Why We Resist The Doctrines Of The Church of Rome
Part 6 in a series of articles by A.G. Ashdown, from The Protestant Alliance
Reproduced by Manchester Orange Order under kind permission from The Protestant Alliance.
PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD
This custom is not in any way supported by Scripture. There is no place that it can be cited in the Bible where a dead person was prayed for. It was not the custom of the early Church in the Apostolic or sub-Apostolic period. It did not come till the doctrine of purgatory had been developed. In the Dark Ages it grew to tremendous proportions as the system of Indulgences was formulated. It was a period when the Bible was largely closed, for Church authority had replaced it. It is understandable that people who have prayed for dear and honoured relatives, while alive, should want to do so after their decease. However in the light of Scripture, it is quite illogical. Generally it is practised in the Roman Church but since the rise of the Anglo-Catholic party in the Church of England it has reappeared in Anglican circles. It is tragic to see in Roman Catholic and some Anglo-Catholic Churches cards on a notice board requesting prayers for a deceased person. In these days of departure from a purely Biblical theology. In some sections of nonconformity prayers for the dead have been adopted and used in funerals. This is an entirely unevangelical and a denial of the Gospel.
NOT NEEDED
We pray for people who are in need, the sinful, the sick, the downcast and the sad. When we part at death with a loved one who we know to be a believer, a “born again Christian”,
We believe that they are “…with Christ; which is far better.” (Philippians 1:23). They have all they need, there is nothing that we would be able to request for them. All their sin was dealt with by Christ on the cross. They have been fully forgiven and justified by faith in Christ. Their eternal destiny is already settled, they are beyond temptation, therefore beyond sinning, they are with Christ, “in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures fir evermore.” (Psalm 16:11). The Bible knows nothing of a state beyond the grave where a fuller knowledge of God is to be received before final blessedness. Our acceptance with God is on the ground of the redemptive work of Christ and has no element of works whatever. The dead in Christ are “blessed” (Revelation 14:13).
They are in a position of holiness, beauty, and glory. Therefore they have no need of our prayers, to prey for them is both unnecessary and illogical.
THE CUSTOM WAS ADOPTED LATE IN TIME AND IS PAPAL IN ORIGIN
The Roman Church bases its custom of praying for the dead on the fact that the Jews, in the time of the Maccabees, (in the period between the Old and New Testaments) prayed for those who had fallen in battle (11 Maccabees 12:38-45). It is because of this that although this apocryphal book was not regarded as canonical by the Jews it has been afforded that status by the Roman Church in its Bibles. It is one of the many cases where the Church of Rome formulates a doctrine and then seeks some Scriptural support for it by misinterpretation, it being totally at variance with the general teaching of the Bible. Protestants have agreed with the position of St. Jerome, quoted in the XXXIX Articles of the Church of England, Article VI, in rejecting the Apocrypha from the canon of Scripture.
St. Jerome was the translator of the Latin Vulgate Bible of the Roman Church. He lived before the Papacy had fully developed the doctrines of Purgatory, Indulgences and Pardons bought with money.
PURGATORY
This doctrine, dealt with in a previous article, is the reason for the growth in the Roman Church of the practice of prayers for the dead. The belief that the soul of the departed is in need of cleansing is a denial of the Scripture, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1John 1:7). This is certain for the believer. This doctrine bases the cleansing from sin on works on the sufferings of the soul in the fires of Purgatory assisted by the prayers, gifts and alms of the faithful, together with Indulgences. The emphatic testimony of Scripture is that there is but one means of cleansing from sin, the precious blood of our Redeemer, applied by faith, which is the gift of God.
Purgatory is the invention of a corrupt Church, the Church of Rome, and prayers for the dead are of no avail at all. For the believer such prayers are not needed they are “with Christ” and await the glorious resurrection of the dead in Christ at the Second Advent of Christ and the resurrection of the body. The Christ-rejecting, unrepentant dead await their being raised to judgment and their final doom. There is no opportunity for them to pass from their lost estate to one of final blessedness, as the rich man in Luke 16:26 was told”…there is a great gulf fixed”.
A PERSONAL QUESTION
May the reader of this article prayerfully examine their own position before God.
Have you dear friend, repented of your sin? Are you trusting only in Christ and His atoning work on Cavalry for your hope of eternal life when this passing life is ended?