Agreed. It is highly unlikely that people will change positions because of what is posted here. When you posted did you want to change our positions? Maybe not. We leave any debate better informed than before. Whether we change or not is dependent on how we respond to the conviction of the Spirit of God of what is true, what is biblical.
Debate does not become useless just because people disagree. In a post up there you disagreed with us. It did not make the debate useless.
Nuff Sed,
I agree with you in part. Debates are healthy regardless of the outcome. Doctrines and religion are emotive issues and people react differently when their beliefs are challenged. As an example is how you have ignored the subject of the thread and engaged kadame on a totally unrelated topic. That's deflection.
I started one on Peter and papacy, invited kadame and she heartily contributed. I opted out after I had my fill. So, likewise start a thread on necromancy and sainthood and invite kadame. Am curious to know how a miracle performed by praying to/through a saint is verified which I hear is a step towards sainthood. But I would not aks on this thread. Here it's all about SDA hard-ons
The sainthood is already in place when these things are happening. If my understanding is still up to date, the people on earth don't make the saint. They merely recognize the fact. You must mean a step towards formal recognition of the same.
I think miracles are verified through the normal process. Someone prays for the saint's intercession usually after all else has failed and something good happens. An incorruptible corpse does not hurt the case for sainthood either.
Here is an example for Saint Josemaria.
http://www.josemariaescriva.info/article/two-miracles-in-one-week
In is the wiki article on Josemaria's canonization, some obviously well qualified professionals conclude that a cure of a carmelite nun could not be attributed to natural causes.
1982: Creation of another tribunal to document a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Servant of God. This presided over by Cardinal Enrique y Tarancon. The miracle had occurred in 1976 with the sudden cure of a Carmelite nun suffering from terminal cancer. On April 3, this tribunal was concluded and a certified copy of the proceedings was sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome.
1990: On March 20, Affirmative Verdict by the Ordinary Congregation of Cardinals and Bishops. On April 9, the Pope ordered the publication of the Decree on the heroic virtues of the Servant of God. After the promulgation of this Decree, the Postulation could present to the Congregation the Positio of the Madrid process on the proposed miraculous cure. On June 30, the Medical Consultants of the Congregation, in their technical report, concluded that the cure could not be explained by natural causes. On July 14, after examining the case, the Meeting of Theologian Consultants affirmed the miraculous character of the cure and attributed its cause directly to the intercession of the Servant of God.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonization_of_Josemar%C3%ADa_Escriv%C3%A1