PURGATORY
AND
CATHOLICISM
table of contents
GOING
TO PURGATORY FOR HAVING VENIAL SIN
GOING TO PURGATORY TO PAY THE DEBT OF PUNISHMENT
PURGATORY_DENIES_THAT_YOU_ARE_SAVED_
PURGATORY ACCUSES SAINTS OF EVIL
BAD BIBLE ARGUMENTS FOR PURGATORY
BAD BIBLE ANTI-PURGATORY ARGUMENTS
Many Catholics following what Jesus told St Gertrude the Great believe that praying for the souls in Purgatory is the supreme good work. This would be true if Purgatory exists. The Church says that the worst evil is not being with God. Jesus said the same thing but in different words when he claimed that you must love God with all your heart and strength. The souls are excluded from God until their sins are atoned. The teaching about Purgatory sets a dangerous example. It pays homage to the idea that religious beliefs must be put before people. For example, to pray for the souls in Purgatory and to offer up the good you do for them is refusing to use religion in such a way that you give your heart and love to those who are around you. The good you do is intended for a Purgatory that may not exist in preference to an earth that does exist!
THE DOCTRINE
The Roman Church claims
that there is a place called Purgatory where you have to go after death if you
are not ready for the presence of God.
You go to Purgatory if you die carrying the
guilt of venial sin. Venial sin is serious
sin that doesn’t deserve the eternal torment of Hell.
You go to Purgatory if you die without any
sin but if you owe God a debt of temporary (temporal) punishment for your sins.
You cannot help yourself in Purgatory. You have to suffer enough before God will let
you out. The suffering purifies.
The living can pray for you and commit
sacrifices for you and have masses offered for you. This lessens the suffering you owe God.
The
living can get a plenary indulgence for you that gets you out of Purgatory
altogether.
If you are in Purgatory, you cannot and do
not sin any more. You are saved and destined
for Heaven but only after Purgatory is done.
Nobody is meant for going to Purgatory. We are to blame if we go there.
A saint
is a person who goes to Heaven without going to Purgatory.
The doctrine is quite sinister. Not only has the Catholic Church made money
out of it but any doctrine that says these souls no longer sin and are helpless
and need the prayers and sufferings of the living is obviously more than
foolish. The doctrine is against the
Bible.
GOING
TO PURGATORY FOR HAVING VENIAL SIN
The idea that you go to Purgatory for having venial sin is silly. Every moment you stay in sin is a fresh sin. Everything a sinner does is sin so if the holy souls are in Purgatory they cannot be saved for God cannot work and abide with them until they forsake all sin. All sin deserves Hell for God hates it infinitely for he is infinitely good so there is no such thing as venial sin. So if you go to Purgatory in venial sin you should get out by repenting it. But the doctrine denies that. The Bible says that only bad fruit comes from bad trees. It means that the seeming good is a trap of Satan. Satan has to inspire good to get popularity.
GOING
TO PURGATORY TO PAY THE DEBT OF PUNISHMENT
The Church teaches the doctrine of temporal punishment - it is retribution
God takes on a sin after it has been forgiven. The idea is that even if a sin is forgiven it leaves some attachment to
sin behind and God can inflict some punishment for it. But that contradicts the doctrine that you can get a
remission of this punishment quite easily without losing any of the attachment. The Church argues that after David sinned in the
Bible he had to be punished by God even after he was forgiven. The punishment due to sin is called Temporal
Punishment or Temporary Punishment.
If you are attached to sin that
must be a sin by itself. Every moment
spent in sin is a fresh sin. It is the
sin of accepting the sin in the previous moments of its existence and the sin
of prolonging the sin by not rejecting it in the present moment. So the longer you are in sin the worse you
get inwardly. There is no hope of
escaping Purgatory then in that case.
Purgatory is really Hell.
Christians would say that the Roman Church is the Devil’s Church and
that is one of his scams for drawing people into eternal damnation.
If you are forgiven for breaking
a window you will still have to pay the owner for the damage. This payment is justice not punishment so the
forgiveness is real. But a God who
demands compensation he doesn’t need is clearly exacting retribution. The Roman Catholic Church then denies that
God really forgives. Christianity, on
the contrary, teaches that forgiveness is full and free.
