Veneration of Saints
Many people say to me that the veneration of saints is necromancy. This is simply not true. Not only is this untrue but it is the opposite of that very accusation – it’s actually Biblical! Allow me to show you in the Old and News Testament what the complete Bible says about the ones who are with and made alive in Jesus Christ.
In the book of Joshua, Joshua finds himself awaken to a man standing before him. In chapter 5 verse 14 we see that this man is an angel and Joshua prostrates [bows] to the angel and gives worship or reverence (depending on your translation). How interesting is that the angel never stops or corrects Joshua. We will see later what different types of worship there are since the English language only has one word to convey the three different types of worship spoken of in the Bible [much like there are different types of love; i.e. phileo, eros, agape, et cetera].
We see in Daniel, that as the archangel Gabriel approached Daniel, he prostrated before the heavenly host, “As he came near the place where I was standing, I was terrified and fell prostrate. “Son of man,” he said to me, ‘understand that the vision concerns the time of the end’.” (8:17). As you read further, the angel never corrected Daniel, much less even rebuked him for bowing to the angel. As I mentioned before, there are three different types of prostration and worship, which we will cover shortly [again the English language just uses one word to convey all three types of prostration and worship].
In Matthew 18:10 we read, “’See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven’.” Angels in heaven always behold the face of God. We venerate angels as well because of their great dignity which comes from their union with God. For this very reason, we venerate saints who stand in the same dignity and union with God.
Another reason for the veneration of saints is because they are now like Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Paraclete. We know they have are like Him because 1 John 3:2 tells us, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Holy Writ says, ‘we shall be like him [God]‘. This is why we hold to the veneration of saints, because it mirrors God.
- Image via Wikipedia
1 Thessalonian 1:5-8 tells us the people have become imitators of the apostles and the Lord. Not only were they imitators of men who reflected God and God Himself, but they became models to others themselves. The verses read, “because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it.”
Hebrews 13:7 tells us to imitate our Christian leaders life and faith, “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.” St. Paul himself told us to imitate others because of their devout faith.
St. Paul even goes so far to tell us not only to imitate Christ, but to imitate Paul himself in 1 Corinthians 11: 1, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” and in 1 Corinthians 4:15-16, “Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me.” Please read article Why Priests Are Called Fathers to understand why St. Paul just called himself our father.
Why are we to venerate saints? Because they became imitators of Christ. That’s why we call upon them for aid as discussed in article Intercessory Prayer of Saints.
The three words used to bow or prostrate latria [for God only]. For saints it is dulia. And for saints and angels of the highest realms [heaven has different levels], hyperdulia is used.
Your’s,
Drew Castel.
