On this previous
Sunday (4th September 2016) Pope Francis
declared Mother Teresa to be
a saint. This is one of the peculiar Roman Catholic church traditions which
simply do not match the Scriptures.
As a defender
of the authority of Scripture alone (SOLA SCRIPTURA) I would like to help
you to think with me on this matter. It is no small thing to substitute the authority of the Bible for man made traditions. Jesus had His strongest words reserved for those who did this.
According to a
Catholic website the definitions of a saint may embrace the following : [1]
- An example of holiness that we can follow with confidence.
- The person who kept on trying when everybody else gave up.
- 'Spiritual force-fields', exerting a powerful attractive influence on followers but also touching the inner lives of others in ways that transform them for the better.
- A person who has been formally canonized (officially recognized) by the Catholic Church, and is therefore considered to be in Heaven.
- A saint is always someone through whose life we learn what God is like - and of what we are called to be. Only God 'makes' saints. The church merely identifies from time to time a few of these for imitation.
- Anyone who is in Heaven, whether recognized here on earth, or not (Eastern Orthodox definition)
Although there is some
truth in
these statements, they do not nearly match the definition of the Bible.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE PLAINLY
TEACH ?
The word "saint"
is derived from a Greek verb “hagiazo”. The basic meaning is "to set apart" or to "make
holy". The New Testament uses the word ‘ saint’ or ‘saints’
sixty seven times. In every
instance, the reference is to all believers, and not simply to a special group of believers who serve God
better than others. Scripture is clear that all true Christians are saints. A true Christian is one who has been enabled by God to embrace Jesus Christ as their Saviour. This is seen by the spiritual fruit which are borne in such a person's life. The Bible says that a true Christian is a saint NOW. Our understanding of the word 'saint' must be based on what the Bible says.
In the Old Testament the idea of separateness or holiness is inherent in the character of God. The
Old Testament temple and in particular the room called
the “Holy of holies” was the dwelling place of God on earth, and could
only be entered by set apart (holy)
priests.
The people or the worshippers
of the true God were recognized as a holy people, who
were to be distinguished from
the other nations surrounding them.
This idea of the separateness of God and his people is continued in the New Testament. Christians are
frequently called saints in the Bible
e.g. Acts 9:13; 26:10; Rom 1:7 ;
2 Cor. 1:1; Eph. 1:1; Php. 1:1; Col 1:4.
The important thing
to recognize here is that saints
in the New Testament are living beings. Saints, in the New Testament,
are never deceased individuals who have been canonized and given
sainthood by the church! They are living individuals who have dedicated themselves to the worship
and service of the one true God as revealed through his Son, Jesus Christ.
And so, the Gospel coalition (Joe Carter) has written a helpful article entitled
“9 Things you should know about
Mother Teresa”, concerning the so called
canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
You can click on this
link, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-you-should-know-about-mother-teresa,
Joe Carter says:
"There
are two main reasons why I think evangelicals should know something about
Mother Teresa: First, she remains a popular historical figure. During her life,
she was named 18 times in the yearly Gallup's most admired man and woman poll
as one of the 10 women around the world who Americans admired most, finishing
first several times in the 1980s and 1990s. Also, in 1999, a poll of Americans
ranked her first in Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th
Century. Second, for many people Mother Teresa’s name has become synonymous
with Christian charity. For these reasons we should know something about this
nun from Calcutta. While we ought to recognize Mother Teresa as a laudable
champion against abortion who had a fervent concern for the poor, we should
also be aware of her many foibles and failings so that we can correct the
perception of her as an uncriticizable Christian leader.”
9 Things you should
know about Mother Teresa
On Sunday ( 04/09/2016) at a Roman Catholic canonization service in
Vatican City, Pope Francis will declare Mother Teresa a saint. Here are nine
things you should know about the Nobel-prize winning nun who became renowned
for serving the poor and dying:
1. Mother Teresa was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in 1910 in
what is now part of modern Macedonia. At the age of 18 she left home to join
the Sisters of Loreto, a group of nuns in Ireland. It was there she took the
name Sister Mary Teresa after Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. A year later, in 1929,
Mother Teresa moved to India and taught at a Catholic school for girls.
2. In 1946 Mother Teresa received what she would later
describe as a “call within a call.” She said Jesus spoke to her and told her to
abandon teaching to work in the slums of Calcutta aiding the city's poorest and
sickest people. In 1950 she received Vatican approval for Missionaries of
Charity, a group of religious sisters who took vows of chastity, poverty,
obedience, and to give “wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor.”
By the late 1970s, the Missionaries of the Charity had offshoots in Asia,
Africa, Europe, and the United States.
3. Mother Teresa and her religious order gained international
attention in 1967 when the famed journalist Malcolm Muggeridge interviewed her
for a BBC TV program. Because of the popularity of the interview, Muggeridge
travelled to Calcutta a year later to make a documentary, Something Beautiful
for God, about Theresa's “House of the Dying” (Muggeridge would also write a
book by the same name in 1971).
