Please answer only if you know a 100%, and how do you know? My pastor says that catholics believe that you go?

Question

to a place called purgatory and if your family pays a lot of money for you, you have a chance to be saved again instead of going to hell? Why do catholics believe in such thing?

Answer 1

You pastor is a bit confused about the beliefs of Catholics.

We do believe in Purgatory but not how he described it.

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.

For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, section 1030: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art12.htm#1030

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Ok i will try to give you an answer:
Aparently the purgatory is not really heave or hell, is a place in between. Is a place where people that haven't been very good nor very bad go. Aparently the catholic bible has extra books that do not exits (correct me if am wrong) and that is where this purgatory cames from. According to the ( New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, tomo XI, pág. 1034) In the purgatory the soul is pushnish for a while until, it has pay his sin and is allowed to enter into haven. I never hear of some paying for you here are earth. you can't buy your way to heaven. This is not a biblical thing, look at what the bible say.
Ezekiel 18: 4 Look! All the souls—to me they belong. As the soul of the father so likewise the soul of the son—to me they belong. The soul that is sinning—it itself will die.
Roman 6:7 For he who has died has been acquitted from [his] sin.
Ecclesiastes 9:5 For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten.
According to the bible such thing does not exist.

Answer 3

They do not believe such a thing. The sales of indulgences ended as part of the Counter Reformation.

Purgatory is a place of purification prior to reaching Heaven. It is described as an unpleasant place, but one filled with hope -- To be in Purgatory is an assurance of Heaven. Prayers from those left behind (family and loved ones) can help speed the purification, but even if a person is totally forgotten and no one says prayers for them, they will leave Purgatory once their purification is complete.

A person who is Hell-bound will go to Hell, not through Purgatory. Only the Saved pass through Purgatory, and then only long enough to be cleansed of the guilt of their sins so they can enter Heaven.


Your pastor is teaching you lies.

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dopler:

Technically, Limbo was never an official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. It was invented by Dantes as part of 'The Divine Comedy', and was taken as canon by many Catholics. Just recently, in the past few months, Pope Benedict re-emphasized the non-canonical status of Limbo.

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Redeemed:

Interesting that the concept of Purgatory appears in Jewish teaching then, if not quite by that name, and that prayer for the deceased is beneficial to those in this in-between place.

It was not invented by the Roman Catholic Church, it was continued from Jewish sources in a somewhat modified form.

Answer 4

Why does your pastor believe in such things?


Lol, where did he get this info?:

"if your family pays a lot of money for you, you have a chance to be saved again instead of going to hell"


Traditional Catholics' Motto

We are what you once were.
We believe what you once believed.
We worship as you once worshipped.
If you were right then, we are right now.
If we are wrong now, you were wrong then.

Answer 5

The Bible does not actually have the word purgatory in it. The bible does make several references to people being refined by fire like silver or gold, Catholics believe that happens after death. They believe they are punished until they are refined, pure enough for heaven. Prodistants believe those passages are refering to the trials of life and that is why bad things happen to us. I personally do not believe in purgatory because just before Jesus died on the cross he said to the man being crucified beside him "today you will be with me in paradise". He did not say "today you will be in purgatory and a week from thursday you will be allowed into heaven"

Answer 6

we do believe in purgatory so that if you have lived an overall good life, but there are some sins that you need to make up for you can go to purgatory and make up for them and then go to heaven. Basically you are not bad enough for hell, but not yet good enough for heaven. Your family paying money has nothing to do with it, though way back some corrupt priests did take money and promise that relatives in purgatory would go to heaven, that has since stopped to my knowledge.

Answer 7

J.P. gave a great answer, but the I'd like to clarify that indulgences were not sold; rather, alms-giving was an indulgenced work. Because of abuse and misunderstanding, alms-giving ceased to be an indulgenced work about 500 years ago.

Scripture references for purgatory: http://www.scripturecatholic.com/purgatory.html

An explanation of indulgences from a former Protestant:
http://www.cin.org/users/james/files/indulgen.htm

Answer 8

Dear Saved -
As you can see from J.P.'s answer, Catholics do indeed believe in a place called Purgatory. Now perhaps your pastor was merely trying to point out how preposterous the idea of purgatory is.

For in fact it is not found in the Bible and is a doctrine made up by the Catholic church.

There is another practice by the Catholic church called indulgences, where you can give the priest money to perfrom a mass for someone who has died. (not biblical)

for more information on the differences between what the Catholic church teaches and what God says in His Word the Bible, check out this web site:
http://www.reachingcatholics.org/

Answer 9

That was practiced by the Catholic church centuries ago. Martin Luther protested the Roman Catholic church because of this. It was called, "selling of indulgences" which were extra miracles performed by saints. Thanks to the CounterReformation within the Catholic Church, that is no longer practiced. However, they believe you can pray extra prayers to help your dead relatives out of purgatory.

Answer 10

Your pastor is misinformed. We dont pay money to escape hell and yes! there is a place called Purgatory.

Purgatory is very real and you can spend years and years there. The torments there are the same as hell. Only difference is that the souls in Purgatory do not despair. They know they will see the Face of God one day. The souls in Purgatory rely on our prayers and almsgiving and Masses to be relieved of their torments and also to be quickly released from Purgatory.

Many saints have gone to Heaven directly because of their perfections or spent a very short time in Purgatory. But sinful souls who have not attained perfection on earth have to pay for their sins either partly on earth or in Purgatory in order to appear pure and perfect before the Divine Majesty. Many souls from Purgatory appeared before saints to beg the fruits of the saints' sufferings, prayers and alms to be applied to their souls in order to obtain relief. Another big misconception is to think that a soul was saintly and must be in heaven and thus doesnt need our prayers. That soul could be one of the Forgotten souls of Purgatory who desperately awaits our prayers.

This is a prayer by which Our Lord promises to release 1000 souls from Purgatory everytime it is said:
" Eternal Father, I offer Thee the most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ in union with the Masses said all over the world today for the Holy Souls in Purgatory."

A very good book about Purgatory which will make your eyes pop is 'Charity for the Suffering Souls' by Rev. John A. Nageleisen.

The main body of Christians have always believed in the existence of a place between Heaven and Hell where souls go to be punished for lesser sins and to repay the debt of temporal punishment for sins which have been forgiven. Even after Moses was forgiven by God, he was still punished for his sin. (2 Kg. or 2 Sam. 12:13-14). The primitive Church Fathers regarded the doctrine of Purgatory as one of the basic tenets of the Christian faith. St. Augustine, one of the greatest doctors of the Church, said the doctrine of Purgatory "has been received from the Fathers and it is observed by the Universal Church." True, the word "Purgatory" does not appear in the Bible, but a place where lesser sins are purged away and the soul is saved "yet so as by fire," is mentioned (1 Cor. 3:15). Also, the Bible distinguishes between those who enter Heaven straightaway, calling them "the church of the firstborn" (Heb. 12:23), and those who enter after having undergone a purgation, calling them "the spirits of the just made perfect." (Heb. 12:23). Christ Himself stated: "Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing." (Matt. 5 :26). And: "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment." (Matt. 12:36). These are obviously references to Purgatory. Further, the Second Book of Machabees (which was dropped from the Scriptures by the Protestant Reformers) says: "It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." (2 Mach. 12:46). Ancient Christian tomb inscriptions from the second and third centuries frequently contain an appeal for prayers for the dead. In fact, the custom of praying for the dead – which is meaningless if there is no Purgatory – was universal among Christians for the fifteen centuries preceding the Protestant Reformation.

To clear other common misconceptions Protestants have about the Catholic faith go to the foll link:
http://www.olrl.org/apologetics/