CNN shared the news that a late pope, along with the recently resigned one, are both now cleared for “sainthood” by the new pope. What a politically brotherly move! http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/05/world/europe/vatican-pope-sainthood/index.html.
Sainthood, as Romanly conceived of, though, is an idea that has no basis in any kind of external reality. (It is based in internally conceived dogma.) In scripture, “saint” is essentially a common noun applied to any and all who are ransomed, regenerate children of God by faith and obedience. No special distinctions exist, and even the basic clergy/laity differentiation, which is complicit in the Catholic “sainthood” fallacy, is but one of many apostasies.
The Christian world ought — if it had any power of thoughtful analysis, that is — to vacillate between these:
♦ amusement at the silliness of men and institutions that think they have the power to declare such special, spiritual status
♦ spiritual indignation at the ludicrous idea of sainthood perpetrated by a Roman Catholic institution that has little significant connection to scripture, but a great deal of connection to its own baseless history
CNN merely did its job in reporting this newsworthy world development. May the rest of us do our jobs by discerning centuries-old apostasies, seeing this kind of Vatican-based creativity for what it is.
Earnestly Speaking 
All I can say is thank God we had a man called Martin Luther that stood up to the apostasies of the Roman Catholic church and the Pope 500 years ago. Though Protestantism has flourished, I don’t think the Catholic church learned much from his rebellion.
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Yes, yep, right on, attabob, bingo, fo’ sho’, and verily I say to you, amen. (I think ML would have understood the latter, having flourished just prior to the KJV era.) The reformation efforts must continue — they were not, and will never will be finalized — until Jesus returns.
Periodically, I’m caused to wonder just how much negative impact the RC Church has had on faith, in the aggregate. I’ll bet we’d have 25% fewer people claiming atheism if the baseless spiritual distance of the RC system hadn’t been so prevalent for hundreds of years.
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God has always had His remnant that have been faithful to Him, and He will until the end.
http://holdingforthhisword.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/walking-in-truth/
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Thanks for this reminder, Eliza. Surely, God’s people may be (and have been) found in many places, despite human weaknesses and departures from His revealed will.
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