The Church says that few can be perfect when
they leave this world and most need purification by suffering. But when the will chooses only what is
thought to be good God can grant it a miraculous revelation that will draw it
to prevent every sin. The idea of souls
having to suffer to make compensation for sin is outrageous for God does not
need the compensation. And they do not
need the discipline if all we need to do is to choose him. Bring weak and resisting that weakness as far
as you can is supposed to be the best road to Heaven. Strength is a curse for it makes your
progress too easy and God wants sacrifice.
So the souls are not in Purgatory to be made stronger. Strong people cannot go to Purgatory so where
do they go?
The fact that you can get out of Purgatory if
somebody else does the suffering and praying for you, proves that you are not
there to be purified at all. You are
there to be hurt by a vindictive God.
You might as well say somebody can repent the sin that somebody else has
committed.
Some progressive Catholics
claim that Purgatory is not a place of punishment but just a place of cleansing
where souls must get rid of all the moral dirt and weaknesses that makes them
unfit to enter the presence of God. They
get a sentence of say ten or a million years to Purgatory and they cannot
shorten that sentence so people on earth have to make sacrifices for them by
proxy to do this. This means that others
making small sacrifices for you does far more than anything you do or endure in
Purgatory though it is more painful for you.
This is unfair and denies that persons are equal in value for when their
works aren’t it makes no sense to say the doers are equal. And how could anybody loving God for you do it
for you? Its something you have to do
for yourself. The bias against
punishment in this theology is contrary to the harsh justice commanded and
eulogised in both the Old and New Testaments on divine authority. Punishment would actually be better than this
vindictive hypocritical idea that you suffer in Purgatory because somebody on
earth won’t do the loving of God that you fail to do!
HOLY SOULS
HELPLESS?
The Catholic Church teaches that anybody who dies in venial sin or
sinlessly but who hasn’t made up for sin by penance goes to Purgatory to be
purified before she or he can enter Heaven.
The idea is, that nobody can enter God’s presence unless they are
perfect like God who being perfect himself cannot endure imperfection. The souls in Purgatory cannot sin and cannot
help themselves. The reason is that they
cannot pray (page 18, The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection). They have to stay there until they have
suffered enough and/or until enough has been done by the living on their behalf
to win their freedom. The souls must
repent the moment they enter Purgatory for it is a fresh sin to spend even a
moment in sin for repentance has to be done in haste.
An approved Catholic book says
that the fervent prayers of a soul in Purgatory “are no longer meritorious” and
that “it is certain that these souls in Purgatory, as their purification
advances, make more and more fervent acts (non-meritorious), which attain at
least to the degree of intensity of the infused virtue from which they
proceed. These acts do not merit an
increase of this virtue” (page 98, The Mother of God and Our Interior Life). The soul in Purgatory does not even deserve
to be helped to love God more by its work and suffering in Purgatory! A forgiving God would give you such great
help that you would never make it to Purgatory for Heaven would be open. God forces them not to love him more and yet
if he exists he would have made them and us just to love him.
The living are treated as
superior beings to them or singled out for better treatment even though the
living are sinners and the souls in Purgatory are holy and beyond sin! The doctrine of Purgatory is truly
malign. It is obvious that the doctrine
was developed by the Church to make money out of selling masses and indulgences
for the captives in Purgatory.
The souls must pray to God and
do other good works. Willing what God
wills is a good work. Yet God will not
accept their holiness as atonement but just treats them as if they made no
offering of love to him at all. If they
don’t sacrifice to him them they don’t love him and if they don’t love him then
Purgatory is not a place to purify them, to perfect them in love, at all but a
dungeon of psychopathic brutality. It is
that if they can’t love him either because that is God putting the desire to
make them suffer before the desire to make them saintlier.
A God who despises their
amendment or attempted amendment is a God of evil. He refuses to acknowledge that the past is
the past and that it is the present and the future that matter and that they
are doing all they can and so deserve to enjoy the fruits of their
struggle. Purgatory dishonours his name
and his alleged generosity with forgiveness when the notion of helpless souls
filling it is included in it.
