what the heck is purgatory?

Question

i am a born again christian. and i go to a southern baptist church... but i have tons of catholic friends...i hear them make some comments about purgatory, but i don't know how to respond to it sincce i don't even know what it is!! please help me! i heard it is a place between heaven and hell that people go to and they have to be prayed out of it to be able to go to heaven...but do any of them go to hell? and i mean, we only go into heaven if we accept christ and that we can not be saved by works, then how do you believe people go to purgatory....someone explain this to me....i am utterly confused!!??

Answer 1

bondage........CC teaches it to keep you in bondage

not scriptural in any way

but they need to keep you in bondage to get your money

Answer 2

In addition to what Spiritroaming and Quailman have stated, I would add that the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16) implies a purgatory, or a state where souls reside before entrance into heaven.

The rich man cannot be in hell because from there he would not be able to see Abraham, and converse with him, and in essence intercede for his brothers on Earth. Similarly, the rich man cannot be in heaven for obvious reasons.

Some bibles incorrectly translate Luke 16:23 to suggest that the rich man was in hell. This cannot be an accurate translation because in hell, all are cut-off from the Kingdom of Heaven.

It is possible that the rich man was actually good, and merited heaven. In the times of Jesus, a rich man would have called his guards to rid a poor beggar from his doorway. The rich man, at least, showed some mercy, and permitted Lazarus to stay and eat the scraps. Now, that may not seem like much, but in the context of the ancient world, it did show some mercy. The rich man's failure to be more generous was not a mortal sin, but it was sinful enough to stain the man's soul so as to require cleansing before entering into heaven.

Answer 3

The Spirit is purged from evil in Purgatory and strengthened in good in the First Heaven. In one region the extract of sufferings become CONSCIENCE to deter us from doing wrong, in the other region the quintessence of good is transmuted to BENEVOLENCE and altruism, which are the basis of all true progress. Moreover, Purgatory is far from being a place of PUNISHMENT. It is perhaps the most beneficent realm in nature, for BECAUSE OF PURGATION WE ARE BORN INNOCENT life after life. The tendencies to commit the same evil for which we suffered remain with us, and temptations to commit the same wrongs will be placed in our placed in our path until we have consciously overcome the evil here. Temptation is not sin, however, the sin is in yielding.

Among the inhabitants of the invisible world there is one class which lives a particularly painful life, sometimes for a great many years, namely, the suicide who tried to play truant from the school of life. Yet it is not an angry God or a malevolent devil who administers punishment, but an immutable law which proportions the sufferings differently to each individual suicide.

When considering the World of Thought, each form in this visible world has its archetype there--a vibrating hollow mold which emits a certain harmonious sound. That sound attracts and forms physical into the shape we behold, much in the same manner as when we place a little sand upon a glass plate and rub the edge with a violin bow; the sand is shaped into different geometrical figures which change as the sound changes.

Answer 4

It is biblical - some just choose to ignore it.

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).

The most obvious is 2 Maccabees 12:40–45. When Judas prays and has sacrifices offered for soldiers who died in battle, he is commended for acting "very well and honorably."

We’ll have to discuss the inspiration of Maccabees some other time, but at least 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.

On the contrary, the idea of purgatory, when properly understood, is entirely consistent with the love of God. God wants us to be perfect (cf. Matt. 5:48). If we are not perfected by the time we die, we will be perfected in purgatory. He loves us too much to allow us to be less than what he created us to be. Purgatory is not about an angry God inflicting punishment upon his creatures. It is about a loving Father who "disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness" (Heb. 12:10).

Answer 5

purgatory is supposed to be a plane between heaven and hell. Some religions believe in it and some don't.

Answer 6

a belief of the Roman Catholic Church

Answer 7

the people above me who said "you pretty much have it" are wrong.

No, Catholics don't believe in salvation by works
no, purgatory has nothing to do with works.

purgatory is only for the saved, so yeah, everyone in purgatory will go to Heaven.

spritroaming's answer covers the rest.


lost.eu/21618

Answer 8

It's a Catholic thing.

You pretty much have the theory down. It's supposed to be a place to go temporarily if you aren't quite perfect enough to get into heaven, but haven't got unresolved sin bad enough to send you to hell.

The Catholic church teach that works are required to get into heaven. It's quite honestly not true.

It's not Biblical, and the Catholic church uses a portion of "scripture" (I use this term loosely) that Christians do not recognize as part of the Bible.

I contrasts the teaching of Paul. Paul, inspired by God, teaches us that the price Jesus paid on the cross is enough to make us spotless before the throne of God. When we are saved, we are spotless immediately.

Please don't be confuse. Learn to understand what Jesus did for you and learn to explain that to others. Try not to let alot of the man made things of organized religions get in the way of what Gods word actually says.

Answer 9

You pretty much have an understanding of it. It is not Biblical, nor taught by any of the apostles or Church fathers. In a word, it is nonsense. The reason they teach this is because the RCC does not accept the total, complete work of Christ on the cross. They do not believe that His death completely and thoroughly forgave the sins of His people. They believe that your sins after "conversion" are on you, hence we have penance(confession), indulgences and last rites. If they believed in the totality of grace and the complete forgiveness of sin, much of their system would crumble.

Answer 10

You certainly are utterly confused.

Answer 11

it's Eternity's Waiting Room (like the dentist's office)

and, like all the other myths in all the other religions claiming validity, it's not real.