43:And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously, concerning the resurrection, 44:For if he had hoped that they were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead, 45:and because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them.
Okay--clear reference for praying for the dead. Luther still used it as an appendix even if he did remove it as part of scripture. And on who's authority did he remove the scripture? Why did he think the apostles wrong? Why do you feel that the first 1500 years of christianity erred in this matter?
Forgive me, in advance for jumping in here so abruptly.
I’ll tell you whose authority -- his own. These inspired writings which had been cherished and venerated for 1000 or 1200 years were held in contempt by the heresiarch. Why? Because they did not suit his new doctrines and opinions. He had arrived at the heresy of private judgment – of picking and choosing religious doctrines and whenever ANY book, such as Machabees, taught a doctrine that was repugnant to his individual taste – as, for example, that “it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed form sins” – well, so much the worse for the book; “THROW IT OVERBOARD” was his sentence, and overboard it went.