Praying for the Dead-Is it Biblical?

 

If the Church is the New Israel, we are also the heavenly Jerusalem. As the heavenly Jerusalem, it is our duty to be the beacon of light in the world. The salt of the earth, the city set on a hill. Thus, the Orthodox Church teaches that we must pray for the dead. Many of our Protestant brothers and sisters and their respective churches deny this, but the Bible clearly says otherwise.  The Roman Catholics believe in purgatory, but the Orthodox Church rejects this as a heresy developed after the Roman church fell away and became apostate. This topic is very relevant to the current timing of the church as the church prays for the dead on the two Saturdays before Lent and the first Saturday of Lent.

The Bible commands us as Christians to pray for one another. Because of the victory of Christ over death, there is no veil between those in this life and those in the next. And James 5:16 clearly commands us to pray for one another. Furthermore, both Ephesians 5:30 and Romans 14:6 say that we are members of Christ’s body, whether we have reposed in the Lord or are currently struggling in this earthly life.  Thus, scripture clearly suggests that prayers for the dead are valid. Hebrews 12:22-24 includes the angels and those perfected in righteousness. Romans 8:38-39 says that even death cannot separate us from the love of Christ, so if death does not separate us, then we must understand that Christ loves those even in death and we must pray for them. Again, the scriptures do not talk about “death” meaning that those who die cease to exist, rather the Bible talks about our soul living on after death, both in Luke 16:19-31 and Revelation 6:9-10.  In the Orthodox Cannon of Scripture, we include the Maccabees and the Book of Sirach. In Sirach 7:33 it states, “Give graciously to all the living; do not withhold kindness even from the dead.” So once again the Scriptures confirm the prayers for the dead by their words. If we hold true that the Holy Bible is the inspired written word of God, then must take these writings as true and cannot have qualms about it. We cannot deny part of the Bible and accept other parts. We either believe the whole thing or it becomes worthless. As one can see, through these Biblical examples we understand those may not be present in the body, but they are still alive. Christ even teaches that God is not the God of dead, but the living. (Mark 12:27 and Luke 20:38).  If God is the God of the living our brothers and sisters who have reposed in their earthly bodies are not dead but much more alive than us. Thus, by being alive they too need our prayers.  

What happens to us in the next life is not very clear, as the scriptures do not give us a clear account of what the soul experiences after our earthly death. Some like Father Seraphim Rose have proposed the Tollhouse theory, which I will not discuss here, but you can find information on in other locations on the internet. Others like our protestant brothers and sisters teach Soul Sleep where the soul goes into a long rest and awaits the final judgment of Christ at his Awesome Judgement Seat. We as Orthodox are not so dogmatic about death, we just know that it occurs and that we are waiting the final judgment at the Second Coming. Plus, we also have tradition that has been passed down from even the apostles themselves to pray for the dead.

This apostolic tradition comes from the life of St. Paul himself.  Regarded as one of the greatest Christians of the early church and with many of his writings included in scripture there is no better source than St. Paul on this teaching.  In 2^nd Timothy, we learn of the repose of Onesiphorus, one of St. Paul’s most beloved friends. St. Paul says, “The Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain…” Onesiphorus is clearly no longer among the earthly living and St. Paul is praying for his soul.   In this example and this belief, we ask God to keep those who are asleep in the Lord in his memory and for it to be eternal, meaning that God will grant them peace, life, and mercy, along with forgiveness for their sins.  We also pray that they will give a good account of their actions before the Awesome Judgement Seat of Christ at the Last Judgement, which an account of was read this past weekend. Finally in Revelation 1:18-19 Christ says he holds the keys to the underworld, and by that he can mercy on those he chooses. We do not know the mind of Christ. We can only believe that Christ knows what’s best for us, and we are not in the business of questioning or trying to understand the thoughts of God.

I have only scratched the surface on this topic, and I do not wish to get to theological or wordy in my writings. Usually, I would give patristic writings that would deal with the subject but in its place the source of writings of the Church Fathers the Holy Scriptures are the best place to deal with an issue this big. If one wishes to discover more on this topic, I am sure there are many websites and even books you can get to understand praying for the dead even further. I pray that you are well and that as we prepare for Forgiveness Sunday, you would forgive me as God forgives.

 

Amen.

Judgement...Where do we fall?

 

            Let’s look at the readings for today, especially that of Jude 1:1-10, the pronouncement against false teachers.  False teachers have always been in our midst, and, if you have been reading the blog for a period, then you know this is a topic I’ve covered very recently. This past Sunday was the Sunday of the Last Judgement and the Church for this week has continued our theme of judgement. Jude clearly outlines what happens to those who teach and believe false teaching. That they will enter eternal judgment, just like those at Sodom and Gomorrah.

