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What about praying for the dead so they can get out of Purgatory?
Since Jesus paid for all my sins on the Cross, God has no need for a place like Purgatory—where I finish paying for my sins. Believers who die are already with Christ in heaven (Ephesians 2:6) so there is no need to pray for them!
But what about someone who we’re pretty sure wasn’t a believer? Can we pray them out of hell?
Jesus taught that it was impossible for anyone to go from heaven to hell or from hell to heaven. In one of His parables a man in Hades asked if someone could come from heaven and help him. But the answer was,
“…a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” (Luke 16:26)
Then the man in Hades asks if someone from heaven could come back to earth and warn his five brothers. But Jesus answered, “They have Moses and the Prophets [the Scriptures], they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31). Our only warning is in God’s word while we’re here on earth!
After death it will be too late. Prayers for the dead have no effect. Our destiny is shaped while living. Daniel 12:2 makes this clear,
“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.”
At the moment after death we “awake” either to eternal life, or to everlasting shame and contempt. God’s word says there are only two destinies, and both are permanent. |
