Why is there a Purgatory

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Warrior4Truth

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HI everyone…
I just wanted to know the facts about purgatory. What is it? Why is it there? What bible verses prove its existence? Why do you go there? I would very much appreciate to know the answers to these questions.
 
Thanky you JimG for directing me to the page. It has answered some of my questions about purgatory. But what I do not understand about it still is this. I have to go to purgatory to “cleanse me of my sin”, but why is that if Jesus’s sacrifice wiped away all my sin. If I have become a new man and all old things have passed away then there is no sin to cleanse away, because Jesus did it for me. I am sorry if I seem a little slow but I am a slow learner… 🙂
 
The merits of the finished work of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is applied in Purgatory. To even go through the cleansing process called Purgatory, you must die in a state of Grace. Here is the relevant scripture and teaching from the Early Church.

scripturecatholic.com/purgatory.html

God Bless
 
I recall the several parables Jesus used regarding feasts and/or weddings. I get them mixed up so I can’t quote chapter and verse, sorry…

but what I recall is that all are invited to the feast. Some say yes, others say no, or ignore the invitation, others say yes, but take their time getting ready.

Baptism/confirmation is our “Yes”…we are washed in water and given clean clothes to begin our journey to the feast.

We hit the road (life) and along the way we get lost, we fall. Catholics go to the priests to fix them up and get them back on the right road. They cleanse the wounds, use stitches if necessary, set broken bones. No time to shower and do the laundry though, getting lost set us back and we have to get going.

So we finally arrive at the location of the feast/wedding but we’re dissheveled from the journey. We certainly can’t go into the wedding chapel to face the bride and groom looking like this!

Purgatory freshens us up. The scars/blemishes from the healed wounds (temporal effects of sin), and the dust in our hair (venial sins not confessed before our death) are removed completely. How long the process takes depends on how lost we got, how many times we fell, the nature of those falls. But in the end we are as clean as the day we were baptized and finally able to enter that Holy Place to face the Lord.

The good news is we arrived at the location and were let in, instead of having the gates shut on us.
 
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Warrior4Truth:
Thanky you JimG for directing me to the page. It has answered some of my questions about purgatory. But what I do not understand about it still is this. I have to go to purgatory to “cleanse me of my sin”, but why is that if Jesus’s sacrifice wiped away all my sin. If I have become a new man and all old things have passed away then there is no sin to cleanse away, because Jesus did it for me. I am sorry if I seem a little slow but I am a slow learner… 🙂
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There is a difference of salvation in protestant theology and Catholic theology. In many protestant views, it was a once for all thing where Christ died on the cross and we are therefore saved. Declare righteousness is basically what it is. In Catholicism the death and ressurection of Christ is more than just a washing away of our sins. In Catholic teaching Christ died in order that we might be reconciled with God. He died that we could recieve the Spirit in us as He has in Him. Now, your view that He died and our sins were forgiven is correct on the exterior from our perspective, but when you examine it it does not cover the whole faith. Forgiveness of sins from our perspective is the imparting of grace in order to change the person to be more like Christ. Forgiveness of sins is very closely tied with a change of the person. By Christs sacrifice He gained us grace that our sins would be forgiven and we would be completely changed. We are to be new men, crucified with Christ and risen with Christ. This salvation is a process where we are continually justified and given grace.

Now, since Christs sacrifice was for the perfection of humanity as well as the forgiveness of sins, and those who exit this world and are saved are not yet perfected; there must be some sort of purgation of these imperfections. Apocalypse tells us nothing that is not perfect will enter heaven. This purgation perfects us through the sacrifice of Christ. It is done by grace and all grace proceeds from Christ through His sacrifice. So there is no opposition between Christ and purgatory.
 
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Warrior4Truth:
…if Jesus’s sacrifice wiped away all my sin. If I have become a new man and all old things have passed away then there is no sin to cleanse away, because Jesus did it for me. I am sorry if I seem a little slow but I am a slow learner… 🙂
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Jesus died a long time ago to open the gates of Heaven for all who died before him and those who would die after him. They were closed before then.

