Last week we learned something about the different understandings of “sainthood” within the Baptist, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox faiths. So, what does this mean to us? What should it mean to us?What does the Bible say about how we should regard departed saints?
To begin with, the Apostle Paul instructs us to look to him—and other imitators of Christ—as examples of how to live a godly life:
Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. (Php 3.17)
Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. (1 Co 11.1)
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. (1 Co 4.16)
The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Php 4.9)
That we should, at the very least, look to saints in Heaven and on Earth as examples on which to pattern our lives is something on which I believe all Christians can agree. Beyond this however is generally where Protestants part ways with their Orthodox and Roman Catholic brethren, who not only emulate the lives of departed saints, but also ask for their prayers as often as they ask for the prayers of saints still in the flesh.
This brings us to an activity with which most Protestants strongly disagree: Prayer to the Saints.
Before we go any further, let me make sure we’re on the same page regarding what we mean by “prayer.” One of the definitions that Merriam-Webster provides for “Prayer” is “an earnest request or wish.” This is the definition we will be using. When I refer to “prayer” to the saints, I do not mean worship, adoration, deification, or exaltation. I simply mean asking or requesting their prayer to God, in the same way that I would ask my family or my pastor for their prayers. There is nothing idolatrous or diabolical about it. Let me explain why (see here for a great explanation of this concept):
First of all, the Bible tells us to pray for one another…
This brings us to an activity with which most Protestants strongly disagree: Prayer to the Saints.
Before we go any further, let me make sure we’re on the same page regarding what we mean by “prayer.” One of the definitions that Merriam-Webster provides for “Prayer” is “an earnest request or wish.” This is the definition we will be using. When I refer to “prayer” to the saints, I do not mean worship, adoration, deification, or exaltation. I simply mean asking or requesting their prayer to God, in the same way that I would ask my family or my pastor for their prayers. There is nothing idolatrous or diabolical about it. Let me explain why (see here for a great explanation of this concept):
First of all, the Bible tells us to pray for one another…
Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. (Eph 6.18)
Pray for each other (Jam 5.16)
…and gives us numerous examples of Christians praying for and with other Christians.
They all joined together constantly in prayer. (Acts 1.14)
They raised their voices together in prayer to God. (Acts 4.23-31)
Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. (Acts
9.40)
I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. (Eph 1.15-23)
Should these directives and examples apply only to Christians on Earth?
Well, let’s see; according to the Scriptures, everyone in the Church is connected as part of the Body of Christ.
Well, let’s see; according to the Scriptures, everyone in the Church is connected as part of the Body of Christ.
Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Rom 12.4-5)
For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. (Rom 14.7)
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (1 Co 12.26-27)
For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. (2 Co 1.5)
If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent. (2 Co 2.5)
This connection takes place through baptism…
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. (1 Co 12.12-13)
…having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. (Col 2.12)
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Rom 6.4)
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Gal 3.27)
…and is not broken in the event of physical death:
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8.38-39)
Therefore, there is only one Body of Christ, which includes those in Heaven and on Earth.
There is one body and one Spirit (Eph 4.4)
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. (Eph 1.22-23)
And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. Now I rejoice…for the sake of His body, which is the Church. (Col 1.18,24)
So then, given that everyone in the Church*—in Heaven and on Earth—are united through baptism to the one Body of Christ, and that Christians are instructed to pray for one another, what could possibly be objectionable about asking departed saints for their intercessory prayers in the same way that we ask Christians on Earth for their prayers?
Objections:
The Scriptures refer to everyone who believes in Jesus as “saints.” (Rom 1.7; Eph 3.8; Jude 1.14; Eph 4.11-12; Acts 9.13, 32, 41, 26:10; Rom 8.27, 12.13, 15.25-26, 31, 16.2, 15; 1 Cor 6.1; 2 Cor 1.1, Eph 1.1)
The Orthodox don’t believe that saints exist only in Heaven. But they also don’t believe that only the saints on Earth are able to pray for us, or that only the saints on Earth deserve our prayer requests.
