Adventists believe that they are the purest of people. They have not gone astray as many Christians have, as they have “divorced” – on their own – many teachings that do not agree with the Bible. Perhaps what exposes their pride and makes you think that they have completely closed themselves off to themselves and what they believe is right is that they have refused any dialogue with the churches, and have remained pure and conservative of the First Covenant, as they claim. Among the misleading things that they are proud of is that they blaspheme the veneration of saints, their relics and images… and praying for the departed and the holy anointing, and other things… (See: The Faith of Seventh-day Adventists, p. 273).

The last two topics (prayer for the deceased and the sacrament of holy oil) have been dealt with previously. In this article, we will try to refute their deviation regarding their failure to honor the saints, their images and their relics, and we will address, in later articles, some of their other deviations.

The veneration of saints (or invocation of them), their images and relics is not worship of them, nor is it “a delusion” or “a trick of the devil,” as the Seventh-day Adventists say (Ellen White, The Great Controversy, pp. 65 and 617). We have never worshipped anyone other than the One God, because our testimony is clear, and we do not need anyone to interpret our beliefs and fight us on the basis of his delusions. This is what the Seventh-day Adventist prophetess (White) attempted in this context, as she considered what the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787) approved regarding the veneration of images (and relics) of saints to be an act whose purpose was to give “those who convert from paganism to Christianity something as an alternative to idolatry” (M.N., p. 58). We do not know where this lady got this deviant interpretation from, but we know very well that the fathers of the council were innocent of it, as they ordered the veneration of images of the Lord and His saints (and the relics of the saints), considering it a divine axiom that confirms the truth of the divine incarnation (see the proceedings of the sessions of this council and its decisions).

The saints are the fruit of God’s love, and an aspect of His presence and His victory over sin and death. Any denial of them is a denial of God’s call: “Be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 11:45; 1 Peter 1:16). Although these divine words refer to the “militant” Church in this age, they still concern those who loved God with great sincerity and have fallen asleep in the hope of resurrection, because He who conquered death is the same One who conquered it in them and sanctifies them in every situation and time. The divine Paul says: “I am convinced that neither death nor life… will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). This statement is not true and comforting unless it is understood that God keeps His beloved in His eternal presence (the triumphant Church). On this basis, we must accept the words of the Lord: “Where I am, there will My servant also be” (John 8:26; 14:3; 17:24). This immediately leads us to say that the relationship between the visible and invisible Church is based on the unity of the Body of Christ. In our heritage, the veneration of the saints and the request for their intercession are based on faith in the unity of the Church, since we trust that the saints who have been “cleaned from sin” that still fights us, and have become stronger than time and space, are, in Christ Jesus, with us and we with them, and thus they protect us and strengthen us with their prayers and their unceasing praise that exalt God and His kingdom and reject all evil in the world (Revelation 6:9-11). He who “bowed the heavens” and saved us has abolished all that is above and all that is below, and has established for us, in our struggle, the saints as a support, a serious call, and a living Gospel that is open, read, and obeyed. Therefore, any distancing from them or distancing them (or their images and relics) is a belittling of the one body of Christ and a diminution of its victory. St. Nicholas Cabasilas says: “The holiness of the saints is the greatest gift of God to man, and the Church becomes evil and ungrateful if she does not thank Him for it” (see his book: “Explanation of the Divine Liturgy,” pages 132 and 133).

In Christian spirituality, there is a close relationship between the veneration of saints and the veneration of their images and relics. The icon and the relic are the presence of those they represent, and are considered “a point of contact between the members of the Church and those who preceded them.” They thus help the faithful to pray and to consider the saints “contemporaries and true friends” (Archbishop Kallistos Ware). Nothing explains the distortion of this matter by the Adventists and their followers except their ignorance of the truth and their distraction with the superficial. When they relied on the letters of the commandments, they did not realize, for example, that the prohibition of images, which is an ancient commandment (Exodus 20:4-5), was abrogated by the coming of the Son of God into the world. Also, in the same context, it can be said that their rejection of the relics of the saints – an ancient custom dating back to the first Christian times – is, in fact, a rejection of holiness and God’s work in history, and thus a distortion of the teachings of the Holy Bible, which the Adventists claim to rely on “alone.” There are several verses in the Bible that show the usefulness of the relics of saints and call for their veneration. We read in the Fourth Book of Kings: “And as they were burying a man, they saw a band of men, and they cast the dead man into the grave of Elisha. And when the man came down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood up on his feet” (31:21, 20:7; see also 3 Kings 13:25-31; and the New Testament teaches us that the Lord’s power lies even in his garments: Matthew 9:20-21, 14:36; or in the shadow of his apostles: Acts 5:15, and in their personal belongings: 19:11-12). Miracles similar to these occurred in the lives of a number of saints after their selection. On the day of the death of Saint Nektarios, “while his pure body was still in the hospital, a piece of his clothes was thrown by chance on a nearby sick person and he was healed immediately” (see the book: Zad al-Orthodoxia, p. 286)… However, the research, despite its brevity, is not complete unless we strongly emphasize that honoring the relics of the saints is a duty required by the event of God’s plan of salvation. God, who honored humanity by His incarnation and His conquest - in the flesh - of sin and death, raised man to divinity. Perhaps this is what prompted the holy fathers in the Seventh Ecumenical Council to simultaneously defend the icon and the relics of the saints (Canon 7).

Christianity is not only understood as a hopeful religion (i.e. its gifts are only for the world to come), but it is also “entirely” a religion of the present. Christ the Lord who came and saved us and promised us eternal life has given us “here and now” to taste the great joy of the resurrection, and he says this explicitly, in this age, in the bodies of the saints who have conquered death and have become the seat of the Holy Spirit and his work.