Is it meaningful to pray for those who have already passed?

Vital Forces said:

Is it helpful or meaningful to pray for the souls of those who have passed? Or has their story already been written, and there is nothing anyone can do to help?

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Their story has already been written. But...

It might be thought helpful or meaningful IF you were one of those Christians who believes:

1. That there is a transitional state in the afterlife that is neither Heaven nor Hell, to which some souls go upon death to be punished for awhile prior to being released to Heaven. In other words, Purgatory.

and

2. That the prayers and acts of those of us alive on Earth can cause God to lessen those people's time in Purgatory.

Otherwise, no, with the single exception that it's always considered acceptable to pray to God in a general way to be merciful to all of his creation. This, however, is without expecting such prayers to change the status of any individual (as described above) who has passed on.

I'll pass along a link I was give back when I had the same question (ten years ago now):
http://www.protomartyr.org/prayer.html

Yes- we should pray for the departed. Scripture supports it.

2 Maccabees 12:38-45
38 After the battle Judas led his men to the town of Adullam. It was the day before the Sabbath, so they purified themselves according to Jewish custom and then observed the holy day. 39 By the following day it was urgent that they gather up the bodies of the men who had been killed in battle and bury them in their family tombs. 40 But on each of the dead, hidden under their clothes, they found small images of the gods worshiped in Jamnia, which the Law forbids Jews to wear. Everyone then knew why these men had been killed. 41 So they praised the ways of the Lord, the just judge, who reveals what is hidden, 42 and they begged him that this sin might be completely blotted out. Then, Judas, that great man, urged the people to keep away from sin, because they had seen for themselves what had happened to those men who had sinned. 43 He also took up a collection from all his men, totaling about four pounds of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering. Judas did this noble thing because he believed in the resurrection of the dead. 44 If he had not believed that the dead would be raised, it would have been foolish and useless to pray for them. 45 In his firm and devout conviction that all of God's faithful people would receive a wonderful reward, Judas made provision for a sin offering to set free from their sin those who had died.
This is considered to be a direct reference to a prayer for a departed person in the NT:

2 Timothy 1:16-18
16 May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. 17 On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. 18 May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus.

In fact- historical evidence that early Christians prayed for the departed abounds (predating the NT compiled as you know it).

Vital Forces said:

Is it helpful or meaningful to pray for the souls of those who have passed? Or has their story already been written, and there is nothing anyone can do to help?

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There is no where in the New Testament that tells us to pray for those that have passed on. Their fate is sealed! Their spirits have either gone on to be with the Lord, or they have entered Hades/Sheol. For those that are not with the Lord, the time for praying for them is gone!

No but you can pray for the families and friends they left behind.

There is not a single verse in the Bible, which can show us, that we can pray to the dead people! In fact, to communicate with the dead people, was forbidden from God, in the Old Testament, and God did not allow it!

dga said:

There is not a single verse in the Bible, which can show us, that we can pray to the dead people! In fact, to communicate with the dead people, was forbidden from God, in the Old Testament, and God did not allow it!

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First off, there is no such thing as praying to dead people (even prayers to the saints aren't praying to the dead as they are alive in Christ). Second, what this thread is addressing is prayers FOR the dead not TO the dead. Nobody is communicating with the dead here. Third, you're quite wrong about there being no scriptures to support the practice of prayers for the dead. In post three I posted verses from 2 Maccabees and 2 Timothy that do support the practice. There is historical basis in Judaism and in the Early Church for it and prayers for the dead are done in Judaism, as well as in the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

There's no need. If they are in heaven....there's no need to pray for them ...they're thrilled and haven't a care . if they're in hell, theres nothing you can do about that. Praying is in vain. It won't amount to anything, sadly. we don't know usually where ppl end up...but u can't pray for the dead. Hopefully they went to heaven! And then u can see them when you get there and catch up

Ohh, but! While from reading what others have said, its wrong to like talk to someone who's passed on, (thankfully I've never tried it) but! I do know you can talk to God about that person (and that I have done) and maybe say I miss them G-d, and hope they're doing well. Or if you're very sad, you could just tell G-d how sad you are and ask him to help you cope.