The rejection of the souls and
their works also infers that the free will of the souls has been removed by God
for free acts deserve rewards and the idea that they can’t sin accentuates this
even more. It is a place where one is
turned into a robot or near-robot. It is
cruel to purify a being that has no free will this agonising way. Also, purification is focused principally and
essentially on the will. If I remove
your free will to purify you then I am not purifying you but purifying the
robot I have turned you into. I cannot
impose purification – you have to consent to it all the way. Why not just magically make that being choose
only what is good?
While on earth a soul can
cancel all her sins and the punishment due to them by an act of pure and total
and repentant love so that sin is totally turned away from and despised and God
loved in its place. This is called
perfect contrition and imperfect contrition is repenting for more selfish
reasons and it only gets sins pardoned in confession for it is not good
enough.
Repentance that falls short of
being based entirely on selfless love for God does not wipe away all the
punishment you have to undergo to please God.
The Church now says that this punishment is not vengeance from God but
is the correction of the damage sin does namely in making us less attached to
God (pages 331,2, Catechism of the Catholic Church). This is another one of the endless changes of
doctrine that the Church won’t admit to for it used to teach it was
vengeance. The attachment to sin has
been reversed in repentance by the souls.
It is vengeance to demand further punishment. If you love God perfectly then there is
nothing left to punish. Even if you are
weak the effort is what counts. God
would not debit temporary punishment to your account if you love him perfectly
when he cancels it for people who are less worthy and who get an
indulgence. Perfect love heals.
Adult baptism forgives all
punishment due to sin along with all the sins (Question 257, A Catechism
of Christian Doctrine; 1263, Catechism of the Catholic Church). The Church does not require that the baptised
love God alone and despise their sins.
It accepts them in their imperfections.
Since baptism means rebirth and putting one into God's family it follows
that if you repent for the love of God alone, you wish you could receive that
same baptism again right now – not another one but the same one – and are
re-sanctioning and re-accepting your baptism.
You can’t experience your baptism again so God has to accept your desire
as being as good as being baptised again with the result that he has to remove
all your temporary punishment. The
Baptism of Blood when an unbaptised person dies for Jesus gives the same
benefits as baptism (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1258) minus the
mark on the soul that it gives. If you
perfectly love God you would die for him if you could. If God is fair you will receive full
remission of the punishment in return for perfect love.
In Purgatory, perfect love is
futile and only passively enduring suffering erases the debt of
punishment. If the purging were any use
it would make it more likely for a soul in Purgatory to turn to the Lord in
this pure and complete love. But it
cannot for it is still in Purgatory and will stay there until it has suffered
enough. If the souls in Purgatory cannot
do this then it is the same as if they can and have for they have tried. It is effort not success that counts before a
really good God and reason. So if souls
are detained in Purgatory then they are not trying and are therefore sinners
contradicting the Roman doctrine that there is no sinning after death except
for the damned in Hell.
The souls in Purgatory are
brought closer to loving God completely every moment they are there for falling
short of loving God in any way is sinful if God has truthfully informed the
Catholic Church that there is no sin in Purgatory. Then why can’t they have perfect love for God
which the Church says anybody can manage?
If it is easy enough for us when we have few temptations in life it
should be easier for people who know God exists when they find themselves in
Purgatory and who are being purified.
The doctrine of Purgatory is an absurdity for it says there is no
sinning there and yet there must be.
Refusing to love God perfectly is sinful.
Purgatory is an evil doctrine for it says that God values hurting the holy souls more than making them improve in holiness. It’s vindictive.
PURGATORY DENIES THAT YOU ARE SAVED
Protestantism and Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy assert boldly that at death you are either saved forever or damned forever. There is no other category. Roman Catholicism teaches that the souls in Purgatory are saved from Hell and can't go there and just have something to endure before they are fit for Heaven. Their salvation is 100% guaranteed and they can't lose it or throw it away by sin. But God must do something to these souls to make sure they can't sin. This contradicts the Church doctrine that Satan was an angel in Heaven and still managed to sin and be thrown out. The Church also maintains that God is not to blame for our sins in any way - he cannot be accused of making conditions that lead us into, or encourage, sin. So it seems the souls in Purgatory must have the power to sin and lose salvation but don't and won't use it. In that case, can they be described as saved? How can it be said that their entry into unending happiness in Heaven is unavoidable? They could avoid it if they so choose. Purgatory contradicts Catholicism's doctrine that your eternal destiny is decided at death. The Church holds that you may have a saint who can commit a mortal sin but who never will but that doesn't change the fact that he or she might sin and as long as she or he might sin she or he cannot be called saved. She or he is only saved at death. This teaching conflicts with the Catholic Purgatory and the doctrine that saved people go there.
