oops, I was trying to quote bbbbb
None of the options in the poll are suitable for Catholics. It's grossly biased.
III. THE FINAL PURIFICATION, OR PURGATORY
1030. 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.
1031. The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. [Cf. Council of Florence (1439): DS 1304; Council of Trent (1563): DS 1820; also Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus (1336): DS 1000] The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire: [Cf. 1 Cor 3:15; 1 Peter 1:7]
"As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come." [St. Gregory the Great, Dial 4:39, PL 77:396; cf. Mt 12:31]
1032. This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: "Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin." [2 Macc 12:46] From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. [Cf. Council of Lyons II (1274): DS 856] The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:
Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them. [St. John Chrysostom, Hom in 1 Cor 41:5, PG 61:361; cf. Job 1:5]
Now that we have some background and definition of the official teaching, I will look at some of the more common arguments against purgatory, and see if they really do refute the Catholic doctrine, or just refute a straw man or misunderstanding of the doctrine.
Purgatory and the Bible
"Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin." Hebrews 10:18. Our forgiveness is already complete; we do not need to be purified in purgatory!
This is a common example of not only how Protestants misunderstand what Catholics mean by purgatory, but how they take a biblical verse out of context. First of all, that one offering for sin is Christ, and we all agree since we tie purgatory into the final phase of sanctification. Our forgiveness is complete in Christ and because of Christ's one offering, this is possible. There is no problem with the one offering or sacrifice, or the ongoing sanctification as an application of that one sacrifice (Hebrew 10:10-14; 1 John 1:7-9; 2:1-2).
But let us read Hebrews chapter 10 in context, and see if that sacrifice applies irrevocably forever to a believer: Hebrews 10:16-39
Far from a done deal, the sacrifice of Christ is no longer there for one "who has spurned the Son of God, and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified"; such a one can "throw away [one's] confidence" and "shrink back" and be "destroyed." The only thing such a sinner looks forward to is judgment, for "the Lord will judge his people" (cf. Romans 2:5-10). We are to keep faith and endure to the end to be saved, "so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised" (cf. Matthew 24:13; 2 Peter 1:10f).
But let’s say salvation was a done deal. Is our sanctification instantly accomplished? Some Protestants say Catholics don’t understand the difference between justification and sanctification. They say justification is instantaneous, and sanctification is a lifelong process. Even granting this, the final step into heaven would require us to be perfectly purified and made completely holy through Christ’s grace, since the church in heaven, where "nothing unclean can enter" contains holy and perfected people (cf. Matthew 5:48; Hebrews 12:14, 23; 1 Thess 5:23; Eph 5:26f; Rev 21:27). So we
DO "need to be purified" according to Scripture (cf. Mal 3:2-3; 1 Peter 1:6-9; Hebrews 12:29), and Christ's one sacrifice is the application of that final purification and sanctification necessary for heaven -- which Catholics call "purgatory."
“When those in Christ die, they are automatically in heaven.”
There is no evidence in Scripture of the infamous mantra “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (some say it is implied in 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 which actually reads: "
we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord" -- RSV). There is often desire to be away from the body and be with Christ, but what believer wouldn’t desire this? Desiring something is not the same as automatically attaining it. And again, being that the Church does not teach a specific time limit in purgatory, and being time on Earth and time in Heaven and eternity are two different things, this objection does not remove the Catholic doctrine of purgatory.
"We are confident, I say, and
would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord." - 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two:
I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far" - Philippians 1:21-23
Again, how one reads here "once you are dead you are automatically in heaven" I don’t know. Both passages suggest desires ("would prefer to be" and "I desire to..."),
not absolute affirmative statements. I desire to be a millionaire, does that mean I am one or will necessarily be one? Of course not. This is faulty logic, and cannot be used to refute purgatory, at least not successfully.
“Even when the apostle Paul knew he was imperfect (Philippians 3:12), he knew he would go to be with the Lord when he died (Philippians 1:21-23).”
This is another common misconception of purgatory, that it’s somehow some middle ground. I don’t understand how this verse refutes purgatory. People can rely so heavily on a verse, and attempt to interpret it many ways, all not understanding what the Catholic doctrine of purgatory is.
Everyone in purgatory is going to heaven. Just like those who were in Abraham’s bosom such as Noah, Abel, etc (Hebrews 11) were going to heaven, so are those in purgatory. To see this as having any affect on purgatory is to set up and knock down a straw man.
“For at least the first two centuries there was no mention of purgatory in the Church. In all the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, Irenaeus and Justin Martyr there is not the slightest allusion to the idea of purgatory. Rome claims that the early Church nevertheless believed in purgatory because it prayed for the dead. This was becoming a common practice by the beginning of the third century but it does not, in itself, prove that the early Church believed in the existence of a purgatory. The written prayers which have survived, and the evidence from the catacombs and burial inscriptions indicate that the early Church viewed deceased Christians as residing in peace and happiness and the prayers offered were for them to have a greater experience of these. As early as Tertullian, in the late second and beginning of the third century, these prayers often use the Latin term refrigerium as a request of God on behalf of departed Christians, a term which means 'refreshment' or 'to refresh' and came to embody the concept of heavenly happiness. So the fact that the early Church prayed for the dead does not support the teaching of purgatory for the nature of the prayers themselves indicate the Church did not view the dead as residing in a place of suffering. ” (from William Webster’s The Church of Rome at the Bar of History, page 114)
This argument is false for several reasons. First, I’d like him to find an early Church Father who during the times of Irenaeus managed to name all 27 books of the canon of the New Testament correctly. How about a Church Father who denied baptismal regeneration? (Webster admits there were none, page 95-96). If this argument is turned around on the Protestant who uses Church history, it hurts him even more. What about those prayers for the dead? Of course they are depicted as being in a place of happiness! They were going to heaven! Nowhere does the Catholic Church deny this. There is also the Latin used, which Webster says only refers to “refreshment” or to “refresh.” Is this compatible with the Catholic concept of purgatory?
(1) We sin on Earth;
(2) We do not sin in Heaven;
(3) The spirit is refreshed, since in heaven we have the spirits of just men made (not declared) perfect (cf. Heb 12:23);
(4) Therefore, the prayer is made to refresh the person, to purify him (cf. 1 Peter 1:6-9).
The Catholic doctrine of purgatory fits quite nicely under these circumstances, and the objections presented thus far do nothing to damage the dogma.
“The concept of purgatory arose long after the Apostles.”
I’d agree with this statement, if we change long after to
long before. Jews have always prayed the “Kaddish.” This prayer, which reaffirms faith in God despite the mourner's loss, was thought to hasten the process of purification. So to claim the doctrine was invented long after the Apostles
is utterly false. Granted, they did not call it purgatory, but the basis is exactly the same. So the witness of this doctrine existed among the Jews long before the Apostles, was referenced to by the Scriptures (cf. 2 Maccabees 12:42-46), and has continued witness in the earliest Christians and early Church Fathers. The following is a little bit of that testimony:
(Abercius, Epitaph of Abercius, A.D. 190.)
(Cyprian of Carthage, Letters, 51[55]:20, A.D. 253.)
(Lactantius, Divine Institutes, 7:21:6, A.D. 307.)
(St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures c. 350 A.D.)
4 more up to 411 AD
Like all other early Christian beliefs (the Holy Trinity, the doctrine of Christ, the sacraments, the Papacy, the Marian doctrines), we see the general form of the belief, then the further development of it. Purgatory is no different than any other historic Christian doctrine. We see comprehensive evidence for purgatory by those same great bishops and saints of the Catholic Church who later decided upon the very canon of Scripture.
