Reformed Churchmen: Prayers for the Dead is Repugnant to Scripture--A Vain and Fondly Imagined Thing

Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Monday, June 29, 2009

Prayers for the Dead is Repugnant to Scripture--A Vain and Fondly Imagined Thing

Prayer for the Dead.

http://www.churchsociety.org/publications/tracts/CAT003_PrayersforDead.pdf

Prayers for the dead is attached to the Romish doctrine of Purgatory which the Church of England declared repugnant to God’s Word and a “fond thing vainly invented.” It is unscriptural, yet, Bishop Jack Iker of the ACNA and Nashotah House, a sponsor of http://www.virtueonline.org/, practices and teaches these things in contravention of the Protestant and Reformed Church of England.

It is unscriptural. It is contrary to the New Testament, to wit, that believers, at death, are absent from the body and present with the Lord. These prayers were rejected in the 1552 Book of Common Prayer. Prayers for the dead are condemned by the Homilies. Bishops Jewel, Cooper and Ussher condemn such. The usual arguments for the practice are quickly rebutted in this fine article.

The 1928 BCP reintroduces the practice.