Airbournemillennial

The  historic Christian practice  of asking our departed brothers and sisters in Christ—the saints—for their intercession has come under attack in the last few hundred years. Though the practice dates to the earliest days of Christianity and is shared by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, the other Eastern Christians, and even some Anglicans—meaning that all-told it is shared by more than three quarters of the Christians on earth—it still comes under heavy attack from many within the Protestant movement that started in the sixteenth century. Can They Hear Us? One charge made against it is that the saints in heaven cannot even hear our prayers, making it useless to ask for their intercession. However, this is not true. As Scripture indicates, those in heaven are aware of the prayers of those on earth. This can be seen, for example, in Revelation 5:8, where John depicts the saints in heaven offering our prayers to God under the form of “golden bowls full of incense, which are ...

HOW KING RATBOD PUT OFF HIS BAPTISM TILL IT WAS TO LATE Ratbod, King of the Frisons, who is mentioned in ecclesiastical history in the eighth century, at one time was ready to get Baptised and even met Saint Wolfrand at the Baptism waters. But the king refused to be baptised at the last minute after discovering he would be unable to find any of his ancestors in Heaven and even proudly boasted St. Wolfrand that he was not afraid of hell; that he wished to be there with the k ings, his ancestors, and most illustrious personages. “Moreover,” he added, “later on, I shall be always able to receive baptism.” “Lord,” answered the Saint, “do not neglect the grace that is offered to thee. The God who offers the sinner pardon, does not promise him tomorrow.” The King did not heed this advice, and put off his conversion. A year after, learning the arrival of St. Willibrord, he dispatched an officer to him, to invite him to come to the court and confer baptism on him. The officer having travel...