We do not disagree with the Baptists that the New Testament called the struggling believers “saints.” But we disagree with them on many matters, including: ways to achieve holiness, the right of the Church to proclaim the holiness of those who have conquered sin and death, and subsequently to pray to or with the victorious saints (Finley M. Graham, Systematic Theology, p. 234; Robert A. Baker, Biographies of Baptists in History, page 138).

Whoever reads the Holy Books with understanding, it is no secret that God, who declared that the believers who are integrated into the life of the Church are sanctified by Him, urged His servants to conform to this declaration in their lives in all its detail and detail (1 Thessalonians 4:3; 1 Peter 1:15, 16). Holiness is one of the attributes of God, who sent His Son and redeemed us with His blood, so that we might be enveloped in His divine light (Matthew 13:43; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Revelation 21:9-22:5), and rise to His glory (John 17:22; 2 Corinthians 3: 18; Ephesians 2:6 Hebrews 2:10), one of its fixed requirements is that it is the only will of God in this existence. What God wants, no one else can achieve. He achieves it, at the same time, by His grace and by the free submission of believers themselves to Him. There are ways for this realization that God confirmed in His revelation, including the new birth (baptism) “of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5; 1 Corinthians 6:11), union with the blessed body and blood of Christ (John 6:22-58), and subsequently in a life of fellowship and obedience. God is in life, that is, in love in its vertical and horizontal dimensions, and in witnessing to His glory in the world. Whoever walks in the fear of God day by day, with faultless understanding and sincerity, is an example in the community (1 Corinthians 4:16, 11:1; Philippians 3:17, 4:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 2 Thessalonians 3:9; 1 Timothy 4:12 Titus 2:7; Hebrews 6:12, 13:7. The Church has the right to honor him and proclaim his holiness, in the realm of this existence, to be illuminated by his virtues, and to try, in the course of her struggle, to imitate him.

Then, in the context of responding to the Baptists, we would like to focus on the fellowship of believers. This, first of all, requires a very important clarification, which is that when the Holy Church requests that its members pray for one another, it does not deny what the Baptists say, which is that “God is a person,” and that, consequently, “he meets personally without any human mediation.” Praying to (or with) those who have conquered sin and death is not a bypass of Christ's mediation (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 9:15, 12:24), or his intercession (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:24, 25; 1 John 2:1). ), and it is not “human mediation.” Struggling believers do not consider that the victorious brothers are closer to them than God. Their relationship with them is not governed by degrees or the logic of worldly people, but by the fellowship of the Church. Whoever joins the redeemed community has become “a member of the homeland of the saints and a member of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). It is true that this apostolic phrase (“the homeland of the saints”) means the believers struggling on earth first. But what is also true is that it concerns, in every generation, those who have conquered sin and death. This is because God’s homeland is one and His household is one. And whoever belongs to Him, enters Him, and remains faithful to Him, His Lord will not cast him out, or exclude him, after he has fallen asleep, from the membership of his body. This is what Saint John Chrysostom confirms, saying: “The love of the saints does not diminish with their death, nor does it end with their departure from this world. Rather, after their death, they are more capable (of intercession) than they were while they were alive.” The Body of Christ, which is one of the characteristics of the one Church, is the body of the victors and those who are still struggling in the world. No one can logically divide the body, or separate its members, and remain faithful to God’s revelation (1 Corinthians 10:17; Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 20, 27; Ephesians 2:16, 4:12; Colossians 3:15). This means that the entire framework of the relationship between all members of God’s people can only be properly understood in the light of this amazing truth.

In addition, Arif is not unaware that the close relationship between the struggling believers and the saints, who intercede for us in heaven, was inspired by the Orthodox Church from a vision
The Apostle John. We read: “I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and the testimony they had given. They shouted at the top of their voices: How long, O Holy and True Lord, will you delay justice and revenge for our blood from the people of the earth! So each of them was given a white robe, and they were commanded to wait a little while until the number of their companions and brothers who would be killed like them was complete” (6:9-11). See also, in the same book, what shows that the victorious saints always pray before the throne of God: 5:8, 8:3-5, 7:9-12, 15:1-4). God, who feels a special affection for the prayers of the saints (as the Book of Revelation reveals), commanded us to pray for one another, and revealed to us the power of the saints’ prayers on our behalf (4 Kings 2:14; 2 Maccabees 15:12-14).

The Orthodox Church, which insists on the partnership of struggling and victorious believers, does not consider that it has a Savior other than Jesus Christ. This is proven in the Holy Scriptures (see, for example: Luke: 2:11; John 4:42; Acts 4:12; Romans 5:9, 10; Ephesians 5:23; Philippians 3:20; 2 Timothy 1:10; Titus 1:4 , 2:13; 2 Peter 1:11; 1 John 4:14). Her honoring of the saints, who are living icons of God and justifiable evidence of His constant action in history, is only a sure picture of this response that God expects from people whose Lord has chosen to be where He is, to serve Him, and to deserve the Father’s honor and holiness (John 12:26). ) in “the present life and the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:8).