Christian Pure

Dreaming of a Loved One Who Has Died: What the Bible Says

Christian Pure Team

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Published

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Updated

Summary

  • The Bible gives no meaning to dreams of a loved one who has died, and it never says the dead visit us in our sleep.
  • Scripture forbids seeking messages from the dead (Deuteronomy 18:10–12), but a dream that comes unasked is not the same as going to a medium.
  • Augustine, who lost his mother Monica, noted that living people appear in our dreams without knowing it, and he believed the same of the dead.
  • Catholics and Orthodox pray for the departed, and the Catechism calls it “a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead.”
  • Many Protestant churches do not pray for the dead and teach that believers who die go at once to be with Christ, while Lutheran teaching does not forbid such prayer.
  • A dream that someone still alive has died is no prediction, and Jesus tells us to take no thought for the morrow.
  • If grief or such dreams keep you from sleep for months, it is wise to talk to a pastor or a doctor.

The Bible gives no meaning to dreams of a loved one who has died, and it never says that the dead visit us in our sleep. It does forbid seeking messages from the dead (Deuteronomy 18:10–12), but a dream that comes to us unasked is not that. And it promises that our dead are alive to God. Augustine wrote about these dreams as a grieving son. His mother Monica followed him to Italy and died at Ostia, as they waited…

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Bibliography (Click to show)
  • The Holy Bible, King James Version (public domain), via BibleGateway: Deuteronomy 18:10–12; 1 Samuel 28:7; Luke 20:37–38; Philippians 1:23; Psalm 34:18; James 1:17; Matthew 6:34; Ephesians 4:32; 1 Thessalonians 5:10. Douay-Rheims Bible, 1899 American edition (public domain), via BibleGateway: Sirach 34:3; 2 Maccabees 12:43–46.
  • Augustine of Hippo, On the Care of the Dead, translated by H. Browne, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 3 (1887), via New Advent.
  • Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, Book IX, translated by J. G. Pilkington, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 1 (1887), via New Advent.
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 958 and paragraph 2116.
  • Orthodox Church in America, Prayer for the Departed and Trisagion Service, Questions and Answers.
  • Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XXIV, paragraph 94, Book of Concord.
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 120, and Orthodox Church in America, Canon of Scripture, on Sirach and Maccabees in the Old Testament.
  • The Westminster Confession of Faith, chapters 21.4 and 32.1, as published by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

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