I cannot make sense of your argument, but just to clarify a point: the Book of Malachi is in Protestant Bibles too. It's not part of the Deuterocanon. Perhaps you mean Maccabees? As for the previous poster not stating Catholic teaching: where did he say he was? He explained the Protestant view. Funeral services are memorials for the loved ones of the deceased, and not of any real use to the deceased him or her self.
Yes. I did. Most Catholics are not very good with the Bible (as this illustrates). I confused the two. I am referring to the part in the book of Maccabees where the soldiers of Israel had died with pagan ornaments on them.
But I am going to have to research, as I don't recall the passage in question is in 1 Maccabees or 2 Maccabees.
It basically refers to where something was done for those soldiers who apparently had worshipped a false by appealing to God's mercy.
Being a Catholic, it may take some time (not knowing my way around the Bible). God bless
The previous poster was saying that the dead were beyond help. This was in conflict with Catholic teaching. He was making that as a statement of fact, not an opinion his beliefs. Last Judgement is a tricky thing -- along with what one is thinking at death and how much time before the soul leaves the body for the next world. (That could be the start of a number of threads).
And the text I was trying to refer to was 2 Maccabees 38-46. Pagan amulets were found on the dead soldiers. The leader said it would be wrong to have collected the money from others for these dead soldiers and to make atonement -- if God would not allow them to rise from the dead.