DEFROCKED: A COUPLE OF FALLEN SAINTS

Friday night I met a girlfriend at a local pub restaurant and we sat at the bar to eat supper since the place was so packed. We got corner seats, which seemed far better than a 45-minute wait at the freezing doorway.

By the time dinners arrived we were deep into conversation, comparing notes on life in general since we lost our husbands. You know, how little we cook, how much we clean, and how many odd things around the house betray the lack of a man’s strong hands and know-how. So much has changed!

Our Asian waitress joined the conversation every once in awhile. I recognized her from a previous visit in early autumn when I came in for a hot bowl of soup. So we started calling each other ‘soup’ and even as it got late she’d ask if I still wanted some.

Gradually, she found time to share her story, beginning in a crowded Korean orphanage where she was sickly and riddled with health problems. Eventually, she was adopted by Americans. Her surroundings may have improved but she grew up without ever knowing her natural family. She was the only Asian in her school. Ouch. It seemed to make sense how she had developed a toughness on the exterior, but remained a little girl on the inside. And now this little girl is a mommy of a two-year-old.

Then we started talking about the Lord. She was raised Catholic, but admits that she doesn’t go to church anymore. There’s a huge gap between religion and a true relationship with a person named Jesus, I said. He never changes and never forsakes you. And so the question revolved around what religion do we believe and who can we trust?

That’s when my girlfriend rolled her eyes and said that the Catholic Church has even changed the status of some of the saints she used to trust in. Some of the ancient saints had actually lost their titles! I couldn’t believe my ears. WHAT on earth could a bunch of dead guys have done to lose their sainthood?! I hollered. Even from heaven they have somehow fallen from grace? I suppose somewhere on the seven hills of Rome someone decided they were no longer worthy.

Imagine the shock to millions of parishioners around the globe who have spent a lifetime praying to St. Anthony every time they lose something, and to St. Christopher every time they go somewhere! No longer saints?

Honestly, I had a hard enough time with the whole concept of praying to dead people anyway, but this really pushes the limit. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I’ve read the Bible through and through dozens of times and have never seen a bit about the church’s ability to DE-SAINT anybody after they’ve gone to heaven! This is truly a far stretch from Biblical doctrine. The only ones cast out of heaven were Lucifer and a third of the angels.

In fact, what Scripture does say plainly is that it is appointed unto man once to die and then comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27). There’s nothing about purgatory either. And certainly nothing, nada, zip about priests praying for the dead on our behalf to get them out of there! God’s judgment is final, much as the flesh and carnal man hates to admit it. We still somehow like to think that we can do something to change God’s mind or bend the rules.

I admit, I wasn’t raised Catholic and I don’t know all that much about all their contrived systems. But as I said, I’ve studied Scripture for years and these are foreign concepts. I can only hope that people who are exposed to these customs will take the time to acquaint themselves with the Word of God itself where matters of heaven are concerned and their own souls are at stake.

Once again, it seems the church has overstepped its rightful bounds. Why, they would even reach into heaven and pull people down if they could! How can mere mortals take on so much? It is more than they ought. God alone is judge and keeper of heaven. It angers me to no end that people are swallowing such philosophies and judgments hook line and sinker in ignorance of the teachings of Christ.

My own mother was discouraged from reading the Bible because she was told frankly that she couldn’t understand it without a priest. Then in the church services everything was spoken in Latin, so there was not much help there. What a shame that people are being duped into believing that only a priest can know God and then dole him out in little pez dispensers for all us fools.

No, there’s a lot of ritual, robes and incense in grand cathedrals around the world. There may be sacred music and tradition galore, but Jesus doesn’t need these things to reveal himself or to sup with the likes of common men and women. He that believes is born of the spirit and has life everlasting, (John 3:15-16) regardless of what anyone else says. God says so, and that’s good enough for me.

Not only can we speak with him and hear his voice and enjoy his presence forever, but all who believe in Christ are saints, which literally means, set apart for him. It stems from the word sanctified, such as the temple vessels intended to serve his purposes. Aren’t we, who are inhabited by his spirit, his vessels on earth?

Yes, the robes and externals are unnecessary. We are completely outfitted from the inside out. And that includes all who believe in the Name of Jesus. As Peter teaches us, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature…”

And the best part? He doesn’t change his mind from year to year. Just as the so-called Italian prophet Malachi wrote, “I the Lord do not change.” (I’m teasing of course. Malachi was a Jewish Prophet and his is the last book of the Old Testament.) Thank God that his holiness and his standards of right and wrong, his forgiveness, and the status we receive as his sons and daughters, do not shift like passing shadows.

“God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19) And again, in I Samuel 15:29, “He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind." What has he to gain by deception anyway? His light is pure and constant and strong. He can be trusted and his word never fails.

Most importantly, my sainthood status is irrevocable according to the One who called me and gave me life. Romans 11:29 assures us of that. And “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven,” the Lord told his disciples in Luke 10:20. It seems astounding that any earthly regime presumes to have the power to eradicate those registered by the angels in God’s heavenly record. The audacity!

Peter also testifies that we were redeemed not by perishable things such as gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ. (I Peter 1:18-19) Does this mean nothing to the pompous hierarchy of worldy religion in all their gilded mansions? Can any earthly figure uncover me from the effect of Christ’s blood? What I have received by faith is mine forever. A favorite and powerful portion of Romans makes this evident:

“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-more than that, who was raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom 8:33-39

Millions around the world have found the truth in the Word of God, regardless of what the self-proclaimed authorities have pronounced to their followers. Unfortunately, they are the blind leading the blind, just like Jesus said.

The trouble is that the vast majority don’t know the Word of God. They have no foundation to stand on, nothing to compare to, and they are easily misled. In these last days it is more critical than ever that people seek God and find true faith.

Before I take leave of all my rantings tonight, I have to pose one final thought. Do you know who agrees with me? For starters, there’s a couple of guys named Anthony and Christopher who are nodding their heads somewhere in glory where they are enjoying the full status of their redemption and sainthood.


We can lose a lot of things--our keys, our cars, our house, even our husband. But when it comes to our position in heaven, all I can say is thank God that some things cannot be changed.