Benson Commentary admits that prayer took place here, too, but commits the same two logical fallacies already refuted above, with the same blind spots as to the relevant issues:
It cannot be denied, that there is one precedent here in Scripture, of praying to a departed saint: but who is he that prays? and with what success? Will any one who considers this be inclined to imitate him?
Every instance you have cited lacks a command or instruction to pray to anyone except Jesus. This is an argument based on conjecture at best.
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Why don’t you answer my specific arguments, then (if they are so bad), instead of repeating mere Protestant points? Like Taken does?
My argument doesn’t depend on a command. Jesus gave this example in His story, and it cannot contain a falsehood or bad theology.
There is not the slightest hint of condemnation or opposition to the notion of praying to Abraham.
Jesus said (summary): “The rich man prayed to Abraham, asking him to fulfill his petitionary requests.”Taken says (summary): “men cannot pray to Abraham or anyone else but God.”
Conclusion: I pick the stated view of Jesus, God the Son, over the contrary opinion of Taken.
There’s no command in the Bible that says all true Christian doctrines have to be presented explicitly in the Bible, either,
and that is Taken's false premise that underlies his present argument and is also fairly fundamental to the entire outlook of
sola Scriptura, and assumed minus any biblical indication of such a thing.You can keep repeating unproven Protestant platitudes and traditions of men; I’ll keep repeating biblical arguments, thank you.
Well it was an interesting discussion while it lasted … but if you write me off as someone who would be limited to “unproven Protestant platitudes and traditions of men” you clearly do not know me. Building a doctrine of intercession from an aggadic text is contrary to the principles Rabbinic and Christian hermeneutics – I’ll leave it at that.
...but it is true that Taken continues to refuse to respond to
my actual arguments. He simply repeats his own.
Your assumption rests on the request being valid and that Abraham is potentially able but not capable.
It’s a pretty solid assumption, by analogy, since, as I showed, it is blasphemous to worship anyone but God; therefore, Paul and Peter and angels all specifically refuse worship and rebuke such a notion. Thus, if a prayer to Abraham was similarly blasphemous, in the story given by the omniscient Jesus, he certainly would have rebuked the prayer request and pointed the rich man to God. But he doesn’t. He simply says that the request (not the very notion of
prayer itself!) is denied.
It is just as valid to read Abraham’s reply as an ‘even if I was able it wouldn’t be possible.’
That doesn’t follow. If the prayer were improper this certainly would have been pointed out, lest Jesus lead astray His followers into seriously false and dangerous doctrine (according to how Protestants view it).
“Therefore, it is assumed in the story that Abraham had the ability and authority to do so on his own” is a sequitur, but not the only sequitur available.
Not the only, but by far the best and most plausible.
There is not the slightest hint of condemnation or opposition to the notion of praying to Abraham.
Probably because it is not the main teaching point that Jesus wishes to emphasise. Does this mean, by your same method, that Jesus thinks a camel can go through the eye of a needle? …. there is no negation of this possibility.
That’s a silly example because it is clearly Hebrew exaggeration and hyperbole (which He often used), and that is not the case at all here. It is a literal re-telling of a story that appears to have
actually happened. But even if it didn’t (if it is a parable), Jesus could never mislead with false theology.
God is never mentioned in the story. The prayer goes to Abraham. (that Taken flatly denies) I would say that it is understood that the power to grant it goes back to God, based on teaching elsewhere. Hebrew culture was based on many shared common premises that were understood.
Fine, Jesus’ original audience (John’s ‘Jewish context’) would have thought the original camel proposition quite absurd.
No; anyone who knew anything at all about genre and Hebrew idiom and culture would understand it as hyperbole. But educated people sometimes
do misunderstand anyway (like Nicodemus and the “born again” issue). Note that Jesus rebuked Nicodemus for that, implying that he
should have known that he was speaking spiritually and not literally.
Why is it not fair to take a contour on the ‘Rich man’ that he too was attempting something desperate but unreal?
Because Jesus the teller of the story didn’t state that and correct it.
I think there is a valid distinction between the realms of the temporal and the eternal. If not then universalism beckons where repentance and petition post-mortem would be the norm.
Of course there is. But it remains the case that someone other than God is prayed to here, and that is anathema to
@Taken. Secondly, this is not yet the eternal realm, but
Hades /
Sheol, which is not the final state, but an intermediate one.
Jesus did say that the rich man prayed to Abraham, asking him to fulfill his petitionary requests
Thank you!
but where did he say this was an authoritative norm?
He doesn’t have to. The presence of the practice in the story, without being rebuked, is proof that it is legitimate.
What he did say about prayer was , “Our Father ….”
That was given as a quintessential example of prayer. It doesn’t follow that any
other form is
invalid, so it proves nothing as to our dispute.
Reply regarding my use of the story of Lazarus & the rich man (Lk 16:19-31), & the latter praying to Abraham, in defense of the intercession of the saints.
www.patheos.com

Scripture teaches to PRAY TO God Only.
Scripture teaches to NOT solicit DEAD People.
There is not the slightest hint of condemnation or opposition to the notion of praying to Abraham.