If by historical you mean in some circles the last 500 years or so, then we agree brother.
3) Paul never, ever prayed for the dead. Onesiphorus was a companion to Paul and went with Paul to many of his places of ministry. Paul is simply giving an account of those who abandoned him and praising Onesiphorus for his faithful service for which he asks God to give him a great reward at the end of time. Onesiphorus had not died. He was quite alive at the moment of Paul's payer.
We are talking about 2 Tim 1:16-18. Am not sure how you could know whether Onesiphorus was alive or dead at that moment. The early Christian writings support an understanding that he was not. We know from other writings that he is numbered among the "disciples" of Jesus (one of the 70) and that he is said to have been martyred.At best one could claim Onesiphorus was not there in his house when Paul offers this prayer and from the language of asking mercy on his family he was probably detained somewhere else against his will and possibly in danger of dying. Would give you that. But if that were the case, rather than just speaking kindly of things Onesiphorus had done for Paul, you would think Paul would pray for and ask everyone to pray for his safe return and maybe if not for a merciful death. Paul does not do that. Neither does Paul mention Onesiphorus in the closing (4:19), but again only the family. Obviously Paul felt warmly about Onesiphorus. If he were still alive it would be a bit odd and something of a slam to mention specific people's names but only Onesiphorus entire family. You could counter that Paul means everyone including Onesiphorus, yet it would still be odd to mention the other individuals in the same sentence with the "entire family" and not also single out a person he began the letter praising. More fitting for someone still living and worthy of Paul's praise would have been a salute to Onesiphorus AND his entire family.
Anyway, common sense should cause you to pause and ask, "Why would we pray for the dead?" There is a resurrection of the just and a resurrection of the lost. God is in control of the soul once it passes through death and is that soul's Judge for reward in Heaven or punshment to Hell. It's too late to pray for a soul once the person has died!
Well in a view that holds those going to Heaven must first pass through Purgatory, we would have not only a reason, but want to pray for those souls. We do not assume to know who is going to Heaven or Hell. Strictly speaking a person going to Hell could not need or use our prayers. Since we cannot know and do pray for the souls going to Heaven, am not sure how we could be considered wrong by God to have prayed for someone who has died and gone to Hell.
Nowhere in the entire Bible does God say to pray for the dead.
Not explicitly, but as you know we say it is implied even by our Lord and that the instances already given including Macabee's, and Paul show someone praying for the dead. We admit you do not agree those instances do so, and we can only agree to disagree there.However, we both know we all do things as Christians that are not explicit commands in the Bible, so pointing out that there is no explicit command must not be what we use to either prohibit or endorse a practice. We are told repeatedly to pray for one another, pray for all believers. There is nothing in that explicit command to suggest "believers" excludes those we count as Christians that have gone before us. Nor is there anything to suggest that those gone before us are to stop praying for "one another". And as already mentioned we that believe in Purgatory for all going to Heaven, we have a reason to pray for those there. We understand you do NOT believe in Purgatory and therefore could not have or see this reasoning.
4) You make a distiction between praying to the saints and asking the saints to pray for us. But that is STILL praying to the saints, isn't it?. All prayer is to be directed to the Father and to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit (to God alone).
Only if one considers asking your mom or dad or any other believer to pray for you to be a prayer to that person. Strictly speaking prayer can mean to talk/communicate with someone, so in that sense you could say asking anyone to pray for us is a prayer to that person. We have to ask is it such a terrible thing to ask someone to pray to God for us, on our behalf? And if one believes all the angels, saints and hosts in Heaven can hear our prayers (and Catholics do) is it such a terrible thing to ask the same to pray to God on our behalf?
The Catholic Church is unbiblical in this practice.
You say so, but then that would be why I am Catholic and you are not. It cannot be said that Catholics have no biblical reason to do so, we do and it has been given to you. It can only be said that you do not see it or agree with it.
5) I don't have to look up any site on the subject of Purgatory which is nothing but a dogma of the Church.
No, you don't "have to". Personally to intelligently speak of something, even to argue against it, I find it helpful to first understand what one is talking about. It would be why I have read the book of Mormon. Otherwise, how can I not look foolish speaking about something for which I have no understanding?
There are not three resurrections, just two. One is the resurrection of the saved unto eternal life; the other is the resurrection of the lost unto eternal damnation.
See, this exactly what I mean by looking foolish. Purgatory does not represent to a Catholic a death or a resurrection.
It will be judgement time based on the finished work of Christ's death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead.
Yes, the final judgement is possible because of what Jesus did. But this had nothing to do with Purgatory.
No intermediate state is mentioned anywhere in the Bible. No purgatory!!waynemlj
No, the word is not there but as shown already, we do believe such a process that we call Purgatory is referred to in scripture (burning as if by fire does not sound pleasant but the person makes it to Heaven). We agree you do not see that as such a reference.clearly we also see a reason for praying for the dead, and we also see people praying for the dead in scripture and that reason being a Purgatory for those going to Heaven. We agree you do not see those references as being what we represent them to be (and in the one clearest case you don't have the book in your Bible).We also note that while you wish to see this as a ROMAN Catholic invention, the early writers (before there were "Roman" Catholics) also speek of praying for the dead and Purgatory. The graffitti on the catacombs show early Christians during Roman persecutions offered prayers for the dead. So we agree that you disagree not only with us and our Roman Catholic teachings, but that you also disagree with the earliest Christians as well.