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Transcript 537B — Praying for the Dead
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Yes, Brother Camping. I would like to know some scripture references and your comments concerning praying for the dead. And I'll take my answer on the air.
HC: The question has to do with the question, does the Bible have anything at all to say about praying for the dead?
Actually, the Bible indicates in Hebrews 9, "It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment." Let me find that reference, so I'll give it to you precisely. In Hebrews 9:27 it says, "As it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment."
In other words, God is saying that once we have died the next event in our life is Judgment Day, if we're unsaved. Of course we'll talk about the saved person in a moment. For mankind in general, for the human race in general, God has decreed that "the wages of sin is death." The death that He has in view is eternal damnation And once we die we will go down to a place of silence. We read this in Psalm 115:17 or verse 18: "The dead do not praise God, nor do any that go down into silence."
And then we read in John 5:28 & 29, "The hour cometh when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come forth, some to the resurrection of everlasting life and some to the resurrection of everlasting damnation." That is Judgment Day for those who are faced with everlasting damnation. Their sins have not been paid for, and there is no point in praying for them. There's no way, after they die, that there can be any change in their situation. There's no possibility of their being saved if they died unsaved. They are destined for hell. They are destined to stand for judgment, and because they have sinned and have no covering for their sins by the blood of Christ, they will end up in hell. There is absolutely no point in praying for someone who has died unsaved.
Now let's see, if our friend is saved, are we to pray for him? Well, the Bible says in II Corinthians 5:8, "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." If a loved one dies who is saved, he leaves his body behind, but in his soul existence, which is as real an existence as his body's existence, he goes to live and reign with Christ in Heaven. And again there's no point in praying for him. He has come into the highest felicity. He has come into the brightness of Christ's glory, and he is living and reigning with Christ in Heaven. So there's nothing that we can do to change his situation either. He is home with the Lord. This is the ideal place for him to be.
And so therefore there is no point in praying for the dead at all, none whatsoever. We can't change a thing. We can plead with God after a person has died, "Oh Lord, deal kindly with this departed brother. Could it be that he will have an abundant entrance into Thy kingdom." We can pray all of these things, but it doesn't mean a thing, because the moment of death seals the destination of that person, whether he was . . . if he died a saved man, he went to Heaven; if he died an unsaved man, he went into Hades, a place of silence, to await the resurrection of the last day, when he will stand for judgment and then be removed into hell.