Do some Christian churches worship the saints and/or angels?

Question

When the disciple John falls down on his knees to worship an angel, the angel immediately urges him to stop because he is just like John, a servant of God, who worships God alone.

⁸ It is I, John, who heard and saw these things, and when I heard and saw them I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me. ⁹ But he said to me, “Don’t! I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brothers the prophets and of those who keep the message of this book. Worship God.” _(NABRE)

⁸ καὶ ἐγὼ Ἰωάννης ὁ βλέπων ταῦτα καὶ ἀκούων καὶ ὅτε ἤκουσα καὶ ἔβλεψα ἔπεσα προσκυνῆσαι ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ποδῶν τοῦ ἀγγέλου τοῦ δεικνύοντός μοι ταῦτα ⁹ καὶ λέγει μοι, Ὅρα μή σύνδουλός σου γάρ εἰμι καὶ τῶν ἀδελφῶν σου τῶν προφητῶν καὶ τῶν τηρούντων τοὺς λόγους τοῦ βιβλίου τούτου τῷ θεῷ προσκύνησον _{(TR, 1550)}

It seems like the doctrines of many Christian churches (Orthodox, Catholic, etc.) are replete with saint/angel worship. Is that accurate? Do some Christians worship angels and/or saints?

Answer 1

Key to answering this question is that no mainstream Christian denomination thinks they are actually worshipping any person other than the Triune Godhead - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

From the outside, however, accusations are often made in this regard.

To the uninitiated, veneration of the Saints can look like worship. To the uninitiated, the use of icons can look like idolatry. To the uninitiated, requesting the assistance of angels, Mary, or whatever blessed Saint can look like praying to someone other than God. To the uninitiated, repeating the Lord's Prayer or the 23rd Psalm can look like the invocation of a talisman against evil.

And, in practice, the distinction may not actually be there for the person doing it. Some Catholics actually believe they are praying to Mary. Some Orthodox think they are worshipping their icons. And some evangelicals may believe that the Lord's Prayer is somehow "holier" than every other.

The point, however, is not to judge a theology by its worst adherents, but by its best. Any doctrine can be perverted, any good thing used for evil.

In 2 Kings 18:4, we read of what happened to the bronze serpent that God had instructed Moses to build after God had sent a plague of vipers to attack the Children of Israel in the desert. Speaking hundreds of years after the fact, the Bible records that Hezekiah:

.. removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it.

That people had turned an artifact of God into a device of worship does not speak to the evil of a thing - only to the evil of those who practice idolatry at all. Idolatry - the worship of something or someone other than the true God - is a sin. And when "veneration" slips into worship, it is wrong.

But simple respect is not always worship. The question is, at their best, what are these things supposed to do.

In all cases, these objects, people, or beings are supposed to be intermediators to point the worshipper to Christ - a laudable goal. People need concrete things. But people are also prone, as Romans 1 says to worship the creation rather than the creator.

25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. ... 28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done

Thus, in short, the ultimate answer to "Why do people worship these things" is because man is evil. Man twists and perverts. He loves darkness rather than light.

Sure is a good thing we know a God who can fix that, if we're willing to learn differently.

Answer 2

You are presenting a false dichotomy. "Prays to" does not mean "worships", and, along those lines, "worship" does not always mean what we think of when we think of "worship."

If by "worship" you mean "provides honor due to God" then I will say that it is sinful to place a Saint at so high a level. Perhaps this is what happened when John saw the Angel. If by "prayer" you mean the same character of conversing one has with the almighty, I would repeat my sentiments above. Communion with the Saints is something of a very different sort.

I think that is where the rub lies. The relationship a Catholic has with the Saints, even Mary, is something fundamentally different from the relationship with the Godhead. Saints are our betters, but they are redeemed sinners, fellow created creatures. God is the great I AM, without beginning or end, perfect in every way. Anyone who would honor the former with the honor due the latter is frankly insane.

Answer 3

As Catholics, we do not pray/worship the saints. Instead, we look at them as role models because they have already achieved Heaven, which is what we must work for. Because they are already in Heaven, we ask the saints to intercede for us to God because they are so close to Him. Our asking them to intercede is what is often mistaken as worshiping them

Answer 4

Others have explained this well on this post, so I will not repeat what they have said. I will add some simple logic for two points: Worship and Prayer.

Worship plainly means to "ascribe worth to." Everyone "ascribes worth" to something of value. Does that mean people "worship" things or people, which is to commit idolatry, when they "ascribe worth? Of course not.

When someone gains life from what they are ascribing worth to, that is idolatry.

Prayer is simply communication. God created prayer for our benefit, not His own.

Since Christians have the whole family of believers in heaven, we can talk to them and ask them to pray for us to Jesus and our Heavenly Father. This is the same as when we ask the family of believers on earth to pray for us. The only difference is that the saints in Heaven know how to pray purely with perfect intention than when we pray on earth.

Catholics and Orthodox do not commit idolatry when communicating with our heavenly family. They just have a better understanding of what the family of believers is and what it means to be a part of God's family.