Protestants traditionally reject purgatory with three major objections: first, purgatory allows the possibility of universalism; second, purgatory offers a kind of salvation through works; and third, purgatory lacks scriptural support.
Why do Protestant Christians not believe in purgatory?
Protestants usually do not recognize purgatory as such: following their doctrine of sola scriptura, they claim Jesus is not recorded mentioning or otherwise endorsing it, and the old-covenant work 2 Maccabees is not accepted by them as scripture.
Purgatory is consistently denied and vigorously opposed by Protestant Christians. The first reason for our opposition is its lack of biblical support. The second reason is that it denies the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone, so central to our faith.
This is something even Protestants admit. Purgatory is thus the final rush of our sanctification. It is our transition into glory. All through the Christian life God is purifying our hearts, giving us greater holiness, but this sanctifying process is not complete (or anything like complete) until the end of life.
Roman Catholics who believe in purgatory interpret New Testament passages such as 2 Timothy 1:18, Matthew 12:32, Luke 23:43, 1 Corinthians 3:11–3:15 and Hebrews 12:29 as supporting prayer for souls who are believed to be alive in an active, interim state after death, undergoing purifying flames (which could be ...
Yes. Catholic, non-Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, etc. Anyone can experience Purgatory in accord with the mercy of God, insofar that Purgatory is simply a name for the state of being purified or cleansed by the fires of God's love.
Contrary to what many Protestants think, the Catholic Church didn't make up the doctrine of purgatory. Jesus' teaching in Matthew 12:32 forms a crucial part of the scriptural justification for the doctrine of purgatory. With such a foundation, the Catholic Church can say with Paul “Not I but the Lord says” (1 Cor.
Neither the Eastern Orthodox Church nor Protestantism accepts the concept of a limbo of infants; but, while not using the expression "Limbo of the Patriarchs", the Eastern Orthodox Church lays much stress on the resurrected Christ's action of liberating Adam and Eve and other righteous figures of the Old Testament, ...
The First Means of avoiding Purgatory is manifestly to remove the cause which sends us there, which is sin. It may not be easy to refrain from all sin, even the smaller sins, but every ordinary Christian can, by the frequent use of the Sacraments, easily abstain from mortal sin.
Likewise, Scripture teaches that purgatory exists, even if it doesn't use that word and even if 1 Peter 3:19 refers to a place other than purgatory. Christ refers to the sinner who “will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matt.
Purgatory is seldom mentioned in Anglican descriptions or speculations concerning life after death, although many Anglicans believe in a continuing process of growth and development after death. A vivid literary description of purgatory is provided by Dante in The Divine Comedy.
Protestants don't believe in purgatory. They also don't pray for their dead which is unique amongst many world religions - the Catholics, Jews and Muslims do. Catholics and Protestants believe in hell, Jews don't. Catholics and Protestants believe in heaven.
Revelation 21:27 says Nothing unclean shall enter Heaven. Purgatory means purification. So the question isn't is there a place called purgatory but rather a purification process that the saved must go through 1 Corinthians 3:15 gives us an answer, yes.
Well, the Catholic understanding is that Protestants are our brothers and sisters in Christ. So all Christians who profess faith in Christ and who are properly baptized are Christians and were put into a relationship with Jesus that Scripture describes in terms of being members of his Body.
An indulgence is not the purchase of a pardon which secures the buyer's salvation or releases the soul of another from purgatory. Sin is only pardoned (i.e., its effects entirely obliterated) when complete reparation in the form of sacramental confession is made and prescribed conditions are followed.
The Eastern Orthodox actually do believe in purgatory. They just don't call it purgatory because that word purgatory, is a Latin word. But the Eastern Orthodox do believe in the doctrine of purgatory, which is that god will purify the soul after death.
The classic Protestant argument against Purgatory, aside from the lack of biblical support, is that Jesus' death eliminated the need for any afterlife redress of sin.
No. The only souls that go to purgatory are those that need purification from venial sin and from the temporal punishment still owed for sins. They go on to heaven afterward. Souls that are damned go to hell immediately.
The doctrine of purgatory, or the final purification, has been part of the true faith since before the time of Christ. The Jews already believed it before the coming of the Messiah, as revealed in the Old Testament (2 Macc. 12:41–45) as well as in other pre-Christian Jewish works.