What if you go to Purgatory forever? Can you be called saved then? Obviously not. Saved in the Bible means possessing a freedom and joy that you have from being with God. The key word is free. You are not free if you are in jail. If you are there a week or forever it makes no difference. So if you are not saved if you go to Purgatory forever you are not saved if you are there ten minutes either. You are not saved until you leave.
The Bible and Protestantism and Roman
Catholicism all say that you are either saved or unsaved at death.
God supposedly demands temporal punishment of you for your sins because when sin is forgiven you still have an attachment to sin to recover from and to fight. Yet people with this attachment have this debt cancelled if they get a plenary indulgence. So the attachment thing is only an excuse for punishing. God doesn't mind the attachment to sin at all but he is petty and vindictive. If you go to Purgatory are you really saved when God gives indulgences to get people off and you don't have one? He gives people indulgences so that the debt of temporal punishment is taken away or reduced and yet you have to pay. He has something against you when he does that if he is so fair. You must have started sinning again! You must not be saved at all! But suppose you can be called saved. You are still in Purgatory unnecessarily so you can't be saved. You are there unnecessarily when worse than you are let off in relation to temporal punishment. Anybody who is fit for Heaven and doesn't get in but has to go to Purgatory is not saved. Heaven is salvation full flowered and there you become fully virtuous or fully saved in Christian terms. If you are fit for the transformation of Heaven then you are not saved as long as you are kept out.
The Lutheran Reformation was right to accuse the Catholic Church of selling forgiveness of sin and selling salvation when the Church granted indulgences for the payment of money towards rebuilding St Peter's Basilica. The Church is still doing that today by granting indulgences for pilgrimages and those who buy holy objects.
PURGATORY
ACCUSES SAINTS OF EVIL
There is a very grave contradiction between the Catholic teaching that
saints pray and offer their personal merits to God for the living and the
concept of Purgatory.
Roman Catholicism says that
the souls of the dead who are suffering in Purgatory to get purified before
going to Heaven need our prayers to get out.
God accepts the prayers and works of the living which are offered for
the release of the holy souls like they were fines paid in their place.
Roman Catholicism invokes the
intercession of the saints in Heaven. If
the saints pray to help others and their prayers are any good they would pray
for the souls in Purgatory to win their release. If they do that then though Purgatory exists
there is nobody in it for the saints are better prayers than we are. If few people go to Heaven there would be
enough of prayers which might explain why there are people held captive in
Purgatory. In that case the problem would
be how God could make a Purgatory when nobody could go to it.
If the saints do not pray for
the dead then they are uncaring. The
saints must not want them to come into the glory of Heaven for if they did then
even that would be a prayer. If God
ignores the prayers of the saints then he isn’t a nice God. Would it be fair of him to hear the saints
when they pray for the souls in Purgatory?
It is no answer to say that God can do as he pleases with his favours
for he owes nobody anything for this is callous nonsense. He gives favours out of love so if he
withholds favours then he is refusing to love and is really an evil God. If morality exists then he is doing what is
best – it is generosity.
The doctrine of St Alphonsus
that the souls in Purgatory cannot pray for themselves (page 18, The Great
Means Salvation and of Perfection) would imply that the saints do not pray
for the Holy Souls for they do not pray to the saints. But the living implore the saints to pray for
them and the saints should help without being asked. The Holy Souls deserve more help than the
living do.
The Church says that the saint
who has done the most for God is the most powerful. So, God reveals the saint by answering his or
her prayers. The holier the life the
greater the reward. Time is relative and
God can alter its rate speed just like science can. He could let the unworthiest saint say enough
prayers to purify Purgatory in what is five minutes to us. He won’t so he hates the souls in Purgatory.
Maybe, he wants us to work to
get them out so that we will grow in grace through doing good works? But there are other ways for us to achieve
that. Surely it would be immoral of him
to hurt the souls for something unnecessary?
Roman Catholicism has to get paid
for masses for the dead. And these
masses invoke the intercession of the saints!
