IT’S NEVER AS SIMPLE AS IT SEEMS

A friend of mine ask me the other day what I thought about praying to the saints, so I decided to write out my thoughts and of course place them on the internet so that all might ridicule them. First of all I want to stress that I personally do not and have never prayed to any saints (I find it hard enough to pray to God, let alone to any extra individuals.). So in the face of what I am about to say, in practice I am Protestant through and through. Part of the reason for this is that I have not completely bought the arguments I am about to express. Of course most Protestants have thought very little about the topic if at all, and I hadn’t really either until about seven years ago when I was exposed to Catholic theology. Prior to this, if I had thought about the practice at all, it was to dismiss it with a wave of the hand for the following reasons:

1.) The practice is not found in the Bible and there is no argument from Scripture for its practice.

2.) Praying is an act of worship and if we know anything about theology we know that God takes a dim view of worshiping anything but Him.

3.) It arose from the corruption of the medieval church as it began to cater to the polytheistic pagan practice of having a god for every activity, event and item; and

4.) The only reason that Catholics do it today is because they are just following the tradition of their parents and grandparents and haven’t really thought about it too deeply. Of course I could have been more wrong on all accounts.

Because I like to think things through let’s take a look at it one step at a time, and one argument at a time.

1. In Christian theology the term “saint” is used to define any person who is a true believer in Christ. The Church universal is right now made up of the saints, both past, present and even future. Saints don’t cease to be saints after they die. In some sense the Triumphant and Eternal Church Universal is even now seated with Christ in the throne room of God. (Ephesians 2:6)

2. The term “pray” is a rather archaic term that originally meant in English to ask or request. The term is still used in courtrooms to this day when we pray the court to enter a judgment in our favor.

3. So in essence, to pray to the saints is to request something from a fellow believer. Praying can be an act of worship, but it mustn’t automatically be so.

4. Why seek the prayers of fellow saints? In God’s economy, we are commanded to pray for one another, (James 5:16) and in fact the verse goes on to say that the prayers of a righteous man can accomplish much. James 5:16. So we should be seeking out the prayers of righteous men. So why not seek out the prayers of righteous men that have gone before?

5. Doesn’t the Bible prohibit communing with the dead? But Christ through His resurrection conquered both sin and death. “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will live even if he dies.” John 11:25. God is not the God of the dead, but the living. (Matthew 22:32; Mark 12:27; and Luke 20:38) If Christ broke down the barrier of death, why do we seek to re-erect it?

6. Can the saints in heaven really know what is happening on Earth, can they hear our requests to pray for us? Absolutely! We are surrounded by a great crowd of witnesses, who are watching us and who are cheering us on to finish the race. Hebrews 12:1-2

7. Didn’t The Roman Catholic Church invent the practice some time in the Middle Ages after incorporating pagan beliefs? There is evidence that the belief that the dead do in fact pray for the living is quite an early one. Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of the Apostle John was one of the first martyrs of the Christian faith. He was sentenced to death by the Emperor Trajen, and was thrown to the Lions in the Roman Coliseum around 108 A.D. The believers who were with him described seeing a vision of Ignatius after his death praying for them. In fact both the Oriental Orthodox (which split with the Catholic Church in 451 AD) and the Eastern Orthodox Churches (which split with the Roman Catholic Church in 1054 AD) have the same beliefs. It is safe to assume that prayer to the saints arose sometime prior to these splits.

8. Why doesn’t the Bible come out and specifically address the issue? Mainly because the New Testament was not written as a systematic theology textbook that clearly and distinctly addresses each and every theological point of doctrine. There are hints in the verses cited above; logically it makes sense from things we do know from Scripture; the Church very early on apparently believed it; and there is nothing in Scripture that strictly prohibits it.

That in a nutshell is the Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox/Oriental Orthodox defense. You and I might not buy it, but it is worth more thought than a roll of the eye and a wave of the hand, nor I do I believe that we have any right to condemn anyone who partakes of this practice. Who knows, they may be right.