Questions and Answers: Who and What Are the Saints?

Question: While taking a taxi to a hotel, I saw a statue on the dashboard, and the driver proudly told me it was St. Christopher, who protected him from accidents. My question is, what is a saint? Who are saints according to the Bible?

Answer: Many people think of the saints as the “big names” in the Bible, such as the prophets and Apostles. Some think saints are people who lived exemplary Christian lives of service and have been formally “canonized” by their church. Some believe individual saints have a patronage and can intercede for petitioners in a special way—the National Catholic Register lists more than 7,000 individual saints who have their own patronages and assigned days on the church calendar.

Some “venerate” the saints—that is, regard them with reverential respect—and believe they can be invoked by prayer to intercede with God. We find similar practices in various pagan religions that feature a pantheon of deities to whom believers give offerings while seeking favors.

The Bible, however, gives us a very different definition and clearly identifies those whom God counts as saints. The New King James Version includes 98 occurrences of the word saint, the World English Bible has 90, the Majority Standard Bible has 86, and the Modern English Version has 77. Why the differences? Because the Hebrew and Greek words may be translated not only as saint, but also as holy, sacred, consecrated thing, or anointed, depending on the context.

Daniel 7:21–27 describes an end-time leader “making war against the saints”—persecuting those who will ultimately enter the Kingdom of God. Romans 16 mentions as “saints” many Church brethren who lived in Rome (vv. 1–15). The Apostle Paul greets “the saints who are in Ephesus” in his epistle to them (Ephesians 1:1). Paul instructed brethren in Corinth regarding aid for the saints in Judea (1 Corinthians 16:1; Romans 15:22–29). The dramatic account of Saul’s conversion mentions the saints in Jerusalem, Lydda, and Joppa (Acts 9:13, 32, 41).

Those Who Will Meet Christ

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says this regarding the word saints: “While hagioi occurs more frequently in the New Testament than does qadhosh in the Old Testament, yet both are applied with practical uniformity to the company of God’s people rather than to any individual.” It goes on to say that “consecration—the setting apart of the individual as one of the company whom God has in a peculiar way as His own—springs not from man, but from God Himself, and that consequently it is in no way something optional, and admits of no degrees of progress, but, on the contrary, is from the beginning absolute duty.”

Easton’s Bible Dictionary states that the word saint “was not used as a distinctive title of the apostles and evangelists and of a ‘spiritual nobility’ till the fourth century. In that sense, it is not a scriptural title.” The Bible never awards deceased individuals the title of “saint,” as though it were some manner of formality or office. Rather, it uses saint and saints to refer to God’s people, set apart from the world.

Scriptural usage makes clear that saints are individuals called by God who have dedicated themselves to obeying and serving Him. Members of God’s true Church, established by Jesus Christ, are saints living on the earth today, as well as God’s people who have died and are in the grave awaiting resurrection at the return of Jesus Christ—who is the only Intercessor any Christian needs.

True saints, both the living and those who have died, will eventually meet Jesus Christ at His return. You can learn more about this vital topic by reading our free booklets Fourteen Signs Announcing Christ’s Return and What Is a True Christian? You can find them right here at TomorrowsWorld.org, where you can also listen to them or request printed copies.