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Prayers for the Dead Most Protestants believe prayer for the dead is a waste of time. It is said to be either of no use to those destined for hell, or completely superfluous for those going to heaven, as they go there immediately after death and need no intercession on their behalf. The true nature of things is discussed below. What happens to Christians after they die? The condition of the soul in the period between death and the final judgement after the Second Coming of Christ is known as the intermediate state. Although in terms of dogma the Anglican and Eastern traditions
maintain a reverent agnosticism in this area due to the relatively small
amount of information given in divine Revelation, there is general agreement
that the intermediate state is one of purification and growth
of the soul for those who die in the Lord imperfectly sanctified. A
significant minority of Eastern Orthodox (Ware, 1983:258-260) and probably the
majority of Anglo-Catholics believe this process involves some suffering, not
in order to pay off some external debt of punishment still owed, but for the
sake of internal holiness; "because the Lord disciplines those he loves
. . . for our good, that we may share in his holiness . . .[Discipline]
produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained
by it." (Hebrews 12:6a,10b,11b). According to Romans 8:17, "we
share in [Jesus'] sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory".
It seems evident from 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 that God's disciplinary
judgement is still relevant for his people who have died. When we compare
this with 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 and Hebrews 9:27 , we see that there is an aspect
of this judgement which does not wait until the intermediate state is
concluded at the Second Coming and Final Judgement, but occurs when we leave
this body. Otherwise, for example, those destined for Heaven and those
destined for Hell must share the same intermediate state, a notion which is
contrary to reason and Scripture: in particular Jesus' parable of Lazarus and
the Rich Man (Luke 16:19-26). So, you believe in Purgatory, like Roman Catholics? Yes and no. The primary difference between the common (mediaeval)
Roman way of thinking about the intermediate state and Anglican/Eastern
conceptions is the difference between retributive punishment and formative
discipline respectively. The former "involves no change in the
[internal] state of the dead" (to quote St Thomas Aquinas in his Summa
Theologica Suppl. Q. 71, A. 2 cf. Suppl. Q. 13, A. 2, Reply Obj. 1) but
only deals with an extrinsic deficit
— related to sins forgiven but not expiated (!) — which must be paid,
but not necessarily by the person owing the debt, since a man can pay
another's debt by undergoing voluntary suffering. He can not change another's
interior disposition by his suffering (although he can change his own).
Plainly, this Thomistic underpinning of Roman purgatorial theology "explains"
how the prayers of the living can benefit the dead, yet it also undermines
the sufficiency of Christ's satisfaction for sin on the Cross by a dubious
distinction between the eternal guilt dealt with by Jesus' sacrifice and a
finite punishment God demands we pay. And it reduces this aspect of salvation
to a niggardly mathematical transaction unrelated to the inner man. In
contrast, the Scriptures say: “I forgave you all that
debt because you besought me” (Parable of the Unforgiving Debtor, Matthew 18:32) God was reconciling the world to
himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. (2 Corinthians
5:19a) In [Christ] we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches
of God's grace. (Ephesians 1:7) [God] forgave us all our
sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was
against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the
cross. (Colossians 2:13b-14) [Christ] gave himself for us to
redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a
people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:14) (It is only fair to note, however, that even the
“retributionary” aspect of discipline for Christians is seen by St Thomas
Aquinas as qualitatively
different from the punishment of the unforgiven (S.T. II(1) Q87 A6).
Indeed, he sees the acceptance of such discipline by Christians as proceeding
from a virtuous desire and decision of their own to conform to justice and
make amends: in other words it is a voluntary act of love. This, and the
renewed emphasis by Roman Catholics on the transformative nature of
Purgatory, indicate that any differences between Catholics may now be merely
verbal.) But if the ‘Purgatory payment’ is misleading, why pray for the dead? Jesus has paid our debt fully. And by the very same act he has changed
who we are, purifying and regenerating us: but this reality is actualised
progressively. "We are becoming what we are". This is the basis for
an orthodox understanding of the intermediate state. The important idea which must be stressed is that the Protestant
conception of the intermediate state as a static existence, a happy holding
pen for souls automatically perfected at death by divine fiat, has no
biblical justification. That spiritual growth can take place after death, at
least until the Parousia, is implied by Philippians 1:6. Indeed, can
creatures such as ourselves who are finite yet the image of God ever stop
growing and increasing in blessedness? Apparently not, for "we, who with
unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his
likeness with ever-increasing glory" (2 Corinthians 3:18). The process
associated with the intermediate state is essentially healing, cleansing and
growth, and only incidentally (if at all) involves suffering. Complete
sanctification and ever-increasing glorification are absolutely necessary;
purgative suffering, where it exists, is only relatively and conditionally
so. This is why ancient, traditional prayers for the dead are somewhat vague
and concentrate on the positive rather than the negative. It is also why the
most popular Anglican name for the intermediate state is Paradise, not
Purgatory. We pray for the Christian dead because they are part of the Church
and God is still working on them, as he is on us. There is no reason to
suddenly exclude them from our loving intercession at their death, our
fellowship of prayer, or to assume we can not be part of the process of their
ongoing sanctification, in the same way we are meant to be a part of the
ongoing sanctification of those Christians still with us. Is there any evidence of prayer for
the dead in the Bible?
Yes. In 2 Timothy 1:18 St Paul prays for Onesiphorus, that "he
may find mercy of the Lord in that day", 'that day' or 'the day' being a
common way for the Apostle to refer to the Second Coming of Jesus and the Final
Judgement. There is some debate over whether Onesiphorus was dead at the time
Paul wrote this, since, while he is never explicitly said to be dead,
Onesiphorus is referred to in the past tense only, and greetings are sent to
his "household", not him personally, at the end of the letter.
