Although the word purgatory is not explicitly used, there is no question that the doctrine is taught in Sacred Scripture. Both our Lord and St. Paul speak of it.
Ave Maria!
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This is one reason Protestants cannot fully understand the Bible without the Greek Old Testament. Anytime someone throws sola scriptura at me I ask why they do not accept the whole Bible then.
If then, Christians must suffer purgatory in order to be purified, sanctified and made holy; what was the death and resurrection of Christ for?
Colossians 1:24: And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and unreproveable in his sight:
1 Peter 3: For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
Either the shedding of Christ’s blood once for all sin has made us holy an unblameable now or it has not. To suggest that there is a purgatory where we must be furthered purged, negates and cheapens the effect of Christ’s sacrifice. We are saying in effect that God’s plan for salvation since before the foundation of the world; the sacrifice of his son to redeem us to himself…was not yet enough to appease him.
Jesus died for our sins so we “MAY” enter into Heaven. It doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want and profess we believe in Christ and just go on in. it also tells us how gold must be “purged” to get out all the impurities.
Sheol, Hades and Purgatory are the same – Hebrew, Greek and Latin; it is Gehenna that is “hell”, that is what is referred to as the lake of fire
Purgatory isn’t a place, it is a process we must go through; “for nothing unclean shall enter into Heaven” (Rev)
Ps.30
[0] A Psalm of David. A Song at the dedication of the Temple.
[1] I will extol thee, O LORD, for thou hast drawn me up,
and hast not let my foes rejoice over me.
[2] O LORD my God, I cried to thee for help,
and thou hast healed me.
[3] O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol,
restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.
Rev 20:[11]
Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it; from his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
[12] And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done.
[13] And the sea gave up the dead in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and all were judged by what they had done.
[14] Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire;
[15] and if any one’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Rev 21:[8] But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.”
1 John 5:[16] If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin which is mortal; I do not say that one is to pray for that.
[17] All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal.
[18]
We know that any one born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.
AMEN!
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit Amen.