Purgatory....made up by Catholics???

Question

First of all I am a Catholic but I do not belive everything the church tells me. Where did the idea of Purgatory come from? Both Heaven and hell are mentioned in the Bible but NOWHERE is there mention of Purgatory. Where/from who did this idea come from and why is it so widely accepted?

Answer 1

The idea of purgatory is a strictly catholic idea, created by the Vatican. People used to be able to pay (the church) so that they were guaranteed entry into heaven and did not have to wait in purgatory. it was one of the many ways that the catholic church could make money.

Answer 2

+ Purgatory +

The concept of purgation is hinted at in the Bible. Here are a couple of places:

"But if someone's work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire." 1 Cor 3:15

"So that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 1 Pet 1:7

Are you perfect now? Most people would say no.

Will you be perfect in heaven? Most people believe yes.

Purgatory (or purgation) is the process of God's love changing our imperfect selves on earth into perfect beings in heaven. Depending on the amount of change needed by different people, this can be an easy or slightly harder process. Everyone in purgatory is on his or her way to heaven. I do not think Mother Teresa of Calcutta had a very hard time of it.

+ Sources of Doctrine +

The Catholic Church does not only use Holy Scripture for the basis of doctrine. The early Catholic church existed before and during the time that the New Testament was written (by Catholics).

Catholics also believe that the Holy Spirit was guiding the early church (and is guiding the church today) to make the correct choices about things like
- The Holy Trinity (which is also only hinted at in the Bible)
- Going to church on Sunday instead of Saturday (which is actually directly against one of the ten commandments)
- Which books to include in the New Testament?
- How do our imperfect selves on earth get to be perfect in heaven?

This second source of doctrine is called Apostolic Tradition.

+ With love in Christ.

Answer 3

The idea of purgatory came from the Jewish idea of Sheol. Sheol is a place we go where we die to atone for our sins. The longest we stay there is a year (it depends on how wrong you led your life in the previous life) and after you were finishing atoning, you went to be in Gan Eden (heaven) with G-d. If you were so terrible as to not make it, you simply stop existing.

The Catholic Church got purgatory from Judaism. It is widely accepted because it actually is in the Tanakh, but not in the Septuagint translations.

Answer 4

Purgatory was invented by the Catholic Church so that they could sell "indulgences" to fund the construction of St Peter's Basilica. The idea was that wealthy sinners would pay a lot of money for a guarantee that they wouldn't be sent straight to Hell. Instead, souls with a valid (signed by the Pope) indulgence would stop at purgatory, where they would suffer until their sins were expiated. Then they went to Heaven. At its height, indulgences could be retroactively purchased for long dead relatives, or for unborn babies. Many good Christians were disgusted with the Vatican over this issue and Indulgences were one of the principle issues in Martin Luther's inflammatory thesis which ultimately ignited the Protestant Reformation. Like everything else about organized Christianity, purgatory is a blatant fraud.

Answer 5

Can you show me where the word TRINITY is in the Bible?

You can't, because it isn't there! BUT- there are scriptures that support the IDEA of the Trinity. Trinity is a word Christians use to sum up the idea.

Purgatory is not a place, it is a state of purification. Those souls in the state of purgatory are actually saved- one day they will be in Heaven.

Yes- there is Heaven, and there is Hell.

Let me ask you this....have you ever prayed for the soul of someone who has died?

Why?

At the very instant of their death, the state of their soul could not be changed. What they did with their life determined where they would spend eternity.

So-----if they are in Heaven, they don't need your prayers.....and if they are in Hell, no amount of prayer would help....

So why waste your prayers on the dead? Either way, it won't do any good!

Yet in scripture we are told that it is good and noble to pray for the souls of the dead. In Maccabees, Judas Maccabeus and his men went out after battle to gather their dead. Many good faithful dead Jewish soldiers were found with amulets and good luck charms. Judas told his men to pray for the Lord to have mercy on their souls.

That means there MUST be something in between- some condition an imperfect soul that does not deserve Hell can enter for purification. It is said to be a place of suffering, but the kind of suffering one endures because one knows it will have a good outcome- like childbirth.



Purgatory exists because our God is not only JUST, He is MERCIFUL. He would not refuse entrance to a soul based on minor imperfections, but He can only allow the perfect soul to enter Heaven. So he offers us a way to become purifed.

Jesus' death was our redemption- nothing can change that...but everyday, we jeopardize our SALVATION through our thought and actions. Purgatory allows us to regain our salvation through our purification.

Answer 6

Just as Trinity, Bible and Incarnation are not in the Bible, neither is the word purgatory.

It may surprise you to know that the Church makes very few binding statements about what purgatory is. The sections in the Catechism of the Catholic Church are very short. The most important statement is: "All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven" (CCC 1030). So, you see, purgatory is not a second chance after this life. It is only for those who "die in God’s grace and friendship."

