Can someone pray someone into heaven?

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faithandlove

Guest
#1
#1
I ask this because I witnessed someone trying to do just that.


From what I know, the scriptures says that the individual must save their own soul. But last year, I worked on a part time job where I was a sitter. And one day, I was assigned to sit with this elderly man who was dying. His family wanted to "make sure that he got into heaven", and so sent a priest of some sort to pray him into heaven.

But if he wasn't saved (and I don't know if he was or not, but for the sake of this conversation, let's just say he wasn't), a priest couldn't pray him into heaven, right? He would have had to accepted Jesus on his own, correct? I don't know!!!
 
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Ugly

Guest
#2
#2
Sounds like you were hearing Catholic doctrines. Not Christian doctrines. They are not the same. You are right, a priest can do nothing over a persons soul. This is the idea, i believe, of purgatory. Where a soul makes it to neither heaven or hell, and can be prayed into heaven. Catholic teaching.
 
Radius

Radius

Senior Member
#3
Feb 11, 2013
1,138
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#3
100% no. You cannot pray someone into heaven. You must make a personal decision concerning Jesus and ask Him yourself to save you while you are breathing and alive on earth. Once you die you, nor anyone else can do anything about it.
 
resurrection33

resurrection33

Banned
#4
Dec 19, 2009
27,513
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#4
faithandlove said:
I ask this because I witnessed someone trying to do just that.


From what I know, the scriptures says that the individual must save their own soul. But last year, I worked on a part time job where I was a sitter. And one day, I was assigned to sit with this elderly man who was dying. His family wanted to "make sure that he got into heaven", and so sent a priest of some sort to pray him into heaven.

But if he wasn't saved (and I don't know if he was or not, but for the sake of this conversation, let's just say he wasn't), a priest couldn't pray him into heaven, right? He would have had to accepted Jesus on his own, correct? I don't know!!!
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No, here is the path to heaven:

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matt 4:17 RSV
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enoch1nine

Guest
#5
#5
I believe only Jesus can pray him into heaven, and I believe He did so on the cross.
 
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starfield

Senior Member
#6
Jun 13, 2009
3,393
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#6
faithandlove said:
I ask this because I witnessed someone trying to do just that.


From what I know, the scriptures says that the individual must save their own soul. But last year, I worked on a part time job where I was a sitter. And one day, I was assigned to sit with this elderly man who was dying. His family wanted to "make sure that he got into heaven", and so sent a priest of some sort to pray him into heaven.

But if he wasn't saved (and I don't know if he was or not, but for the sake of this conversation, let's just say he wasn't), a priest couldn't pray him into heaven, right? He would have had to accepted Jesus on his own, correct? I don't know!!!
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Salvation is the work of God, not man.
 
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OwenHeidenreich

Guest
#7
#7
jeremiah 31:30 instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes--their own teeth will be set on edge.
 
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ChristianGuy0

Guest
#8
#8
Sadly, the Catholic church, like almost all man-made denominations, have inserted their own man-made ideas into the Bible... even though these ideas are nowhere to be found in the Bible.

I believe a person cannot be "prayed in" to heaven... Firstly, it would be against their own free will choice to reject God. It would also mean that if a priest prayed Hitler into heaven, that he would go and that no choices he made would matter.
 
RickShafer

RickShafer

Banned
#9
Sep 8, 2012
4,367
58
0
#9
faithandlove said:
I ask this because I witnessed someone trying to do just that.


From what I know, the scriptures says that the individual must save their own soul. But last year, I worked on a part time job where I was a sitter. And one day, I was assigned to sit with this elderly man who was dying. His family wanted to "make sure that he got into heaven", and so sent a priest of some sort to pray him into heaven.

But if he wasn't saved (and I don't know if he was or not, but for the sake of this conversation, let's just say he wasn't), a priest couldn't pray him into heaven, right? He would have had to accepted Jesus on his own, correct? I don't know!!!
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Yes, you are correct.
The conjoining of God to created soul must take place while said soul is able to receive it by it's own will.
Now, regarding certain types of minds that never had the wherewithal to discern good from evil, I don't see the need for them to make a cognitive decision(by grace), because they don't have the ability to discern between the two: (good and evil), thus can't "choose" Christ out of a regret for sin(godly sorrow).
- Though they may act out in mischief, they don't have the faculties, (any more than a child under the age of accountability - whatever that age is), to choose one or the other(good or evil).
 
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BeanieD

Guest
#10
#10
God can use a pastor, friend or family to pray for them, but if the person hasn't been convinced by the spirit of God, all the prayer in the world won't get them into heaven. They have to be convicted of their sin and repent of their own will.
 
RickShafer

RickShafer

Banned
#11
Sep 8, 2012
4,367
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#11
Carrying on with the next question.
It would be thus: "Well, if a soul has reverted back to a state of innocence before it's passing, how can not the grace of God apply to it also, just as if it was a babe in the womb(being incapacitated)?"
The answer is because it had lived a life of the knowledge of good and evil before it's current 'childlike' state.
So it(that soul) had known, or tasted of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - when it was fully cognizant and coherent of the moral decisions it was making.
And to now offer it a clemency based on nothing more than it(that certain soul) not being able to decide again for itself would be akin to a person in hell having the ability to get a 'do over'.
NOW! - We are never to judge one who is on their death bed. No matter what is being done over them, (to try to save their soul), we don't know their spiritual state with God. - So we should never judge such an one as lost - - because we simply don't know.
 