Nevertheless, the point is that St Paul prays for a mercy to be bestowed on
him at a time which is indisputably after the man's death. A practice
associated with the idea that the dead could be spiritually benefitted by the
actions of living Christians is mentioned without reproof by St Paul in 1
Corinthians 15:29. Also, 2 Maccabees 12:44 commends praying for the dead, and
notes its intimate connection with faith in the resurrection. Indeed, every time Christians pray the ancient prayer for Jesus'
return, "Come, Lord Jesus", we are praying for the final judgement
and general resurrection, which even the blessed dead feel incomplete
without, as shown in 2 Corinthians 5:4 and Revelation 6:10. Therefore, even
this prayer is a prayer for the benefit of the dead, as well as us. And note
how we pray here for something which we are promised will happen anyway. God
delights to do his will through our cooperation, even if he would do it
without that cooperation. That is sufficient answer to the objection that we
should not pray for blessings for the dead which they would receive anyway. Invocation of Saints
Another area of
Catholic practice which disturbs Protestants is asking the Christian dead for
their prayers. They contend that addressing any spirit other than God is
unbiblical and occultish, that the blessed dead have no duties to perform at
all but are simply at rest, and that they could not hear us anyway. I deal
with these objections below. Is
it permissible to address beings in heaven other than God? Yes. Biblical authors do in Psalms 103:20-22 & 148:2 and possibly
in The Song of the Three Young Men 64 in the Apocrypha. Is
there any evidence the "heavenly hosts" (hosts = armies) addressed
in the Psalms can now be taken to include human saints as well as angels? Yes. Revelation 19:14,19 cf. 17:14 & 2 Timothy 2:3. See also
Matthew 22:30 & Luke 20:36. Even
if we can address those in heaven in some way, how do we know that this
address is anything other than rhetorical, that is, do we know they can ever
hear us? Yes, they are, to some extent, aware of us and what we do and say.
Hebrews 12:1 compares the blessed dead to spectators surrounding us, who are
compared to athletes, as in an amphitheatre. The prayers of Christians are
presented "publicly" before the throne of God in the midst of the
heavenly assembly, which includes the blessed dead, in Revelation 8:3 cf. 6:9
& 7:9,15. Paul charges Timothy with God, Jesus and the elect angels
as eyewitnesses to the oath in 1 Timothy 5:21. Fundamentally, if God wants
them to pray for us (see below), obviously He must communicate whatever they
need to know to do that. What
reason do we have to believe those in heaven pray for us? 2 Maccabees 15:12-16 shows us it happening. (If you can’t accept this
testimony because it comes from the Apocrypha, at least remember that this
book is an accurate reflection of Jewish thinking around the time of Christ,
and that He never contradicted this belief, though He corrected many others
forthrightly. The same is true of prayer for the dead.) Ephesians 4:16 says
the whole Body of Christ is mutually supportive and constructive or
edifying, every part contributing. The Church Militant on earth is not the
whole Church, so the dead in Christ must do what they can for the Body, and
what they can do better than anyone (Zechariah 13:9 cf. Wisdom 3:1-8, James
5:16) is pray. Revelation 5:9-10 cf. 7:9-15 & 20:4-6 show us that the
priesthood of all believers does not cease at their death. According to these
same Scriptures, their activities, once in the heavenly temple, are reigning
with Christ (including over the earth!) and serving God constantly: the roles
are categorised as priesthood, judgement and kingship. This is reflective of
their participation in Christ's ministry, and obviously can not exclude
intercession for believers on earth. To suppose that the blessed deads'
ministry consists only in the worship of God, with no attention to His
continuing salvific action and building up of His Kingdom on earth, is to
ignore the clear implications of these Scriptures. In the Old Testament we
see the function of judges and kings to be not so much assessing guilt and
punishing vice, as acting for the deliverance of the faithful who are
oppressed (Judges passim, Psalms 43:1, 67:4, 72:1-4, 75:7). That part
of the very essence of priesthood is prayer to and service of God on
behalf of others is abundantly clear from Exodus 28:12 and Hebrews
7:24-25. The
validity of asking the Saints for their prayers certainly seems to logically
follow from all the above, but why is it not taught explicitly anywhere in
the Scriptures? The Old Testament had very little explicit teaching on any aspect of
an "after-life", including the resurrection. Some Old Testament
authors seem to imply there is nothing beyond the grave except, perhaps, a
shadowy existence (Psalm 6:5, Ecclesiastes 9:10). The New Testament was
written in the Apostolic Age, when the Church enjoyed explosive growth and
expected the Second Coming of Christ to occur at any moment. Under these
circumstances, it was extremely unlikely the role of the blessed dead would
be much reflected upon, since Christians expected to join them soon at the Parousia
and most Christian intercessors were living ones! It was only when the Church
had generations of Christians who had passed on and, particularly, Christian
martyrs behind it, that three important things happened. The Church Militant
became the minority portion, a historical as well as an eschatological
mentality developed, and Christians saw they might be "in it for the
long haul". These new circumstances encouraged deeper reflection upon
the implications of Apostolic Tradition for Christians who had died. Only
then could prayers for or to these fellow members of the Body of Christ
develop. |
Other TractsDoes God exist? Who is God? (Includes discussion of
Hawking's cosmology) The Church: What is it and where does the ACC fit in? Tradition:
A dirty word? The Papacy: "Is the Pope a Catholic?!" The
Eucharist: The New and Living Way Mary:
Do you fulfil her prophecy? Salvation,
Faith and Works The
Gifts of the Spirit and Confirmation History
of the English Church Ministry
in the Church Environmentalism
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