Purgatory

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Ok Catholics…I need your help. I am wondering where the belief in purgatory started, as from what I can see, it is not in the Bible. It’s not that I don’t believe it, but I would like to know how it started. I am talking to one of my Protestant minister friends and we are discussing if it is a valid belief so I need some help. Thanks!🙂
 
t68ware said:
Ok Catholics…I need your help. I am wondering where the belief in purgatory started, as from what I can see, it is not in the Bible. It’s not that I don’t believe it, but I would like to know how it started. I am talking to one of my Protestant minister friends and we are discussing if it is a valid belief so I need some help. Thanks!🙂
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In the book of the Maccabees it mentions that it is good to pray for the souls of the dead. If they are in heaven, they need no prayers. If they are in Hell, prayers would do no good. They must be somewhere, hence Purgatory.

Just because something is not explicitly mentioned in Scripture in no way negates its validity. That is the problem with the Sola Scriptura types.
 
Hi this subject keeps coming up, I think because a lot of people are confused about it. When discussing various topics with our non catholic brothers, a lot of us either forget or don’t know that in a non catholic bible there are 7 books missing. They are Tobit; Judith; 1st Maccabees; 2nd Maccabees; Book of Wisdom; Sirach, and Baruch. So when the subject of Purgatory comes up and we, as catholics tell someone not of our faith to read any of those books mentioned above they won’t be able to unless we direct them to a catholic bible. Thats why I love this faith because it tells the WHOLE Truth.
 
t68ware said:
Ok Catholics…I need your help. I am wondering where the belief in purgatory started, as from what I can see, it is not in the Bible. It’s not that I don’t believe it, but I would like to know how it started. I am talking to one of my Protestant minister friends and we are discussing if it is a valid belief so I need some help. Thanks!🙂
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Aside from the Book of Maccabbees as others have mentioned, there are also various implicit and not so implicit references throughout the NT. I’m not going to get into those as other posters will likely bring them up as this thread grows, but you may want to check out scripturecatholic.com. Aside from the Rich Man and Lazarus (which I don’t believe refers to purgatory at all, nor do I know anyone who does) they do a good job of giving scriptural references.

You may also want to take into account that Orthodox and Conservative Jews (possibly also Reform Jews, but I’m not sure) have a belief very similar to purgatory. When someone dies in Judaism, the family prays for that person for 11 months so that they may be freed from the place of purification. As it has been explained to me many times (any Jews reading this should feel free to correct any errors that I may make), the general opinion in Judaism is that only a select few of the most evil people will be punished forever in hell. The rest of mankind who die with lesser misdeeds on their consciences will undergo a period of purification lasting anywhere up to 12 months. To pray for someone for a full 12 months would imply that they were very bad and therefore needed the maximum purification. That’s why they only pray for them for 11 months. That way, even if the deceased did need the maximum, he or she only has one month to go after the prayers stop.
 
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