You became a new man through your baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and the original sin of Adam and Eve on your soul was removed, as were any other sins you may have committed up to that point (if you were baptized not as an infant but later)…including temporal effects of those sins.

So from the moment of your baptism you were ‘cleansed’, as you say “all old things have passed away”…but what about new things? Have you not sinned since then? Have you managed to not break a single commandment? Do you know that you will not sin for the rest of your life?

For Catholics our souls get cleansed of the sins we commit after our baptism through reconciliation. But the temporal effects of those sins will remain until purgatory, or unless we work toward a plenary indulgence or several partial indulgences. Even if we do gain a plenary indulgence, that’s still only lasts as long as we are able to not sin again after that. Once we sin, we stain our soul again.

If you are Protestant and have sinned do you believe your soul is still as clean today as it was the moment of your baptism? Do you believe sins committed after baptism leave no mark on your soul, has no affect? That there are no consequences to bear for sinning? If so how does that happen? Why would anyone need to keep the commandments after baptism if that were the case?
 
Ok. thanks everyone for taking the time to answer my questions. It is very much appreciated. 😃
 
What state of conciousness are those in Purgatory experiencing? Are they fully aware of where they are and what is happening?

Is there pain or suffering?

Is it a state of limbo… of nothingness…or of fire?

How fast does time pass?
 
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GodSoldier:
What state of conciousness are those in Purgatory experiencing? Are they fully aware of where they are and what is happening?

Is there pain or suffering?

Is it a state of limbo… of nothingness…or of fire?

How fast does time pass?
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Purgatory is outside of time so passage of it is non-existent.

There are several saints who have been granted glimpses of purgatory…St. Faustina comes to mind at the moment, but others will probably be able to name others. You can read their stories, about their experiences to get a better feel for the concept of purgatory.

Keep in mind that Plenary indulgences (the remission of the entire temporal punishment due to sin so that no further expiation is required in Purgatory) are available to us during our time on earth as well as for those baptized who have already passed. So do not despair over purgatory. At least you are saved and haven’t been damned straight to hell.

Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.
 
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Warrior4Truth:
Thanky you JimG for directing me to the page. It has answered some of my questions about purgatory. But what I do not understand about it still is this. I have to go to purgatory to “cleanse me of my sin”, but why is that if Jesus’s sacrifice wiped away all my sin. If I have become a new man and all old things have passed away then there is no sin to cleanse away, because Jesus did it for me. I am sorry if I seem a little slow but I am a slow learner… 🙂
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Just a clarification. Purgatory doesn’t cleanse one of sin. As you say, Jesus’ sacrifice takes away our sins.

(As Catholics we believe that the grace of salvation effected through Jesus’ sacrifice comes to us initially through Baptism, and through all the other sacraments as well, including Penance which erases subsequent sin.)

Rather, Purgatory cleanses us from the “temporal effects” of sin. This is a distinction that I don’t think is made by most Protestants.

The primary eternal effect of sin is loss of heaven, and this is restored to us through the grace of Jesus sacrifice.

But sin also distorts our soul. The more one sins, the more one is inclined to sin. One’s conscience becomes to a certain extent deformed.

It is like a car, which driven recklessly, goes off the road and into the ditch. God picks us up and puts us back on the road. But like that car, we are now out of alignment. What’s needed is a mechanical overhaul to put the car back in perfect condition, straigtening out all the dents, and re-tuning the engine. Because it has to be perfect to enter that grand showroom at the end of the road.

I apologize in advance for the wildly mixed metaphors.

The key is that Purgatory is not for the forgiveness of sins. It is for the perfection of the soul.
 
Purgatory is God’s Mercy first of all. We may die in the state of Grace, but who can claim to have it all together to see God face to face? And if we did see God face to face immediately after we die, we won’t be able to look at ABSOLUTE TRUTH and not crumble due to our personal imperfections. Purgatory is there to prepare us for the ultimate union with God. Thus we have to have complete integrity upon this communion.

in XT.
 
The broken window metaphor is what always comes to mind when I want to explain purgatory. Let’s say that you were playing baseball and you happen to hit the ball really hard. It flies away and hits a window of your neighbor. Obviously, you being a good christian, you go over to your neighbor and apologize. Your neighbor forgives you since he knows that you didn’t intentionally do it. It just happen to hit his window and not others. You obviously have been forgiven but the story doesn’t stop there. You still will have the duty to replace the window in order to correct the situation. So same goes with us.

