According to Protestantism, what are the strongest apologetic arguments against the doctrine of Intercession of Saints?
Upvote:11
On an official German protestant website exactly this question was answered with the following arguments (loosely summarized in English by me):
Protestants do not have a hierarchy of the deceased. None of us is so good that they are immediately by the side of God after they have died; we all will need God's forgiveness at judgement day. On the upside, we Christians are all holy: We are equal parts of a "community of the holy" in our faith.
By becoming human in the shape of Jesus God established a "direct contact" to us. Circumventing Jesus by praying to saints belittles Jesus.
As opposed to the Catholic church which knows a hierarchy of levels of access to God, protestants consider all believers equal. Neither priests nor saints nor popes have special access rights. (Generally, the exclusive access to God through office-holders is one of the central dogmas distinguishing Catholics from Protestants.)
An additional reason is, ironically, provided by a page on the non-official catholic.com, if only in order to refute it: Some critics consider it a form of polytheism because addressing saints in prayer de facto treats them as assistant gods, even if the Concil of Trent drew a fine line in the sand between veneration (allowed) and adoration (forbidden).
Upvote:15
For those denominations that take the Bible fairly literally, everyone that has ever died (with one notable exception) is still dead and buried and awaiting resurrection.
For the living know that they will die; But the dead know nothing, … — Ecclesiastes 9:5
No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, … — John 3:13
Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. — Acts 2:29
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. — 1 Thessalonians 4:14
Given the belief that the dead are unconscious and are sleeping until their resurrections at the end of the age, there's not much need of further argument to show that someone that is dead, buried, and unconscious is incapable of intercession of any kind.
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