Praying for the Dead

[Jude3b]

Can the living help the dead by praying for them, like Roman Catholic doctrine teaches?

[Jude3b]

Roman Catholicism says, "It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead." (The Catechism page 250, #958).

According to God's Word, it is neither holy nor wholesome to pray for the dead. Christians are instructed to pray for the living, but not one example exists of true Christians praying for the dead.

[Jude3b]

As a young Roman Catholic I prayed for deceased loved ones. I later came to realize these were all man-made rules. God never asked us to pray for the dead, nor did He promise it would do any good. The Catechism taught me traditions of men, not commands of God.

[Jude3b]

Roman Catholicism says, "It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead." (The Catechism page 250, #958).

According to God's Word, it is neither holy nor wholesome to pray for the dead. Christians are instructed to pray for the living, but not one example exists of true Christians praying for the dead.

Before praying for a deceased loved one, please understand that doctrine of Romanism is all man-made. God never asked you to pray for the ded, nor did He promise it would do any good.

[BibleMan]

Can the living help the dead by praying for them, like Roman Catholic doctrine teaches?


No! Today is the day of salvation. They get saved in this life, or they remain lost for eternity. There is no second chance.

[Rightglory]

Jude3b,

According to God's Word, it is neither holy nor wholesome to pray for the dead. Christians are instructed to pray for the living, but not one example exists of true Christians praying for the dead. It must have been the fact that Rome just did not teach you properly, so you jumped from the pot into the fire.

First a thought about who you call dead, though they are really alive. Hebrews 12:22-24 does not recognize those in heaven as dead. These saints who have died a physical death are in fact very much alive in their spirits waiting the consumation of their glorified bodies. Luke 20:37-38 Jesus states that God is not the God of the dead (and He had just included Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) but the God of the living as all live to Him.
The Saints are very active in Heaven as Revelation shows, 4:4, 10; 5:8-10; 6:9-11. Paul expressed hope that he would be alive in Christ after his death. Philippians 1:23-24. As well as II Cor 5:8. The account of the Transfiguration brings both Moses and Elijah to be with Christ and spoke with Him. Hebrews 12:1 exhorts that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnessess.
So, the first is that they are alive, thus active and able to recieve our prayers. We may experience a separation of physicality but there is no evidence in scripture that we are separated spiritually. We are all ONE Body IN Christ. The whole concept of the Communion of the Saints is referencing this aspect of the spirituality and experience of the Church.

Why does the Orthodox Church encourage its members to pray for the dead. We do so in every Liturgy. The Church finds nothing in the Scriptures that would prohibit Christinas from expressing love for and maintaining a snese of fellowship with those who have died. And what better way than to pray for them.
Some as Bibleman has expressed is that their fate is sealed. But the Church is not encouraging them to pray to change their status of heaven or hell. In fact this is true even in this life. A prayer for a person who has rejected Christ, is not a believer will not be heard. I john 5:16.
Why the reason then, because in the Orthodox view scripturally, sanctification is seen not as a point in time occurrence but as a process which never ends. II Cor 3:`18. For this reason salvation is a ongoing process, continual and dynamic in holiness, purity, and union with God. This process continues even in heaven. Since we are created beings we can never fully share and comprehend the fullness of God or be totally filled with His holiness. The Church believes that prayers for our departed loved ones can help them in the process of healing and purification even in heaven.
Secondly, by Church experience, we know that it also helps those still here on earth. thus these prayers strenthen the faith and communion of those here and already with Christ in heaven.
Thus the reverse is also true. We do ask them to pray for us. Since they are alive, just as alive In Christ as any believer is here on earth, we supplicate them to pray to God for us as well.
Finally we see Paul praying for Onesiphorus, who has obviously departed this life, in II Tim 1:18.

So it seems it is Scriptural and accepted by the Apostle Paul himself.