I don't understand why some Christians do need additional "mediators",when actually Christ is the ONLY ONE ?

Question

why the use of prayer with the Saints,when Jesus is the only real mediator between people and the Father ?

Answer 1

You are actually talking about intercessors. Anyone who prays for you becomes an intercessor...your mother, your best friend, your pastor, etc...

Have you ever asked anyone to pray for you, especially regarding something specifically important? If so, why?

Think about it.

Answer 2

To start the mediator is the person actually praying for you, I have read some of the answers that have been posted prior to posting mine and I must say that some folks on here have no idea when it is said that we ask saints to intercede for us Catholics. Which by the way we are not the only religion on earth that does so, and also by tradition it is a practice that if you look into Acts it was started from the early church.
The use of Old Testament to rule out things in Christian times is not useful at all, because Jesus Christ came to show that that law was no longer valid.
To say that there is no need to pray to the saints, which by the way I see how it effects most of these answering here one way or another, is like saying that you dont need a mechanic to fix your car, or a cardiologist to work on your heart. Saints, as are believed by Catholics and other Christians as well are those who out of special mercy for their lives are with God now, praying for all of us, and to ask them to intercede, not mediate, is to ask them to pray for our needs at a special time. They are our specialist because they have lived a life worthy of the grace of being with God in His kingdom, this is written as well in the New Testament.
A qoute taken from Wikipediais that Saints are not thought of as either perfect or infallible, and it is only because of the work of Christ in them that the Church praises these people. It is because we see our Lord's countenance reflected most clearly in their faces that we publicly laud them, ask them to pray for us, and encourage one another to follow their examples.
I hope this helped you to see why, even though I personally think you aren't searching for truth in an answer, you just want others to support your claim. It is necesary to pray to Christ and God almighty, but there is not harm only good to also pray to those who have gone before us.
God bless and have a great day.

Answer 3

The ones that include mediators are referencing different teaching, backgrounds and traditions. Their intentions are pure.
Maria made a good point. "The sincere prayer of a righteous man avails much"

To gesusisded-
Why do you come to the religion site and harass those who are seeking answers.
It's your choice to reject Christianity. It's not your choice to be aggressive towards others opinions.
You're breaking the community rules and not "contributing" anything.

Answer 4

Of course Christ is the only mediator between humanity and God. Paul is quite clear about that. However, that doesn't mean it is inappropriate for us to ask other people to pray for us. Paul, himself, in his second letter to Timothy, asks several times for Timothy and his congregation to pray for him.

When we ask for the intercession of the Saints, it's no different from asking a friend for prayers on our behalf. If a close friend asks you for prayer, do you turn your nose up and refuse because Christ is the only mediator?

Christ promises us eternal life. We take Him at His word and believe that the holy men and women who have gone before us are still very much alive in spirit and are aware of and take an interest in events that happen on Earth. Who better to ask to pray for us than people who led lives of holiness on Earth and have gone on to their reward? Christ indicates in Matthew that his Apostles, for example, will have positions of some prominence in Heaven. I cannot think of any better group of people than the Saints to pass on a good word for us.

Answer 5

The ones that pray to saints do so because they lack the true faith, their concept is that Jesus alone is not enough to save us, or to hear when we call. They are in error there, and that is truly sad because they think they are Christians but they follow Pagan customs and rituals. They also worship Mary and think she was a perpetual virgin despite the Bible proof to the contrary. They claim Peter was the first Pope, which can not be since the Pope is not a married man and Peter was married, one of the Miracles Jesus did was to heal Peter's Mother-in-law. That proves he was married, a non-married man can have a sister-in-law but it takes a married man to have a Mother-in-law.

Answer 6

Psychologically, we humans need another physically present person to talk to in order for the mental and emotional aspects of forgiveness and reconciliation to work.

This is proven: people who talk to other people (counselors, psychotherapists, friends) about their inner problems get healed, while people who just think to themselves about their problems or pray to God for healing, don't.

I believe God can heal people who ask. But just like with physical ailments, psychological and spiritual ailments need medication and mediation. How many good Christians just pray to God when they get an infection? And if they do, do they heal quicker than a person who saw a doctor or used some peroxide?

Jesus knew this about people. This is why he instituted the Sacrament of Reconcilliation that the Catholic Church still upholds.

As for saints: no Catholic believes that he HAS TO go through the saints to get Jesus's ear. But think for a minute: you ask your Christian friends to pray for you, don't you? And you especially ask the ones you know to have a close walk with God, right? It's the same way with asking a saint to pray for you. Why not ask a friend to pray for you who is actually there physically with Jesus in heaven right now?

Answer 7

There is nothing wrong with asking another person to pray for you so long as that person is still alive.A living person that you have asked to pray for you still has to have Jesus as the mediator.It is when were asking dead people to pray for us that it becomes an abomination in the eyes of God.Read Leviticus 26:1, and you will realize why those that practice this type witchcraft and idolatry, do as they do.The saddest part of all is that they do not know any better.God's Word seems to have no effect on them at all.

Answer 8

why did St Paul tell us to Pray for one another? After all, thats mediating before God. So you see Christ is not the only one. He is the only one who could die on the cross tho' to affect our redemption, therefore he is the only mediator in that respect.

Answer 9

You're right. You don't understand.

You fail to realize that Mary and the saints interecede with JESUS for us, and that being able to personally approach the throne of Christ is one of the rewards of heaven.

JESUS remains the one mediator between God and man.

Answer 10

I am not sure what you are talking about, unless you are talking about the human/christ symtrome. when I was mormon, they did not teach us to rely on God, just the prophet and so some control freaks in the church who couldn't handel life by themselves would pick a weak person and make them into a human/christ. My dad picked me, he was OCD and had been hurt really bad by someone, so me being very shy, was made into the classic victim, and he scared the crap out of me, I guess scared me into submission, so he could control me into paying for the sins of those that had hurt him in the past, I literally felt like a christ nailed to a cross, or that I was carrying a heavy cross up a hill sometimes. I always wondered if he would let me dpwn off my cross, he would make me feel that if I would become the person that he wanted me to be, that some day he would love me, but I could never perfectly become this person, so this l;ove was never going to happen, and when I realized this, I rebelled and became a punk rocker until I joined the army and never came home again, or until I got saved and found out that Jesus died for my sins, so that I did not have to be nailed to a cross anymore. Is this what you refer to?

Answer 11

If you are speaking about Catholics who for instance pray to Mary, or the Pope, or one of their saints or priests it is because that is the christian religion that was closest to Paganism, and therefore kept some of the same rites and rituals so the peasants that were generally uneducated could easily convert from the old ways. Many of the Christian holidays and rites are simply Pagan rituals that they stole, and this is just another one. Pagans prayed to many gods and goddesses.