Prayer to the saints violates God warning against “consulting the dead” (Dt 18.10-12)
This commandment is a warning against the occcult; against witches and sorcerors and necromancers trying to conjure up spirits. Seeking the intercessory prayer of departed saints has nothing to do with conjuring spirits. And nowhere does this passage, or any biblical passage, say that we cannot ask the saints in heaven—who, as we have seen, are members of the Body of Christ—to intercede for us.
John Calvin objected on the grounds that “no less insult is offered to the intercession of Christ by confounding it with the prayers and merits of the dead, than by omitting it altogether, and making mention only of the dead.”
Calvin is right. Except that we’re not talking about dead people here, because God “is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Mt 22.31-32). When Elijah and Moses appeared to Jesus and three of His disciples during the Transfiguration (Mt 17.1-4), did God break his own commandment by calling up the dead? No, because Moses and Elijah are alive!
And the Orthodox certainly do not believe that we should pray to the departed saints instead of to God. Rather, they believe that we pray to God alongside the saints, both those who are in Heaven and those who are still in the flesh.
Saints in Heaven can't hear us or see us; therefore, we cannot pray to them.
This assertion assumes that, if we can’t see/hear the departed saints, then they can’t see/hear us; that our earthly limitations apply also to those in Heaven. However, the Scriptures tell us that saints in Heaven do not have the same limitations that we have here on Earth:
Objections:
The Scriptures refer to everyone who believes in Jesus as “saints.” (Rom 1.7; Eph 3.8; Jude 1.14; Eph 4.11-12; Acts 9.13, 32, 41, 26:10; Rom 8.27, 12.13, 15.25-26, 31, 16.2, 15; 1 Cor 6.1; 2 Cor 1.1, Eph 1.1)
The Orthodox don’t believe that saints exist only in Heaven. But they also don’t believe that only the saints on Earth are able to pray for us, or that only the saints on Earth deserve our prayer requests.
Prayer to the saints violates God warning against “consulting the dead” (Dt 18.10-12)
This commandment is a warning against the occcult; against witches and sorcerors and necromancers trying to conjure up spirits. Seeking the intercessory prayer of departed saints has nothing to do with conjuring spirits. And nowhere does this passage, or any biblical passage, say that we cannot ask the saints in heaven—who, as we have seen, are members of the Body of Christ—to intercede for us.
John Calvin objected on the grounds that “no less insult is offered to the intercession of Christ by confounding it with the prayers and merits of the dead, than by omitting it altogether, and making mention only of the dead.”
Calvin is right. Except that we’re not talking about dead people here, because God “is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Mt 22.31-32). When Elijah and Moses appeared to Jesus and three of His disciples during the Transfiguration (Mt 17.1-4), did God break his own commandment by calling up the dead? No, because Moses and Elijah are alive!And the Orthodox certainly do not believe that we should pray to the departed saints instead of to God. Rather, they believe that we pray to God alongside the saints, both those who are in Heaven and those who are still in the flesh.
Saints in Heaven can't hear us or see us; therefore, we cannot pray to them.
This assertion assumes that, if we can’t see/hear the departed saints, then they can’t see/hear us; that our earthly limitations apply also to those in Heaven. However, the Scriptures tell us that saints in Heaven do not have the same limitations that we have here on Earth:
However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’” (1 Co 2.9)
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Co 13.12)
And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. (1 Co 15.49)
Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Pt 1.4)
The things of Heaven are beyond anything our finite minds can possibly imagine. To assert that the saints in Heaven are limited in the same ways that we are here on Earth is to assert something that is clearly contrary to Scripture.
Saints in Heaven are not aware of what is happening here on Earth.
