I put up an answer to this thread before, and reading through now I am overcome with indignation.
Mary is dead. She is not in heaven! No where in scripture does it say this! She is not a deity she is not able to answer prayer she is not part of the Godhead AT ALL! Scripter says
John 3:13
No one has ascended to
heaven but He who
came down
from heaven,
that is, the Son of Man who is in
heaven.
There is a flaw within the RCC and it was conceived even before it's foundation around 400AD. People do not want to let go! To be with Christ and in His Church we have to let go and let Jesus do it, within us. This is how grace works, there is nothing we can do except accepting what He has done by dying on the Cross, this is the 'gospel' the Good news, and afterwards we still do not have to do anything, certainly nothing that is "ordained" by man. Yes there is baptism but the acceptance comes first or what would there be except a bath and we all have those (hopefully), and this baptism was ordained by Jesus himself (as for Cornelius and his household they had to accept Jesus before being baptised and they were).
As for the rest of it 'the doctrine of the communion of the saints' etc where is this scriptural? We are saints are we not? Paul wrote "To the saints at Ephesus" meaning the congregation not special individuals who had been canonised, what is canonised? We are told by God DO NOT ADD TO HIS WORD! and NOT TO TAKE ANYTHING AWAY!
Jesus said through John when he wrote revelation that He hated the deeds of the Nicolations, Hated is such a strong word and the Spirit convicts within us when things like this come up and they are pointed out, like now, and there is always a reaction,good or bad. The deeds on the Nicolations compromises the Word of God, it waters it down, it takes from what is not of God and makes it simulate what is. When Constantine said 'everyone become Christian' there was a relief among the brethren that they were not going to be thrown to the lions or persecuted any more and everyone (Christians) thought that they would be safe now. But the temples that abounded in the Roman world which were given over to Christianity became the focus, the priests which held power within the population were not giving in without a fight, and take counsel they might from Christians around them they did not give up seats of power, and being forced to become a Christian did not mean becoming one. It meant a true representation of the faith was not being told those who needed to know it, because those who were doing the telling did not know it them selves.
There is in scripture mention of the 'secrets of the Kingdom', it also says that these secrets, now Jesus was risen and ascended were made known, these secrets were the things written about Christ within the old testament which were by what Christ did fulfilled so all could understand. The RCC took this and turned it upside down using Latin to hide the truth from the people, the Word only to be written in Latin, the words of God only spoken in Latin, the rituals of the pagan temples kept (because they controlled the people) and incorporated within the Latin texts.
The end of all this which people do not seem to see is that from being killed for their faith, Christians suddenly started killing for their faith. The deeds of the Nicolations incorporated within the New church the teachings of the old pagan religions which is why we have saints days, Christmas, Easter, purgatory, and last but not least a wealthy church that feeds itself while its parishioners starve.
As for miracles done in saints names, is not Satan known as an 'angel of light'? While those miracles done in Jesus name will not be manifest within the world because that is not what they are for, they edify the Church not Man or woman.
I am going to stop now because my blood is boiling and I wish to remain a member of CC. If this specific post is answered please use scriptural references, the KJV or NTV even the GN translations. lets keep this real.