The Feast of All Souls

Today is the Feast of All Souls, when we pray for the faithful departed. Atheists think that's stupid because they don't believe in souls, God, heaven or hell. Good luck with that. Some, though not all Protestants think that prayers for the dead are stupid because they believe in something called "soul sleep." 

No such thing as hell?

According to soul sleep theorists, you fall asleep when you die and if you're asleep you can't benefit from prayers offered on your behalf. More serious Protestants, such as Calvinists, believe that God has made up His mind from all eternity as to whether you're going up to heaven or down to the fiery pit. So there's no point in praying for the dead and to do so reduces the Lord's sovereignty. There is, they argue, one mediator between God and Man, who is Christ. Prayers for the departed, they feel, diminish that.

Reformers smashing it up

But soul sleep is problematic because scripture reveals the saints to be alive, albeit not on earth. We see this on the Mount of Transfiguration, where Our Lord converses with Moses and Elijah.  According to the Transfiguration, holy souls are alive instead of snoring, whether gracefully or not, under the horns of the heavenly altar.

No sleeping at the Altar

Bearing in mind the eternal simultaneity of God's knowledge, this allows us to pray for departed and ask for their prayers, which reduces the mediatorship of Christ no more than asking one another for prayers. In fact it adds to it, as all prayer, properly made, is directed to Christ and hence to the Father.

So don't be a soul sleeper, pray instead for the holy souls and ask them for their intercession.

May they rest in peace,

LSP