The martyrs in Revelation Chapter 6 obviously knew that their deaths had not yet been avenged: "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" (v. 10)
In the first Book of Samuel, the Prophet actually prophesied from beyond the grave: “The Lord will hand over both Israel and you to the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also hand over the army of Israel to the Philistines.” (28.8-19)
The rich man in Luke Chapter 16 knew his relatives hadn’t yet repented: “‘If someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’” (vv.19-31) If someone in hell knows the condition of people on earth, why should we believe that those in Heaven are kept in ignorance?
Luke’s Gospel tells us that “there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (15.7-10) If angels are aware of what’s going on down on earth, is it unreasonable to believe that the departed saints, who “will be like the angels in heaven” (Mt 22.30), are also aware?
And the Apostle Paul reminds us that “we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12.1), who are all around us and can see us whether we can see them or not.
Why bother praying to the Saints when you can go straight to Jesus?
Why bother asking each other for prayer when we can go straight to Jesus?
Any argument against asking for the intercessory prayer of the saints in Heaven is an argument against asking for the prayer of saints on Earth. Orthodox Christians recognize the Church as a community; not as a multitude of individuals who are all on their own, but as a body of believers who can, indeed must, lift each other up in prayer.
GotQuestions.org, a “Christian, Protestant, conservative, evangelical, fundamental, and non-denominational” online ministry asserts that those who seek the intercessory prayer of departed saints believe that “if a saint delivers a prayer to God, it is more effective than us praying to God directly. This concept is blatantly unbiblical. Hebrews 4:16 tells us that we, believers here on earth, can ‘...approach the throne of grace with confidence...’”
The Orthodox agree wholeheartedly that Christians can and should approach God confidently in prayer. However, the Scriptures do, in fact, give us reason to believe that the prayers of the saints in heaven are actually more effective than our prayers here on Earth:
Saints in Heaven are not aware of what is happening here on Earth.
The martyrs in Revelation Chapter 6 obviously knew that their deaths had not yet been avenged: "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" (v. 10)
In the first Book of Samuel, the Prophet actually prophesied from beyond the grave: “The Lord will hand over both Israel and you to the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also hand over the army of Israel to the Philistines.” (28.8-19)
The rich man in Luke Chapter 16 knew his relatives hadn’t yet repented: “‘If someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’” (vv.19-31) If someone in hell knows the condition of people on earth, why should we believe that those in Heaven are kept in ignorance?
Luke’s Gospel tells us that “there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (15.7-10) If angels are aware of what’s going on down on earth, is it unreasonable to believe that the departed saints, who “will be like the angels in heaven” (Mt 22.30), are also aware?
And the Apostle Paul reminds us that “we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12.1), who are all around us and can see us whether we can see them or not.
Why bother praying to the Saints when you can go straight to Jesus?
Why bother asking each other for prayer when we can go straight to Jesus?
Any argument against asking for the intercessory prayer of the saints in Heaven is an argument against asking for the prayer of saints on Earth. Orthodox Christians recognize the Church as a community; not as a multitude of individuals who are all on their own, but as a body of believers who can, indeed must, lift each other up in prayer.
GotQuestions.org, a “Christian, Protestant, conservative, evangelical, fundamental, and non-denominational” online ministry asserts that those who seek the intercessory prayer of departed saints believe that “if a saint delivers a prayer to God, it is more effective than us praying to God directly. This concept is blatantly unbiblical. Hebrews 4:16 tells us that we, believers here on earth, can ‘...approach the throne of grace with confidence...’”
The Orthodox agree wholeheartedly that Christians can and should approach God confidently in prayer. However, the Scriptures do, in fact, give us reason to believe that the prayers of the saints in heaven are actually more effective than our prayers here on Earth:
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (Jam 5:16)
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers. (1 Pt 3:12)
Is there anyone on Earth more righteous than those in Heaven? (Heb 12:22-23: “the spirits of just men made perfect.”)
