Saintly Cult

"I am horrified at some of the recent Anglican/Roman statements, for instance, and on things like the Papacy, purgatory, and the cult of saints (especially Mary), I am as protestant as the next person, for (I take it) good Pauline reasons." - N.T. Wright

I think that the quote Byron has made reference to (from this post) and the All Saints post necessarily go hand-in-hand together. In the All Saints post I had argued that the 'saints' were also identifiable as the righteous, the elect, the holy ones of God, the true (remnant of) Israel, the Son of Man etc. And all of these identities come together in climax in person of Jesus Christ, the true elect, the true holy one of God, the true Israel (constituted in and around himself), therefore the true Son of Man and so in effect the true Saint of the Most High. This is also the identity of his people (Christians) because they are in him (cf. Romans 5, Philemon 6, Climax of the Covenant, chapters 1-3), united to him by faith.

Because Jesus is the true Saint of the Most High, a cult to, effectively, the communion of saints, would be abhorrent, as Wright says in the quote. Other examples include a cult to the church is abhorrent, because Jesus IS THE Church (cf. Ephesians 1-2), or a cult to the word of God (the bible) would be abhorrent because Jesus IS THE Word.

Besides this, our identity as saints is only because of who Jesus is and what he has done, including to us. That is to say, the saints cult is horrific because we all have this identity as a saint because of the gospel achievement of Jesus the Christ. Furthermore, this is an identity that we have in Christ, together. Everyone who is in Christ is saint, which ties us back to the Wright comment. Immediatenly following that quote, Wright says:

"But justification by faith tells me that if my Roman neighbor believes that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead then he or she is a brother or sister, however much I believe them muddled, even dangerously so, on other matters."

I would suggest then that whilst the cult to the saints is dangerously horrific and abhorrent, our Sainthood, so to speak, and something to rejoice in together, not in our own strength, but to our Lord Jesus, the true Saint of the Most High. As the reformer Martin Bucer said:
"We teach that the blessed saints who lie in the presence of our Lord Christ and of whose lives we have biblical or other trustworthy accounts, ought to be commemorated in such a way, that the congregation is shown what graces and gifts their God and Father and ours conferred upon them through our common Saviour that we should give thanks to God for them, and rejoice with them as members of the one body over those graces and gifts, so that we may be strongly provoked to place greater confidence in the grace of God for ourselves, and to follow the example of their faith." - Martin Bucer*

But what are to do with All Saints Day? Should we trick-or-treat? As an Australian Anglican, it is apparently one of the liturgical days I, with my brothers and sisters, are supposed to celebrate (it is a red-letter day in the A Prayer Book for Australia). In the book For All The Saints? NT Wright takes issue not so much with the existence of All Saints Day, but with All Souls Day (November 2). He sees All Souls day as a development of suspect medieval theology (i.e. purgatory), which today is filled with "woolly Victoriana, hinting at purgatory without really coming out and saying it. According to Wright, the celebration of All Saints with All Souls a. creates two distinct classes of Christians - us ordinary little followers of Jesus, and the great holy ones like Paul and Peter (see now Philippians 3); and b. it holds a false view of resurrection by basically saying resurrection equals going to heaven when you die, and that right now only these so-called uber saints can attain. Wright describes All Souls as an unwarranted and unbiblical teaching, that not only diminishes All Saints, but pulls it out of shape. However, Wright doesn't hold back in describing All Saints Day as wonderful, biblical and glorious (p. 49).

I don't really know how to conclude this except to say that the cult of the saints is a horrific teaching given the biblical teaching about the saints. Despite that, there is still terrific value in All Saints Day, not to go trick-or-treating, but to celebrate, with all our borhters and sisters, the mercy and grace and love that our Father has shown us, his church.

"For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:15-23.

10 points if you can name the saint.
*This quote came from For All the Saints? NT Wright, SPCK, 2003.