ProudtobeanINC: Could you give us
a light what Purgatory is? And where is that in the Bible? For I believed, PURGATORY ONLY
BECAME CATHOLIC DOGMA AT THE COUNCIL OF TRENT IN THE 16TH CENTURY.
Well,
the word purgatory does not appear anywhere is Sacred Scripture (so with the
word Holy Gospel). On the charge that Only became Catholic Dogma at the Council of
Trent? The term cell
was first coined in the 1660's by Robert Hooke, does it mean that prior to 1660
our body has no cells? (read my article Catholic
Church Council)
Sacred
Scripture is not a handy-type encyclopedia
wherein you can find all specific
term you are looking for.
Now,
the fact that a word does not appear in scripture does not categorically
exclude the truthfulness of the doctrine it conveys. So, given that the term Purgatory is no where to find in the
Bible but the substance or essence of this Doctrine is very evident
in Sacred Scriptures.
Matthew 12:32 Anyone who speaks a
word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the
Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age
or in the age to come.
Here
Jesus implies that some sins will be forgiven in the
age to come. We know that sin cannot be forgiven in Hell and there is
not need for any sin to be forgiven once you are in Heaven. There must be some
other place where sin CAN be forgiven after this age or this life.
Again
1 Corinthians 3:11-15 For no other
foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now
if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood,
hay, stubble — each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose
it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of
work each one has done. 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.
What
could be Apostle Paul referring to? He can’t be referring to hell, because it’s
clear that the people who undergo this purifying fire will be saved, while
those who are in hell are lost forever nor he can’t be referring to heaven, because
he mentions the suffering of loss, while in heaven every tear will be wiped
away [Rev. 21:4]
Matthew 5: 25-26 Make friends
quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your
accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be
put in prison; truly, I say to you, you will never
get out till you have paid the last penny.
All
these passages in Sacred Scripture speaks of a “place” that is neither Heaven
nor Hell where the process of purification before Heaven is attained. We call
it Purgatory.
So
what is Purgatory?
The
Catechism of the Catholic Church defines Purgatory as:
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).
It
is a 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]."
Purgatory
is NOT another chance to be saved. Once death occurs, you are either saved or not saved. It
is a place where the process of Purgation
or the final cleansing for the already saved occurred [the Final Theosis or final purification before entering into heaven. It
is an intermediate state between life in this world and Heaven in which the
soul is purified.]
1 Corinthians 3:15 If it is burned
up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping
through the flames.
Hebrews 12:29: "For our God
is a consuming fire."
1 Peter 1:7 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.
Zechariah 13:9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will
refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. They
shall call on My name and I will answer them.
This
process was already described in the book of Prophet Isaiah:
Isaiah 6:1- 7: In the year that
King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the
train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six
wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their
feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his
glory.”
At the sound of their voices the
doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
“Woe to me!” I cried.
“I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of
unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
Then one of the
seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs
from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched
your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Concept of
purification after death and praying for the Dead:
The Pre-Christian
times
The concept of purification after death and praying for the dead dates
back to the Jews of pre-Christian times as contrary to what anti-Catholic
believe.
Allow me to quote here what Mr. Peter Kreeft said about Judaism:
All Christians are spiritually
Jews, said Vatican II, echoing St.
Paul. Christianity subtracts nothing from Judaism, but
only fulfills it.
This is the point of the “Jews for
Jesus,” who insist that a Jew who becomes a Christian does not lose anything
Jewish but completes his or her identity. When a Hindu or a pagan becomes a
Christian, he is converted. When a Jew becomes a Christian, he is completed. [in
his article: Comparing Christianity and Judaism]
(a) the place between Heaven and Hell
The School
of Shammai (Rabbi Shammai (50 BC - AD 30),
one of the two main teachers of early rabbinical Judaism) describes how one’s destination is decided
There will be three
groups on the Day of Judgment: one of thoroughly righteous people, one of
thoroughly wicked people and one of people in between. The first group will be
immediately inscribed for everlasting life; the second group will be doomed in Gehinnom [Hell], as it says, “And many
of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting
life and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence” [Daniel 12:2], the third
will go down to Gehinnom and squeal
and rise again, as it says, “And I will bring the third part through the fire,
and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried.
They shall call on My name and I will answer them“[Zechariah 13:9] [Babylonian
Talmud*, tractate Rosh Hashanah 16b-17a] [Religious Facts: Judaism http://www.religionfacts.com/judaism/beliefs/afterlife.htm]
(1)
one that is completely righteous,
(2) one that is completely wicked,
(3) and one that is in between.
(2) one that is completely wicked,
(3) and one that is in between.
