| Purgatory / Limbo Mythical plane between Life, Heaven, and Hell The Catholic Churches (Roman, Greek Orthodox, and Traditional) use the passage below to support their doctrines of Purgatory. This is also used by Mormons to support their baptism for the souls of the dead. Turning to supplication, they prayed that the sinful deed might be fully blotted out. The noble Judas warned the soldiers to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen. He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view; for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin. 2 Maccabees 12:42-46 This can be located in any Catholic Bible or Apocrypha. The Catholic Latin Vulgate Bible was translated by St. Jerome. They try to use 1 Peter 3:18�20a as well to support their doctrine: �For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.� The Jerome Biblical Commentary, 1968, page 462 says: "The Roman Church places these works in her canon of the Scriptures, pointing to an ancient tradition as she does so. First to cite them in antiquity is Clement of Alexandria. He is followed by Hippolytus, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, Eusebius, Aphraates, Jerome, Augustine and Theodoret. The provincial councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397 and 419) recognized the sacred character of 1-2 Mc, and the general councils of Florence (1441), Trent (1546), and Vatican I (1870) declared them to be inspired by God." Tertullian and Origen especially are know for their extremely strange doctrines and mannerisms including for Origen "castration" and "reincarnation." Catholic and Calvinist teachings are mostly traced to the men mentioned in the paragraph above. Biblical Christian response: And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: Hebrew 9:27 There is no Purgatory! - Jeremy Brown 2004 Also see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbo http://www.evangelicaloutreach.org/apocryph.htm BACK |