1 Timothy 2:5 clearly states that Jesus is the “sole mediator between God and man,” and according to John Calvin, those who “take pleasure in the intercession of saints…dishonour Christ, and rob him of his title of sole Mediator” (Of Prayer, Book III, Ch. XX, Section 21)
Orthodox Christians agree one hundred percent that there is one mediator—Jesus Christ—but do not believe that this means we are not to ask fellow Christians for their prayers. The saints do not, and are not expected to, mediate the covenant of salvation as Christ does (see Heb 9.15, 12.24). Seeking the intercessory prayer of other Christians is not a denial of Christ’s role as the “sole mediator” of this covenant.
Article XXII of the Anglican/Episcopal statement of faith says that “Invocation of Saints, is…vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.”
I think we’ve shown this not to be the case.
Where does that leave us?
Considering all this, it's pretty clear that...
Saints serve as an example to us.
Members of the Church are instructed to pray for one another.
Physical death does not estrange members of the Church in Heaven from members of the Church on Earth.
Saints in Heaven are alive, not dead.
Saints and angels in Heaven have some knowledge of events, present and future, on Earth; and some knowledge of the condition of those on Earth.
The prayers of the saints in Heaven are effective.
Now, my readers, of course, are free to draw their own conclusions. But, the only honest conclusion I can draw is, not only is the Orthodox practice of asking departed Saints for their prayers not a violation of Scripture, but it is clearly a practice that is good and proper and in keeping with sound Christian doctrine.
For further reading:
On the Intercession and Invocation of the Saints
*The Roman Catholic Church recognizes the connection between the Christians on Earth—the Church Militant—and the Christians in Heaven—the Church Triumphant; The Orthodox make no such distinction, regarding all Christians—both in Heaven and on Earth—as The Church. I have heard it said that in the Roman Catholic faith, the veil between the living and departed is much thinner than in Protestant faiths. If this is true, then I believe it’s fair to say that the Orthodox don’t acknowledge any veil at all. And this is a good thing; When you get it through your thick skull that your grandmother is watching you, you’ll start behaving like you should!
1 Timothy 2:5 clearly states that Jesus is the “sole mediator between God and man,” and according to John Calvin, those who “take pleasure in the intercession of saints…dishonour Christ, and rob him of his title of sole Mediator” (Of Prayer, Book III, Ch. XX, Section 21)
Orthodox Christians agree one hundred percent that there is one mediator—Jesus Christ—but do not believe that this means we are not to ask fellow Christians for their prayers. The saints do not, and are not expected to, mediate the covenant of salvation as Christ does (see Heb 9.15, 12.24). Seeking the intercessory prayer of other Christians is not a denial of Christ’s role as the “sole mediator” of this covenant.
Article XXII of the Anglican/Episcopal statement of faith says that “Invocation of Saints, is…vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.”
I think we’ve shown this not to be the case.
Where does that leave us?
Considering all this, it's pretty clear that...
Saints serve as an example to us.
Members of the Church are instructed to pray for one another.
Physical death does not estrange members of the Church in Heaven from members of the Church on Earth.
Saints in Heaven are alive, not dead.
Saints and angels in Heaven have some knowledge of events, present and future, on Earth; and some knowledge of the condition of those on Earth.
The prayers of the saints in Heaven are effective.
Now, my readers, of course, are free to draw their own conclusions. But, the only honest conclusion I can draw is, not only is the Orthodox practice of asking departed Saints for their prayers not a violation of Scripture, but it is clearly a practice that is good and proper and in keeping with sound Christian doctrine.
For further reading:
On the Intercession and Invocation of the Saints
*The Roman Catholic Church recognizes the connection between the Christians on Earth—the Church Militant—and the Christians in Heaven—the Church Triumphant; The Orthodox make no such distinction, regarding all Christians—both in Heaven and on Earth—as The Church. I have heard it said that in the Roman Catholic faith, the veil between the living and departed is much thinner than in Protestant faiths. If this is true, then I believe it’s fair to say that the Orthodox don’t acknowledge any veil at all. And this is a good thing; When you get it through your thick skull that your grandmother is watching you, you’ll start behaving like you should!
No comments:
Post a Comment