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mysterio100
Guest
why do chatolics pray for the dead and there is no bibical bases for doign so?
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FrankR
Guest
2Ma 12:46 It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.
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Alison
Guest
Good reference Frank.
Besides the fact that there is a biblical basis, I have another question…Why do we drive cars when there is no biblical basis to do so?
. Peace and blessings!
Besides the fact that there is a biblical basis, I have another question…Why do we drive cars when there is no biblical basis to do so?
. Peace and blessings!
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Dorothy
Guest
It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.mysterio100:
2Ma 12:46
Unfortunately Protestants do not have that book in their canon. It was removed at the time of the Reformation.
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Tantum_ergo
Guest
Actually, don’t we believe that those who die in the Lord have everlasting life? Doesn’t the Bible itself state that God is Lord of the LIVING, not of the dead?
There is absolutely no place in the Bible that says that prayers for those who have died in Christ should NOT be made, plus there is evidence from the earliest times (the Didache, Ignatius, and the early Church fathers) that in fact the Christians prayed for their martyred dead.
Of course the actual word “pray” means different things to different people. Some people think that one can only “pray” to God, that all prayer is only “worship” prayer. Others know that the use and etymology mean “ask”. . .and in conversation to “pray to” a person simply meant to ask him or her something.
Others think that even if prayer is just an “asking”, still that only God/Jesus can be prayed to, because they don’t believe that there is enough evidence that those who have died are CAPABLE of “hearing” prayer. . .even though, again, there is nothing in the Bible that says that the dead CANNOT hear, and in fact in Revelation it is said that the prayers of the saints are heard in heaven.
Of course, bottom line is that for over 1500 years Christians everywhere “prayed to” the dead as a matter of course. . .but 500 years ago some people decided–completely ignoring and indeed villifying their Christian forebears–that all those years people had been “wrong” to pray to the dead. How one can juxtapose 1500 years of such incredibly proliferative WRONGS with Christ’s own words in Scripture that the Gates of Hell would never prevail against His Church is to me the REAL question. . .not why the Church–as it has done since the beginning of Christianity–follows the very Christian practice of prayer for those of us in the body of Christ who have died in Him and will rise with Him.
There is absolutely no place in the Bible that says that prayers for those who have died in Christ should NOT be made, plus there is evidence from the earliest times (the Didache, Ignatius, and the early Church fathers) that in fact the Christians prayed for their martyred dead.
Of course the actual word “pray” means different things to different people. Some people think that one can only “pray” to God, that all prayer is only “worship” prayer. Others know that the use and etymology mean “ask”. . .and in conversation to “pray to” a person simply meant to ask him or her something.
Others think that even if prayer is just an “asking”, still that only God/Jesus can be prayed to, because they don’t believe that there is enough evidence that those who have died are CAPABLE of “hearing” prayer. . .even though, again, there is nothing in the Bible that says that the dead CANNOT hear, and in fact in Revelation it is said that the prayers of the saints are heard in heaven.
Of course, bottom line is that for over 1500 years Christians everywhere “prayed to” the dead as a matter of course. . .but 500 years ago some people decided–completely ignoring and indeed villifying their Christian forebears–that all those years people had been “wrong” to pray to the dead. How one can juxtapose 1500 years of such incredibly proliferative WRONGS with Christ’s own words in Scripture that the Gates of Hell would never prevail against His Church is to me the REAL question. . .not why the Church–as it has done since the beginning of Christianity–follows the very Christian practice of prayer for those of us in the body of Christ who have died in Him and will rise with Him.
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