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Almost like clockwork! I was wondering how long it would take for Purgatory to pop up in the thread.

Y'all wonder why the same arguments keep on being rehashed? It's because whatever "evidence" is brought up to prove yet another Roman Catholic invented dogma they proclaim is binding upon all of Christendom it never passes the REAL test understood and utilized by Christian apologists going back to the start...it cannot be proved by God's word. ONLY the Word of God shall establish articles of faith and no one else, not even an angel.

There IS no Scriptural proof for Purgatory - and plenty that teaches such an idea is against Scripture. Slipping in a questionable passage from an Apocryphal book - questionable because it doesn't really say what is claimed it does - and a few "snippets" of out-of-context passages that, when studied fully, actually shatter such a foolish idea, is FAR from the criteria required to assert something is a Christian tenet. Martin Luther rightfully stated:

[P]urgatory is the greatest falsehood, because it is based on ungodliness and unbelief; for they deny that faith saves, and they maintain that satisfaction for sins is the cause of salvation. Therefore he who is in purgatory is in hell itself; for these are his thoughts: “I am a sinner and must render satisfaction for my sins; therefore I shall make a will and shall bequeath a definite amount of money for building churches and for buying prayers and sacrifices for the dead by the monks and priests.” Such people die in a faith in works and have no knowledge of Christ. Indeed, they hate Him. We die in faith in Christ, who died for our sins and rendered satisfaction for us. He is my Bosom, my Paradise, my Comfort, and my Hope. [Luther, M. (1999, c1964). Vol. 4: Luther's works, vol. 4 : Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 21-25 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald and H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (4:315). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House].