Hi Bahmer,

I couldn't find Doc's "prayers for the dead" summary, and believe it is buried in one of his multi-page (if printed out) diatribes, - so thought I'd post it here - in response...

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that some Christ-followers who have died will spend time in a holding place, Purgatory, before they can enter heaven. These are people who died having committed venial sins that were not sufficiently atoned for. Roman Catholics are encouraged to pray for those in Purgatory so that their suffering will be eased and their time shortened. Since Purgatory does not actually exist, it is foolish to pray for anyone affiliated with it.

The second case is when a believer prays that an unbeliever who has died will accept Christ in the afterlife. Unfortunately, this is not possible. People do not receive a second chance to repent after they have died. If they did, the rich man in Luke 16:19-31 would have asked forgiveness for himself, not his brothers. And Hebrews 9:27 agrees, saying, "just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment."

1 Peter 3:18-19 says that between the crucifixion and the resurrection, Jesus "proclaimed to the spirits in prison." The prison in question is generally regarded to be the holding place for demons who sinned so egregiously God removed them from earth. The word translated "preach" means to herald a message. Jesus announced that He had conquered Satan and his forces, but He did not offer life to people who had already died rejecting Him.

So, the Bible tells us there is no Purgatory and there is no second chance at salvation after death; it follows that it is useless to pray for the dead as related to these topics.


"There is no concrete evidence at all that Onesiphorus was dead. The arguments for his demise are all based upon inferences, none of which are “necessary.”

That his actions are spoken of in the past tense is perfectly understandable since he was no longer in Rome.

The fact that Paul did not mention him in 2nd Timothy 4:19, in sending greetings to those in Ephesus, is not troubling — if Onesiphorus himself was somewhere other than in Ephesus.

The fact that Paul prayed for this brother is proof within itself that he was not dead, since there is not a shred of evidence in the New Testament that prayers for the dead are acceptable.

If the brother was dead, why did the apostle offer no word of comfort to the family? (Note: While some deny that this was a “prayer,” most scholars affirm that it is).

Jesus, the Apostles, and all the writers of the New Testament did not consider the apocryphal books as inspired and authoritative. Though they had access to them (since they were “bound up” with the Greek Old Testament), they never quoted from them; this is powerful evidence that they did not view them as in the same class with the Old Testament documents.

If Onesiphorus, as a godly man, was dead, there would be no need to petition God for mercy on his behalf; he would have been a recipient of that mercy already.

If the brother died as an apostate (of which there is no evidence), Paul’s prayer for “mercy” would be worthless inasmuch as mercy will be bestowed on the basis of one’s personal relationship with the Lord, not on that of another’s actions (Ezekiel 18:20; 2 Corinthians 5:10).

Moreover, the wicked dead cannot leave their place of torment (Luke 16:26), and their punishment is “eternal” in duration (Matthew 25:46).

Accordingly, these texts in Paul’s second epistle to Timothy do not come remotely close to providing the coveted evidence for the validity of prayers for the dead.