Thank you for your responses. I’ll just zero in on a couple of points for now.
Shin, please give me some references from the Bible that would support your statement.
A quote from Grandfather:
What does scripture offer with regards to this - How do we know that they are able to pray for us but not for themselves in purgatory?
“if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.”
1 Timothy 3:15
The Church has always taught the intercession of the saints.
Not everything need be fully explained or justified in the Bible, the Bible or scriptures come out of the Church, rather than the Church out of the scriptures. It is the Book of the Church and a part of her, but not the whole, nor what creates her.
The saints are witnessed by miracles.
Code:
Yet more than ever, believers in the Lord, great numbers of men and women, were added to them.
Thus they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on one or another of them.
A large number of people from the towns in the vicinity of Jerusalem also gathered, bringing the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.
Acts 5:14-16
“And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them”
Acts 19:11-12
The saints and angels of God stand before the throne of God and offer prayer and intercession for those on earth below.
"After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
They cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the
All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God,”
from the Book of Revelation
In regards to the souls in purgatory, in purgatory one has completed one’s life’s work, one can no longer merit before the Lord, and one is expiating one’s sins to the Lord’s justice that was not paid in life. Because of this, one has nothing to offer for oneself any further, though it is believed they may either pray for others there, or will after completing purgation.
"Every man’s work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. "
1 Cor 3:13-15
Christ has told us we must be perfect, and this is a moral perfection He is calling for. Until we morally are perfect, we are not fit for Heaven, and all our works and so our selves are liable to justice and judgement.
Or as the saints put it, God forgives every sin, but the will to sin.
I suggest reading the writings of the saints on these subjects for further understanding.
