They will argue that it was a Jewish tradition confirmed in the Bible. What they don't tell you is that it is not in the Jewish Bible nor in our modern New Testament. This is something introduced by the Council of Trent (1563) as a counter-reformation ploy, and they referred to 2 Maccabees 12:42 as justification for the doctrine. The Maccabees is an Apocrypha text which tells the story of the Jewish revolt in which numerous soldiers were killed. When the bodies of the slain were found to be wearing amulets of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids, it was believed to be the sin responsible for their death (12:40). Therefore Judas prayed that God would forgive the dead of this sin.
This has resulted in many traditions which have no founding in biblical tradition. This is linked to the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory in which souls are held in a state of limbo and the living can pay to have a priest pray for them that any sins that are preventing the souls from making it to heaven may be forgiven. Playing on the emotions of naive and desperate people this has been a good method of fund raising for Rome.
Praying for the dead can often lead to praying to the dead or doing works for the dead which smacks of spiritism and the occult. Such practice can open the doors for demonic deception as in the Mormon practice of doing baptisms for the dead. It is not uncommon for demons to appear as deceased persons which can lead to ancestor worship or even spirit worship as in voodoo.
She is dead! There is only one mediator between man and God, that is Jesus Christ only lamb of God who shed blood for our sins. Jews never prayed to Moses or any of the Old Testament prophets so why did Catholics decide to pray to biblical saints?
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