4enlightment

4enlightment

Banned
#12
May 15, 2013
4,307
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#12
faithandlove said:
I ask this because I witnessed someone trying to do just that.


From what I know, the scriptures says that the individual must save their own soul. But last year, I worked on a part time job where I was a sitter. And one day, I was assigned to sit with this elderly man who was dying. His family wanted to "make sure that he got into heaven", and so sent a priest of some sort to pray him into heaven.

But if he wasn't saved (and I don't know if he was or not, but for the sake of this conversation, let's just say he wasn't), a priest couldn't pray him into heaven, right? He would have had to accepted Jesus on his own, correct? I don't know!!!
Click to expand...
Matthew 20:23Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.”
 
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danschance

Guest
#13
#13
faithandlove said:
I ask this because I witnessed someone trying to do just that.


From what I know, the scriptures says that the individual must save their own soul. But last year, I worked on a part time job where I was a sitter. And one day, I was assigned to sit with this elderly man who was dying. His family wanted to "make sure that he got into heaven", and so sent a priest of some sort to pray him into heaven.

But if he wasn't saved (and I don't know if he was or not, but for the sake of this conversation, let's just say he wasn't), a priest couldn't pray him into heaven, right? He would have had to accepted Jesus on his own, correct? I don't know!!!
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The way you have described it? No. In general you can't pray someone into Heaven, but there is one unique set of circumstances were we might be able to assist them.

23“If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.” John 20:23
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I am not going to try to say I know exactly what this verse is all about. However, I had a very strange experience that relates to this topic. My Father died at age 86. He was a good man but not perfect. I had just heard the news a few hours before I began chatting online with a person whom the fires of the Holy Spirit burn the brightest I have ever seen. She helped me get closer to God and on occasion hear His voice. While we were talking she said that I need to forgive my Dad of the sins he had committed against me.

I asked God to help me recall all the times he had sinned against me. One by one, I saw in a visions what he had done to me and others. Each time I prayed something like "Lord Jesus I forgive my father for (whatever) and I ask that You forgive him as well, in Jesus name". I did this until the visions stopped and I went to bed incredibly late.

I have no idea if my Dad made it or not. I can only assume it helped him but I won't know till I get to Heaven myself.
 
homwardbound

homwardbound

Senior Member
#14
Oct 24, 2012
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#14
No matter what the case is, it is bottom line between God and that person, and of coarse my hope is for that person. Now I know God is good and the true judge of it all when the time comes for one to leave here.
Yet here is man just as usual getting in the way, as if we have something to do, to get a death bed person to heaven.
This last part in reality is a feel good ministry for the family. The family ofcoarse is hurt, I know, I had a family of seven 4 are passed on. Is it my descision to where they go? Wait a minute, my Sister was the first at 18 on an overdose in San francisco, Hadeashbury days. IS she Saved? I. my family all convinced themselves she is.
Reality I do not know, and the best I cam do is talk (pray) to God and say in your hands Father she is, and it is your descision to who enters and who does not, I thnk you that you are not a tyrant as I hear from a lot of other people with their do's and dont's as if you do not have Mercy, but I know you do, and I thank you for you throguh your Son went to the cross ofr me and all the people here in this world, past, present and future, Thank you.
Now I trust you to do with my Sister, my Dad, My Brother, My Mother, what you choose, you as I have gone through all the experiences in the world of good and bad things, you Father have all the answers, for you are the creator and I believe you know what is best for all. into your hands Father I give all to you.
Matthew 9:13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matthew 12:7If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.
Hosea 6:6For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
 
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danschance

Guest
#15
#15
homwardbound

I understand what you're saying and had this not of happened to me, I am sure I would be saying something close to what you have said. I hesitated to post this as I knew I would get flak for it. Even so, it happened to me as I posted, to the best of my memory. Do I claim to understand it? Not at all. It is a question mark for me that will not be resolved until I get to Heaven.
 
Bookends

Bookends

Senior Member
#16
Aug 28, 2012
4,225
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#16
No you can't, no more then you could pray for Satan's salvation.
 
nl

nl

Senior Member
#18
Jun 26, 2011
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#18
On the contrary, will God save anyone if we don't pray?

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion... - Genesis 1:26

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth and gave dominion to mankind. Adam and Eve rejected God's command concerning the forbidden fruit and believed the devil's word that day but God's Word remained unchanged. God has respected man's dominion over the earth and let men and women have dominion. If we want Almighty God to work on earth and to save a soul, then we need to invite Him into this dominion of the earth and ask Him to work. We need to pray: Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. We must pray.

God will go beyond and do more than we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20) but we must pray.

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? - Luke 11:13. We must pray.
 
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danschance

Guest
#19
#19
nl

Thankx. I appreciate that.

I agree, God is able to far exceed our expectations and He is not subject to the narrow minds of man, me included.
 
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faithandlove

Guest
#20
#20
Ok. Thanks for all the replies, but I will hold true and believe that it is up to the individual to accept salvation through Christ. Some of the posts are confusing, and I'm not condeming any, but for me, I had to accept Christ as my Saviour and Redeemer. No one could pray that for me and me get into heaven from their prayer. I understood my need for Christ as my Saviour and thus made the decision to surrender all and follow Christ.

I don't understand how someone who does not accept Christ or does not want to accept Christ can get into heaven with just the prayer of another?

So, I am going to hold true that that person needs to realize their need for Christ and accept Him as their personal Saviour. They just can't be "prayed" into heaven.
 
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