What is Purgatory suppose to look like?

Question

I need information about for something I'm writing. I dont want any biased answer saying it doesn't exist.

I myself don't believe in it I just needed to know how it was suppose to look like. I don't need people saying the bible doesn't say or just heaven and hell.

Answer 1

purgatory did not exist it the roman catholic church until pope Gregory 1 decided to introduce it in 593 ad. it became dogma approx. 1000 years after that. the only inference to it in scripture can be found in 2Maccabees 12:45 which is in the Apocrypha which can be found only in bibles approved by the catholic church and according to the roman catholic church contains slightly heretical statements so to answer your question i really don't know how to say it doesn't exist without possibly offending you in some way, that is not the intention here, the facts were presented and i will let you make your own decision <(((>< HOW CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T EXIST LOOKS LIKE??? IT IS A FIGMENT OF THE IMAGINATION OF POPE GREGORY 1 !!!

Answer 2

Thus, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "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. The Church gives the name purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned" (CCC 1030–1).

The concept of an after-death purification from sin and the consequences of sin is also stated in the New Testament in passages such as 1 Corinthians 3:11–15 and Matthew 5:25–26, 12:31–32.

Answer 3

All Christians agree that we won’t be sinning in heaven. Sin and final glorification are utterly incompatible. Therefore, between the sinfulness of this life and the glories of heaven, we must be made pure. Between death and glory there is a purification.


Scripture teaches that God is a “consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). The point St. Paul seems to make is that, as God draws us to Himself after death, there is a process of purification in the fire of God’s holy presence. God Himself purifies us of those imperfect deeds: the wood, hay, and stubble. And those works that are performed in faithfulness and obedience to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, those of gold and silver, are purified. This purification is necessary because, as Scripture teaches of heaven — the new Jerusalem — and the temple within it, “Nothing unclean shall enter it” (Rev. 21:27). The biblical images of the purifying fire, through which the believer is saved while suffering loss, were now beginning to sound more and more like purgatory.

The doctrine of purgatory is completely reconcilable with a loving God who is a consuming fire. As we are drawn up into His love, into His very divine life — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — we begin to burn with that same divine fire, and those impurities to which we have clung in this life must be burned away. This will inevitably involve suffering, as we let go of those imperfect things to which we are attached.

Answer 4

Purgatory is not a place. It is a condition. There is nothing in the Bible that suggest that Purgatory is a place, nor is there anything which indicates its duration. In my opinion, it must be very brief, perhaps even instantaneous.

Here is a link

http://www.catholicapologetics.org/ap090400.htm

Answer 5

Peter describes it as a prison

1 Peter 3:18For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

19By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;

Answer 6

As we are drawn out of this life and into direct union with Jesus, his fiery love and holiness burns away all the dross and impurities in our souls and makes us fit for life in the glorious, overwhelming light of God's presence and holiness.

So according to both Jesus and Paul we have reason to fear the unstoppable, unavoidable, unrelenting, and microscopic examination to which our lives will be subjected when we stand before Jesus. We must not have an unreasonable, unhealthy fear of this, the kind which leads to despair, but we must have the healthy, Godly fear which Paul and Jesus counsel.

Purgatory is the final stage of sanctification. Now sanctification can be painful or non-painful (usually the former), including the its final stage. So just as we may pray for others in this life to be made holy more quickly or in a non-painful way, so we may pray for those in the final stage of sanctification to be made holy more quickly or in a non-painful way.

The purpose of purgatory is to bring you up the level of spiritual excellence needed to experience the full-force presence of God. It doesn't matter where you start from, there will be no sinning in heaven, and you have to be brought up to that level during final sanctification, before you are glorified with God in heaven.

Purgatory is not a middle state between heaven and hell. Everyone who goes to purgatory goes to heaven.
The reason one goes to purgatory is so that one can be fitted for life in heaven. Purgatory thus constitutes the cloakroom of heaven, the place you go to get spiffed up before being ushered into the Throne Room.



Catechism of the Catholic Church :

1030 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.

1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.[Cf. Council of Florence (1439): DS 1304; Council of Trent (1563): DS 1820; (1547): 1580; see also Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus (1336): DS 1000] The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire:[Cf. 1 Cor 3:15; 1 Pet 1:7]



"As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come."[St. Gregory the Great, Dial. 4, 39: PL 77, 396; cf. Mt 12:31]

1032 This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: "Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin."[2 Macc 12:46] From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.[Cf. Council of Lyons II (1274): DS 856] The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:



"Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them."[St. John Chrysostom, Hom. in 1 Cor. 41, 5: PG 61, 361; cf. Job 1:5]

Answer 7

Meh. It's alright. : P

If you want Dante, Purgatory is a mountain that was created by the displacement of land when Satan was plunged into the core of the earth. It has 9 tiers; one on the bottom for first arrivals who aren't quite ready to purge their sins, 7 for the 7 deadly sins, and the top level; the Garden of Eden.

Answer 8

Purgatory is a Catholic thing

Answer 9

After reviewing what Catholic writers have said regarding such texts as 2 Maccabees 12:39-45, Matthew 12:32, and 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, the New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967, Vol. XI, p. 1034) acknowledges: “In the final analysis, the Catholic doctrine on purgatory is based on tradition, not Sacred Scripture.”

“The church has relied on tradition to support a middle ground between heaven and hell.”—U.S. Catholic, March 1981, p. 7.

“What goes on in purgatory is anyone’s guess.”—U.S. Catholic, March 1981, p. 9.

Does the soul survive the death of the body?

Ezek. 18:4, Dy: “The soul [Hebrew, ne′phesh; “man,” JB; “one,” NAB; “soul,” Kx] that sinneth, the same shall die.”

Jas. 5:20, JB: “Anyone who can bring back a sinner from the wrong way that he has taken will be saving a soul from death and covering up a great number of sins.” (Italics added.) (Notice that this speaks of the death of the soul.)

For more details, see the headings “Death” and “Soul.”

Is further punishment for sin exacted after one’s death?

Rom. 6:7, NAB: “A man who is dead has been freed from sin.” (Kx: “Guilt makes no more claim on a man who is dead.”)

Are the dead able to experience joy because of confidence in the prospect of salvation?

Eccl. 9:5, JB: “The living know at least that they will die, the dead know nothing.”

Isa. 38:18, JB: “Sheol does not praise you [Yahweh], death does not extol you; those who go down to the pit do not go on trusting in your faithfulness.” (So how can any of them “experience great joy over the certainty of salvation”?)

According to the Bible, by what means is purification from sins accomplished?

1 John 1:7, 9, JB: “If we live our lives in the light, as he [God] is in the light, we are in union with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. . . . If we acknowledge our sins, then God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and purify us from everything that is wrong [“all our wrong-doing is purged away,” Kx].”

Rev. 1:5, JB: “Jesus Christ . . . loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood.”

Answer 10

There is no purgatory,just Heaven or Hell,,no middle.