[Antoninus]

No Biblical prophet ever spoke of a Purgatory or for people to be either prayed out or bought out of it.

No Biblical prophet spoke of the Trinity, either.

But plenty of Church Fathers and early Christian martyrs did. Is their witness worthless? I think not. It is certainly worth more than the made-up theology of the "johnny-come-latelys" of the last 500 years.

[Mr Rogers]

The concept of the Trinity has no practical daily function. On the other hand, if failure to live a good life meant you were going to spend hundreds of years in torment because Jesus didn’t really pay the full price of your sins, don’t you think SOMEONE would have mentioned it?

Something like, “I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. After all, who wants to spend hundreds of years being tortured by God because you didn’t try hard enough in this world?”

[MrEdd]

Now that is a statement directly parallel to and constructed entirely the same as the fact that none of the engineers and inventors developing engines in the early eighteen fifties and eighteen sixties believed in mixing fuel with air because not one of them ever used the word carburation.

Thank you for that brilliant insight, Antonius.

We are pleased with your explanation that nobody believes things until a word specifically describing that one thing is coined.

You truly are an intellectual and theological marvel.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“ No Biblical prophet spoke of the Trinity, either.

.......

The term “Trinity” is an expression that describes what God reveals in Scripture - unlike the term “purgatory” which is pagan.

[Iscool]

No Biblical prophet spoke of the Trinity, either.

Apostles certainly did...

1Jn 5:7  For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

And Jesus certainly did...

Mat 28:19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  

But plenty of Church Fathers and early Christian martyrs did. Is their witness worthless?

YES, if it doesn't line up with scripture...

I think not. It is certainly worth more than the made-up theology of the "johnny-come-latelys" of the last 500 years.

Believing the bible is not making up theology...

There is one example of a person being in Hell in the scriptures...There is one example of a person being in Paradise in the scriptures...Paradise was connected to hell until Jesus was resurrected...At that time, the 'gates of hell' (Paradise) were ripped open never to prevail against God's people again...

No one gets out of hell and Paradise no longer exist down there...There is no purgatory...
Someone's visit with a ghost or a bad dream (nightmare) does not take the place of scripture...Who knows if this person even ever existed???

[Luircin]

Unlike some people I can name on this thread, I actually read the church fathers.

Reality is that it’s Roman Catholicism that’s a “Johnny come lately” and the church fathers agree far more with the Reformers.

[trebb]

What did these folks ‘witness”? Did they follow the souls of the freshly dead to the “gates of Purgatory”?
Funny how the Blood of Jesus can wash away all our sins, past/present/future, and make us pure in the eyes of the Lord, but leaves some residual stains that must be cleansed before we can meet our God who pre-purified us...what are we, dirty socks?