4. During her life Mother Teresa received more 120 prestigious
awards and honors. In 1971, Paul VI conferred the first Pope John XXIII Peace
Prize on Mother Teresa, and in 1979 she won the Nobel Peace Prize. The
Norwegian Nobel Committee writes in their motivation: “In making the award the
Norwegian Nobel Committee has expressed its recognition of Mother Teresa's work
in bringing help to suffering humanity. This year the world has turned its
attention to the plight of children and refugees, and these are precisely the
categories for whom Mother Teresa has for many years worked so selflessly.” She
also received the highest U.S. civilian award, the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, in 1985.
5. During her 1979 Nobel Prize Lecture, Mother Teresa called
abortion the “greatest destroyer of peace”:
We are talking of peace.
These are things that break peace, but I feel the greatest destroyer of peace
today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing - direct murder
by the mother herself. And we read in the Scripture, for God says very clearly:
Even if a mother could forget her child - I will not forget you - I have carved
you in the palm of my hand. We are carved in the palm of His hand, so close to
Him that unborn child has been carved in the hand of God. And that is what
strikes me most, the beginning of that sentence, that even if a mother could
forget something impossible - but even if she could forget - I will not forget
you. And today the greatest means - the greatest destroyer of peace is
abortion. And we who are standing here - our parents wanted us. We would not be
here if our parents would do that to us. Our children, we want them, we love
them, but what of the millions. Many people are very, very concerned with the
children in India, with the children in Africa where quite a number die, maybe
of malnutrition, of hunger and so on, but millions are dying deliberately by
the will of the mother. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace
today. Because if a mother can kill her own child -
what is left for me to kill you and you kill me - there is nothing between.
6. Mother Teresa was
frequently denounced by secularists because of her opposition to contraception
and abortion. But she was also widely criticized for her allowing her charity
to provide inadequate care for the poor and for potential mismanagement of
charitable funds. Although she leveraged her fame to raise tens of millions of
dollars for her charity, the orphanages and care centers run by her religious
order were often substandard. After visiting Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying
in 1994, Robin Fox wrote about the experience in the British medical journal,
The Lancet. Fox reported that doctors only occasionally visited the patients
(the care was mostly provided by untrained volunteers) and that pain relief
provided for the dying was inadequate, leading them to suffer unnecessarily. In
2008, another observer reported, “I was shocked to see the negligence. Needles
were washed in cold water and reused and expired medicines were given to the
inmates. There were people who had chance to live if given proper care.”
7. Mother Teresa has
also been criticized by Christians for downplaying evangelism and espousing
universalist views of salvation. For example in her book, Life in the Spirit: Reflections, Meditations and Prayers, she says:
Our purpose is to take
God and His love to the poorest of the poor, irrespective of their ethnic
origin or the faith they profess. Our discernment of aid is not the belief but
the necessity. We never try to convert those whom we receive to Christianity
but in our work we bear witness to the love of God’s presence and if Catholics,
Protestants, Buddhists, or agnostics become for this better men — simply better
— we will be satisfied. It matters to the individual what church he belongs to.
If that individual thinks and believes that this is the only way to God for her
or him, this is the way God comes into their life — his life. If he does not
know any other way and if he has no doubt so that he does not need to search
then this is his way to salvation.
When a Catholic priest asked if she attempted to convert
people, she reportedly answered, “Yes, I
convert. I convert you to be a better Hindu, or a better Muslim, or a better
Protestant, or a better Catholic, or a better Parsee, or a better Sikh, or a
better Buddhist. And after you have found God, it is for you to do what God
wants you to do.’ ”
8. After her death, Mother Teresa’s letters revealed that she
spent almost 50 years in a crisis of faith, sometimes doubting the existence of
God and frequently feeling his absence in her life. The absence began to be
felt around 1948, soon after she began serving the poor in Calcutta, and would
last until her death in 1997. As David Van Biema wrote in Time magazine:
In more than 40
communications, many of which have never before been published, she bemoans the
“dryness,” “darkness,” “loneliness” and “torture” she is undergoing. She
compares the experience to hell and at one point says it has driven her to
doubt the existence of heaven and even of God. She is acutely aware of the
discrepancy between her inner state and her public demeanor. “The smile,” she writes,
is “a mask” or “a cloak that covers everything.” Similarly, she wonders whether
she is engaged in verbal deception. “I spoke as if my very heart was in love
with God–tender, personal love,” she remarks to an adviser. “If you were
[there], you would have said, ‘What hypocrisy.'”
9. For Mother Teresa to be recognized as a saint within the
Catholic Church, she had to undergo the lengthy process of beatification and
canonization. The process usually cannot be started until 5 years after the
person has died, but Mother Teresa received a waiver from Pope John Paul II.
Before beatification (which recognizes the person’s ability to intercede to God
on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name) a person must have a
verified miracle attributed to them after their death. After beatification the
Church looks for a second miracle before proceeding to canonization. If one is
found and they meet the other criteria, the pope can conduct a special mass at
which the person is recognized a saint. The first miracle attributed to Mother
Teresa involved the healing of an Indian woman, Monica Besra, whose abdominal
tumor was so severe that her doctors abandoned hope of saving her. After a
Miraculous Medal that had been touched to the body of Mother Teresa was placed
on Besra’s stomach, the tumor reportedly disappeared. The second miracle
involved a Brazilian man who reportedly was healed of a bacterial infection in
the brain after he and his family prayed to Mother Teresa for her help.
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