For us catholics when we go to confession we know that we have been forgiven by Christ in the person of the priest but we still have to do penance because we know that we have offended God. Either we do penance here or on the other side of life. The only way to enter heaven is to die in the state of grace without any attachment to sin(this is very hard to do). When we die most men/women have to go thru this cleansing because of this, knowing that nothing impure enters heaven(Rev 21:27). Hope this helps.
 
I have a hard time accepting the doctrine of purgatory because I think it diminishes the validity of the sacrifice of Christ. It implies that his blood was not enough to cleanse away sin. This is why we must be born again - so we can be made completely conformed to Christ.
 
I have a hard time accepting the doctrine of purgatory because I think it diminishes the validity of the sacrifice of Christ. It implies that his blood was not enough to cleanse away sin. This is why we must be born again - so we can be made completely conformed to Christ.
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Ah, but the doctrine of purgatory, if anything, strengthens the case for the validity of the sacrifice of Christ. Jesus died for our sins, and his sacrifice was a perfect one–purgatory is just one aspect of how that sacrifice is made manifest.

It is a purging of all love for oneself, the final transformation of a soul to make it fit for heaven. Since nothing unclean shall enter heaven (Revelation 21:27), it is a final preparation to look upon the face of God. Just read back over some previous posts and you’ll find nearly all of us saying that purgatory is merely an application of that perfect sacrifice.

-ACEGC
 
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edward_george:
Ah, but the doctrine of purgatory, if anything, strengthens the case for the validity of the sacrifice of Christ. Jesus died for our sins, and his sacrifice was a perfect one–purgatory is just one aspect of how that sacrifice is made manifest.

It is a purging of all love for oneself, the final transformation of a soul to make it fit for heaven. Since nothing unclean shall enter heaven (Revelation 21:27), it is a final preparation to look upon the face of God. Just read back over some previous posts and you’ll find nearly all of us saying that purgatory is merely an application of that perfect sacrifice.

-ACEGC
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“And it is appointed unto men to die, but after this the judgement.”
Hebrews 9:27
 
Amen,
“And it is appointed unto men to die, but after this the judgement.”
Hebrews 9:27

As a Catholic I believe that 100%, we will be judged after we die. Purgatory is for people who are assured salvation being made perfect. Is God going to just say you are perfect or make you perfect? God wouldn’t lie and say something that isn’t perfect, perfect.

God Bless
Scylla
 
I understand all that, but I don’t see where purgatory is talked about in scriture. Wouldn’t that be an awfully important detail to leave out?
 
Chris LaRock:
I understand all that, but I don’t see where purgatory is talked about in scriture. Wouldn’t that be an awfully important detail to leave out?
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I was reading an article about purgatory the other day and they did cite references from scripture which the Fathers of the Church used as the basis for their understanding of the concept of purgatory.

I can’t recall the specific references, sorry, but I did notice the scriptures themselves did not mention ‘purgatory’. It was the inspired revelation of the Fathers who, upon reading the scriptures, came to know about purgatory, so it seems.

Since our faith is based upon Scripture and Tradition, our Church Fathers and the Saints’ revelations/teachings carry equal weight to what is recorded in Scripture with us.

There are many saints who were granted visions of purgatory. Padre Pio was visited by a soul in purgatory who was allowed to be visible by Padre Pio by God in order to ask the father to say a mass for him in order to release him from purgatory. Padre Pio said the mass the next morning. Several weeks later he went to the records office to inquire about that particular person, and sure enough, the person’s name was recorded as being in the specific room the person had said he was in and died in the manner the person had said he had.

St. Faustina saw the souls in purgatory. Some appealed to her to pray for them, which she did.

Through the saints and the Fathers of the Church we continue to learn more about God’s mercy and love for us, beyond scripture and through scripture. Their graces, blessing, gifts are what help the Church to remain alive after 2000 years, just as Jesus promised, and for that we are eternally grateful.
 
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