What the ORTHODOX BELIEVE Concerning prayer for the dead

You say you pray "For the dead" - do you also pray "TO the dead"??

What "help" do the dead need from your prayers?

 

Satan makes people busy with many other things or persons than with God and Jesus Christ.
There are millions of good but dead people to remember!

 

1. First off when we die, we are done with sin. No prayer can help then. The bible is clear that in a twinkling of an eye we will be changed when Christ reveals himself (for those of us who are in Him still living and that died in Him)


2. I cannot see the purpose in praying to the dead to pray for us. If one really believes that the barrier is destroyed that separates the physical and spiritual realities, then we who are alive should have the same closeness and ability to communicate directly with God through Christ as our only mediator.

 

Ok so no need to pray TO the dead -

What about praying FOR the dead? Do they need some kind of help from us??

 

In 1 Cor 10 Paul makes the case that those who "think" they are worshipping family gods at pagan altars are unwittingly worshipping demons!

They unwittingly participate because they are deceived into thinking that the family idol is "something friendly" that can help them

What then of those who pray to the dead?

 

Catholics of the 20th century publish the connection to paganism for the world to see and understand.

Pagan prayer methods.

..

 

Here are links to three more articles about why the Eastern Orthodox pray for the dead:

http://www.orthodox.net/articles/about-prayer-for-the-dead.html

http://www.unicome.org/orthodoxy/avril2003/prayersdeparted.htm

http://www.stnicholas-oca.org/prayer4dead.htm

The third link had some really strange ideas about what goes on in the afterlife shortly after death.

 

Praying for the dead is helpless seeing as though those who are dead cannot repent. Repentance has to do with the living where sin is applicable. So to me its seems praying For the dead is a dead issue.

 

I think praying for the dead depends on whether you believe in Purgatory or not. Jacob, I'm curious - I didn't think the Orthodox believed in Purg - so why do you pray for the dead?

 

Many doctrines and practices of the Church at large (this includes Presbyterians, like me, and Baptists) are reflected in both preChristian and pagan belief systems.

Baptism, for instance, was in use prior to John the Baptist as a ritual for welcoming a Gentile into the Hebrew faith. Christmas trees are pagan in origin. Many belief systems practice group meetings, unison prayers, hold common creeds, use aids for meditation like rosary beads (the Episcopal church, by the way, uses a rosary that is shorter, and prayers which generally do not address Mary).

If one is to condemn a belief system because of similarities to other belief systems, one will soon have no belief system at all. God, you see, has plantd His truth in all hearts, ths the idea that similarities would exist between religious traditions should not be surprising at all.

Finally, did Paul not mention, and not in a condemning way, being baptized for the dead? How does this obviously Scriptural practice correlate with prayers for the dead?

 

Simply, Praying to the dead, Praying for the dead are both Wrong!

 

Why?

I mean, I don't do it, but why?

When Dad died, one of the folks he works with made a gift in his name so some sisters in a convent would pray for him for a year. I know it likely makes no difference, but it felt good to know that someone cared.

That aside, why is it Wrong?

 

Should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? Read Isaiah 8:19, if you have never read it yet.

Pray to thy father which is in secret. ( Matt 6:6)

If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. ( Luke 16:31)

 

There are several interpetations for 1 Cor 15:29

There might have been some ridiculous people who do not believe in the Resurrection while thy were baptized for the dead.

It cannot be a proof that one should pray for the dead.

I believe God hates any sacrifice to the dead:


Ps 106:
28 They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. 29 Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them.

 

Well, Eliyahu, I understand that praying to the dead is Biblically prohibited. That wasn't my question. Why is it "Wrong" to pray for the dead?

Praying for the dead is not the same as worshipping them or praying to them.

Again, I don't do it, I just want to know why it's "Wrong."

 

One of my posts has three links to Orthodox web sites which state why they pray for the dead. They apparently believe that even the saved souls need purification after death, although the Eastern Orthodox don't believe in the Roman Catholic teaching of Purgatory.

The only Protestant denomination that I know of which prays for the dead are the Anglicans/Episcopalians. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer states on page 862: "Why do we pray for the dead? We pray for them, because we still hold them in our love, and because we trust that in God's presence those who have chosen to serve him will grow in his love, until they see him as he is."

My church teaches that it is useless to pray for the dead and gives Hebrews 9:27 as the reason: And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment (NASB).

 

The Church doesn't teach that praying for the dead can bump them from hell to heaven. Hebrews was right but praying for the dead is a sign of love as the BCP states. Just to clarify and not many in the Church pray for the dead.

 

In some countries, they pray and worship the head of dead pigs too. ( I am not joking!)

 

Not very interesting, and not within the parameters of the discussion.