I should like to ask a question which has engaged my attention for some time. It is this. A friend of mine holds the idea of prayers for the dead, and says he believes that such prayers are of avail. He quotes the following verses in support of his belief: 1 Peter 4:6; 3:18-22. I fail to see any dead meant here, other than those who are dead in sin. I have told him so, but cannot convince him, so I told him I would ask the Editor of Present Truth about it.
Without stating any opinion about the matter, let us study it, and find the truth from the Bible itself. We will come at once to the very heart of the question, and consider the two texts to which you refer.
Every text of Scripture means exactly what it says, but all texts do not say what many people, by a too hasty reading of them with preconceived ideas, think that they say. It is best to take the texts in their order, so we will first read: "Christ also has once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water." (1 Peter 3:18-20)
What Does the Text Say?
Read it again, read it a dozen times, and you will see that it says not a word about praying for the dead. Let us analyze it, taking each clause separately, and find out exactly what the text does say.
a) Christ once suffered for us, that He might bring us to God.
b) He was put to death in the flesh.
c) He was quickened [made alive] by the Spirit.
d) By this same Spirit He went and preached to the spirits in prison.
e) They were is prison-"kept under the law, shut up" (See Galatians 3:22-23) "when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing."
f) It was in the days of Noah, while the ark was building, that Christ, by the Spirit, preached to the wicked spirits before the flood. God's longsuffering waited one hundred and twenty years, while His Spirit was working with that sinful generation; yet He said, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." (Genesis 6:3)
That is the sum of this text, so far as the present question is concerned; the instruction that we are to receive from it is this, that the preaching of the Gospel is by the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. The public ministry began with these words: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me: because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." (Isaiah 61:1)
The captives in prison are the bondservants of sin, (John 8:34) "the servants of corruption; for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." (2 Peter 2:19)
Suffering and Living with Christ
Now let us read the next text referred to, which is but a continuation of the first one. We will read enough to get the full connection: "Forasmuch then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. ... For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit." (1 Peter 4:1-2,6) "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." (Hebrews 9:27-28) "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my Word, and believes Him that sent me, has eternal life, and comes not into judgment, but has passed out of death into life." (John 5:24,RV)
Christ's sufferings in the flesh were for us. How much He suffered cannot be put into words, but it is certain that He suffered all that the wicked will have to suffer in punishment for their sins. This may be learned from Psalm 22:1, and especially from: "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for ouriniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone tohis own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:5-6)
Now we are to be armed with the same mind, sharing His sufferings. Joined to Him in "the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death," (Philippians 3:10) we live with Him; we have thus passed out of death into life, and so we do not come into Judgment. We enter with Christ into the heavenly places, experiencing the powers of the world to come and to us it is the same as though the Judgment were already past.
It was to this end that the Gospel was preached to them that are dead. Note well that the text does not say that the Gospel was preached to them that were dead, nor that it is preached to them that are dead, but that was preached to them that are dead. The reference is clearly to the time spoken of in 1 Peter 3:19-20. The preaching was in the days of Noah, to those who were the captives of sin.
The latter part of 1 Peter 4:6 itself shows most plainly that the preaching of the Gospel to them that are dead was while they were still living. The Gospel was preached to them, in order "that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit." (1 Peter 4:6)
The Gospel was preached to them for the very same purpose that it is now preached to us,--that while still in the flesh they might pass out of death into life, and thus pass the Judgment, and henceforth live in the flesh as though their bodies were already made spiritual. "You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." (Romans 8:9)
Now we have before us exactly what the two texts say, and just what they mean. They say nothing whatever about preaching to dead men or about praying to or for them; and neither here nor anywhere else in the Bible is there the slightest hint of any such thing, The two texts referred to teach us a must precious lesson, however, as to the power of the Gospel when it is received into the heart; and it is very sad indeed that so few who read them get this real, personal help and comfort from them.
We might leave the subject here, as the question is answered; but while we are about it we might as well see how utterly foreign to the Bible the thought or practice of praying for the dead is, and also what is involved in that teaching.
Prayers for the Dead and Purgatory
Have you ever thought what inevitably follows the teaching of prayers for or preaching to the dead? it means, of course, that they are on probation, the same as the living, and it is, in fact, nothing but the doctrine of purgatory. This is plain enough; for if we were to pray for the dead it could be only for their deliverance from some sad state. So purgatory is part of the doctrine of prayers for the dead.
Prayers to the Dead
Prayers for the dead leads also to prayers to them. Bear in mind that no intelligent Roman Catholic professes to pray to the dead as to God; the invocation of saints is the request for them to make supplication for us, just as we ask our friends here on earth to pray for us. We all know that "The supplication of a righteous man avails much in its working," (James 5:16,RV) and we like to know that good people as praying for us. It is with the idea that the dead are able to do all that the living can do, that Roman Catholics pray to them, asking an interest in their prayers. Now if it were of any use to pray for the dead, it would just as certainly be profitable to ask some of them to pray for us; and so with prayers for the dead we have another Papal dogma.
Universal Salvation
But this is not all: If it were true that the dead are on probation, in a condition where prayers can benefit them, then we must come to the conclusion that there will be probation for sinners until everyone is saved, and that no sinner will ever be destroyed. In short, probation after death means universalism; for if the preaching of the Gospel in life has not been sufficient to decide a man's destiny, there is no assurance that it would be more efficacious after death. If God must continue probation to the impenitent, after death, in order that they may "have a fair chance," then He must continue it indefinitely.
We need not pursue this line any further, but if we should, we should find all manner of contradictions and absurdities; for when the truth of the Bible is once departed from, there is an end to all consistency.
A Denial of the Atonement
One other thing, however, must be mentioned, and that is that the idea so commonly misread into 1 Peter 3:19, that between His crucifixion and His resurrection Christ went and preached to dead people, is subversive of the very foundation of the Gospel. The very statement of it is a denial of the death of Christ, a denial, in fact, that there is any such thing as death.
That false idea would make everything to be a sham. It would have it that Christ did not really die, but only appeared to, and thus leave the world without any propitiation for sin. But then it really denies that there is any difference between the dead and the living, and so that there is any such thing as death, and consequently no need of salvation. And finally, it directly contradicts the Bible, and so makes havoc of everything.
The State of the Dead What says the Bible? "The living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished. ... Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither you go." (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6,10) "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom is no help. His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." (Psalm 146:3-4) "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence." (Psalm 115:17)
Hezekiah, rescued from death, said to the Lord: "You have in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for You have put all my sins behind your back. For the grave cannot praise You, death cannot celebrate You; they that go down into the pit [the grave] cannot hope for your truth. The living, the living, he shall praise You as I do this day." (Isaiah 38:17-19)
Death is the opposite of life; but the idea that the dead are conscious and capable of being preached or prayed to, having the same thoughts and feelings that living people do, puts no difference between death and life, and makes nonsense of the distinction. Note, however, the marked contrast in the text last quoted.
That the dead are not alive, is shown by Revelation 20:4-6, where we read of the righteous dead that: "They lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. ... This is the first resurrection. ... But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." (Revelation 20:4-5)
So we see that the dead cease to live, and then live again, which is consistent and reasonable.
Much more might be cited from the Scriptures, but this is sufficient to show that the idea that the dead need our prayers, or are in a condition to be benefited by them, is pagan superstition, transmitted to this generation through the Papacy, and wholly destitute of any scriptural basis.
It is opposed to common sense, in that it makes the terms death and life meaningless, and it is opposed to the Gospel, in that it robs the sacrifice of Christ of its reality.--Present Truth, September 12, 1901.