Would God accept prayer for the dead in order for the dead to be forgiven?
Question:
Before going to my question, I'd like to thank you for all the work you've done, preaching the Word of God. I am truly grateful for having found your site, as it has really opened my eyes to a lot of my previously unrecognized errors and helped me with some other issues I knew I had. Hopefully, I'll be like you someday.
So here's my question and a bit of my background.
I was born in a Christian family, but my Mom was originally a Hindu, later converted to Christianity. Although I was born as Christian, I was raised by my maternal grandparents and they were Hindus, as you'd expect. My Grandmother passed away a few years ago, and as far as I know, she does not share the same faith as I do now. So, going by the Scripture and your article, "The Lost Who Never Heard The Gospel", as hard as it is for me to take it, they are in hell. Would God accept prayer for the dead in order for the dead to be forgiven?
Answer:
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences" (II Corinthians 5:10-11).
We can ask for mercy, but we cannot ask God to go against what He stated. We are judged by what we did in this life. Once we die, there is no altering of our outcome. "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).
Because you and I know that judgment is coming, it is the reason we work hard to persuade others. They might not understand the terror of the Lord, but we do. There is nothing more you can do for them. Their lives have been lived and now it is in God's hands. But you can make a difference in your own life and the lives of those around you that they might not follow the same destiny.