What a swindle! The doctrine of
Purgatory and the Catholic concept of the communion of saints in which all
parts of the Church help one another are only reconcilable when they undermine
the goodness of God.
For the saints to believe
that God could remove your free will to sin and still bring you to himself
without it means that they had no right to say that God is right to let us
suffer here on earth. Their God was the
Devil and insincere. If God existed we
would have been born in a Purgatory or in a state like Purgatory in which we
get closer to him but without the possibility of sinning. Roman Catholicism does not truly reverence
the being it calls God.
BAD BIBLE
ARGUMENTS FOR PURGATORY
Every Catholic argument from the Bible in favour of Purgatory is a
hoax.
The Second Book of Maccabees,
which
It seems that the key clauses
in the text have not been translated right.
There is reason to believe that instead of the book saying that
sacrifices were paid for to be offered in atonement for the sins of the dead it
says that the sacrifices were paid for to be offered because of sins which
would change the meaning of the passage to make it say that the sacrifices were
offered because of the sins of the surviving soldiers (page 9, Purgatory). Perhaps the sacrifices were offered as an
apology to God for the sins and were not intended to bring any benefit to the dead?
The Catechism of the
Catholic Church (1030-1032) claims that when Jesus said that there is a sin
that will not be pardoned in this world or in the world to come that there must
be sin that is pardoned in the afterlife (Matthew 12:32). So, they argue that this refers to sin that
is forgiven in Purgatory for there is no pardon in Hell and no sin in Heaven to
be pardoned in it. But Jesus’ words do
not imply any such idea for he only said that there was sin that would not be
forgiven in this world or the next meaning Hell. To say there is a cat in the kitchen is not
to imply that there is a dog in the hall.
In Matthew 5:25, Jesus says
the sinner is in prison until he or she pays the last penny. This is thought to speak of Purgatory. But the word until is often used non-literally
in the Bible. God says in Isaiah 46:4
that he will exist until the House of Jacob grows old. He does not mean that he will annihilate
himself when that happens. But you could
go to Hell forever until you pay the last penny. In that case, you will never get out for you
will never pay the last penny.
Paul is alleged by the Church
to have spoken of Purgatory at 1 Corinthians 3:13-15. But Protestants assume this fire tests a
person’s work while Purgatory does not.
Purgatory purifies a person. And
nobody can do a good work there for only suffering and the prayers of others
can get them out. It is not about testing
works at all so Paul’s words do not back up Purgatory. Catholics reply that you cannot try the work
without trying the person doing the work.
The fire tests everybody and not just those who go to Purgatory. Moreover, the fire tests the good man’s work
as well as the sinful man’s – it tests everybody’s while Catholics deny that
all will go to Purgatory. The good man’s
work will get a reward while the evil man will be saved by fire in their
philosophy. The Church says that the
souls in Purgatory are not saved by fire for they are already saved for they
cannot lose God and are destined for Heaven.
Paul refers to the Day of Judgment when there could be no Purgatory.
In Second Peter 3, Jesus
seemingly preached to the dead who had lived in Noah’s day. This does not refer to Purgatory but just to
Jesus preaching to people who are now dead.
Some speculate that it is about the Limbus Patrem where the holy people
born and dead before Jesus stayed until he opened Heaven. Nothing is said about these people paying for
sins or even repenting at Jesus’ preaching.
And it is possible that it is believed that the author is claiming that
Jesus before he was born appeared in spirit to the people living in Noah’s day
and not the dead at all.
PURGATORY IS
ANTI-BIBLICAL
The doctrine of Purgatory is at variance with the Bible. It is an invention of the Roman Catholic
Church which borrowed it from paganism.
It appears that the only praying for the dead that the early Church did
was so that Jesus would come soon and raise them up (page 4, Purgatory,
Rev W E Kenny BD). Augustine said no
more about Purgatory than that some in his day believed in it and that he would
not argue against it for it might be true (De citivitate Dei,
lib. XXI. C. 25). This tells us that
Purgatory was not in Christian tradition when all it could get was a
maybe. Augustine would have thought that
if it did exist it was not something that was meant to be revealed or declared
revealed by God and yet the Church declared it revealed by God in the second
millenium. Pope St Gregory the Great
liked the idea of Purgatory and gave it his sanction in his The Dialogues
about 590 AD. Gregory based his faith in
Purgatory on stories about visions of the dead.
