LATE POPE TO BE “BEATIFIED” IN MAY
The Vatican has announced that the late Pope John Paul II is to “beatified” on May 1 in a key step toward Catholic sainthood. The sainting commission determined that the dead pope performed an intercessory miracle in response to the prayers of French nun Marie Simon-Pierre, who was healed of Parkinson’s disease. Normally a five-year waiting period is required after the death of an individual before the process toward sainthood is even started, but John Paul II has been on the fast track since his death in 2005. Mother Teresa is also on the fast track and was beatified in 2003, six years after her death.
The Catholic doctrine of sainthood is heretical. Nowhere in the New Testament Scripture do we find the Christians in the apostolic churches praying to saints. The Bible instructs us to pray to God the Father through Jesus Christ, the one and only Mediator between God and men (1 Tim. 2:5). To pray to a mere man or woman is blasphemy.
In the New Testament the term “saint” is applied to all true born again Christians, not to a special class (Acts 9:13, 32, 41; 26:10, etc.). Even the carnal Christians at Corinth were called saints (2 Cor. 1:1). Born again Christians are not saints because they are sinless or unusually godly; they are saints because they have a sinless Savior and He has removed their sin before God through His once-for-all His atoning sacrifice (Rev. 1:5,6; 1 Pet. 2:9,10). In the sight of God, through Jesus Christ, the believer is “holy and unblameable and unreproveable” (Col. 1:22). This is why we can be called saints. Praise the Lord’s holy name!
…and these are The Signs Of The Times
