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II Maccabees 12:43-46, this is a part of the Bible that Luther took out, but it is a part of the Catholic Bible.
Posted on 11/02/2011 9:26:44 AM PDT by DogwoodSouth
Well, I'm not a theological expert, so I can't explain exactly how praying for anyone (dead or not) works. I just know that we are commanded to pray for one another. Scripture commands us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and specifically demands that we intercede "for one another" (James 5:16) and that we pray "for all" (1 Timothy 2:1). There are no qualifiers in these instructions; nothing that would act as though death has separated the Body of Christ or made prayers ineffective. In addition to this, we know that praying for the souls of the dead was a Jewish practice that Christians continued. 2 Maccabees 12:46 reads: "It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they might be loosed from sins."
Interestingly, the Apostle Paul seems to refer to praying for the dead (in this case, his friend Onesiphorus) in his second letter to Timothy. Specifically, he wrote (important part highlighted): "May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chains, but when he was in Rome, he sought me diligently, and found me (the Lord grant to him to find the Lord's mercy on that day); and in how many things he served at Ephesus, you know very well." At the very least, reasonable people could conclude that at the time Paul wrote this, Onesiphorus had died and left behind a family (i.e. "house"), and that Paul was praying in the highlighted words that Onesiphorus would be granted God's mercy on the Day of Judgement.
(Excerpt) Read more at southernfriedcatholicism.com ...
Praying for the dead is a waste of time. It is the living that need our prayers.
Once someone is dead, they are out of our “prayer” hands. It’s up to God at that point.
Unless you’re mormon, but that is a very different god.
I just noticed it quotes Maccabees.
That may explain their position.
Ignorance.
Seems that God would alerady know where they’re going.
Good and correct post. Thanks.
If in this article "reasonable" conclusions are drawn, so too reasonable conclusions can be drawn ... the dead are dead and need no Savior ... just buried.
We have Moses and the prophets ... let us bgelieve the Scriptures.
Fixed it.
ACTUALLY I think that the dead are praying for us.
Praying for the dead suggests that once they pass this life that we, or they, can alter their just reward. That then suggests that salvation, and Christ’s work on the cross, was unnecessary because once we die if enough people pray passionately for them then their outcome can change. I do not hold this to be the case.
Isn’t there just one God?
Ignorance can be cured, arrogance on the other hand...
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II Maccabees 12:43-46, this is a part of the Bible that Luther took out, but it is a part of the Catholic Bible.
Why would it be a “waste of time” to pray that someone who has committed suicide does not go to Hell?
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiachHbr 9:27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men
to die once and after this comes judgment,
—Isn’t there just one God?—
Yes. That is why I used a lower case “g”.
Why would it be a “waste of time” to pray that someone who has committed suicide does not go to Hell?
They've already died. No prayer from people, no matter how sincere, is not going to help that person who has committed suicide. Although, I do not assume that just because a person commits suicide they are automatically bound for h3ll. No where in the Bible is it suggested that one can pray for the salvation of those already passed from this earth.
As in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, there is no communication for, or with,the dead to the living.(the witch and Saul are not the type of communication of which I speak)
It's only a waste of time (assuming suicide sends one to Hell) if they're already dead yet not already there. Is there a "purgatory" for the Hell-bound?
—II Maccabees 12:43-46, this is a part of the Bible that Luther took out, but it is a part of the Catholic Bible.—
I can see why he took it out.
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