Does The Bible Support Praying for the Dead?

I was asked a question not too long if it is okay to pray for someone who has died. I was a little shocked because the person who asked me is an evangelical and even teaches Sunday School at church. Well, my simple answer was no. I could not think of any place the Bible even mentions about praying for the dead. Jesus never commanded it nor did the Apostles.

I began to do a little more research and come to find out that praying for the dead is a Roman Catholic teaching. They based it on 2 Timothy 1:16-18:

May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me—-may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.

I don't see anywhere in this passage that Paul wrote about praying for this person because he has passed on from this life to the next or that his soul is trapped in purgatory, which is not a Biblical doctrine. In this passage, Paul mentions Onesiphours, who is someone that has ministered to Paul while in prison. No where does Paul mentioned that he has died. Matthew Henry wrote:

It is probable that Onesiphorus was now absent from home, and in company with Paul; Paul therefore prays that his house might be kept during his absence. Though the papists will have it that he was now dead; and, from Paul’s praying for him that he might find mercy, they conclude the warrantableness of praying for the dead; but who told them that Onesiphorus was dead?

So this idea of praying for the dead came from the idea that Onesiphorus has died which is why Paul wrote "may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day" (2 Timothy 1:18). The Bible does not support praying for the dead. Once someone has departed this world, they will stand before God and give an account for their life. They will either enter His presence in mercy and grace or enter His presence in wrath and judgment. What we can do now is pray for those still living that God will grant them mercy and repent of their sins.