Look at 1 Corinthians 3:14–15: "If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire." You see, the Latinate word purgatory means a purgation or burning by fire. Paul in these verses refers to a purgation process whereby a man is saved even though his works are burned away. This is precisely what the Catholic Church teaches. A person at death who still has personal faults is prevented from entering into heaven because he is not completely purified. He must go through a period of purgation in order to be made clean, for nothing unclean will enter heaven (cf. Rev. 21:27).
"In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view; for if he were not expecting the dead to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin" (2 Macc. 12:43–45). Prayers are not needed by those in heaven, and no one can help those in hell. That means some people must be in a third condition, at least temporarily. This verse so clearly illustrates the existence of purgatory that, at the time of the Reformation, Protestants had to cut the books of the Maccabees out of their Bibles in order to avoid accepting the doctrine.
this passage shows that even before Christ the Jewish people recognized the need for purification from sins after death and believed that the prayers and sacrifices of those still living could aid in this purification. The Catholic Church didn’t make up this idea.

Matthew 12:32 says that some people who sin "will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come." This suggests that there are some sins that will be forgiven in the age to come. If there is no purification after death, then this passage doesn’t make much sense.

The Church doesn’t exclude the possibility that purgatory could be an instantaneous purification, but there are indications in the Bible that souls do exist in some state that is neither heaven nor hell. Look at 1 Peter 3:19–20. These verses show Jesus preaching to "to the spirits in prison." The "prison" cannot be heaven, because the people there do not need to have the Gospel preached to them. It cannot be hell, because the souls in hell cannot repent. It must be something else. As you can see, there is nothing unbiblical about the claim that those who have died might not immediately go to heaven or to hell.

"I tell you, you will never get out till you have paid the very last copper" (Luke 12:59).


The resistance to the biblical doctrine of purgatory presumes there is a contradiction between Christ’s redeeming us on the cross and the process by which we are sanctified. There isn’t. And one cannot say that suffering in the final stage of sanctification conflicts with the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement without saying that suffering in the early stages of sanctification also presents a similar conflict. They has it backward: Our suffering in sanctification does not take away from the cross. Rather, the cross produces our sanctification, which results in our suffering, because "[f]or the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness" (Heb. 12:11).

Answer 7

It is a purely catholic invention. It's an attempt to give sinners who did not atone before their death a second chance. It's an attempt to recognize that some people deserve to be punished more for the way they lived their lives than other people. It allows you to be purified of your sins and be born again.

All in all, it is one of the more rational ideas the catholics have had. If they had placed non-christians in purgatory with a chance to accept Jesus they would have had a very theologically sound basis for universal salvation. A way for Gandhi to make it into heaven along with christians such as Hitler and Mussolini.

Still, it's all nonsense. Of course, so are hell and heaven. It's death after life, not life after death. Live the best you can in this life because you don't get another chance.

Answer 8

Actually, it comes straight from Judaism. Jews don't believe in the Christian "hell." You won't find eternal damnation anyplace in the Tanach (OT) -- you'll have to look for it in your "New" Testament.

The Jewish "hell" is a short period of cleansing -- much like the Catholic purgatory.
.

Answer 9

"First of all I am a Catholic but I do not belive everything the church tells me."

It is common for people to say that they do not "believe everything" the Catholic Church teaches.

This is different from saying that they do not "understand everything". There is a big difference.

When we say we don't believe the Church, we really say "I choose not to believe what the Church teaches because I know everything and I know what the Church is saying is false."

When we say, we don't understand everything, we say "I realize that I don't know everything and I believe that the Church may be able to teach me something".

Which one requires more humility???

God does not call us to understand everything... he calls us to faith. He asks us to believe EVERYTHING He has revealed to us, whether we understand it or not.

The Catholic Church contains and teaches what is called the fullness of Truth... that is She teaches EVERYTHING that God has revealed whether written (Sacred Scripture) or spoken (Sacred Tradition).

Visit these sites to help you understand more:
www.Catholic.com
www.ewtn.com

Answer 10

Catholics Believe

That, as nothing defiled can enter heaven (Apoc. 21:27), souls with the slightest stain upon them must go through a process of purgation before coming face to face with Him "whose eyes are too pure to behold evil" (Hab. 1:13).

"I am thy father's spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day, confined to waste in fires Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burned and purged away!" (Hamlet, Act 1, scene 5).


Catholics Believe

That there is a "prison," a place of temporal punishment, where souls (whose guilt of sin has been forgiven) go to make restitution for their transgressions:

"I (Christ Jesus) say to thee, thou wilt not come out from it, until thou has paid the last penny" (St. Matt. 5:25-26).


Catholics Believe

That the prayers, good works, acts of mercy, of the living help the souls of the departed who are in purgatory.

"Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of" (Tennyson).

"Lay this body anywhere: be not concerned about that: but one favor do I beg of you, that wherever you may be you will always make a remembrance of me, when you stand at the altar of God" (St. Monica to her son St. Augustine).