Purgatory
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For other uses, see Purgatory (disambiguation).
Purgatory commonly refers to a doctrine in the Roman Catholic Church, which posits that those who die in a state of grace undergo a purification in order to achieve the holiness necessary to enter heaven.[1] This purification of the elect is entirely different from the punishment of the damned in hell.[2] The Catholic doctrine holds that the souls in purgatory undergo temporal punishment due to venial sins or as satisfaction due to their transgressions,[3] and that they can be aided by the prayer and sufferings of the faithful and the Sacrifice of the Mass.[4] Hence central to the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory is prayer for the dead.
In Roman Catholic teaching, every sin carries a punishment, and there are two punishments for sin: eternal punishment inflicted in Hell, and temporal punishment inflicted in this life or in purgatory if left uncompleted upon death. Forgiveness of sin, for example through the absolution granted by confession, remits the eternal punishment. Penance, such as almsgiving, prayer, fasting, and suffering remit temporal punishment. Thus temporal punishment is a satisfaction for sin.[27]
Catholics do not derive the concept of Purgatory from the Scriptures. Instead it comes from one of the Apocryphal books, 2 Maccabees. In 2 Maccabees 12:38-46, Judas Maccabee orders that sacrifices be offered in the Temple in Jerusalem for slain Jewish soldiers who had worn pagan amulets. Some people have seen this story as biblical justification for the teaching on purgatory, and it is the passage the Catholic Church uses to justify the doctrine and practice of praying for the dead.
The primary Scriptural passage Catholics typically point to for evidence of a purgatory is 1 Corinthians 3:15, which says, "If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames."? The passage (1 Corinthians 3:12-15) is using an illustration of things going through fire as a description of believers' works being judged. If our works are of good quality "gold, sliver, costly stones"? they will pass through the fire unharmed. If our works are of poor quality "wood, hay, and straw"? they will not pass through the fire and we will not be rewarded for them. The believer whose works are all burned up will still be saved, but all their works will be burned up and only the believer themselves will escape through the flames. This does not mean a believer literally GOES THROUGH THE FLAMES.. sTUDY IT YOURSELF AND SEE FOR YOURSELF.
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