Roman Catholics (questions asked by them)
|
4. Why do you refuse to believe in the saints? |
|
Why do you affirm that
we don’t believe in the saints? We do believe in the saints. However,
concerning this, I need to explain to you certain things so that you may understand
clearly our position. |
|
The first thing is
this: according to the Scripture all those who have believed in the Lord
Jesus Christ are saints because they have been sanctified by God through the
Spirit of God and the body of Christ. Listen to what the Word of God states:
“But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of
the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13);
“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto
obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and
peace, be multiplied” (1 Peter 1:1-2); “Wherefore when he cometh into the
world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast
thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no
pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of
me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt
offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure
therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy
will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By
the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:5-10). Therefore we reject the papal
canonization by which after a long and laborious examination of the life and
works of the concerned person, and above all after the dead person has done
at least two miracles, the person who died in the odour of sanctity is first
proclaimed ‘blessed’, then canonized holy and thus recorded among the saints
which can be universally invoked by everyone. This so called canonization is
just a human invention, one of the many human inventions which are present in
the Roman Catholic Church. Another thing to be said is this, when we speak
about the saints who are dead we refer only to people who died in Christ, thus
who went to be with the Lord in heaven. Therefore we don’t accept all those
saints of yours who while on earth were idolaters and superstitious, and who
taught that salvation is by works, that after death there is a purgatory,
that Mary is the mother of God, etc…; (such as Charles Borromeo and Alfonso Maria
de Liguori). All those persons were not saints, but only sinners that went to
hell and there they are waiting for the judgement of the great day. I would
like to say another thing which is this: when we speak about the saints we
refer particularly to the apostles and to all those early disciples whose
names are written in the New Testament, thus when we affirm that we believe
in the saints we mean that they existed, that they lived a life worthy of the
Gospel and that they died in the Lord. Of course, as far as the apostles are
concerned, we mean that we believe everything they taught both by word of
mouth and by letter. |
|
However, as for the
saints who are in heaven, we don’t believe that they can pray for us or
protect us or hear us if we pray to them. Why? Because the Scripture states
that there is “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy
2:5), thus in heaven it is Jesus Christ, and Him alone, who makes
intercession for us. Nobody else is praying for us in heaven. Jesus takes our
requests we make to the Father in His name and He brings them to His Father;
nobody else apart from Him or besides Him does that. Neither Mary, nor Peter,
nor Paul, nor John, and so on, can do that. Some people may say that besides
Jesus we need other intercessors in heaven, for Jesus is not able to hear all
the requests made to God in His name!! I would like to say to these people,
‘That’s untrue, for Jesus Christ, after He rose again, said that all power
was given unto Him in heaven and in earth (Matthew 28:18), and in the epistle
to the Hebrews it is clearly written that because Jesus continues forever, He
has an unchangeable priesthood, “wherefore he is able also to save them to
the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). Therefore, since it is written that
Jesus has all power also in heaven and that He can save completely those who come
unto God by Him, it is unjustifiable to think or to say that Jesus needs a
group of intercessors besides Him to help Him in His work of intercession.
And not only unjustifiable, but also offensive toward Him. |
|
Furthermore, we have
to say that if Peter, Paul, John and so on, could hear the prayers of all the
Christians who are on earth, and they could also help them from heaven where
they are, that would mean that after they died they became omnipotent, omnipresent,
and omniscient (or almost). It is absurd to think such a thing. Therefore the
saints who are in heaven cannot hear our prayers, and so it is absolutely
useless to pray to them that they may intercede for us before God. And it is
also useless to pray to them that they may grant us this or that grace. Only
God grants us graces, and He does that through Jesus Christ. Paul, John,
Peter, and Joseph, cannot do anything for us; they can’t protect us, they
can’t heal us, they can’t guide us, they can’t comfort us, they can’t fulfil
the desire of our hearts. God is the One who protects us, who continually delivers
us from the evil one, who delivers us from all our distresses, who grants us
what our heart desires, who guides us in His ways, who strengthens us, who
comforts us, who heals all our diseases, and who delivers us from the wrath
to come. Therefore, we invoke only Him, only to Him we present our requests
and in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and Him only we expect to answer our
prayers, which will be answered at His appointed time because of the
intercession of His Son. That’s why we give thanks only to God by Jesus
Christ, for He is the One who grants all our requests. To Him be the glory
now and forevermore. Amen. |
|
Therefore, Roman
Catholics, you who are still invoking Mary, Joseph, Paul, Peter, and so on,
stop invoking them, and begin to invoke only God the Father by Christ. First
of all invoke Him that He may forgive all your sins, and then once He has
forgiven you, come out from among the Roman Catholic Church and join an |