* It is worth noting for that this
Babylonian Talmud is also used by no
less than our Lord Jesus Christ in Matt.23:2. The term Moses seat in Matt.23:2 cannot be found anywhere in the Old
Testament but can seen in Babylonian
Talmud.
Gan Eden
and Gehinnom
The place of spiritual reward for
the righteous is often referred to in Hebrew as Gan Eden (GAHN ehy-DEHN) (the
Garden of Eden). This is not the same place where Adam and Eve were; it is a
place of spiritual perfection.
...Only
the very righteous go directly to Gan Eden. The average person descends to a
place of punishment and/or purification, generally referred to as Gehinnom
(guh-hee-NOHM) (in Yiddish, Gehenna), but sometimes as She'ol or by
other names. According to one mystical view, every sin we commit creates an
angel of destruction (a demon), and after we die we are punished by the very
demons that we created. Some views see Gehinnom as one of severe punishment, a
bit like the Christian Hell of fire and brimstone. Other sources merely see it
as a time when we can see the actions of our lives objectively, see the harm
that we have done and the opportunities we missed, and experience remorse for
our actions. The period of time in Gehinnom does not exceed 12 months, and then
ascends to take his place on Olam Ha-Ba.
Only the utterly
wicked do not ascend at the end of this period; their souls are punished for
the entire 12 months. Sources differ on what happens at the end of those 12
months: some say that the wicked soul is utterly destroyed and ceases to exist
while others say that the soul continues to exist in a state of consciousness
of remorse.
http://www.jewfaq.org/olamhaba.htm#Gan
(b) Praying for the
Dead
Kaddish
Kaddish is commonly known as a
mourner's prayer, but in fact, variations on the Kaddish prayer are routinely
recited at many other times, and the prayer itself has nothing to do with death
or mourning. The prayer begins "May His great Name grow exalted and
sanctified in the world that He created as He willed. May He give reign to His
kingship in your lifetimes and in your days ..." and continues in much
that vein. The real mourner's prayer is El Molai Rachamim, which is recited at
grave sites and during funerals.
Why, then, is Kaddish recited by
mourners?
After a great loss like the death
of a parent, you might expect a person to lose faith in G-d, or to cry out
against G-d's injustice. Instead, Judaism requires a mourner to stand up every
day, publicly (i.e., in front of a minyan, a quorum of 10 adult men), and
reaffirm faith in G-d despite this loss. To do so inures to the merit of the
deceased in the eyes of G-d, because the deceased must have been a very good
parent to raise a child who could express such faith in the face of personal
loss.
Then why is Kaddish recited for
only 11 months, when the mourning period is 12 months? According to Jewish
tradition, the soul must spend some time purifying itself before it can enter
the World to Come. The maximum time required for purification is 12 months, for
the most evil person. To recite Kaddish for 12 months would imply that the
parent was the type who needed 12 months of purification! To avoid this implication,
the Sages decreed that a son should recite Kaddish for only eleven months.
A person is permitted to recite
Kaddish for other close relatives as well as parents, but only if his parents
are dead.
Early Christian:
The Acts of Paul and Thecla
"And after the exhibition,
Tryphaena again received her [Thecla]. For her daughter Falconilla had died,
and said to her in a dream: ‘Mother, you shall have this stranger Thecla in my
place, in order that she may pray concerning me, and that I may be transferred
to the place of the righteous’" [Acts of Paul and Thecla [A.D. 160]]
Abercius
"The citizen of a prominent
city, I erected this while I lived, that I might have a resting place for my
body. Abercius is my name, a disciple of the chaste Shepherd who feeds his
sheep on the mountains and in the fields, who has great eyes surveying
everywhere, who taught me the faithful writings of life. Standing by, I,
Abercius, ordered this to be inscribed: Truly, I was in my seventy-second year.
May everyone who is in accord with this and who understands it pray for
Abercius" [Epitaph of Abercius [A.D. 190]]
The Catholic Dogma of Purgatory is base in many passages of the Bible. One passage will suffice my premise, and it is Christ against the Pharisees: “truly I tell you the sins committed against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiving them neither in this life nor into the next.” if we have only Heaven and hell how is that Christ is alluding to a third place here in this parabola.? He is implying that there are sins the can be forgive in the next life. But those sins will not be cleanse in hell or Heaven, those who are in hell can never escape hell, and nothing unclean can possibly enter heaven, than the third choice by definition is Purgatory; to purge one’s sins.
ReplyDeleteI agree.
DeleteGreat article on Purgatory! Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteThanks Atty. Mars
DeleteYou and Fr. Abe inspired me most.
God bless.