Before we examine those verses, however, I should note that one of the errors of Martin Luther condemned by Pope Leo X in his papal bull Exsurge Domine (June 15, 1520) was Luther’s belief that “Purgatory cannot be proved from Sacred Scripture which is in the canon.” In other words, while the Catholic Church bases the doctrine of Purgatory on both Scripture and Tradition, Scripture itself is sufficient to prove the existence of Purgatory.
The chief Old Testament verse that indicates the necessity of purgation after death (and thus implies a place or state where such purgation takes place—hence the name Purgatory) is 2 Maccabees 12:46:
It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.
If everyone who dies goes immediately to Heaven or to Hell, then this verse would be nonsense. Those who are in Heaven have no need of prayer, “that they may be loosed from sins”; those who are in Hell are unable to benefit from such prayers, because there is no escape from Hell—damnation is eternal.
Thus, there must be a third place or state, in which some of the dead are currently in the process of being “loosed from sins.” (A side note: Martin Luther argued that 1 and 2 Maccabees did not belong in the canon of the Old Testament, even though they had been accepted by the universal Church from the time that the canon was settled. Thus his contention, condemned by Pope Leo, that “Purgatory cannot be proved from Sacred Scripture which is in the canon.”)
Saint Peter and Saint Paul both speak of “trials” that are compared with a “cleansing fire.” In 1 Peter 1:6-7, Saint Peter refers to our necessary trials in this world:
Wherein you shall greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in divers temptations: That the trial of your faith (much more precious than gold which is tried by the fire) may be found unto praise and glory and honour at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
And in 1 Corinthians 3:13-15, Saint Paul extends this image into the life after this one:
Every man’s work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
But “he himself shall be saved.” Again, the Church recognized from the beginning that Saint Paul cannot be talking here about those in the fires of Hell, because those are fires of torment, not of purgation—no one whose actions place him in Hell will ever leave it. Rather, this verse is the basis of the Church’s belief that all those who undergo purgation after their earthly life ends (those whom we call the Poor Souls in Purgatory) are assured of entrance into Heaven.
Christ Himself, in Matthew 12:31-32, speaks of forgiveness in this age (here on earth, as in 1 Peter 1:6-7) and in the world to come (as in 1 Corinthians 3:13-15):
Therefore I say to you: Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come.
If all souls go directly either to Heaven or to Hell, then there is no forgiveness in the world to come. But if that is so, why would Christ mention the possibility of such forgiveness?
—Scott Richert
More at the link: http://catholicism.about.com/b/2010/02/11/reader-question-is-there-a-scriptural-basis-for-purgatory.htm
Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
And we already have been sanctified.
Hebrews 10:10 By God's will we have been sanctified once and for all through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus, the Messiah.
Catholics denigrate what Christ did.
If people want the security that is in Jesus Christ they need to leave that apostate religion called Catholicism and put their faith in Jesus alone.
this refers to Luther's debate with Eck, in which the latter appealed to 2 Maccabees 12:46 as a clear and incontestable proof from Scripture that Purgatory exists. To which Luther responded, "There is no proof of Purgatory in any portion of sacred Scripture, for the book of Maccabees not being in the Canon, is of weight with the faithful, but avails nothing with the obstinate"
And as he had Catholic support in this, for the canon with the apocrypha was not indisputably settled (with even Cardinals dissenting in Trent), in seeking to support her traditions against the Reformers then Trent had to render an infallible list of books, which had general consensus. Thus it was not only Luther but Rome which had doctrinal motivation for their position on the canon.
Scripture itself is sufficient to prove the existence of Purgatory.
Wrong, as will be shown by God's grace.
The chief Old Testament verse that indicates the necessity of purgation after death (and thus implies a place or state where such purgation takes place—hence the name Purgatory) is 2 Maccabees 12:46: It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.
But 2Mac. 12 teaches that prayers and sacrifices for the dead are efficacious for dead idolaters, who were slain for being so , which is a mortal sin according to Rome, for which there is no purgatory.
And upon the day following, as the use had been, Judas and his company came to take up the bodies of them that were slain, and to bury them with their kinsmen in their fathers' graves. Now under the coats of every one that was slain they found things consecrated to the idols of the Jamnites, which is forbidden the Jews by the law. Then every man saw that this was the cause wherefore they were slain. (2Ma 12:39-40)
Thus all you have is an extraBiblical book which proves more than you want, and forces RC apologists to engage in special pleading to explain.
(A side note: Martin Luther argued that 1 and 2 Maccabees did not belong in the canon of the Old Testament, even though they had been accepted by the universal Church from the time that the canon was settled. Thus his contention, condemned by Pope Leo, that “Purgatory cannot be proved from Sacred Scripture which is in the canon.”)
