Praying for the dead is practiced by Christians, who think they can change the final destination of the deceased through their prayers. And so they pray a prayer for the dead person. But what does the Bible say about praying for the dead? Was praying for the souls of the dead practiced by the Church in the New Testament or is praying for the dead a false doctrine, which derived from the carnal human mind? When can you pray for the dead and when can’t you pray for the dead?
When can you pray for the dead?
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (1 哥林多前书 15:22)
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light (以弗所书 5:14)
他已使你苏醒, 那些死在过犯罪恶之中的人; 在过去的时光里，你们按照这个世界的轨迹行走, 根据空中力量王子的说法, 现在在悖逆之子心中运作的精神: 我们从前也都在他们中间谈论肉体的私欲, 满足肉体和心灵的欲望; 生来就是可怒之子, 即使和其他人一样. 但上帝, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, 即使我们死在罪孽中, 使我们与基督一同苏醒, (by grace ye are saved;) (Efeziërs 2:1-5)
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead (腓立比书 3:10-11)
你呢, 死在你的罪孽和未受割礼的肉体中, hath He quickened together with Him, 原谅了你所有的过犯 (歌罗西书 2:13)
I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead (启示 3:1)
你能为死者祈祷吗? The answer to this question is both yes and no. Since there is a spiritual state of death and a natural state of death.
每个人, who is not born again in Christ lives under the authority of the devil and the death in darkness and is dead to God. This state of death is the spiritual state of the old man. The old man is alive to the world but dead to God, because of his fallen state and sins and transgressions.
As long as a person lives on earth under the authority of the death in the kingdom of darkness, the person has the ability by faith and regeneration in Christ to be redeemed from the power of death and be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the spirit from the dead and to become alive to God.
You can pray and must pray for these people, who live on earth but are spiritually dead.
When can’t you pray for the dead?
But it’s too late for those, who died and no longer live on this earth. You can’t pray for the deceased to change their final destination. Therefore the living can’t do anything for those, who have died and are no longer among us.
For the unbelievers, who passed away and didn’t believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and His redemptive work and have not repented and are not born again in Christ and therefore have not become a new creation during their lives on earth, there is no going back.
They have made a choice to obey sin and death and serve sin and death through their flesh and have rejected Jesus Christ, the Way, 真相, 和生活.
They were not willing to die in Christ’s death and to be raised from the dead in Him, but they loved their own lives.
This truth is hard and some people can’t bear this truth. 所以, in order to ease the pain of the living, who lost an unbeliever, many lies have been told and false doctrines have arisen throughout the ages, which caused them to believe that the living can still pray for the dead and change their final destination.
They believe that their prayers can ensure that the unrepented deceased and/or the deceased, who attended church and lived in friendship with God but persevered in sin, will still inherit eternal life.
One of these false doctrines is the doctrine of purgatory, which derives from the Catholic faith.
What is purgatory?
In short, purgatory is an intermediate state where the souls of the elect, who physically died and lived in friendship with God, but were not fully purified, will be purified by a cleansing fire. It is a place of purification until they reach the state of holiness, which is needed to enter heaven.
The prayers of the living are supposed to help the souls of the departed and shorten their time of purgatory.
The two main scriptures on which the doctrine of purgatory is based are 1 哥林多前书 3:10-15 和 2 Maccabees 12:4-44. 但 1 哥林多前书 3:10-15 is not about the purification process after death, but about the Day of Judgment, when everyone will be judged according to his or her works on earth and 2 Maccabees 12:4-44 is part of the Apocrypha and is not acknowledged by protestants as the Word of God.
Can you live in friendship with God without being fully purified?
因此，我们借着洗礼归入死，与他一同埋葬: 就像基督借着天父的荣耀从死里复活一样, 即使如此我们也应该走在新的生活中. 因为如果我们像他的死一样被栽种在一起, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: 知道这一点, 我们的旧人和他同钉十字架, 使罪恶的身体被毁灭, 从今以后我们不应该为罪恶服务. 因为死者已脱离罪孽.
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord (罗马书 6:4-11)
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever (1 彼得 1:22-23)
Can you be part of the elect and live in friendship with God without being fully sanctified? The answer is no! The only way to God is through Jesus Christ and His blood.
Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life and it’s only by Jesus Christ and His blood and by faith and regeneration in Him, you can be saved and be made righteous and reconciled with God and enter the Kingdom of Heaven and live in union with Him (哦. 约翰 3:3-6; 3:16, 2 哥林多前书 5:21, 以弗所书 2:8-9)
And if you have become a new creation and are reconciled with God and entered the Kingdom of God by faith, 悔改, and regeneration in Christ, you shall be fully sanctified from all your sins and iniquities and no longer be a sinner (另请阅读: '你还是罪人吗?’ And ‘曾经是一个罪人, 永远是罪人?’).
