do you think christianity is the only true religion and all others are fake?
I believe in God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and His Son Jesus, who died for our sins that we may have everlasting life in Heaven, and who is the only path to Heaven.
but what if there were other places to go to besides heaven/hell?
There aren’r according to my faith. We can sit here and what-if all day long and still be no closer to truth.
Do you believe in purgatory?
No.
That doesn’t make sense since purgatory is an element in both Christianity and Catholicism, now understand I’m not joining in on the whole let’s go after you for no reason train even though I’m strongly anti-theist.
I’m just genuinely interested in your reasoning as to why your beliefs don’t support purgatory.
In all the sermons I’ve sat through, in all the Sunday schools I’ve been in, purgatory has never been mentioned.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines purgatory as a “purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven,” which is experienced by those “who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified” (CCC 1030). It notes that “this final purification of the elect … is entirely different from the punishment of the damned” (CCC 1031).
The purification is necessary because, as Scripture teaches, nothing unclean will enter the presence of God in heaven (Rev. 21:27) and, while we may die with our mortal sins forgiven, there can still be many impurities in us, specifically venial sins and the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven.
In Christian theology, and especially in Catholic theology, Purgatory (Latin: Purgatorium, via Anglo-Norman andOld French)[1] is an intermediate state after physical death in which those destined for heaven “undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven”.[2] Only those who die in the state of grace but have not yet fulfilled the temporal punishment due to their sin can be in Purgatory, and therefore no one in Purgatory will remain forever in that state or go to hell. This notion has old roots.
The notion of Purgatory is associated particularly with the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church (in the Eastern sui juris churches or rites it is a doctrine, though it is not often called “Purgatory”, but the “final purification” or the “final theosis”); Anglicans of the Anglo-Catholic tradition generally also hold to the belief, along with many Lutherans ofHigh Church Lutheranism. Eastern Orthodox Churches believe in the possibility of a change of situation for the souls of the dead through the prayers of the living and the offering of the Divine Liturgy, and many Orthodox, especially among ascetics, hope and pray for a general apocatastasis.[3]Judaism also believes in the possibility of after-death purification and may even use the word “purgatory” to present its understanding of the meaning ofGehenna.[4] However, the concept of soul “purification” may be explicitly denied in these other faith traditions.
The word Purgatory has come to refer also to a wide range of historical and modern conceptions of postmortem suffering short of everlasting damnation,[5] and is used, in a non-specific sense, to mean any place or condition of suffering or torment, especially one that is temporary.[6]
While use of the word “Purgatory” (in Latin purgatorium) as a noun appeared perhaps only between 1160 and 1180, giving rise to the idea of purgatory as a place[7] (what Jacques Le Goff called the “birth” of purgatory),[8] the Roman Catholic tradition of Purgatory as a transitional condition has a history that dates back, even before Jesus Christ, to the worldwide practice of caring for the dead and praying for them, and to the belief, found also in Judaism,[9] which is considered the precursor of Christianity, that prayer for the dead contributed to their afterlife purification.
Christianity
Some churches, typically Roman Catholic, recognize the doctrine of Purgatory, while many Protestant and Eastern Orthodox churches would not use the same terminology, the former on the basis of their own sola scriptura doctrine, combined with their exclusion of 2 Maccabees from the Bible; the latter because the Orthodox Churches consider Purgatory a non-essential doctrine.
Catholicism
The Catholic Church gives the name Purgatory to the final purification of all who die in God’s grace and friendship, but are still imperfectly purified.[20] Though Purgatory is often pictured as a place rather than a process of purification, the idea of purgatory as a physical place with time is not part of the Church’s doctrine.[21]
Sunday School doesn’t Teach everything, no disrespect.
Why would I, attending Baptist churches, be taught Catholic catechism?
I said it is an element in Christianity and Catholicism, purgatory has existed since before the time of Jesus in the religion, and it’s sister religions.
I am asking why you don’t believe, even though it is a part of your religion.
And I am telling you it’s NOT a part of my religion.
Listen I’m not trying to harass you here, I’m just stating a fact that Purgatory is a common belief in Christianity and Catholicism, an all of their sub branches.
Whether they teach it or not.
Of all the non-Catholic believers offering views on this, none say it’s been taught in their churches. Logically, a common belief that isn’t taught is not a common belief.
Catholicism created purgatory has a means of giving their less then devout followers an out.
I gave up on the Catholic Church years ago because the faith is more about ceremony then anything else. It is assumed that if you go to church every Sunday and memorize their program that you are on the path to heaven. The problem is that many do not understand what the Bible really tries to get across.
Every week my Christian pastor goes though the bible word for word, and tries to get us to understand what is expected of us from the bibles viewpoint and not that of the church as a whole.
The Bible teaches us that if we except Jesus Christ as our saviour, we have a place at his side when we pass. You do or you don’t. There is no maybe, and as such there is no purgatory.
^^^^^
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