Before we go more in that direction, this is "Christian Advice." It's not a debate forum.

The initial phases of grief can leave people feeling like they are in limbo. They may have said words they regret or wish they had said things they did not. Grief is very human and sometimes its a human need to try and find a way to express things not done, things done wrongly and to hope. Theologically talking with the dead is iffy but pastorally its part and parcel of caring for that messy mix that is humanity. Many tend to worry about bothering God to tell God how angry and hurt and lost they feel without the person who has died. I tend not to worry over the recently berearved behaving this way. Often they are in a state of shock and need a transitional period to begin to accept a person they cared about has gone and the need tends to disipate with support, TLC and time. I get concerned when its a more distant death and someone is not showing any signs of accepting the person has gone from this world.

saving faith comes by hearing the gospel, not by pleading with God to save people - after their physical body dies, or before - He's fully motivated to save everyone, has already done all He can without overriding their free will, loves each person more than anyone, and grieves at their choice if they choose death more than anyone - God is not the holdup in anyone's salvation.

what sends people to hell is rejecting God; as bad as this place is, they will not change their mind about rejecting God, because they can no longer hear the gospel, by their own choice.

but even the worst child of the devil can repent and be saved in the final seconds before physical death, so we can't know who is in hell - the best thing to do is to believe the best about God: that He got through to them before they passed, and are with Him now.

remember that everyone who ends up in hell had to crawl over countless obstacles of God's love to get there; focus on God's faithfulness to do all He can to save people (except violating their free will), rather than dwell on the worst that might have happened to those who leave this life before us.

Vital Forces said:

Thank you everyone who replied.

The people I had in mind with this question were crime victims, and whether praying for them after their deaths was helpful.

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From all that we know in Scripture, it's not. But it's not unthinkable that you might pray to God for his mercy or love to be extended to any and all of us mortals. The idea that such prayer can have conditions attached by us or alter the eternal destiny of any particular individual who has died, however, is a mistaken idea.

Whether they will end up in Heaven or Hell has already been determined so we can do nothing to change that. Saying prayers for the dead is a good thing to do though. This was originally a Jewish practice and the earliest Christians did it as well. This is still practiced in the Catholic Church and Orthodox church and there may be others.

DarrellChipman said:

There is no where in the New Testament that tells us to pray for those that have passed on. Their fate is sealed! Their spirits have either gone on to be with the Lord, or they have entered Hades/Sheol. For those that are not with the Lord, the time for praying for them is gone!

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That sums it up really!

The time for a person to make their decision about their eternal destination is made by them in their lifetime- which is why it's so important to reach the unsaved. The Bible makes it very clear that it's accepting Jesus that saves us- and if a person has died, they have either already done that or not. People aren't saved or awarded a 'get out of jail free' card just because we pray.

I don't recall anywhere in the Bible where it supports such a thing.

The verse in Timothy quoted above...maybe I'm missing something, but I can't see how that's saying we should pray for those who are dead.

As for Maccabes... that book is in the Apocrypha- and not classed as canon for a reason. The Apocrypha is facsinating and has some interesting- and even rather nice- passages/ verses/ whatever- but if we want to go to what scripture says about a subject, then it's the canonical Bible we should be looking at, really. I personally wouldn't take anything in the Apocrypha as gospel (if you'll pardon the pun!!!)

Actually if you look at the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, which Jesus himself tells, it shows a pretty clear boundary that there's one place or the other- with God, or apart from God- and makes it very obvious that there's no crossing that boundary whatsoever. In the parable, the Rich Man then asks for a sign to be given to his brothers, who are still alive, so that they can avoid his own fate; but he is warned, basically, that if they haven't listened to what they've already been told, then even someone rising from the dead won't convince them. Signs aren't going to be given to convince them- the call to repentance has already been given out and if that isn't enough...tough! Ok, that doesn't specifically mention praying for the dead but if there was a way to pray for people to get out of some place of punishment (so, what, Jesus' sacrifice DIDN'T pay for our sins then??? Just some people and not others?) - wouldn't Jesus have made that clear instead of being emphatic about the 'no crossing over/ it's up to them to make their own choice message we get in this parable?