Why do Catholics believe in purgatory when its not mentioned in the bible?
Thank you Jim the Fundamentalist as you hit it right on the head so to speak. Fundies just can not get past the fact that every thing Jesus taught was not written down and Christianity definitely predates the Bible. Read the Bible (new testament) and some of it is letters written to other people or explanations and warnings plus the Gospel’s which tell of the life of Christ.The truth is it is the Church that was entrusted with the teachings of Christ not a Bible. That is why the Catholic Church teaches were proof of Christ existence. The trouble with putting all your faith in a Book is it is like a accident where you have three people see the exact same accident but give three differing views because they think and look at things differently. But it was the Catholic Church that was made the guardian of the faith and for two thousand yrs it has been faithful to doing just that. And part of that work is explaining to differing generations what Christ taught and Purgatory is one of those
There is much support for purgatory, but I will focus on a simple answer for you: From Rev 21:27 we know that “…nothing unclean will enter [Heaven]”. Think about the logical consequences of this statement. If only people who are perfectly purified from attachment to sin at the moment of death are permitted into heaven, there will be very few people there. This might square with God’s perfect justice, but it would be contrary to His mercy and for this reason, God has chosen to give us purgatory as a means of freeing us from all attachment to sin so that we may enjoy the perfection of God’s love in Heaven.
It is in the Bible. Now your next logical question should be “why did Protestants remove books from the bible? I would like to read the other texts, especially 2Maccabees where purgatory is mentioned!” Furthermore, nothing unclean can enter heaven — and that IS in your bible. Just because Jesus died for our sins doesn’t mean we aren’t capable of sinning ourselves. There is no easy-peasy-salvation. There is no free pass to heaven just by believing in Jesus is God. You have to behave appropriately, and very few people die without some sin on their soul.
No scripture I have ever read or heard or been told about says that the death and resurrection of Jesus removes all attachment to sin. Purgatory is a process of cleansing people of all attachment to sin. God can forgive us totally and perfectly, but that does not mean we no longer even desire to commit sins. Purgatory removes even the desire to sin. Cleansed in that way, we are then fit for entry into the eternal presence of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. Personally, I suspect that purgatory involves an experience of learning vividly and thoroughly what it would be like to be utterly separated from God. We learn that sin causes us to be separated from God. If we are in a state of Grace, forgiven and relieved of the pain of the guilt of our sins, but we still have desire – even slight desire, to commit sins, we are essentially holding some degree of desire to be separated from God. Heaven is not a place or condition in which people exist, but sort of wish they could be somepla
Purgatory is inferred from the I and II Books of Maccabees, in which the ancient Jewish soldiers sent money to the Temple for sacrifices when their dead companions were found to have pagan amulets. Unfortunately, these books were removed from Protestant Bibles for that very reason: they DO support the doctrine of Purgatory. As far as why Purgatory is necessary, think in these terms: a child is angry and throws a rock through the neighbor’s window. The child later repents and apologizes, which is accepted by the neighbor. However, the damage is still done and must be repaired. Jesus’ atoning Sacrifice on the Cross removed the guilt of Original sin, but when we are Christians and deliberately disobey God, we damage our relationship with Him. We cannot enter Heaven with the slightest attachment to sin, so we undergo a cleansing in Purgatory to free us from any taint of worldliness. We’ve been forgiven just as the neighbor forgave the child, but our souls are like the window, and the daman
