Where did the Catholic church come up with the concept of Purgatory, if it is not in the bible?

Answer 1

I'm guessing from the same place they got the trinity?
Note; Trinity confirmation scriptures added only to the Catholic version of their bible.

Answer 2

The word "Trinity" is not in the Bible, but the concept is. Likewise, the word "Purgatory" is not in the Bible but the concept is - but then you will only find it in Catholic Bibles, because Protestant reformers followed the Jewish Canon of the Old Testament (Circa AD100) and removed seven books. The Council of Trent reaffirmed that these books should be in the Bible (it did not add them as some Protestants claim, it re-affirmed that the books should be there).

The following is from the Council of Trent:
"Whereas the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, has from the Sacred Scriptures and the ancient tradition of the Fathers taught in Councils and very recently in this Ecumenical synod (Sess. VI, cap. XXX; Sess. XXII cap.ii, iii) that there is a purgatory, and that the souls therein are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, but principally by the acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar; the Holy Synod enjoins on the Bishops that they diligently endeavor to have the sound doctrine of the Fathers in Councils regarding purgatory everywhere taught and preached, held and believed by the faithful" (Denzinger, "Enchiridon", 983).

The teaching did not come out of nowhere - it is in Scripture and Sacred Tradition (the Tradition referred to by St. Paul and defined by the Catechism of the Catholic Church #83).

Answer 3

Purgatory is not Hell minus a few torments and degrees Fahrenheit; it's not Heaven minus joy. It's not a "Third Final Destination" of souls. Purgatory is simply the place where already saved souls are cleansed of the temporal effects of sin before they are allowed to see the holy face of Almighty God. Revelation 21:27 tells us that "...nothing unclean will enter [Heaven]."
It's isn't in the Bible, but neither are the words "Trinity," "abortion," "lesbianism," and "cloning" (or "Rapture," for that matter), and it doesn't matter whether you call the process of purgation "purgatory" or the "Final Theosis": the concept of a "final cleansing" or "purgation" for those who require it is very evident in the Bible, in the writings of the early Church Fathers, and in the Old Testament religion whence Christianity sprang.

Daniel 12:2, Matthew 12:32, 1 Corinthians 3:13-15, 2 Timothy 1:16-18, Hebrews 12:14, Hebrews 12:22-23, 1 Peter 4:6 and Revelation 21:10, 27 all speak of Purgatory in their telling of the need for purification, prayers for the dead, Christ's preaching to the dead, or how nothing unclean will see God.




It takes more than simply knowing Jesus is the Messiah to be saved; even the Evil One knows Who Christ is.

The Bible and the Catholic Church don't separate the "works of faith," preceded and caused by grace, from salvation . You can have all the faith in the world, enough to move mountains, but if you don't have charity, you are nothing.

The Catholic Church and Her Bible condemn the idea that one can work his way to Heaven on his own merit or that God "owes" a person for doing the right things.

All our works get their merit only from Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf. We can do "works" 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for the rest of our lives, but without Christ's grace, they are nothing. Works have no merit in themselves -- and faith without works is not enough. We are saved by grace alone -- a grace that we accept neither "by faith alone" nor "by works alone," but "by faith that works in charity" (Galatians 5:6).

Answer 4

+ Purgatory +

The concept of purgation is hinted at in the Bible. Here are a few 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 Corinthians 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 Peter 1:7)

But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace. For if before men, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality; Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself. (Wisdom 3:1-6)

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.

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 5

It is implicit in the Bible. Read 2 Maccabees 12: 39-46. (Oh, that's right, Luther tossed the books he didn't like.)

"Purgatory" is not a place, not a prison or a mini-hell. It is a process of final purification, making the soul perfect for heaven and the Beatific Vision. People who worry about being excluded from heaven for some "technical violation" of God's rules should be reassured that it won't happen like that. People aren't perfect, but God sees into the heart. No one inadvertently loses salvation. Whether one believes in it or not, the concept is positive, encouraging and harmless.

Answer 6

It *is* in the Bible. The concept of purgatory is the application of Christ's saving grace to the sinner's soul. Protestants think it means something else, but it doesn't.

