[Rebelbase]

I'm not Catholic and I have a bit of confusion over this. Where does it say in the New Testatment that praying for the souls of the dead will have any impact on God's Judgement of them?

[RedBloodedAmerican]

It is appointed man once to die, and then the Judgement. There is no waiting room where you hope your number is called. LOL~

[AD from SpringBay]

Where does it say in the New Testatment that praying for the souls of the dead will have any impact on God's Judgement of them?

That's an excellent question and one that needs repeating. Believers in Jesus Christ make a decision, either consciously or otherwise, as to what constitutes "source material" for their faith. One of the big things that Catholics, Protestants, and Fundamentalists (since the Catholic Organization was not in existance for at least 300 years after Jesus Christ, I place the early believers and those who want to have teachings like theirs in this category) disagree upon is the idea that the Bible should be the only source of information about God.

If a believer allows other sources(aside from the bible) to impact their thinking towards the will of God, treating these documents and people as inspired, then you have to next ask where to draw the line? Just as an example, some of the Popes throughout history were pretty wicked little fellows. So were they infallible and did they speak for God? Which of their writings are divine and whose to say?

I've chosen to stick with the Bible as The Word of God.

[Puddleglum]

Rebelbase wrote:

I'm not Catholic and I have a bit of confusion over this. Where does it say in the New Testatment that praying for the souls of the dead will have any impact on God's Judgement of them?

Well, Rebel, I'm Catholic but do not possess the best memory on the source of that teaching, in spite of aving read a book on it about one year ago. Sorry for the non-informative reply - I'd rather do some research than give you my meandering best guess. It may well derive from the "living Word," - the one you hear from the pulpit and we hear in our Church doctors and Church history. Not the answer you might want, maybe.