Perspective

By L. Jim Tuck

March 28, 2024

The Making of a Saint What is a saint?

   In religious artwork, a saint is often depicted to have a halo around their head with a sacrosanct look on their face. An Oxford online dictionary definition of a saint is “a person acknowledged as holy or virtuous and typically regarded as being in heaven after death or a very virtuous, kind, or patient person. Often people casually comment, ‘He’s such a saint.’” Another definition is someone, “formally recognized as a saint or canonized.”

   In the Roman Catholic Church, someone must be dead to be officially declared a saint. According to the Catholic Church, a saint may be anyone in Heaven, whether recognized on Earth or not, who forms the "great cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1).

   Are these ideas Biblical or are they just made up by man? What is the truth according to scripture to answer the question, “What is a saint?”

Perspective

   The Encyclopedia Britannica under the topic “saints,” 11th edition, states: "In ancient inscriptions, it often means those souls who are enjoying eternal happiness, or, the martyrs. It was not until almost the Sixth Century that the word became a title of honour specially given to the dead whose cult was publicly celebrated in the churches. It was to the martyrs that the church first began to pay special honor."

   The Encyclopedia Britannica also states, honoring saints dates back to the second century and was soon widespread throughout the world. It was a practice devised by men, and as the practice spread, it became much abused. People began to worship saints rather than God.

   Being declared a saint is one of the Vatican's highest honors -- but sainthood is hardly a tenured position. The Catholic Church removed 93 saints from the universal calendar and revoked their feast days in 1969 when Pope Paul VI revised the canon of saints and determined that some of the names had only been alive as legends or not enough was known about them to determine their status.

   If these ideas about being a saint are true, what happens to those who were demoted from being considered to be a saint? Were they quickly booted out of heaven?

   Scriptures reveal such ideas are not true. The “cloud of witnesses” the Apostle Paul spoke about were clearly witnesses while living, but they are now dead awaiting the fulfillment of the promises of eternal life and being in the kingdom (Hebrews 11:13). Further, Jesus Christ stated clearly in John 3:13: “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.”

   Hebrews 11:39-40 also says, “And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.”

King David was considered to be a man after God’s own heart and a prophet, and he was accounted as a righteous king. If anyone could be considered a saint, David would be on that list. Acts 2:29, 34-35 says, “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day… ‘For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: “The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”’”

   Human ideas of sainthood are proven wrong due to the error of their definitions. The Bible shows us plainly that no one is in heaven except God, Jesus Christ and the angels. There have been no saints who ever ascended to heaven, but all rest in their graves waiting for the better resurrection (Hebrews 11:35). There are no saints in heaven to which one prays! Our prayers should always be directly to God the Father according to Jesus’s words (Matthew 6:9), and we should pray in the name of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:18). We never pray in the name of a saint or an angel (Colossians 2:18).

   How does one become a true saint? First, one must be called in this age of man. Second, one must be a part of God’s church, the body of Jesus Christ. God sets us in the body as it pleases Him (Ephesians 4:4-6; I Corinthians 12:18). We are placed in the body when we are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands.

   When God calls someone to be a part of His body and they are converted, hold fast to their commitment, and practice God’s ways, they are a saint. This is what Ephesians 2:19-22 shows us: “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

   A saint is someone who is set apart from this lawless world by the blood of Christ and living by the laws of God. Jesus said in John 17:17, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” This is reiterated by the Apostle Paul when he wrote the Corinthians: “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.” (I Corinthians 1:2)

   God is using normal human beings culled out of this world to help deliver the greatest message any human could ever hear or read. To the vast majority in the world, it is a mystery. Jesus Christ declared it--- the gospel of the coming kingdom of God. It is a much bigger story than the world can even imagine. Anyone can come to know this mystery if they speak with a true saint. The Apostle Paul said, “the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” (Colossians 1:26-28)

This is my Perspective for this week.

Have a happy Sabbath and a nice weekend!