What Is a Saint - Who Can Be a Saint?
Who determines sainthood; does God or man? Many people throughout
history have been given the illustrious title of saint: Saint Peter the apostle,
Saint Nicholas (i.e. Santa Claus), Saint John the apostle, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux,
Saint Augustine of Hippo, Saint Patrick of Ireland. Mother Teresa (1910-1997) was canonized as a Saint
by the Roman Catholic Church on September 4, 2016 – nineteen years after her
death.
The word saint is the Greek word hagios. Saint is
connected to the word holy. A saint is one that is holy, sanctified and
separated to God. A saint is anyone who is a Christian (Eph 1:1; Jude 3; Rev
13:7) or in the Old Testament those whom God chose as His own (Psalm 116:15;
Dan 7:22,25). A saint is a position that God confers upon those He saves. Jude 1:14b
says the Lord comes with ten thousand of His saints. The New International
Version (NIV) uses the words holy ones instead of saints. Both versions are correct.
Contrary to popular belief, sainthood is conferred on
believers in Jesus Christ during life. No one can become a saint posthumously.
Like I mentioned above, the Catholic Church gave Mother Teresa the name of
Saint Teresa nineteen years after death. What was the determining decision to
do this? The Catholic Church claimed she healed two people by interceding for
them from the grave when they “prayed” to her.
An Indian woman named Monica Besra said she was cured of an
abdominal tumor through the intercession of Mother Teresa on the one-year
anniversary of her death in 1998. A man from Brazil named Marcilio Andrino was
diagnosed with a brain infection. He fell into a coma. His wife, family and
friends prayed to Mother Teresa. As the doctors brought him to the operating
room for surgery, he supposedly woke up with no pain. Because of these two “miracles”
that are attributed to a dead woman, she (Mother Teresa) was canonized as a saint
which she was already beatified[1]
(i.e. declared in heaven) by the
Catholic Church.
Three things I need to point out. 1) The dead cannot intercede
on behalf of the living or heal them because they are dead. 2) Prayers to the
dead are forbidden (1 Sam 28:7-19). It is called necromancy. It is a Satanic
practice. 3) If Mother Teresa could heal, why didn’t she heal herself? She had
heart, lung and kidney ailments. It is utter absurdity to believe a dead woman
could heal the living, but she cannot heal her own body. These are the lengths
that pagans will go through to receive answers to prayer – they will pray to
the dead.
Mother Teresa’s accomplishments, which were many and
praiseworthy (click the above link for a biop of her life), will not automatically
get her into heaven. For by grace we have been saved through faith. It is the
gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast (Eph 2:8-9). The Pope
cannot make anyone a saint – whether they are alive or dead. To do so is to
stand in the place of God which is blasphemous.
If the two people mentioned above were actually healed, they
were healed by God, not Mother Teresa. Also, even if she was alive and healed
them, that would not make her a saint. No amount of work can sanctify an
unrepentant sinner. The writer does not know if Mother Teresa was truly a child
of God, but I want to make a clear distinction between who is a saint and who
isn’t. A saint is based on who you are in Christ, not based on what a person
does.
[1] Beatification
is a recognition afforded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person’s
entrance into heaven and capacity to intercede on
behalf of individuals who pray in their
name
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