Apologetics – Page 2 – Faith Unto Ages

An Orthodox Apologia for the Intercession of Saints

Concerning the Orthodox Church’s teaching on the intercession of saints, heretics often argue that it is both idolatrous and unbiblical. When the Orthodox Christian is challenged on this matter, they are forced to respond to at least one of the following objections: ‘How could the saints hear your prayers if they are dead?’, ‘praying to saints is idolatry!”, “where is that in the Bible?”, & “the Bible says that there is only one Mediator between God and Man.”

It is important to note that the Holy Orthodox Church does not by any means disagree with the latter statement presented above, given that this comes directly from Divine Revelation itself (c.f. 1 Timothy 2:5, Heb 8:6, 9:15, 12:25, etc). Before we address the objections to the doctrine of the intercession of the saints, it is necessary to first define Christ’s role as the Mediator between God and man in detail.

An Apologia for the Historic Accuracy of the Bible: The Last Supper & Liturgical Tradition

Just like many other topics which involve scripture, the accuracy and historic authenticity of the Last Supper has been challenged by skeptics. As a result, there were ideas which suggested that the narratives regarding the first Eucharist were not entirely factual, but was instead influenced by early Christian worship. For example, the Lutheran theologian and biblical scholar Rudolf Bultman has made the argument that “while Jesus may indeed have held a final meal with His disciples, the narratives as we have them are creations of the early church and so can tell us nothing about the actual historical roots of the Eucharist but can only witness to its later development.” 1

The Divinity of Christ

The Oriental Orthodox Church teaches that Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity – One in Essence with The Father and the Holy Spirit. Of all the Three Persons of The Holy Trinity, Only The Word (Jesus Christ) became Incarnate for our sake. This means that as the Eternal Logos (Word) of The Father, He took on flesh from the Virgin Mary – making Him perfect God and Perfect man in One Concrete Nature (More on this in a future post).

To expand on this dogmatic truth, St. Clement of Alexandria says the following: “The Word, then, the Christ, is the cause both of our ancient beginning—for he was in God—and of our well-being. And now this same Word has appeared as man. He alone is both God and man, and the source of all our good things” (Exhortation to the Greeks 1:7:1 [A.D. 190]).