I was thinking about something over the last couple of days. Mainly, how evangelicals often accuse Catholics of certain practices, but yet they tend to do some of the same.
Obviously, the Communion of Saints is a nice extension of intercessory prayer. However, a lot of people use Saints as role models of those who responded to God’s grace, and give us an example on how to live our lives. My mom was telling me about how she bought my brother a book about a guy who was atheist turned Christian. Obviously, she hopes he can relate and perhaps emulate his life and such. Kind of like if I were to give my brother a book about St. Augustine.
Another thing is that since we have saints, we obviously are saying we KNOW who is in heaven. But yet, I’ve read about people who have passed away, and friends have said “Oh, he’s with Jesus now” or “Jesus has called her home”. Do THEY really know that the person is in heaven? Nope. Granted, there is the OSAS doctrine so that might be their explanation. Unless they didn’t have sufficient faith at the end…but would WE ever know?
(Sidenote: I don’t tell people who are grieving “do you REALLY know that they’re in Heaven?”. So don’t think things like that).
So how come Catholics get nailed with idol worship (we’re just asking people to pray for us), we place the Saints higher than God (they’re living, human examples of what God can do when you let Him), and say that we know who’s in heaven because of our Saints (we can speculate and trust in God’s mercy as to who is where) when evangelicals find no problems reading about atheists turned Christians (why not read about Paul in the Bible), saying someone is with Jesus (how do YOU know?), or ask if I would like to join in their non-denominational prayer for the world or ask me to pray for someone who is struggling?
