The Pope’s funeral…Conclave…and Saints Saints? Who are you?
With the Vatican and her cardinals in full dress for the Pope Francis’s funeral and the Conclave, the world watches on, waiting for the white smoke announcing that there is a ‘winner’ and the Roman Catholic cardinals have elected a new pope.
We are about to be re-educated with Catholic terminology, ecclesiastical ranks, historical traditions…but essentially, the Cardinals are locked away (Conclave means ‘with’ a ‘key’) and someone has been given a Chemistry kit comprising of potassium chlorate, lactose, and chloroform resin to produces the white smoke when ignited.
(The recent film, Conclave, is an excellent re-enactment of the previous conclave resulting in the election of Pope Francis. Well worth a watch. Perhaps an even better film on Roman Catholic popery is The Two Popes).
One of the features of the Roman Catholic church is not only how it elects popes but who exactly qualifies to be canonized as a Saint.
Some facts:
• Only 83 of the 266 Popes have been canonized as saints
• The first 35 Popes were all canonized as saints
• During Pope Francis’s reign, he recognised 942 saints including the 813 Martyrs of Otranto
Roman Catholic doctrine regarding saints:
Catholics believe in the ‘communion of saints’ and that extends to those believers who have died as baptised members of the church. In other words the church - according to Roman Catholics - comprises of all who have been baptised, usually as infants, currently alive or have already died.
From among general ‘saints’, the Catholic church recognises that some have shown remarkable holiness or have miracles ascribed to them and are ‘venerated’ as Saints…not to be worshipped but neither simply as good examples to follow. These Saints are believed to be interceding in heaven for the church – the ‘communion of saints’ being more like a dual carriageway of communication than worship.
…the essence of the New Covenant/New Testament is the tearing down of all barriers between God and man…
What does the New Testament say about saints.
1. All believers are addressed as ‘saints’ e.g. Romans 1v 7 ‘To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called saints’ 1 Cor 1 v 2 ‘to the church of God, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints’ 2 Cor 1v1 ‘to all the saints who are in Achaia’ Eph ‘to the saints who are in Ephesus’ Philip 1 v 1 ‘to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi’ Col 1 v 2 ‘To the saints…in Christ…in Colossae
2. The Greek word ‘hagios’ translated ‘saints’ is the word used for ‘holy’ or ‘holiness’ and literally means ‘set apart’. God is holy. He is ‘other’. He is not a man. It includes moral purity, of course, truth and goodness, true righteousness.
3. Believers are therefore called ‘saints’ because they are ‘in Christ Jesus’ who is holy…not due to any innate holiness or goodness they may possess
4. Baptism in water does not baptise us into Christ. The phrase ‘baptised into Christ Jesus’ e.g. Romans 6 v 3 is a description of what happens when someone becomes a believer. In 1 Cor 1 v 30 we read ‘…of Him are you in Christ Jesus’. In other words, it is God who baptises us into Christ Jesus, it is an invisible, spiritual union that has occurred. Baptists and Catholics, and all between these extremes, need to come to terms with the fact that in Romans 6 there is no mention of water!
Is it right to venerate some saints as Saints with a capital S?
What Catholics (and Orthodox churches) do ceremonially, Protestants do by reputation, without the label Saint or St.
The danger of veneration is to deflect our direct communion with God through Christ by the Spirit towards communing with the saints in heaven and placing intermediaries in between ourselves as believers and God Himself whereas the essence of the New Covenant/New Testament is the tearing down of all barriers between God and man so that we are restored to direct communion with God, thereby rendering any intermediaries as unnecessary.
The danger of refusing labels is unreality. The truth is that many Protestants recognise some believers have led incredible Christian lives and, depending on one’s line up of heroes of the faith, we are all cheered on by ‘such a cloud of witnesses’ Heb 12v1.
Here’s some of mine: the Wesley brothers and George Whitfield, Hudson Taylor, CT Studd, George Muller, Rees Howells, Richard Wurmbrandt, Bonhoeffer, Watchman Nee, Brother Andrew, John Wimber, Colin Urquhart, and many others.
Nevertheless, the New Testament makes no distinction between ‘saints’, and it expressly teaches that through Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, we have been restored to direct communion with God; no intermediaries are required.
To answer the question – Saints? Who are you?
If you believe that Jesus rose from the dead and have committed yourself to Him, God has baptised you into Christ Jesus.
If that’s genuinely true, you need to be baptised in water to signify to the Lord and the world what God has done for you: that He has baptised you into Christ and thereby declared you as holy, as set apart for God, as a ‘saint’ in whatever village, town, or city that you live in.
And you need to be baptised in the Spirit – Jesus is the baptiser in the Spirit - so that, from now on, you are learning to trust in His life, His holiness to run like a river through you, bringing life wherever it flows, in you and through you to the world.
Final Comments
Roman Catholics believe that present day popes are in a direct line of apostolic succession dating back to St Peter – hence St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Whether you believe that or not, what has been recorded in Acts Chapter 2 is the first sermon after the resurrection, by St Peter, in Jerusalem as the Jews gathered for the Feast of Pentecost.
After he had preached about the resurrection of Jesus the crowd, ‘cut to the heart’, asked what they should do. Peter’s reply was:
‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized on the Name of Jesus the Messiah (Christ), for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’ v 38
The message is the same to day as it was on the Day of Pentecost.