The Pope cannot just “retire” a doctrine of the faith taught since the beginnings of the Church. He just doesn’t have the authority to do any of the kind. (And I don’t know of anybody who has such authority.)
Well, a truly Bible-believing and Spirit-filled believer would already believe it.
You may be confused over the story from a few months back about Limbo. This is a theological idea about where unbaptized babies go that has a lot of sway in the Catholic Church. For may years it was considered a likely theory, although now, the church’s official position is simply that it does not know WHAT happens to unbaptized babies, and that it hopes that there may be some possibility for their salvation unknown to the church.
A possible general direction of conversation with that believer might be a series of questions.
Did Jesus blood wash away all my sins or just some of them?
The answer is: ALL to both questions. But that doesn’t have much to do with purgatory. Yes, He took away ALL our sins, when we were baptized. But we know, that we continue sinning, and we know that “nothing unclean shall enter heaven”. We also know that God does not look at us as if we were “whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean”. But thanks be to God for providing purgatory for us, so that we could be “perfect as He is perfect” and enter the Kingdom of God!
I guess this leads me to wonder how to interpret scripture.
I think you’ve put your finger on the real problem here. The OP doesn’t understand Purgatory, because of a whole other understanding of both what Purgatory means, and also, has a penal satisfaction theology making that understanding all the more difficult.
If you are in purgatory, then you are already GUARANTEED entrance into heaven. You’ve already been judged. Jesus has died for your sins. His sacrifice is perfect. But we are not. Purgatory is like the place you shower off the dirt and get dressed real nice before you enter the banquet hall. The dirtier you are - the longer the shower. Bad analogy, I know. But you must be clean and perfect to enter heaven!
You are a Bible-believer, I’m a God-believer.
Protestants don’t buy into private revelation. They are interested in Scripture. You want to show them Purgatory give the Scriptural basis for this belief to present your case.
how can an organization which claims to be the voice of god on earth, not know what happens to unbaptized babies who die? and the 2000 year old speculation about limbo. i’m all the more convinced that catholicism is pure human imagination, or lack thereof.
The Catholic Church** teaches that unbaptized babies is left to the mercy of God**. Only He (God) see can do this. The Catholic Church purpose is to assist those who are still alive and can be baptized to be save through outward signs like the 7 Sacraments.how can an organization which claims to be the voice of god on earth, not know what happens to unbaptized babies who die? and the 2000 year old speculation about limbo. i’m all the more convinced that catholicism is pure human imagination, or lack thereof.
True and false.
As someone else answered you, the answer is all…IF you follow Him, no? After all, some people go to hell because they do not accept Christ, no?
Easy. She has NEVER claimed direct access to the omniscience of God. Quite the opposite. Infallibility is a negative protection. If I were infallible in math, I could still quite easily flunk math. I would just be unable to write down any answers on the test if I couldn’t do them. Neither Pope, nor council, nor catechism claims to have all the answers, just the fullness of what HAS been revealed to us. Your objection implies the expectation that God should be entirely understandable to your intellect. What a puny God THAT would be. The mysteries inherent to catholicism are evidence that it is NOT man-made. If it WERE man-made, it would be a much tidier package, no?how can an organization which claims to be the voice of god on earth, not know what happens to unbaptized babies who die? and the 2000 year old speculation about limbo. i’m all the more convinced that catholicism is pure human imagination, or lack thereof.