Belden C. Lane

We also see the same thing in the Reformed tradition.

For example, St. Louis University professor Belden Lane, a Reformed theologian, writes, while Reformed Christians like myself may hesitate in speaking prayers to the saints because of a concern to maintain the mediatorial centrality of Christ, it is not only possible but even necessary to speak of prayer with the saints, inviting them also to pray for us.

so we've seen individuals from the anglican lutheran methodist and reformed traditions endorsing the idea of asking the saints for their intercession and i could keep going these are just a few quotations to illustrate the position but now let's shift from the theologians to what actual normal people do as we'll see gavin seems to think that we are completely cut off from the departed and it's understandable why he'd think that given both the ideas that are popular in our culture and in the protestant culture that he's part of specifically but the data indicates that this isn't true we're not just cut off from the dead an astonishingly large number of people at least 40 to 50 percent of people report having contact with their departed loved ones in what are known as after-death communications or adcs these are usually spontaneous you're just going about your business when one day your departed loved one shows up according to a 2023 study by the pew research center 53 percent of u.s adults report having an adc that's a majority of the population and the rates are even higher among older people like widows and widowers since they have had longer lives Naturally, people communicate with their loved ones when they show up in an ADC.

They say, hello, how are you doing? But even without an ADC, people still talk to their lost loved ones.