What is the verse in the bible that commands us NOT to pray to the dead?

Question

Chapter, verse, and scripture, please.

Answer 1

See the following Scriptures which forbid talking with the dead: Deuteronomy 18:11; 1 Samuel 28:1-25; 1 Chronicles 10:13-14; Isaiah 8:19.

Answer 2

I know of no scripture that commands us not to pray to the dead specifically as stated. But I do know the bible teaches that God answers prayer. I know we are to be baptized for the dead, because the unbaptized cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. The bible speaks against necromancy, but that is not praying to the dead. So I do not know of any such scripture.

Answer 3

Many illustrations about "praying FOR the dead". Few about praying TO the dead. Consulting the dead is not praying to them. Consulting requires the dead to answer.

Anyway....try II Maccabees 12:43-46 and in a circumscript way see Ecclesiastes: 9:5.

Answer 4

There is no such verse. The Bible does however forbid necromancy, as in seances, etc., and some misguided fundamentalists misinterpret this teaching as forbidding communication with the LIVING saints in heaven. Curiously, some of these Christain groups use the Apostles' Creed as a statement of their core beliefs, yet apparently have no clue what "the communion of saints" means. This phrase refers to the relationship and interaction between the saints on earth and the saints in heaven, reality believed and practiced by the Christian Church since apostolic times.

Answer 5

I agree with Paul Cyp. Evangelical Protestants and Fundamentalists do not have the Book of Maccabees where the doctrine of praying to the dead is found.

"The Church has always had great respect for the dead. "It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins" (2 Macc 12:45). By our prayers, we help them and make their intercession for us effective."


Source: Catechism of the Catholic Church

Answer 6

We are commanded not to deal with the dead in necromancy etc but I find no where that prayer is explicitly forbidden. We are instructed however, to pray to our heavenly Father, to God, Abba, Jesus, and no one else. Jesus could have called 10000 ANGELS not angel saints. Angels come and minister all the time here in this realm. When they are worshiped they typically instruct the one to NOT worship them, because they are not God, only messengers, usually being dispatched by HIM. To borrow a line from a song "O come let us adore HIM" , not them:saints, angels, or anything else.

Answer 7

hmmm. Do exactly mean we praying to the dead/spirits? or does it mean not praying FOR the dead like what the catholics to so that their dead love ones will go to heaven?
If it's the latter, the verse is found in Luke 16:


Luke 16:27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house:

Luke 16:28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. ----the parable of the rich man and lazarus-------it states here that contrary to the catholic doctrine that we can pay the church/priest to pray for the dead to get saved-----it's actually the dead loved ones who are in hell that are praying so that their loved ones who are still living will not suffer the same consequence.

Hope this is a help.
God Bless!

Answer 8

God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. If someone is dead in their sins, the next moment in eternity is the judgment.

Read the account the Jesus gave regarding the rich man and Lazarus. His plea was not to have his family pray him out of his agony--he knew it was too late. But rather, he wanted to have them be warned so they too would not come to that place of torment.

Prayer for the dead is not scriptural.

Answer 9

Matt. 26:53 – Jesus says He can call upon the assistance of twelve legions of angels. If Jesus said He could ask for the assistance of angel saints – and He obviously would not have been worshiping them in so doing – then so can we, who need their help infinitely more than Jesus, and without engaging in idolatry. And, in Matt. 22:30, Jesus says we will be “like angels in heaven.” This means human saints (like the angel saints) can be called upon to assist people on earth. God allows and encourages this interaction between his family members.

Answer 10

Matthew 4:10
John 14:6