He was the first to teach it.
Catholics deny this saying that if he had just plucked this new doctrine
out of nowhere there would have been schisms and brutal protests but there were
not so it was believed by the Church all the time anyway. But there were several bizarre doctrines in
the Church that were tolerated. In those
days, Christians fought over serious disagreements on the divinity of Christ
and the Trinity. Purgatory never became
a dogma that had to be believed until 1438, the year of the Council of
Florence. It and the doctrine of the
need to make atonement for the dead were made infallible dogma at
The Gospel of John says that he who believes in the Son will be saved and he who does not will be condemned. If belief in the Son means to boldy take the Son and adhere to him as Biblical Christianity says, it follows that Purgatory is asking us to keep away from him and so brings us under the condemnation.
The thief must have had a lot
of atoning to do and yet Jesus told him he would be in
The Church says that those who
have died in the Lord could be resting because they are out of Purgatory
(Revelation 14:13). But this is not a straightforward interpretation.
Paul said in Philippians 1:23 that it would be better for him to die and
leave this world to be with Christ.
Catholics say that this would only be true if you died getting a plenary
indulgence for if you had to go to Purgatory you would have been better off not
dying at all for it is awful. There is
no trace of indulgences in the New Testament and modern Catholics admit that
they were created by the Church centuries after the New Testament was created
and are disciplinary things that follow from the vicarious merit and Purgatory
doctrines. Paul then did not believe in
Purgatory for he expected leaving this world to bring him home to Jesus. He kept denigrating himself for his sins and
called himself the worst sinner so he did not think that there was a Purgatory
but he was too good to go to it. He
would not boast for he forbade boasting, all the time.
Philippians
God hates the holy souls if
they have no venial sin and are only in Purgatory to pay back the debt of
temporal punishment. There is something
terribly amiss in a system that says you can get rid of venial sins quicker
than all the punishment due to them.
Logic says the sin should be the slowest to be cancelled for it is
worse. Sin attacks a good God while
punishment is your come-uppance. The
souls would repent upon arrival for to stay in sin is a sin and there is no sin
in Purgatory except what is lying on the soul from earth-life. If somebody forgives you for breaking their
precious vase and still asks you to pay then the paying is temporal
punishment. But the person needs the
payment and God who is all-powerful does not.
He does not ask for it to discipline us for the need for discipline does
not require unnecessary demands. God
does not forgive at all. He just lessens
the punishment – he partially rewards or condones the crime which is evil. God hates the souls in Purgatory and they are
not purified when they are becoming closer to such a hateful being. This aspect of Purgatory also exposes the
malevolence of the doctrine.
The doctrine of temporal
punishment gives no backing for Purgatory for temporal punishment is impossible
to really believe. Even if it were not
nonsense Jesus could atone for any that remains to be paid at death.
When a person is in Purgatory
God is saying, “Keep away from me for you are impure and I am perfect.” In that case, the notion of God indwelling
and having a relationship with venial sinners on earth and the holy souls in
Purgatory is lies. If God is able to
mystically unite with a venial sinner then he can let that person into Heaven
sins and all for the only difference is that in Heaven you know that God exists
and you sense him with your sight and other senses but you don’t experience him
like that on earth. But the most
important thing, having God in your heart is common to both. The
interior union or fellowship is the essential thing. It makes no sense to say that God unites with
you intimately and then that you can’t see him in Heaven for seeing him is less
important. So, the Purgatory doctrine is
really insulting God and is denying that he dwells inside you. The Bible says that if God is not inside you
in the sense of having a right relationship with you then you are not saved
(Romans 8:9). Catholics are enemies of
Jesus Christ and not real Christians.
The Roman Church claims that if you go to Purgatory, you are still in the Church. The Church says that the one true Church is made up of the people who are in Heaven. the members of the Catholic Church on earth and those who are in Purgatory. It calls this doctrine the communion of saints. What if there is no Purgatory? Rome reasons that there is probably more Catholics in Purgatory than there is on earth. So a branch of the Church that is more important in numbers and holiness than the Church on earth doesn't exist. The Church then cannot be the true Church. It is like claiming to be a member of the largest Church in the universe when the other members are supposed to be on non-existent planets. There is no Church at all never mind a true one! A Church that has non-existent members is not the true Church and cannot be guaranteed to teach without error.
