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That is the argument of an economic rationalist. Pray is not simply about intercession and petition, it is also about confession, thanksgiving, love and community. Pray is not simply about getting God to take our side, it is also and perhaps more importantly about getting us on God's side.
So the answer to your question is simply that it is above my pay grade, however it does affirm seriously my belief in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Death is swallowed up in victory
Nowhere does the Bible say we can pray for the dead. What good would it do them? If they are in hell, how would we help them? Are they not being punished there for a reason? If they are in God's paradise, what could our prayer improve upon their awesome stay there?
In the story of Lazarus and the Rich-man we learn that the Rich-man could not change his situation of punishment even by his own begging to Abraham. Did Abraham or Lazarus pray for the Rich-man? No. What of the Rich-man's living family?
27 "Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house:
28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." (Luke 16:27-31).
28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." (Luke 16:27-31).
It seems like the dead cannot truly affect the living, but they are to hear Moses and the prophets (Which would have included them preaching from Scripture, the Torah at that time).
The Rich-man also did not have any hope of his situation changing, either. Abraham said this to him:
25 "But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence."
(Luke 16:25-26).
26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence."
(Luke 16:25-26).
Abraham did not say that the Rich-man could hold out hope that somebody could pray for him in the land of the living to change his situation.
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