(2:Macc.12:46): "It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins."
Those in Heaven have no need for prayer; those in hell are beyond hope. Thus there must be a place for the dead where sins are expiated. Catholics maintained the Apocrypha, while the Reformers discarded it. The baby got thrown out with the bathwater, just so Purgatory could be eliminated.
“(2:Macc.12:46): “It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.”
“Those in Heaven have no need for prayer; those in hell are beyond hope.”
We agree here, based on Scripture.
“Thus there must be a place for the dead where sins are expiated.”
This could only be true if Christ’s death did not cover all sins. If it did not, you do not have a Savior.
This is in opposition to the teaching of the rest of Scripture, which states that Christ is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world and teaches from cover to cover that righteousness only ever comes through Him.
“Catholics maintained the Apocrypha, while the Reformers discarded it. The baby got thrown out with the bathwater, just so Purgatory could be eliminated.”
I believe you have that backwards historically. The Apocrypha, which was questioned throughout the ages was rejected during the Reformation because it conflicted with the teaching of accepted Scripture and contained errors. Consequently, there was nothing in Scripture that teaches any power to deal with sins other than Christ alone and purgatory was seen as a false doctrine.
Do you have no verse outside the Apocrypha that would teach so important an idea, if true (and it is not)?
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Hebrews 9:6 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.