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. 

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.

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