Cult of saints
- We can honour the saints and follow their example. Hebrews 12:1 can be used for this, where it says: „Since we have such a cloud of witnesses around us, let us put away sin. Hebrews 13:7 can also be used: „Remember your teachers, who have spoken the word of God to you. Consider their end and imitate their faith.“
- Invoking the saints and asking for their protection and support cannot be justified biblically and is therefore unscriptural. Rather, what the apostle John says applies here (1 John 2:1): „If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous“.In the book „Mary, the Adversary of Satan“ by Father Boniface Günther, page 22 says: „We confess our sins not only to God, but also to the Blessed Virgin and St Michael the Archangel. Then comes what man needs most in such situations: help through the intercession of the saints.“
Neither Mary nor the archangel Michael died on the cross for our sins, but Jesus, who alone is the reason for our salvation.
All Saints‘ Day
In the cult of the saints, the most important festival must be mentioned: All Saints‘ Day. The Catholic Church celebrates this popular festival every year on 1 November. The faithful take flowers to the graves of their loved ones. In some areas, on the night of 31 October to 1 November, they put lighted candles in the windows so that the „wandering souls“ will find their way, as the saying goes.
The same celebration exists in the USA. It is just celebrated differently. Halloween – All Hallows Eve – is more like a European carnival than a cemetery festival. Americans celebrate their Halloween parties with costumes, masks and lots of alcohol.
All Saints‘ Day and Halloween have their origins in paganism. In pre-Christian times, the Druids – priests of a Celtic tribe – in England believed that people had to cleanse themselves after death. The soul of the deceased was banished into an animal body. On the night of 31 October to 1 November, the banished souls were released by the Druid god Samhain and gathered in the Druid heaven. This Druid festival has always been associated with animal and even human sacrifice and all kinds of magic. Despite Christianisation, this pagan Druid festival survived in England until the 6th century. Gregory the Great (540-604) advised the Archbishop of Canterbury to retain the old Druidic sacrifices in honour of the Church’s saints.
English settlers brought the custom to America. It is very popular there because it gives people a chance to let off steam.
In Germany, the religious custom has been preserved in connection with All Saints‘ Day, which is particularly popular with Catholics. As long as the grave decorations are only an expression of respect for the deceased, the custom can continue. The other custom of burning candles to guide lost souls is superstitious.
Our life for Christ or without Christ determines our eternity. We can no longer change the fate of the deceased, even if they are dear to us. There is no passage in either the Old or the New Testament that recommends intercession for the dead. In this context, the Mass for the dead, which was also introduced by Gregory the Great, is also heresy and superstition.
Relics
The cult of relics is probably even more controversial than the cult of saints. With the idea of the power-laden and power-giving relic, we are in the realm of magic and fetishism, or the call of the dead (= Spiritism). The fetish (fetismun = energetic object) gives protection, strength, health and help in all needs. This is a process of black and white magic.
A personal example by Dr Kurt Koch:
B 104 During a week of lectures in Munich, I came down with influenza. I asked my audience for intercession so that I could finish the week. The next evening a Catholic engineer brought me a relic and asked me to wear it on my body so that I would get well. At first I was astonished that an academic – he was a graduate engineer – should cling to such superstition. I replied that this was out of the question for me. I destroyed this sign of religious superstition at home. The relic was a piece of cloth wound into a roll and tied with a paper ribbon. On it was written: „Ex veste patris Ruperti Meieri“ = from the shirt or robe of Father Rupert Meier. The engineer told me that Father Rupert had been a pious priest who had performed many miracles. After his death, his friends cut up his shirts and clothes and made hundreds of thousands of relics.
Luther railed against such things, and in the 20th century they still exist! And even educated people cultivate this superstition!
Otto Markmann calls these processes „whitewashed paganism“ (Irrtümer, p. 30). This expert on Catholicism adds: „The veneration of relics is based on primitive magical ideas. It is believed that the bones, clothes and shrouds of deceased saints possess special powers which are transferred to those who touch them. Splinters of a martyr’s wood are worn as amulets and are said to protect the person“.
Another, but similar, version was formulated by a Catholic friend as follows: „Through the relic, one believes to be particularly close to the deceased saint, whom one knows to be with God, and to obtain his intercession. But that is invoking the dead!“
Example of relics:
Four great relics are kept in the golden shrine of Mary in Aachen Cathedral: the swaddling clothes of Jesus, the dress of Mary, the loincloth of Jesus and the beheading cloth of John the Baptist. Every seven years these „treasures“ are put on public display. Thousands and thousands of pilgrims come from all over Germany and from Catholic countries abroad, hoping for great blessings. It is a great imposition on the human mind to believe that the diapers of Jesus etc. are in Aachen.
We need Jesus Himself, not His nappies and clothes, even if they are not real. Even if they were real, they do us no good, but only distract us from the Cross and the redeeming work of Jesus. (Source: Occult ABC, Dr Kurt Koch)