What Are Saints & Angels in Heaven Doing with Our Prayers?

The Bible teaches plainly that dead human beings in heaven possess "the prayers of the saints" (Rev 5:8). References to "elders" in this passage clad in white garments, with golden crowns (4:4, 10) suggests the view that these elders are glorified human beings (cf. 2:10, 3:5, 11, 6:11, 7:9, 13-14, 2 Tim 4:8, Jas 1:12, 1 Pet 5:4). Angels also have them and present them to God:

Revelation 8:2-4 (RSV) Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. [3] And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; [4] and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God.

What are they doing with them, pray tell (no pun intended)? Why do they have them; how did they obtain them? The most logical, feasible explanation is that they had received prayers (technically, intercessory requests) from people on earth as intermediaries to God (just as we ask others on earth to pray for us or some cause).

Someone said to me in reply that God gave our prayers to them. But why would He do that? Think about it! If God gives our prayers over to dead saints and angels, the same question still arises: what do they do with them?: file them away in heavenly file cabinets? Whatever they do with them would merely prove our point: that He intended them to be involved in some way in the process of prayer in the first place. Therefore, it would still be (in this proposed scenario) perfectly proper to asks saints and angels to intercede on our behalf to God. The proposed "solution" here, in the final analysis, is only a variation of the same thing I am pondering.

The fact remains that these dead persons and angels have "the prayers of the saints" and that this makes no sense whatsoever in Protestant theology. It's perfectly harmonious, however, with Catholic theology, which permits and encourages the invocation and intercession of saints and angels.

Furthermore,the deuterocanonical book 2 Maccabees (15:13-14) states:

Then likewise a man appeared, distinguished by his gray hair and dignity, and of marvelous majesty and authority. [14] And Onias spoke, saying, "This is a man who loves the brethren and prays much for the people and the holy city, Jeremiah, the prophet of God."

Since Protestants don’t accept that book as inspired, we might offer them also Jeremiah 15:1: “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people.'” Here it appears that God receives the prayers of the dead saints as a matter of course. Moses and Samuel were both known as intercessors. One could argue that this is only a hypothetical, yet even parables can’t contain something that isn’t true. This mentions a state of affairs which is assumed to be possible (or else why would Jeremiah mention it at all, as coming from God?)

These biblical arguments provide more material for Protestants to try to rationalize, dismiss, ignore, or "explain" away . . . I wrote an entire book about this common process, called, The Catholic Verses: 95 Bible Passages That Confound Protestants (August 2004).

Sometimes the most elegant and efficient arguments are so simple and obvious, that we can easily overlook them. This is a classic example. If and when we get to heaven, we won’t simply be sitting on clouds playing harps endlessly for all eternity and hiking all the cool, glorious trails of heavenly paradise (though I do eagerly look forward to that!). We’ll also be worshiping God, in union with Him, and praying for those on earth, because we'll be filled with love and compassion and we'll be sin-free. 

It's common sense, and as we've seen, it's also eminently biblical.