Answer 7

Did some research for you, here it is:

Nowhere in any Catholic Bible translation is purgatory even named. No Scripture text makes mention of a soul in purgatory. Who, then, invented purgatory? From the years 590 to 604 Gregory, known as “Gregory the Great,” was pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the first man to establish the doctrine of purgatory and to advance it as a place of fiery elements to torment souls. Under the title “Purgatory,” Volume VIII of the McClintock and Strong Cyclopædia says: “But whatever the views of some Church fathers on the subject, as a doctrine it was unknown in the Christian Church for the first 600 years, and it does not appear to have been made an article of faith until the 10th century. . . . ‘Purgatory as a burning-away of sins,’ said Doellinger at the Bonn Conference of Old Catholics in 1875, ‘was an idea unknown in the East as well as the West till Gregory the Great introduced it. . . . Gregory the Great added the idea of a tormenting fire.’”—Edition of 1879.

Answer 8

I used to be Catholic, and I always figured it was because Jesus in the gospel says "be ye perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect." Obviously, no one dies perfect, so purgatory would be what comes between dying imperfect and entering heaven perfect. But that was my own personal thought at the time.

On the other hand, I have read in catechisms that, even though our sins are forgiven, we are due a certain amount of punishment for each one, and if we haven't expiated it on earth, we finish it off in purgatory. But I don't have any idea where in the bible that would come from. Kinda puts an odd slant on the word "forgiven," no?

Answer 9

Purgatory was a concept that developed over time, and if you read history in an unbiased manner you see that for the solid fact that it is.

Answer 10

it is in the Bible. When Jesus died on the cross, he went to the souls waiting in some kind of limbo. I am not catholic so don't rail on me with doctrine.

Also, in the old testament, it is clear that there was a waiting place for souls. When Saul went to the witch of Endor (i believe that was where she was from) to get some kind of foretelling of his situation, Samuel's ghost shocked both Saul and the witch with the for-boding news of Saul's soon demise. Samuel was apparently waiting in some kind of purgatory at that time.

It is unclear to me what exactly Jesus did after his death when he went to speak with the souls who had already died. I know all the doctrinal teachings on it, and I could not possibly go into that in this answer. But I believe Jesus went to the Jews of faith who had died, who had not yet seen the Messiah they were looking for, and He identified Himself as God and their Messiah. They were there waiting in some sort of purgatory.

The question has become: Is there still a purgatory? When Jesus went there after his death, did he release those souls with him into heaven to be with The Father and do away with a place of waiting after death?

Obviously, the Catholics believe there is still a place of waiting.

Answer 11

Actually, yes, it IS in the Bible - the concept anyway. Much like Trinity and Incarnation, and Bible.

Christ refers to the sinner who "will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come" (Matt. 12:32), suggesting that one can be freed after death of the consequences of one’s sins. Similarly, Paul tells us that, when we are judged, each man’s work will be tried. And what happens if a righteous man’s work fails the test? "He will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire" (1 Cor 3:15). Now this loss, this penalty, can’t refer to consignment to hell, since no one is saved there; and heaven can’t be meant, since there is no suffering ("fire") there. The Catholic doctrine of purgatory alone explains this passage.

Then, of course, there is the Bible’s approval of prayers for the dead: "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.

Prayers for the dead and the consequent doctrine of purgatory have been part of the true religion since before the time of Christ. Not only can we show it was practiced by the Jews of the time of the Maccabees, but it has even been retained by Orthodox Jews today, who recite a prayer known as the Mourner’s Kaddish for eleven months after the death of a loved one so that the loved one may be purified. It was not the Catholic Church that added the doctrine of purgatory. Rather, any change in the original teaching has taken place in the Protestant churches, which rejected a doctrine that had always been believed by Jews and Christians.

It is entirely correct to say that Christ accomplished all of our salvation for us on the cross. But that does not settle the question of how this redemption is applied to us. Scripture reveals that it is applied to us over the course of time through, among other things, the process of sanctification through which the Christian is made holy. Sanctification involves suffering (Rom. 5:3–5), and purgatory is the final stage of sanctification that some of us need to undergo before we enter heaven. Purgatory is the final phase of Christ’s applying to us the purifying redemption that he accomplished for us by his death on the cross.

The Fundamentalist 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 a Fundamentalist 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. The Fundamentalist 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).

Some imagine that the Catholic Church has an elaborate doctrine of purgatory worked out, but there are only three essential components of the doctrine: (1) that a purification after death exists, (2) that it involves some kind of pain, and (3) that the purification can be assisted by the prayers and offerings by the living to God. Other ideas, such that purgatory is a particular "place" in the afterlife or that it takes time to accomplish, are speculations rather than doctrines.

. 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."

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).