Repeated against but wrong again. There was no infallible canon at the time. If only RCs would not refuse to read what refutes their parroted canard. I will provide just one admission from the Catholic Encyclopedia, Canon of the Old Testament;
In the Latin Church, all through the Middle Ages [5th century to the 15th century] we find evidence of hesitation about the character of the deuterocanonicals. There is a current friendly to them, another one distinctly unfavourable to their authority and sacredness, while wavering between the two are a number of writers whose veneration for these books is tempered by some perplexity as to their exact standing, and among those we note St. Thomas Aquinas. Few are found to unequivocally acknowledge their canonicity. The prevailing attitude of Western medieval authors is substantially that of the Greek Fathers. The chief cause of this phenomenon in the West is to be sought in the influence, direct and indirect, of St. Jerome's depreciating Prologus. (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03267a.htm) ^
Saint Peter and Saint Paul both speak of “trials” that are compared with a “cleansing fire.” In 1 Peter 1:6-7, Saint Peter refers to our necessary trials in this world:
Exactly, in this world, "though now for a season - not later after death. All exhortation toward growth in moral perfection is taught and shown as being in this world! And is because God wants the believer to grow in grace to the glory of God and our good, and not to fall.
And in 1 Corinthians 3:13-15, Saint Paul extends this image into the life after this one: Every man’s work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
More wresting of Scripture as this only occurs as the return of Christ, (1Cor. 4:5; 2Tim. 4:1,8; Rev.11:18; Mt. 25:31-46; 1Pt. 1:7; 5:4) not commencing at death,
and the only suffering is the Lord's displeasure and loss of rewards, based upon the quality of his work which he built the church with,
while the believer is saved despite the loss of material, not because of! See here .
Christ Himself, in Matthew 12:31-32, speaks of forgiveness in this age (here on earth, as in 1 Peter 1:6-7) and in the world to come (as in 1 Corinthians 3:13-15):
Matthew 12:31-32 refers to the Lords reign on earth, which is followed by the judgment, and thus He goes on to say, B"ut I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." (Matthew 12:36)
The Bible most apparently teaches that the resurrected saints (who have part in the first resurrection - the resurrection of life:” Jn. 5:29a; Rev. 20:6,7,14) will return with the LORD from Heaven to execute judgment, and to reign with with Him for the 1,000 year millennium. (Rv. 2:27; 19:15; 20:6 - and during which the Jews shall be tested): “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." (Jude 1:14-15; cf. Mal. 3:18; Mt 16:27; 19:28; Mt 24:30,31; 25:31; Lk. 22:20; 2Th 1:7,8; Re 1:7; 5:10; 19:6-20; 20:4) “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (Mt. 13:43) And as stars differs from one another in glory, (1Cor. 15:41) it is not unreasonable to suppose that in eternity some saints might shine brighter than another, depending upon how single their eye was on earth, (Mt. 6:22) and how they responded to the light and grace they received. (Lk. 12:48)]
All RCs can claim is some sort of "implicit support" for postmortem purification, but the idea is nothing more than misconstruing what Scripture says, so that believers are yet unholy and defiled even though God says that in Christ they are
washed, sanctified and justified, (1Cor. 6:11)
accepted in the Beloved, (Eph. 1:6)
seated in the Heavenly with Christ, (Eph. 2:6)
and have direct access into the holiest of all in Christ, as Christ removed the veil that separated them from it, (Heb. 10:19)
and thus all believers would directly go to henceforth be with the Lord even if He returned in their lifetime, (1Ths. 4:17)
and otherwise are only clearly told - speaking of the afterlife - that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, (2Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23,24) even by one who said he was not yet perfect,
to join OT believers in the the heavenly Jerusalem including Samson who only waited for Christ's atonement to be there, (Heb. 11:32,40; 12:22,23) for faith in the Lord and His atonement places one there,
and who will put off this "body of death" (Rm. 7:24) "for he that is dead is freed from sin." (Romans 6:6-7)
Meanwhile, the only place of growth in grace spoken of is in this world,
which is not by simply suffering but by facing tests and trials of faith,
and likewise the only manifest salvific chastisement spoken of is in the here and "now for a season," (1Pt. 1:6)
while the only postmortem spoken of is at the judgment seat of Christ, which is at the return of the Lord. (1Cor. 3:8ff)
Why no just admit that purgatory is a tradition of men and stop trying to wrest Scripture in RC extrapolative attempts to support it?
Yet even EOs (which have their loose version of postmortem preparation) reject the fiery purgatory of Rome as being contrary to tradition:
with its sinful passions at death, Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,
►Both purgatory and indulgences are inter-corrolated theories, unwitnessed in the Bible or in the Ancient Church.. — http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith7076
►The Orthodox Church does not believe in purgatory (a place of purging), that is, the inter-mediate state after death in which the souls of the saved (those who have not received temporal punishment for their sins) are purified of all taint preparatory to entering into Heaven, where every soul is perfect and fit to see God.
Also, the Orthodox Church does not believe in indulgences as remissions from purgatoral punishment. Both purgatory and indulgences are inter-corrolated theories, unwitnessed in the Bible or in the Ancient Church, and when they were enforced and applied they brought about evil practices at the expense of the prevailing Truths of the Church. If Almighty God in His merciful loving-kindness changes the dreadful situation of the sinner, it is unknown to the Church of Christ. The Church lived for fifteen hundred years without such a theory. — http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith7076
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: