Introduction
The desire or impulse towards praying for the soul to rest in peace comes from a genuine place of grief at the loss of a loved one, and genuine concern for his or her eternal soul, that they might have eternal peace. Does God’s Word contain a prayer for the soul to rest in peace or instructions on such a prayer? In a word, no. At least not directly. Some verses mention people dying or departing in peace. And there is one passage that mentions people being baptized for the dead. But no passage specifically mentions praying for the dead—to rest in peace or otherwise. We will consider these Bible passages in the coming paragraphs.
Despite the lack of biblical evidence, there is a long practice in certain branches of Christianity of praying for the dead. They pray in particular that they would rest in peace, or that a gracious God would grant them peace. When did this practice start? Moreover, why do Presbyterian and Reformed churches, as well as the broader Protestant tradition, refrain from this practice? We will discuss answers to these questions and consider death, eternity, and the comfort of God in the face of death.
Praying for the Soul to Rest in Peace: What Does God’s Word Say?
As briefly stated above, the Bible does not instruct people to pray for those who are dead. There are, however, several verses that describe someone who dies as going to their death in peace, or someone about to die being able to go to death in peace.
Scripture commends King Josiah of Judah for reforms that renewed proper worship of God, after finding the book of God’s Law. In 2 Kings 22:20 and 2 Chronicles 34:28, God gave a message that because of Josiah’s faithfulness to God, he would go to his grave in peace.
Likewise, the patriarch Job, in the midst of his suffering, laments that wicked people live prosperously and go to Sheol (the place of the dead) in peace (Job 21:13).
The prophet Jeremiah told Zedekiah, king of Judah, that he would be captured and taken to Babylon. But there was this comfort: “You shall not die by the sword. You shall die in peace” (Jer 34:4-5).
Finally, there is a wonderful scene in Luke’s gospel of a man named Simeon. God had promised him that he would not die before seeing the promised Messiah. Upon seeing the baby Jesus Simeon declared, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace” (Luke 2:29).
In each of these cases, the person has not yet died. The language of dying in peace is about a future death, a peaceful death, a death free of violence or calamity. These are God’s promises, not for those who need peace after they die, but for those who go to death in peace. And they remain in peace, while dead.
What about Baptisms for the Dead?
There is a somewhat related practice in 1 Corinthians 15. Here, the apostle Paul gives his great chapter on Jesus’ resurrection and what that means for believers. He tells us that we also will live again. Some didn’t believe or weren’t sure that Christians would one day rise from death to life. In 1 Corinthians 15:29, Paul asks rhetorically, If people don’t rise from the dead, why are people baptized for the dead?1
Paul’s argument does not condone this practice. He shows the Corinthians that, by this practice, they implicitly believed in a future resurrection from death, hoping that this baptism would mean those dead would rise again on the last day. Ultimately, this practice was outlawed by the church very early in its history as a pagan practice. It is not practiced by any branch of the Christian church to this day.
So is there any instruction to pray for the dead in God’s Word? No. But there is some evidence in extra-biblical writings, primarily in the Apocrypha. In Christian literature, the Apocryphal books are those considered by Protestant Christians to be of questionable authenticity or authority. Roman Catholics consider them to be authoritative. Eastern Orthodox believers use a Greek term for these books that means “profitable reading.” The Apocryphal books and other early Christian writings give us an idea of how the practice of praying for the dead arose, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church.
What Is the History of Praying for the Soul to Rest in Peace?
Examining the Texts
Roman Catholic Understanding of Praying for the Soul to Rest in Peace
The online Catholic Encyclopedia, in its article on Masses for the dead, or Requiem Masses,2 attributes the origin of prayers for the soul to rest in peace to the Apocrypha. The Encyclopedia’s very first reference is to 4 Esdras 2:34-35, one of the Apocryphal books. Verse 34 says, “Wait for your shepherd; he will give you everlasting rest” (4 Esdras 2:34 NRSV). Many believe this to be the source for the opening words of the Requiem Mass (in Latin): “Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,” which translates to “Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord.”
However, the Esdras text is a call to wait for the expected shepherd, or Christ, who will give everlasting rest. The verse is neither a prayer for the dead soul to rest nor an instruction to pray for the rest of dead souls. Other sources Roman Catholics use in support of prayers for the dead, such as the Catechism of the Catholic Church, are similarly lacking in scriptural support. Thus, the Catholic understanding and practice is not consistent with its own traditional sources.
Protestant Understanding of Praying for the Soul to Rest in Peace
At the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Reformers rejected the Apocryphal books as not Scripture, not inspired by God. Jesus does not quote from these books in the Gospels. The New Testament, except for Jude—who employs the text as an illustration—does not either. A common attitude toward Apocryphal books is that they’re not inspired, but they may be consulted, like other human writings. See, for example, Chapter 1.3 of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
In summary, the Apocryphal books are not inspired and, thus, are not scriptural. The scriptural books contain no instruction to pray for the souls of the dead. Therefore, the Protestant tradition finds no basis for prayers for the dead.
Examining the Tradition
Still, the practice arose in the early church. This practice may have its source in pagan religious practices, where prayers for the deceased were common. Regardless, a doctrine arose in the early days of Christianity that the souls of the dead continued to suffer after death.
The Roots of Roman Catholic Practice
Some taught that the souls of the dead went to some temporary place to wait for Christ to return. At that point, their souls would reunite with their resurrected bodies.3 The early father Origen promoted the idea that these waiting souls underwent purification by fire to cleanse them of remaining sin. Over time, this idea expanded to become the doctrine of purgatory.4 If there are dead souls in purgatory that still need purification from remaining sins, then there is a certain logic to these souls needing, or benefitting from, prayer, especially that they might find eternal peace and rest from these purifying ordeals.
So in the early church, it became common for people to gather at graves, of martyrs in particular, to pray that they might find rest. Eventually this kind of “prayer service” became formalized in the liturgical worship of the church. Over time the Requiem Mass was established, including its prayer for the Lord to grant peace to these departed souls.
The Roots of Protestant Practice
The Protestant Reformers rejected the idea of purgatory as being inconsistent with what God’s Word teaches. Though parts of the church had been teaching this for a long time, it had no biblical foundation. No part of the Bible teaches that dead souls either need to be, or can be, cleansed from remaining sin. Jesus’ death on the cross fully and completely pays the penalty for his people’s sins. His blood washes away our sins. Our gracious God remembers our sins no more. “As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us” (Ps 103:12).
The Bible does teach that at death one’s eternal destiny is determined, and there is no opportunity for change. Perhaps the passage that illustrates this most powerfully is Jesus’ parable about the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 15:19-31. A rich man feasts but lets the poor man Lazarus go hungry. Both die, and the rich man ends up in Hades, in torment. Looking up, he sees Lazarus with Abraham and pleads that Abraham would allow Lazarus merely to dip his finger in cool water and touch his tongue due to the anguish of the flames of Hades. It is clear in this scenario that the rich man has no opportunity to change his sentence. In fact, he pleads for Lazarus to go back and warn his five living brothers, so they won’t suffer the fires of hell.
We find no biblical support for the tradition of offering prayers for the souls of the dead. Once a person dies, his or her eternal destiny is final, and nothing can change that.
How Do We Approach Death, and What Should We Pray For?
A Biblical Perspective
To begin with, we need to see death from a biblical perspective. In God’s Word, death is a great evil and a great sorrow. Death is the penalty our first parents, Adam and Eve, earned in the Garden when they disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen 2:17). We read of Jesus weeping at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. He is full of sorrow at the death of his friend, but also “greatly troubled” (John 11:33). Death is the consequence of, and punishment for, sin. All humanity dies. It is our common fate (Heb 9:27).
Sometimes death comes peacefully. Twenty-four hours before I began writing, I’d learned that a cousin to whom I was very close had died in his sleep. Not long after, a dear aunt died peacefully and at an old age. She was a believer in Jesus, with the hope of everlasting life in the kingdom of heaven.
Sometimes death comes with lingering pain and expectation. My mother suffered from terminal cancer for two years before she died. It was a trying time. Yet she fought the good fight through faith in Jesus, in the hope of the resurrection from death to life. You, I’m sure, know of someone experiencing the same, or perhaps are experiencing something similar.
If We Don’t Pray for the Soul to Rest in Peace, Is There Hope in Death or for the Dead?
Hope in Death and for the Dead in the Old Testament
As fearful and painful as death is, God does not leave his people to face it alone. There is the great promise of Psalm 23: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Ps 23:4). God himself, in his tender love, promises to be our companion as we face death.
The green pastures of that psalm are a signpost pointing us to the hope of the resurrection at the coming of the Lord, and eternal life in a better place. A friend or family member can provide comfort at the bedside of a dying person. But the great and almighty God’s loving care provides immeasurable comfort. Psalm 119 offers a powerful prayer for poor souls to offer to God even before death, in trying times: “Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise” (Ps 119:76).
Another of God’s promises of eternal life appears later in that same Psalm. It says, “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life” (Ps 119:50). This promise from God, of life instead of death, is why we can walk with him in the fullness of peace and comfort even in the valley of the shadow of death.
Hope in Death and for the Dead in the New Testament
In 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, the apostle Paul is thankful for affliction, as it reminds him of the comfort that Christian believers in Jesus have from God. God is the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Cor 1:3). Our comfort from God in affliction is meant to teach us how to comfort others (2 Cor 1:4). Indeed, as we share in the affliction or suffering of Jesus, so we share in comfort (2 Cor 1:5). Paul and his companions’ affliction is for the benefit of his readers’ (and our) comfort and salvation (2 Cor 1:6). In truth, our own affliction is to be a reminder of the great salvation God offers in Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.
God’s Faithfulness to the Living and the Dead
Dear friend, God is faithful, and He has promised life. God made that same promise to Adam and Eve in Genesis when He spoke to them of a son to come who would crush the serpent’s head (Gen 3:15). Though our first parents were under the sentence of death, Adam shows his understanding of this promise, his hope of the resurrection, by naming his wife Eve–the mother of the living (Gen 3:20), not the mother of the dead!
This promised son who would conquer death and bring life is Jesus Christ. The apostle John says of Jesus that “In him was life” (John 1:4). As such, even though he died as a substitute to pay for the sins of his people, death was not the end. It was inevitable that the living God, come as a man, would rise to life. Death could not keep him in its clutches. So, “Death is swallowed up in victory…O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:54-55).
For those who admit their sin, seek God’s forgiveness, and put their hope and trust in Christ Jesus, their sins are gone, the death penalty revoked, and eternal life is certain. Because of his unfailing love, the God who promised life (cf. Ps 119:50 above) gives life, for He, “being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4-5).
Pray for the Living, not the Dead
The question that faces us is not whether we should pray for the dead, but how we should pray for ourselves. Outside his friend’s tomb, Jesus was confronted by Lazarus’ sister Martha, who was upset that Jesus didn’t come soon enough to prevent death. Jesus asks Martha if she believes in the resurrection of the dead on the last day. She affirms that she does. Jesus declares to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).
That is the question, my dear friend. Do you believe Jesus is the answer to death, the hope for life after death? Do you believe that He is the answer for you?
Before his death and resurrection Jesus told his disciples that He was going to prepare a place for them in his Father’s house (John 14:2). The book of Hebrews talks of this eternal home as a “better country” (Heb 11:16). The souls of the dead—those who repent and believe in Jesus as Savior—find their repose in this heavenly country of eternal peace, where they await the final day when souls are reunited with bodies for all eternity. They do not need our prayers.
Pray rather for the living. Make this part of your daily prayer. Pray that those who believe will be of good courage until the day we enter into eternity with Jesus our Savior. Pray for those who do not yet believe, that they will see their need for rescue from death, and come in repentance and faith to the Lord Jesus. May Christ give you peace, and may you know the unfailing love of our gracious God, and find rest in the arms of the Lord.
Additional Resources
“Praying for the Dead” by Nick Batzig
Footnotes
- We don’t know why this practice existed in the New Testament era church. It seems that some living people were being baptized on behalf of, or as substitutes for, people who were already dead. ↩︎
- Piacenza, Pietro. “Masses of Requiem.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12776d.htm. ↩︎
- There was a competing idea that the souls of the dead went immediately to be with the risen Christ Jesus in heaven. For a full treatment of these competing ideas, see Hill, Charles E. Regnum Caelorum: Patterns of Millennial Thought in Early Christianity. Eerdmans, 2001. ↩︎
- Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 4. ed. John Bolt, trans. John Vriend (Baker Academic, 2008), 608-609. ↩︎