Rome calls itself Catholic in view of being allegedly open to all nations and all people and being spread out over earth and in Purgatory and Heaven. If there is no purgatory then how could the Church be Catholic when there is no Purgatory for it to be in? The Catholicity of the Church depends on the existence of Purgatory. It is a grave sin then for a believer who knows this to support or affiliate with the Catholic Church.
The Bible teaches that salvation has been earned for us in full by Jesus and that all we have to do is believe and accept what Jesus did for us. This is salvation by faith alone. Tradition in the Clementine literature complains about Simon Magus teaching this doctrine. Simon Magus is a nickname the literature gave St Paul and has Simon and Peter contending in Rome without mentioning Paul indicating that Simon was what they were calling Paul. They couldn't name Paul for the bigger Church regarded him as a true apostle despite warping some of his teachings. Purgatory contradicts the idea that good works and holiness contribute nothing to your salvation.
Paul in Ephesians 2:8,9 says that we
are saved by grace through faith and not of ourselves or our works. It says
works not earnings. It would say
earnings if it just tried to correct the notion that you can earn
salvation. It is uttered to people who
were saved some time before so the author is telling them that they are still
justified by faith without good works.
He is not saying you are saved by faith and repentance at the start and
then after this gift and fresh start you have to work for your salvation. This seems to attack Purgatory. But even those who believe in salvation by
faith alone still think that the purpose of earth-life is to improve the
Christian and purge them from their sinful faults. So Ephesians does eliminate the idea of a
Purgatory in which you earn your salvation or work for it. It eliminates
the idea of a Purgatory where you have to make up for venial sin and atone for
it. But it does not eliminate the idea of a Purgatory that is for making the saved behave better. It certainly eliminates the Catholic doctrine that
you go to Purgatory to make up for sin. Catholics ask that when there is a Purgatory for Christians on
earth then why can't there be one after our time in this world?
The Bible teaching of salvation by faith only infers that there can be no such place as a Purgatory that is for atoning sin.
Purgatory is based on the
immoral idea that Jesus made enough atonement for all people but still expects
people to atone for their own sins to a certain extent. That is ludicrous and unjust. Yet it is imagined to be supported in
Colossians (
Only false doctrine can be
built on a foundation of error.
BAD BIBLE
ANTI-PURGATORY ARGUMENTS
Here are some bad disproofs of Purgatory.
Isaiah
Ecclesiastes 12:7 says that
the spirit goes back to God after death.
But the spirit could go back
through Purgatory. When a child goes
back to the shop after school it does not mean that she will not stop at the
chapel on the way.
Spirit here means breath so
there is nothing metaphysical in this verse.
Jesus did not say Lazarus was
in Abraham’s bosom immediately after death (Luke
1 John 1:7,9 says that the
blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
This does not refute Purgatory for it is about cleansing us from all
past and present sin. We could be
without sin but just need some discipline in Purgatory.
In Ephesians
Revelation
Conclusion
Purgatory is an
invention of the Catholic Church. It is
not in the Bible and the Church lies to pretend that it is. The doctrine is so incredible that it is irrational
to bother trying to defend it. The way
the Church presents the doctrine is totally illogical. The doctrine makes no
sense and is vindictive.
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CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, Catholic Truth Society,
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OBJECTIONS TO
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PURGATORY, Rev W
E Kenny BD, Church of Ireland Printing, Co
SERMONS OF ST
ALPHONSUS LIGUORI, Tan Books,
THE GREAT MEANS
OF SALVATION AND PERFECTION, St Alphonsus De Ligouri, Redemptorist Fathers,
THE MOTHER OF GOD
AND OUR INTERIOR LIFE, Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, TAN,
THE PRIMITIVE
FAITH AND ROMAN CATHOLIC DEVELOPMENTS, Rev John A F Gregg, BD, APCK,
VICARS OF CHRIST, Peter de Rosa, Corgi,
WHEN CRITICS ASK, Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe, Victor Books, Illinois ,1992
7 Feb 09