[mdmathis6]

No the point of the parable was to...establish in people's minds that God does take notice of one's deeds on earth and that he has set up appropriate punishments and to make a further point that people will believe or disbelieve according to faith or the hardness of their hearts, in spite of having the truth given to them thru various prophets and teachings. Christ pointed out that even a person who had been raised from the dead would have trouble convincing the living to live a Godly life!

I was responding to the notion of purgatory and one could argue there seems some evidence for it in scriptures other than Maccabees. I'm not convinced of it personally, but I do believe God acts multi dimensionally and transtemporally and there is a lot we have not been given to under-stand what goes on behind the veil.

[Havoc]

There isn't a notion of purgatory in scripture. Abraham's bosom isn't defined thoroughly apart from the parable. Scripture deals in depth with the status of men who die in sin or in righteousness of Christ. It discusses specific places - none of which mentions purgatory or anything close to it. There's a reason for it - it doesn't exist. I understand the point you make otherwise. The tell is that heaven gets discussion. Hell gets discussion. The lake of fire gets discussion. Where's purgatory? It isn't just that it isn't mentioned by name. It's that the story that we are told with regard to the other places rules out any possibility of purgatory. Absent the body, present with God makes it impossible. The fact that we cannot "expiate" our own sins is spoken to by the apostles and christ. It can't be done. So making up a place for us to do it in doesn't work. It adds to the gospel thus making it a different gospel by definition.