"But Why Don't You Pray To The Saints?"
This was the title of an advertisement by the Catholic Knights of Columbus, in "The Birmingham News Monthly Magazine" of December 14, 1958. In it they say, "Indeed, some seem to think Catholic veneration of the Saints is in opposition to the doctrine that Christ is the one Mediator between God and man." Well, when any honest, open-minded person of ordinary intelligence reads such Scriptures as I Timothy 2:5 and John 14:6, he knows that this idolatry is in "opposition to the doctrine that Christ is the one Mediator between God and man," for the Holy Spirit says so in clear terms: "For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a redemption for all, a testimony in due times." (I Tim. 2:5, Catholic Douay Version.) Why don't they just admit that praying to, and venerating "the Saints" is not Scriptural? Well, they know it is more effective for their purpose to not deny the truth of the Word of God outrightly, but twist it, and say that praying TO "the Saints" is the same as Moses praying FOR Israel; Abraham praying FOR Abimelech; Paul's asking Christians to pray FOR him; or James admonishing us to "pray one for another".
Then they brazenly assert, "It is a custom which has been observed in the Church since the time of the Apostles." A church history says, "The invocation of Mary . . . . begins in the second half of the fourth, or early 5th century. She came to be called 'Mother of God,' 'Queen of Heaven,' the compassionate, who moves her Son to mercy; a sort of restoration of the female divinities of the heathen." — "A Guide to the Study of Church History," by W. J. McGlothlin. Of course, there is nothing in the Bible to base prayer to the saints on, and no authentic authority from church history. But the great men of the church practiced it for centuries; therefore, to millions it is Divine.
The methods used by the Catholics, aforementioned, is to me strikingly like those I see and hear employed by those who teach and practice Institutionalism and church universal programs, etc.
Catholics quote scriptures about Abraham, Moses, Job, and those written by Paul and James to prove the worship of, and praying to, "the Saints". But all these were not dead, and nobody even remotely mentioned praying TO any saint, living or dead. But that's Catholic proof I So my brethren quote Romans 12:13; Gal. 6:10; James 1:27, etc., and imply that those scriptures prove that churches of Christ may, or should, build and support orphan home organizations, like Childhaven, et al. That's their proof. There are no scriptures they can use that will do any better in establishing their teaching.
Then they parade a list of illustrious Christians of the past, who, they assert, taught and practiced the things they are supporting. This is their best proof (?). But it is a big step toward Rome, because it's a big step toward "church infallibility". It is the same thing that Jesus so soundly condemned in Matthew 15:1-9 or Mark 7:1-13. "Let God be true, but every man a liar" (Romans 3:4).