Jude 1:3-11, Who are the saints? (3)

We are considering some of the Catholic teaching on the “saints.”

·       #2156: At baptism Catholics receive a name, perhaps the name of one of the saints.  This person becomes the “patron saint” for that person. 

Our response, again, is to note how this detracts from Christ.  1) There is nothing in the Bible that encourages us to put our children or anyone in the care of someone other than the Lord.  This is not based in the Bible.  2) There is also nothing in the Bible that suggests that believers who have died and are in the Lord’s presence have any ability to influence or care for people on earth.  Heb. 12:1 speaks of being surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.  But these are witnesses which can have two possible meanings.  Either they are witnessing us running the race (that is not likely) or their testimony of successfully finishing the race encourages us.  The latter is certainly what this means, and these “witnesses” are the Old Testament saints (believers) who were spoken of in the previous chapter (Heb. 11, often called the “hall of faith”). 

·       #2030: The Church is the source of God’s word and of grace in the sacraments. 

This is the fundamental issue in this.  Our authority as believers for anything we do comes from the Word of God.  For Catholics God is continuing to speak His word through the Church.  But Jude said that the faith we hold was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3).  At the time Jude wrote, he was standing firm on the word of God whose delivery of that word had been completed.  Heb. 1:1-3 gives the same idea, that God’s word has been completed with the coming of His Son and the confirmation of that word, by signs, wonders and miracles by the Apostles (2:1-4).  The Bible is complete.  There is no place in Scripture that calls for a continuing revelation or inspiration beyond the first century. 

Matthew 16:17-19 should be brought up here.  Jesus commended Peter, and for the sake of argument let’s conclude that Jesus gave Peter the keys to the kingdom for the admission of people to the Church He was building.  There is no groundwork laid here for a continuing papacy or, again, for continuing revelation.  Peter used those keys in Acts, for Israel in Acts 2, the Samaritans in Acts 8, and the Gentiles in Acts 9.  With that, the door was unlocked for the entire world.  There is no need for these keys (i.e. this authority) to extend beyond the life of Peter.

And just briefly, the first Church Council (Acts 15) did not establish new structure or new doctrine for the Church.  It clarified doctrine, the doctrine of salvation and sanctification by grace.  The doctrine of “canonization for sainthood” that came into being in the 900s was an addition to Scripture, and on that basis alone should be rejected.  Even Peter, in 2 Peter 1:3-4, said that believers at that time had all things that pertain to life and godliness.  Christ alone is sufficient!  Be careful lest your minds be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Cor. 11:3).