Why do people pray for the dead?

[Ahimaaz Smith]

Re: Why do people pray for the dead?

Are we supposed to pray for our dead ancestors long after they are earthworm food? I don't even know all of mine, and there likely would be a lot to pray for.

Tread carefully, my friend, for that road leads ultimately to Mormonism, and therefore to Hell.

[Ezekiel Bathfire]

Re: Why do people pray for the dead?

Does it help the recently departed achieve a greater afterlife? Does it offer any protection from the despair of hell?

I assume that one's soul would go instantly, or pretty fast, to heaven or hell, regardless of the prayers on Earth for one's beneficent placement. God's pretty much determined your destiny before death, right? There isn't any actual accounting going on AFTER one passes, is there? Is this where the praying helps?

Also, does it help to keep praying for the dead? I mean, after a few years have gone by and so-and-so is forgotten, do they lack for those prayers? Are we supposed to pray for our dead ancestors long after they are earthworm food? I don't even know all of mine, and there likely would be a lot to pray for.

I'm sure the Catholics would gladly sell a certificate to insure eternal comfort, but I don't see this as a useful idea.

How do the rest of you feel about asking for prayers for the recently departed? Do you do it?

De:18:9: When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
De:18:10: There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
De:18:11: Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
De:18:12: For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

Ec: 9:5-6For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any [thing] that is done under the sun.


And thus does The Lord make clear that to attempt to contact the departed is an abomination and to pray to the departed is of no value either to them, who have been judged justly by The Almighty, nor to the living.

If you wish to do the world a service, please copy these verses to

Mr Ratzinger
C/o The apostate church of the antichrist
Vatican.

[Palmer C. Eldrich]

Does it help the recently departed achieve a greater afterlife? Does it offer any protection from the despair of hell?

I assume that one's soul would go instantly, or pretty fast, to heaven or hell, regardless of the prayers on Earth for one's beneficent placement. God's pretty much determined your destiny before death, right? There isn't any actual accounting going on AFTER one passes, is there? Is this where the praying helps?

Also, does it help to keep praying for the dead? I mean, after a few years have gone by and so-and-so is forgotten, do they lack for those prayers? Are we supposed to pray for our dead ancestors long after they are earthworm food? I don't even know all of mine, and there likely would be a lot to pray for.

I'm sure the Catholics would gladly sell a certificate to insure eternal comfort, but I don't see this as a useful idea.

How do the rest of you feel about asking for prayers for the recently departed? Do you do it?