You shall no longer live in rebellion against God and persevere in sin and do the works of the flesh, since your flesh has died in Christ and you have been redeemed from sin and death and therefore you are no longer a 罪恶的奴隶. But you shall live in obedience to God and His Word and Truth in His will and do righteous works.
A person can’t be saved and live in friendship with God through church membership or by attending a church service on a regular basis nor to do ‘good works’.
No single work, that is done out of the flesh is considered good and can make a person righteous. Since every carnal work derives from the nature of the old man and possesses a selfish character. 例如, a person may feel better by attending a church service and/or by doing ‘good works’ and become puffed up and exalts himself or herself above others and become prideful.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast (以弗所书 2:8-9)
因此，不要让罪在你必死的身体上作王, 叫你们顺从它的私欲. 也不要将你们的肢体献给罪恶，作为不义的工具: 但要将自己降服于神, 就像那些从死里复活的人一样, 和你的肢体作为上帝公义的工具 (罗马书 6:12-13)
You are either saved and cleansed and sanctified by the blood of Jesus from all your sins and iniquities and made righteous and are reconciled with the Father and shall walk after the Spirit in His will doing righteous works or you are not saved and not cleansed from your sins and iniquities and have not been made righteous and are not reconciled with the Father, but you are still the old creation, whereby you shall walk after the flesh and do the works of the flesh, 这是罪孽.
The righteousness and mercy of God
因为神如此爱世人, 他赐下他的独生子, 叫一切信他的，不至灭亡, 但有永生 (约翰 3:16)
我会向天父祈祷, 他会给你另一位保惠师, 使他永远与你同在; 甚至真理的灵; 世界无法接受的人, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: 但你们认识他; for He dwells with you, 并将在你里面 (约翰 14:16-17)
那些, who believe in the doctrine of purgatory believe that purgatory shows God’s righteousness and mercy. But the righteousness and mercy of God are revealed in the New Covenant by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
It is the will of God that every man will be saved and not be lost forever. Therefore God has given His Son and His Spirit, so that every person on earth has been given the ability to become a son of God and walk as a son of God by faith in Jesus Christ and regeneration in Him.
Every person needs Jesus Christ! Without Jesus Christ and without His blood no man can be saved and sanctified from his or her sins and iniquities and be made righteous (另请阅读: ‘生活不是为了寻找自己, 但找到耶稣’).
Can sins be forgiven after death?
He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal (约翰 12:25)
Can sins be forgiven after dead? 答案是, 不! Your sins can be forgiven during your life on earth but not after you have died.
Is there purification after death and before the judgment?
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation (希伯来语 9:27-28)
Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus (启示 14:12)
Once a person has died, it is over and judgment will follow. If a person has died, there is no way for the unsaved to become saved.
There is no intermediate state. There is no purgatory, where people have the ability to be purified with or without the prayers of the living on earth.
In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus told the story of the poor Lazarus and the rich man, who belonged to God’s people. In this story, the rich man was not given a second chance. The rich man was not purified, so that he still could go to heaven. 不, this was the destination of the rich man. This destination was so terrible, that the rich man wanted Lazarus to warn his father and five brothers in order to prevent them from going to the same destination. But the rich man’s request was not granted, since they had Moses and the prophets to whom they had to listen to.
Judgment and the final destination
And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the Book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the Book of life was cast into the lake of fire (启示 20:11-15)
He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death (启示 21:7-8)
There is no purgatory, there is no place after death, where people can be purified and be saved. The only places mentioned in the Bible with fire are hell (哈迪斯) and the eternal lake of fire.
All those, who didn’t belong to Jesus Christ and have not been risen from the dead during their lives on earth and have not died in Him, but belong to the death, shall see the death and go to hell and stay there until they will be judged and after the judgment will receive the second death and will be cast into the eternal lake of fire (另请阅读: ‘The baptism with fire').
Therefore stop believing the lie of the devil and stop praying for the departed souls. Instead begin to pray for the dead who live on earth, so that they will repent and by faith and regeneration in Christ shall be raised from the dead and shall become alive to God and be saved, so that they won’t see the death when they physically die, and burn in hell, but that they shall inherit eternal life.
和, 看哪, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last (启示 22:12-13)
‘成为地球之盐’
来源: 英王钦定本, 维基百科
