“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men–the testimony given in its proper time.” 1 Timothy 2:5, 6
There are several implications of this verse:
- We make our prayers to our Mediator: Christ. We don’t pray to anyone else (including dead saints like Mary) because Christ and Christ alone is our Mediator.
- Mortal men are not our go-between to God either. We don’t have to go to some priest or preacher to offer up prayers for us.
We’ve already have Christ as our Mediator, the One Who willingly laid down His life for our sins. Not only do other mediators not exist, but if one could choose, no better choice could be made.
So, Catholics, don’t bother running ads in the newspaper praising St. Jude (or anyone else) because if prayers are answered, St. Jude didn’t do it, Christ did.
Evangelicals, stop sending money to preachers (especially TV preachers) in hopes that your “love gifts” or donations to their ministries are going to help your prayers to be answered.
Catholics and evangelicals: Neither will buying that prayer cloth, prayer rug, “holy water”, “holy cake”, nor anything else that anyone is “offering” to you help get your prayers answered.
Christ is our Mediator and it is He Who answers our prayers.
“Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Wow Rachael. Great comparison between the Catholics praying to saints and evangelicals sending money to ministries. I’d never seen it in that sense before now. Nor had I seen the connection between evangelicals who think they can buy their salvation or healings or whatever to Simon who tried to buy the power of the Holy Spirit. I will definitely need to use these comparisons when talking to certain members of my family who have fallen to prey to this way of thinking. Maybe these comparisons will open their eyes.
What it comes down to is manipulation and lack of trust in God for both. Neither class feels like they can pray directly to God and trust Him to answer their prayer. They are both looking for some way to force God’s hand to perform the action that they want.