worship, and no amount of semantic silliness can get around this fact. This is not merely asking a deceased friend to pray for you. This is idolatrous worship of Mary. It is “seeking unto the dead.” Both are forbidden by Scripture.

No one who has Jesus in their heart would want to pray to a dead person. They are filled with the Holy Spirit and God the Father attends their prayer. Adulation of Mary is nothing but the same sin that beset Israel – Idolatry.

Saints are not Dead

One of the most obvious of all dodges Catholics make to evade the command of Scripture is to claim that the saints are not dead, for their spirits are alive, so the Bible’s prohibition against praying to the dead does not apply. Such an argument is just plain silly. Of course, when the Bible says not to contact the dead, God is saying don’t attempt to contact the spirits of those whose bodies are dead. If that is not what is meant, then the command not to seek the dead is nonsensical. The Bible says that to God “all men live.” So, yes, the spirits of the saints are alive, and so are the spirits of the wicked, and it has always been so. To try to excuse the prohibition against contacting the dead by saying, “Well, their spirits are alive so that makes it okay” is an argument that only the weakest of minds would fall for. It is plain to any that the command not to communicate with the dead means not to try to communicate with the living spirts of those whose bodies have died.

The plain truth is that the dead cannot intercede for us. Nowhere in the Bible is that taught. Attempting to contact the spirits of those who have died is not the same as asking a living friend to pray for you. That is utter nonsense. The Bible never, not once, says to seek the dead. Show me in the New Testament where Jesus or the apostles taught people to pray to the dead. It is not there. It is a dangerous false doctrine cooked up by the cult of Catholicism.

Conclusion

The biblical evidence is overwhelming. Nowhere do Jesus, the apostles, or the earliest Christians teach believers to pray to departed saints. On the contrary, Scripture consistently directs prayer to God alone through Jesus Christ, our one Mediator. The Roman Catholic practice of praying to Mary and the saints rests not upon the Word of God but upon later traditions, fabricated historical claims, and a misinterpretation of Scripture. It ultimately leads to idolatry and the forbidden practice of seeking communication with the dead. Every believer who desires to honor God should reject this false doctrine and come boldly to the Father through Jesus Christ alone, for He has opened the way into God’s presence for all who believe.



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