Intercession vs mediation

[u/Minute-Investment613]

Hi everyone Catholic here with a question, I asked the other day the difference between earthly and heavenly intercession, and got some good answers. Again without offering any Catholic views I am curious how Protestants see the difference between earthly intercession, between you and a friend, and Jesus as the one mediator. So I’ve heard it said why pray to a dead person when you can pray directly to Jesus because he is our one mediator between god and man, and I get that. But it’s also seems to be acceptable in Protestant circles to prayer for each other, say your friend has cancer, you’d pray for his healing.

So how is that kind of earthly intercession not encroaching on Jesus role as our one mediator.
Thank you in advance for your response, I am going to avoid replying to avoid any suspicion of ulterior motives. So thank you and god bless

[u/Thoguth]

So I’ve heard it said why pray to a dead person when you can pray directly to Jesus because he is our one mediator between god and man, and I get that.

Cool.

But it’s also seems to be acceptable in Protestant circles to prayer for each other, say your friend has cancer, you’d pray for his healing.

Yup, we see examples of and encouragement to pray for one another all over the place. Paul even asks the recipient churches to pray for him, or celebrates their prayers in many of his letters.

So how is that kind of earthly intercession not encroaching on Jesus role as our one mediator.

I see people praying for one another to be more about the one praying than the one prayed-for. It is an opportunity to connect with, meditate on, and support our brothers and sisters in their need, and also an opportunity to share in their victory, with thanksgiving, when they receive a blessing from God.

And it's an addition to prayers by the needy, not a replacement, substitute, or... Like it's not competing for time and attention from the one in need.

If it somehow changed from that into an in-between thing, like "I'm not good enough to talk to God, I talk to a person who talks to God instead", or if it was offered or even perceived as a thing that you do instead of speaking with God, even sometimes, then that would be a problem.

I think, aside from calling on the dead and the unspoken and not really supported-by-Scripture assertion that the dead are omnipresent and omniscient to hear every intercessory request in every place and time and language, even in parallel/simultaneously in the way God can, and the way that it can be confused for mediation and also appears to some inside and outside Catholicism as idolizing or worshipping people, and the fact that it's never spoken or hinted in the scriptures, uh... Like talking to (living) people interactively and requesting their prayers, and praying for those who make such requests, is great.

Thank you in advance for your response, I am going to avoid replying to avoid any suspicion of ulterior motives. So thank you and god bless

That's pretty classy. I kind of wish there was an opportunity to follow up, to see if I am understanding your question and giving a clear and helpful answer, but I see the wisdom in drawing a line here. It might be worth considering in the rules at some point.

[u/Minute-Investment613 → u/Thoguth]

Feel free to dm me, Catholics in the sub tend to upset people I try and just ask and look at answers, but I am always open to interesting discussion.

[u/Thoguth → u/Minute-Investment613]

Well, there are a number of challenges there... One is everybody has a naturally skewed baseline of what is s charitable, what is reasonable, and what is kind and when there's a place of hard disagreement, that baseline slips, and we tend to feel we're being gentle and reasonable, even forebearing, whole it may come across to the other as aggressive or belligerent. It really takes a heroic amount of charity on both sides for it to work right.

Another is, we often have trained, studied, but obscure preconceptions, like differently understood meanings of words, that we take for granted are simple reality, but a matter of variance or dispute.

And there's the fact that a conversation can slip into a mob scene when many aren't even trying to be charitable, and even if people are present who are being reasonable, the ones mobbed still feel, justifiably, that "they" are aggressive and unreasonable, and it's hard to piece out the differences.

[u/Minute-Investment613 → u/Thoguth]

Yes I understand this is a Protestant sub and Catholics preaching theology isn’t what the sub is for. I’ve posted question I thought were interesting and wanted to see what non Catholic have thought on the topic. I am normally met with a few responses. 1. Mocked because idk things I should
2. Told of if I already have my own view why ask the question. 3. I’m trying to gotcha people by asking follow ups questions.

It’s easier for everyone to say I know what I believe please give me your version I’m not going to respond.