All Saints Day
These worship resources from Scripture and the confessions are selected for use on All Saints Day.
Peace
To all God’s beloved,
who are called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom. 1:7
Affirmation of Faith
These are they who have come out of the great ordeal;
they have washed their robes and made them white
in the blood of the Lamb.
For this reason they are before the throne of God,
and worship him day and night within his temple,
and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
They will hunger no more,
and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
for the Lamb at the center of the throne
will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Rev. 7:14-17
The chosen departed are in peace,
and rest from their labors;
not that they sleep and are lost in oblivion;
but that they are delivered from all fear and torment,
and all the temptations
to which we and all God’s chosen
are subject in this life.
Scots Confession, 3.17
What do you understand by the communion of saints?
First, that believers one and all,
as partakers of the Lord Christ,
and all his treasures and gifts,
shall share in one fellowship.
Second, that we ought to know
that we are obliged to use our gifts
freely and with joy
for the benefit and welfare of other members.
Heidelberg Catechism, 4.055
We acknowledge the saints
to be living members of Christ
and friends of God
who have gloriously overcome the flesh and the world.
Hence we love them as brothers and sisters,
and also honor them;
yet not with any kind of worship
but by an honorable opinion of them
and just praises of them.
We also imitate them.
For with ardent longings and supplications
we earnestly desire to be imitators of their faith and virtues,
to share eternal salvation with them,
to dwell eternally with them in the presence of God,
and to rejoice with them in Christ.
Second Helvetic Confession, 5.026
Those whom God has accepted in his Beloved,
effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit,
can neither totally nor finally fall away
from the state of grace:
but shall certainly persevere to the end,
and be eternally saved.
This perseverance of the saints depends,
not upon their own freewill,
but upon the immutability of the decree of election,
flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father;
upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ;
the abiding of the Spirit
and of the seed of God within them;
and the nature of the covenant of grace.
Westminster Confession, 6.094 – 6.095
All saints being united to Jesus Christ their head,
by his Spirit and by faith,
have fellowship with him in his graces,
sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory;
and, being united to one another in love,
they have communion in each other’s gifts and graces.
Saints by their profession
are bound to maintain a holy fellowship
and communion in the worship of God,
and in performing such other spiritual services
as tend to their mutual edification;
as also in relieving each other in outward things,
according to their abilities and necessities.
This communion, as God offers opportunity,
is to be extended to all those who, in every place,
call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.
Westminster Confession, 6.146 – 6.147
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