Saints in This Life, or Not At All.—
By W. N. G.
It is quite common in religious circles, especially in religious journals, to hear or see references to deceased persons as the “now sainted” So and So. The idea is that good people become saints when they die, an idea based upon the pagan and papal doctrine of the natural immortality of man. Protestants are prone to make light of the Roman Catholic way of canonizing as saints after death certain persons who were eminent in the church and endowed with certain prescribed qualifications. But the custom of designating as saints, only after death, all good people, as most Protestants do, is outdoing Rome. The Bible refers to the people of God as saints in this life. “O love the Lord, all ye His saints.” Ps. 31:23. One of the Christian duties enjoined by the apostle Paul is “distributing to the necessity of saints.” Rom. 12:13. A prominent object of the gifts of the Spirit in the church is “the perfecting of the saints.” Eph. 4:12. That saints die is shown by Ps. 116:15: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” As “the dead know not anything,” and “their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished” (Eccl. 9:5, 6), it is evident that dead saints are unconscious. Then to speak of one who dies as being “now sainted” is to say that he was not a saint before, and therefore was not a Christian. It is also equivalent to saying that in order to become a saint one must die. The Word of God teaches only one probationary period. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” 2 Cor. 6:2. “As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Heb. 9:27, 28. “Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22:12. So then no one who is not a saint in this life can ever become a saint. W. N. G.