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Prayer for the Dead: John Calvin vs. the Bible

Prayer for the Dead: John Calvin vs. the Bible

Last updated on: June 13, 2026 at 1:07 pm by Dave Armstrong

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Prayer for the Dead: John Calvin vs. the Bible 2026-06-13T13:07:25-04:00 Dave Armstrong

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This is a transcript of the initial presentation (minus spontaneous discussions with Kenny Burchard) of our video at Catholic Bible Highlights, Pray for the dead? John Calvin says no. The Bible says YES!! (8-13-25).

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John Calvin, the second most important early Protestant leader, after Martin Luther, proclaimed about this topic:

When my opponents object that it has been the practice for thirteen hundred years to offer prayers for the dead, I, in return, ask them, by what word of God . . . by what example it was done? . . . We ought not to . . . set up a perverse mode of prayer . . . we must not introduce anything of our own into our prayers, . . . the whole Law and Gospel do not contain one syllable which countenances the right of praying for the dead, . . . (The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III, chapter 5, section 10, translated by Henry Beveridge in 1845, from the 1559 Latin version; available online)

Calvin seems to have missed the parts of the Bible that his outlook requires him to oppose. Here’s one, from the Apostle Paul:

1 Corinthians 15:29-31 (RSV) Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? [30] Why am I in peril every hour? [31] I protest, brethren, by my pride in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day!

Protestant commentators drive themselves crazy trying to understand this, and little or no consensus has been attained these past 500 years. I have described it as “the most un-Protestant verse in the Bible.” One Catholic view of it holds that “baptized” is used not for the sacrament, but to denote redemptive suffering or penance on behalf of the dead (analogous to prayer on their behalf). The word baptism is used in different ways in the Bible. For example, Jesus said, “Are you able to . . . be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (Mark 10:38; see also Luke 12:50). Another use that is different from water baptism is when John the Baptist said that Jesus would “baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Luke 3:16).

The sense, in other words, is that – Paul speaks rhetorically — if the dead don’t rise again, why would anyone suffer or be baptized with fire for them, or pray for them? But if they do rise again, it’s proper. In verses 30 and 31 Paul elaborates by linking his own suffering to what he wrote in 15:29.

St. Paul also appears to almost cite a deuterocanonical passage; part of what Protestants the “Apocrypha” and not part of the canonical Bible. In 2nd Maccabees 12 we find a story of some dead Israelites who were found with idols on their bodies, a practice forbidden by Mosaic Law. And so the ones who discovered them “turned to prayer, beseeching that the sin which had been committed might be wholly blotted out” (12:42) and “made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin” (12:45). Whether this book as canonical or not doesn’t affect its relevance to this topic, in two ways:

2nd Maccabees is widely accepted as an accurate historical account of verifiable events between 178 and 161 BC during the Maccabean Revolt in Israel. Thus, it reveals that the Israelites practiced prayers and atonement for the dead.

The Apostle Paul, it seems fairly clear, had 2nd Maccabees 12:44 in mind in 1 Corinthians 15:29. The former reads, “For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead.” This gives a big clue to Paul’s meaning.

But there is a less mysterious statement from Paul, where he is literally praying for a dead person, who is named:

2 Timothy 1:16, 18 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, . . . [18] may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day . . .

Once again, Protestant commentators are all over the ballpark in their attempts to avoid any hint that it’s a prayer for the dead. They claim either that Onesiphorus wasn’t dead or that Paul wasn’t praying, with more taking the first view. But this isn’t, I respectfully submit, coherent or believable. When our own prior views contradict the Bible, we have a real problem.

If Calvin and his followers still want to deny that the Bible ever refers to and endorses prayer for the dead, there are more crystal-clear and undeniable verses in the New Testament about it. Jesus, the Apostle Peter, and the prophet Elijah all prayed for dead people to be raised. This is prayer for the dead, and can’t be considered anything but that. They prayed for a positive impact on the lives of people who were dead: to come back to earthly life. Granted, these are extraordinary circumstances, but still they count as biblical examples that Calvin claimed do not exist at all.

Jesus not only prayed for Lazarus, but in a sense, to him as well, by commanding him at the time when he was dead. The same occurred when He raised Jairus’ daughter and the son of the widow of Nain. In commanding them to rise, He was simultaneously praying for them. Likewise, when Peter raised Tabitha, the text specifically notes that he prayed and then commanded her. Moreover, the prophet Elijah clearly prayed (successfully) for a child to be raised. Here’s what the Bible states about these raisings of the dead:

John 11:41, 43 . . . Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.” . . .” [43] When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”

Mark 5:41 taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi”; which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”

Luke 7:14 . . . And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”

Acts 9:40 . . . Peter . . . knelt down and prayed; then turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, rise.” . . .

1 Kings 17:21-22 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this child’s soul come into him again.” [22] And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Elijah; . . .

That brings the total to seven passages about, or describing prayer or penance for the dead in the Protestant Bible. But there is another. Jesus commanded His disciples to raise the dead (“Heal the sick, raise the dead, . . .”: Matthew 10:8) and they did so (Matthew 11:5; Luke 7:22). We’ve seen the models above, of how one raises another from the dead. They include prayer for dead people, and also talking to the dead person.

All of this is quite anathema and unthinkable to Calvin and most Protestants, yet there it is, right in front of us, in the Bible. Are we to follow the mere traditions of men, contrary to Scripture and condemned by Jesus, or God’s inspired, inerrant, infallible Word? We have the examples of Jesus, Peter, Paul, and Elijah. Paul wrote, “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do” (Philippians 4:9). That includes prayer for dead people.

My Related Books

Biblical Evidence for the Communion of Saints (Feb. 2012, 152 pages)

God of Love, Fire & Light: A Biblical Defense of Purgatory (with Kenny Burchard, Nov. 2024, 140 pages)

My Related Web Page

Saints, Purgatory, & Penance

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Summary: John Calvin sez prayer for the dead is absent in the Bible. But Paul taught it (1 Cor 15:29; 2 Tim 1:16), & Jesus, Peter, & Elijah prayed for & talked to the dead before raising them.

John Calvin

Saints & Purgatory & Penance

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