Catholics understand why Protestants made up excuses to remove The Books of The Maccabees from The Bible after they had been there for almost two thousand years. Maccabees included the story of Judas Maccabeus and his discovery among dead Jewish soldiers of some small idols of another nation. The sin of idol-worship brought these early Protestants to die in sin for that sin.
Their leader, Judas, asked God to forgive them in 2 Maccabees 12: 43-46: “And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection, (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,) And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them.”
The passage concludes: “It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.”
Protestant leaders, and the governments that supported them, did not want people praying for the dead. It gave too much authority to The Catholic Church and prompted donations of money and property that secular rulers wanted to stay on the tax roles. To justify ending the practice of praying for souls who had passed on, they removed both Books of Maccabees from The Bible.
We understand their motive, and realize the awful punishment that those who knowingly did this will receive: Those who took the Books out of The Bible will have no one praying for their souls. They are lost in pain, put their by the great vanity that prompted them to purposefully ignore Rev.22:19 “. . .if anyone cuts anything out of the prophecies in this Book, God will cut off his share of the tree of life and of the holy city, which are described in this book.”
We may pity the poor Protestants who erred. It is hard to imagine making a bigger mistake than that, but then they make another! Amazingly, many repeat “I believe in Jesus and The Bible.” without considering that The Bible condemns those who removed the parts of it they ignore to hell forever!
Their rebellious spirit still leads many to make the big Protestant blunder of being in denominations whose founders removed parts of The Bible and kept their own fellows and families from praying for them!
So, we should. In November especially, each Catholic should pray for the souls of family, friends, and neighbors who have passed away in churches who do not think it is important, or even possible, to pray for their souls. Our prayers are the only thing many of the immortal souls beyond have on their side.
Why would anyone who believe that they have an immortal soul want to be in a denomination where no one can pray for their soul when it passes? The big Protestant blunder, leaving their own immortal souls to suffer the eternal pain of being endlessly chewed and ground up by satan’s grinding molars.
That’s why satan led the early Protestants to remove The Books of the Maccabees. “Don’t let the Protestants know how important it is to pray for souls! I don’t want God answering prayers that take them away from me!”