            First, in the Orthodox Church, the priest as spiritual father of the parish, and likewise the bishop as spiritual father of the diocese has the hardest position within the church, because not only are they responsible for their own sins, but responsible for the sins of those who they are meant to guide. Just as my father was responsible for me when I was younger, before I left his care and began to live on my own. The spiritual fathers that Jude discusses within these words, are those who have led the flock astray, who have taught the wrong things. Orthodoxy means right teaching, or right belief. This means that the church has held fast to the teachings of the Apostles, Church Fathers, elders, and teachers, who in turned learned from those who came before. As a priest or bishop, one is expected to hold fast to those teachings, because they have been carefully guarded and preserved for the entire existence of the Church. When men stray from these teachings, they rebuke themselves, revile the very practices and beliefs that Christians have held and in turn condemn themselves. On the day of the Last Judgement, they will be as if the Lord never knew them!! How sad! They will be cast with devil and his angels into eternal torment. Those who have held firm to the faith, will be brought into everlasting life and eternal glory with Christ and the angels who serve Him. Straying from the path the Lord has outlined for us, believing that we have it figured out more than Him is dangerous. Trying to interpret the scriptures without guidance, trying to flatter the Lord with our free-flowing prayer, and in general being prideful are all ways of us self-serving our needs instead of the needs of our souls. The way of life of a Christian must be taught to us by our spiritual father, the priest, just like we were taught by our parents when we were younger. As my mother would say, “Don’t try and invent the wheel.”

            Dear brothers and sisters, as we prepare for the coming of Great Lent next Monday, we are coming to the point of the year where we will be in our greatest spiritual battles. No Lent for me has ever come without great distress and spiritual struggles that have tested the very core of my faith. This year I can assure you will be no different. And I pray that the same struggles come your way. Not because I believe that you should suffer. Rather, it is because without these struggles, the enemy has already won. These struggles are because the enemy sees your works and fears them. He sees your efforts and tries to wrestle you out of the palm of God’s hand. I pray that we do not fall away like those Jude discussed in his epistle. I pray that we do not reject serving Christ like the angels who fell from heaven with the devil. This Lent, let us strive for spiritual purity instead of spiritual prelest.

 

Amen.

Ye Condemn yourselves

     Let us take a moment and reflect on our lives.  Whether we have lived up to the standards of the saints, or even of Christ himself.  I can guarantee that many, if not all of us have not lived our lives according to the commandments of God, and that we have all fallen short.  In fact, Romans 3:23 says as much.  However often times when we look at our own lives, we constantly esteem ourselves as better than our neighbor. We say, "Well at least I'm not doing that." However this is a grievous error on our part.  Simply because we refuse to accept our own sins, our condemnation that we have heaped on ourselves by our own rejections of God. We push away God, and we dont even realize the judgements we have reaped because so often we are concerned with others. While we are right to be concerned for our neighbors, there is a difference between being concerned and being judgmental. That is where often times we blur the lines and enter into the realm of hatred and sin.  We become eager to catch our brother or sister in an act of grave sin, so that we may laud it over them that they are worthless and do not deserve the love of God.  When we do this, we cause many to fall out of the faith and leave the church all together.  We are seeing this so much in the church today, with young people and old a like leaving the church all together and falling into the heresy of atheism, all because the Church is failing to love like it should and to join together with our brothers and sisters.  I am not saying that we should enter into sin with them, by no means.  Entering into sin with those people who are committing atrocities like ecumenism, abortions, homosexuality, and the like does not uphold the teachings of the church. However offering compassion, correct teachings, and providing the pathway of repentance through Christ to those who wish to repent must take place.  We must like the river flow towards God, towards unity in faith.  We must first correct ourselves then we can correct others.  Returning to the traditions of the church, restoring the canons in their proper place, fulfilling the prayer life of the church, all of these things we can do to draw people back into the faith of the apostles. Because we offer nothing different than that of the world, the world does not see the benefit of being a part of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.  The World (and with a capital W I mean those outside of the Church) see us act in the same manner that they do, they see us judge, they see us condemn, they see us ridicule those who commit sin.  We must be set a part.  We must be Holy, as our Father in Heaven is Holy.  And unlike the Protestants, this is not a one time deal, we don't say a prayer and some sort of magic comes over us and we instantly are Holy. No, this is a struggle, this is the struggle of ascetism, each day we must get up and esteem others better than ourselves.  We must love like Christ loved.  We must pray that God will forgive our sins as he forgives those around us.  We must go into the world and preach the gospel through our actions not through words.  Giving up our own desires, giving up our egos and our lives for the sake of the Gospel. We are called to heal the world, and to draw it back to Christ. When we give of ourselves, when we feed the homeless, when we clothe the naked, visit the infirm, provide for those in prison, then we begin to live in earnest the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Lent is coming swiftly upon us, and it is during this time that we can cleanse ourselves and make room for Jesus Christ in the throne of our hearts.  I pray that during this lent, that while the attacks of the enemy will be strong, that we will resist those attacks and draw upon the living water of Jesus Christ to strengthen us.  

Amen.