Recently in Ireland, priests have apologised for the use of 'limbo' in their preachings. Many parents spent their lives believing that un-born or still born children were sent to the edge of hell, a place called limbo. They were never to see the face of God because they had not been baptized and therefore could not enter heaven.
Many women went to their graves in abject dispair because of this.
My question is, does this cruel and terrorizing place still exist as a workable belief within the official Roman Catholic/Christian doctrine?
2007-12-17 01:03:15 · 19 answers · asked by Wine Apple 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
To 'Freebird'
The name Limbo comes from the latin 'Limbus' meaning edge and most definitely translates as the edge of hell.
2007-12-17 02:16:16 · update #1
Again to 'Freebird'
Lucky you. You have never met any woman who has suffered at this horrible thought. I have.
I have worked with women who became deply psychologically damaged because of this. What a b*stard concept. It is very real for these women.
2007-12-17 02:20:26 · update #2
'limbo' was an idea developed by peter abelard.
abelard's great adversary - bernard of clairvaux - taught that unbaptised infants (including stillbirths) went straight to hell and burned for all eternity. (this was the main church line in the early 1100s).
abelard thought only a wicked god would burn an innocent baby, so he developed the concept of limbo as a credible alternative.
the church canonised bernard, and excommunicated peter. but it took on board the idea of limbo.
currently the pope is halfway through deciding that limbo never existed after all.
maybe god changed his mind.
maybe stillbirths go to hell after all.
2007-12-17 01:15:54 · answer #1 · answered by synopsis 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The stories of Limbo never suggested it was on the edge of hell. Pugatory was on the edge of hell but offered hope of eventual salvation. Limbo was on the edge of heaven and a place of eternal happiness for those who had never known of God so could never know the loss.
It was intended to provide a sense of comfort to those who has lost infants before baptism.
I never met any Catholic parent who despaired that an unbaptised child was in limbo.
Edit to Maxi - I've worked with many Catholic parents who have lost children. It's interesting how the concept seems to have been taught differently by different priests. To think they still keep saying Catholic means universal. They must be thinking a very diverse universe.
2007-12-17 09:40:33 · answer #2 · answered by freebird 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
No, there is no such thing in my form of Christianity. It is just a Catholic thing. They should be ashamed of themselves on several counts.
a) Christ said that you have to be born again - ie believe in Him only and repent of your sins. Only He can forgive, not Mary, or a Priest (and Jesus does not require mantras and rituals during or after repentance)
b) It says in the Bible that we are not to Judge one another - yet what do Priests do? They judge and dispense the penance.
c) No where is it written that there is Limbo or pergatory. When we die, we face God for judgement and only He can decide what hapens next. Remember the thief on the cross who repented and believed!
d) Communion is for all who truly believe and repent, but the Catholic church bars any who is not a "Member" from coming to the table.
I have no problem with Catholics as people, just with the dogmatic laws they have created, the legalism. It is what puts people of Christianity in the first place.
2007-12-17 09:54:05 · answer #3 · answered by zakiit 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
I think I read where the Pope decided that "limbo" doesn't exist.
However, I'd like to point out to you that the fact that there are people who hold beliefs that were NEVER taught by Jesus Christ does not make Him wrong...it makes them wrong.
Once, there were pagans who kept young women (virgins, I believe) in the temple, and every full moon, they would have sexual orgies...the girls were subjected to the lust of whoever "took" them...then, later on, the babies born to these women would be sacrificed (by being burnt alive)...so that, on the night of the full moon, you had young women being ravished by strangers, and to top off the evening's festivities, babies born to women who had been ravished nine months earlier were horribly murdered while the people sang to drown out their cries.
Does that make you shudder?
God wasn't too happy about it, either....
Although the Israelites were supposed to extinguish these folks, the practice did seep into their culture as well...this ritual went on in the Valley of Hinnom, later known as Gehenna.
Surely no pagans today still practice this cruel and terrorizing belief? It is no longer a workable belief within the official doctrine of any pagan group?
I'm sure most folks who practice a religion that falls under the umbrella term "Pagan" would be outraged at such a suggestion...and rightly so. I humbly apologize to anyone I may have offended, as that is not my intention...I am merely pointing out that this cult did exist.
As a Christian, I am a bit unhappy to think that anyone would suppose that, just because one denomination once taught such nonsense, anyone would link it with Christianity as a whole.
Thank you.
2007-12-17 09:34:51 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
Hmm - My answer is simple - and I know that a great range of Christian theologians have wrestled with this... But my answer is this.... When the highest power of all transended to be born in a dung infested stable .... to be a political refugee before two years old ... to be ignored and called heretic by his own... then to die in the most horrible way invented by mankind... yet to forgive all............... Would that power really hold an innocent in limbo.?.......if that power would do that ... then I : a mature but yet imperfect mortal stand no chance.
2007-12-17 09:24:31 · answer #5 · answered by Lindum 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I'm not sure about the catholic doctrine however, no where does Scripture support the existence of such a place. The Roman Catholic church has certainly got a lot to answer for as it has mislead its followers for hundreds of years. little wonder the Lord Himself will destroy the Catholic Church during the great tribulation for the reasons given in Revelation Ch.17 V1-9
2007-12-17 09:09:56 · answer #6 · answered by mandbturner3699 5 · 2⤊ 3⤋
If you read Dante's Divine Comedy ..Limbo didn't sound that bad.
Saint Thomas Aquinas described the Limbo of Infants as an eternal state of natural joy, untempered by any sense of loss
2007-12-17 09:09:33 · answer #7 · answered by PROBLEM 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Limbo has NEVER existed!
It is appointed once for men to die and then the judgement (Hebrews) - when people die they go to one of 2 places - all those who don't accept God's way of salvation ie Christ will go to hell and those who do accept God's prescribed way of salvation will go to be eternally in His presence in heaven.
2007-12-17 10:43:13 · answer #8 · answered by Home_educator 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
i never heard of any sort of place and at our catholc churches cematary we have a tomb and a big monument and it says on the front The Tomb Of The Unborn Children. And many people stop and say prayers for the unborn children so they can be forgiven for the adam and eve sin and enter the gates of heaven. basicly we pray so that they can be forgive.
2007-12-17 09:10:38 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
I am sure there is a heathen religion out there somewhere that supports that Idea. It is not presented in Scripture, and YHVH is not that kind of mean. To think He is is blasphemy! He has to clean up the mess, which He will do in the end with a fire of purification,.. then He will make all things new, and very good.
2007-12-17 09:07:33 · answer #10 · answered by hasse_john 7 · 0⤊ 4⤋