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All Souls' Day: Praying for the dead is a Christian duty
Southern Fried Catholicism ^ | 11/2/2011 | Brad Noel

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 ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Evangelical Christian; Religion & Culture; Worship
KEYWORDS: allsoulsday; catholic
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1 posted on 11/02/2011 9:26:45 AM PDT by DogwoodSouth
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To: DogwoodSouth

Praying for the dead is a waste of time. It is the living that need our prayers.


2 posted on 11/02/2011 9:28:37 AM PDT by madison10
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To: DogwoodSouth

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.


3 posted on 11/02/2011 9:28:50 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: madison10

I just noticed it quotes Maccabees.

That may explain their position.


4 posted on 11/02/2011 9:29:54 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: madison10

Ignorance.


5 posted on 11/02/2011 9:29:59 AM PDT by rzman21
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To: DogwoodSouth

Seems that God would alerady know where they’re going.


6 posted on 11/02/2011 9:29:59 AM PDT by stuartcr ("Everything happens as God wants it to...otherwise, things would be different.")
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To: cuban leaf

Good and correct post. Thanks.


7 posted on 11/02/2011 9:30:42 AM PDT by justice14 ("stand up defend or lay down and die")
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To: DogwoodSouth
Jesus said "Let the dead bury the dead"

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.

8 posted on 11/02/2011 9:30:45 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: DogwoodSouth
All Souls' Day: Praying for the dead is a Christian CATHOLIC duty

Fixed it.

9 posted on 11/02/2011 9:30:58 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS! This means liberals AND libertarians (same thing) NO LIBS!)
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To: cuban leaf

ACTUALLY I think that the dead are praying for us.


10 posted on 11/02/2011 9:31:01 AM PDT by rovenstinez
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To: DogwoodSouth

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.


11 posted on 11/02/2011 9:31:24 AM PDT by Obadiah (I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father.)
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To: cuban leaf

Isn’t there just one God?


12 posted on 11/02/2011 9:31:40 AM PDT by stuartcr ("Everything happens as God wants it to...otherwise, things would be different.")
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To: rzman21

Ignorance can be cured, arrogance on the other hand...


13 posted on 11/02/2011 9:32:59 AM PDT by SZonian (July 27, 2010. Life begins anew.)
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To: cuban leaf; madison10
St. Teresa of Avila Interceding for the Souls in Purgatory, from the workshop of Peter Paul Reubens, 1577–1640


II Maccabees 12:43-46: "And making a gathering, he [Judas] 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, (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,) And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins."

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.

14 posted on 11/02/2011 9:33:07 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: madison10

Why would it be a “waste of time” to pray that someone who has committed suicide does not go to Hell?


15 posted on 11/02/2011 9:35:11 AM PDT by utahagen
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To: DogwoodSouth
Hbr 9:27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men
to die once and after this comes judgment,
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach

16 posted on 11/02/2011 9:37:25 AM PDT by Uri’el-2012 (Psalm 119:174 I long for Your salvation, YHvH, Your law is my delight.)
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To: stuartcr

—Isn’t there just one God?—

Yes. That is why I used a lower case “g”.


17 posted on 11/02/2011 9:40:46 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: utahagen

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)

18 posted on 11/02/2011 9:40:50 AM PDT by madison10
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To: utahagen; madison10
Why would it be a “waste of time” to pray that someone who has committed suicide does not go to Hell?

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?

19 posted on 11/02/2011 9:41:43 AM PDT by Alex Murphy (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2703506/posts?page=518#518)
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To: Salvation

—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.


20 posted on 11/02/2011 9:42:26 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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