Pentecostal extremism labels the doctrine of praying to God through the saints and angels as unbiblical and satanic. From some rather involved arguments of such extremists, two basic tenets can be discovered.
Firstly, is the stupefying concept that Christ is the only intercessor, and besides him there is no other intercessor.
Secondly is the contention that some or most of the ?saints? through whom people pray are perished souls in hell, who in their life-time committed grievous secret sins. And therefore such intercessors are satanic agents mistakenly declared saints, and thus have no power of intercession.
Readers who are acquainted with the arguments in the ?Great Debate on Mary, the Mother of Christ? that raged on for four months in the Weekly Spectator (i.e. from September 1994 to early February 1995) may recall how such extremist propositions on Holy Mary, were debunked by those of us who analysed these biblical issues.
Unfortunately, for upholding the position of the Catholic Church that Mary is a true intercessor, which from my own spiritually empirical knowledge, I consider to be perfectly true, I, a Pentecostal, was subjected to a barrage of caustic criticisms and insults by some fellow Pentecostals who hold extremist views opposed to mine.
My position on the issue remains the same, but now with the added dimension: that not only Blessed Virgin Mary (the Mother of Christ) but also all the SAINTS are excellently effective intercessors. And if that is a betrayal of Pentecostalism (which is not in tune with purist Pentecostalism), so be it! In fact, the argument that Christ is the ONLY intercessor (and that there is no other intercessor) is woefully wrong by all standards of Categorical and Exegetical Theology. In succinct terms, there is no such blanket yet simplistic phrase like ?only intercessor? in the Bible.
The more correct rationalization is that Christ is the ONLY intercessor BEFORE the FATHER. But that there are other intercessors who, before Christ, plead our cause in heaven and on earth. On this, the Bible is very explicit.
Biblically, there are three categories of intercessors besides Christ. These are: The Holy Spirit, the saints in heaven, and the saints on earth (i.e Christians who have left the murk of fetishism or paganism and have positionally sanctified themselves in the blood of Christ).
The category one intercessor (before Christ) is the Holy Spirit who often advocates for us by speaking in tongues. To illustrate this point, let me cite a personal experience. Some years ago, after I had received the Holy Spirit, I was on a three-day fast. In the course of my sleep during the second night, I saw some fancifully dressed people (disguised in hideous visage of elephants which had long tusks) who unrelentingly attacked me, intending to squeeze me to death.
In my choked state, I felt the Holy Spirit in me move, with some whitish substance coming to stand on my lips. He uttered the word ?Jesus? plus some few ?unknown? words. A feminine voice quickly responded up above, mentioning the name of an angel, who in a split-second, descended with a sword which he swiped here and there on the attackers, until they ran away. The next day, a slight tap on my shoulder, woke me up to pray. And that was all done in ?tongues?! Thereafter, I slept soundly, with the room enveloped in strange snowy white light. That candidly was the result of the intercession of the Holy Spirit (interestingly, a woman l know who was my relative was reported to be bleeding profusely the next day. She was one of the victims of the angel?s sword attack. l rushed down from Oda to see and pray for her and the bleeding stopped immediately, by the mercy of God?lronical?
That the Holy Spirit intercedes for us is clearly stated by St. Paul in Romans 8:26 : ?But the Spirit itself makes intercessions for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.? Any truly Spirit-filled person knows this fact: that by tongues-speaking utterances the Holy Spirit pleads with Jesus for mercy, explaining the crisis of the situation (1 Cor. 14:2.)
Category Two intercessors before Christ are the saints in heaven! Those true Christians formerly on earth who after their precious deaths (Psalm 166:15) have ?taken the kingdom of heaven? (Daniel 7:18).
The Bible boldly states that the saints in heaven offer intercessory prayers for us, even by candle light and smouldering incense (Revelations 4:5; 5:8 and 8:3-4). The basic problem of the critics of the intercessory role of the saints lies in their inability to admit how deceased Christians can be identified as ?special saints? in heaven.
But if these critics really believe in the words of Christ: ?Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find? it shall not be difficult to establish that any holy men who exclusively preoccupy themselves with asking the Lord the whereabouts of the deceased earthly saints are always given the answer by the Lord as to whether or not they are with Him.
Indeed, Isogogical pneumatology (the branch of Theology dealing with the historical operations of the Holy Spirit in holy men) since ancient times pinpoints the fact that old-time prophets, even though they possessed the Holy Spirit, had their own special intercessors who pleaded their cause before God, and guided them all the time.
Space will not allow for full discussions of it. But suffice it to say, Catholic hagiographical theology (i.e. about the saints) sees, for example, Sts Dominic, Augustine, Francis of Paula, Anthony of Padua etc. as having either Holy Mary or St. Francis. (or both) as their spiritual mentors and intercessors, even though each of them possessed the Holy Spirit! And such devotee-intercessor relationships naturally conduced to their quick high spiritual development (up to the cherubic or seraphic stages) at which true miracles were performed.
Research studies in hagiography reveal that it is easier to obtain one?s desires, or to quickly develop spiritually, by routing one?s prayers through a more familiar saint in heaven, -a saint whose humanly moral and spiritual virtues continually guide the spiritual aspirant.
The principles for effectively communicating with a saint intercessor appear to be that
The faithful must choose only a single saint (or at most two) to whom he must entirely remain devoted as a friend, son or? client,? and must be regarded as one who pleads his cause before the throne of Christ
The life-style and Christian teachings of the saint-friend must form the basis of one?s daily meditation within the context of the scripture. These can include the biography of the saint-friend.
Not only prayers and meditation but regular fasting to spiritually interact with the saint-friend are necessary.
Prayers to, and love of Christ, and constant reading of the Bible do draw the admiration and special love from the saint-friend.
The effigy (pictures, medallions, statues) of the saint-friend, for the purpose of concentration, do help in one?s interactions with him or her.
In point of fact, intercession (known as ?paga? in Hebrew, and ?entunchano? in Greek, both depicting the concept of prevailing upon, on someone?s behalf) is in accord with African traditional concept of. Kingship
In our customary practices, a very familiar elder of the king?s palace quickly takes his friend to the king, and presents his (the? client?s?) case before him, or in the client?s absence, pleads on his behalf until his requests are fulfilled
God?s institution of the intercessory system in the Bible, which is a bottom-up hierarchical order, has thus that rationale of promoting quick, effective prayer-communication.
Category three intercessors are human personalities. St. Paul?s admonition ?l exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers and intercession?..be made for all men? (1 Timothy 2:1) is enough to prove that Christians on earth are empowered to intercede for one another. St. Paul often used the word ?saints? in his epistles to fellow Christians.
If Christians, more particularly priests, anointed pastors and prophets, can effectively intercede in this world often through the power of the Holy Spirit, then the simple logic is that their intercession ministry is more powerfully confirmed in heaven after their deaths.
Of course praying straight to Christ is biblical and good; whilst to approach earthly saints (e.g. Spiritual pastor, priests and prophets) and heavenly saints to intercede is biblical and good as well. All is a matter of preference.
Therefore criticisms against routing one?s prayer through the saints of Christ are merely grounded on specious rationalisations which are not in consonance with the tenets of the Bible. Such visceral argumentations need to be frowned upon.
By Apostle Kwamena Ahinful
