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SUBJECT: Purgatory
QUESTION: Is purgatory for
real? Where did this idea come from? Is it Biblical?
ANSWER:
No, purgatory is not a Biblical concept
or doctrine. It was conceived by man.
A few prominent religious leaders of the Middle Ages left
writings and teachings which were so universally believed
that they became the accepted doctrine of the
Christian-professing world. One of the most important of
these influential writers was Augustine (345-430
A.D.).
Augustine reasoned that there should be a temporary
cleansing of imperfect souls in purgatorial fire. He, like
other influential men of the Christian-professing church,
were influenced by "pre-Christian doctrine"--the doctrine of
the ancient pagan philosophers and other early church
fathers (see Encyclopedia
Britannica, 11th ed., article "Purgatory").
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321),
wrote a tremendously popular poem, La Commedia, in three
parts--Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Although Dante's
purpose for writing his Commedia was to ridicule the
religious concepts of hell which were prevalent during his
day, his writing nevertheless tremendously influenced
popular thought and teaching. "Of all poets of modern
times," says a modern author, "Dante Alighieri was, perhaps,
the greatest educator. He possibly had a greater influence
on the course of civilization than any other man since his
day...he wrote, in incomprehensible verse, an imaginative
and lurid account of a dismal hell--a long poem containing
certain phrases which caught the attention of the world,
such as 'all hope abandon...ye, who enter here!'...His
'Inferno' was based on Virgil and Plato" (Dante
and His Inferno).
And so Dante wrote from the ideas and concepts of the
philosophers Plato and Virgil and the prevalent "Christian"
concepts of his day. But who were Plato and Virgil?
Says the Encyclopedia Americana: "Virgil, pagan poet,
70-19 B.C., belonged to the national school of pagan Roman
thought, influenced by the Greek writers. Christians of the
Middle Ages...believed he had received some measure of
divine inspiration."
Plato, born in Athens, Greece, 427 B.C., was a student of
the renowned Socrates. Plato's famous literary work Phaedo
taught the immorality of the soul--the foundation for other
writings on the doctrine of an eternal hell where wicked
"souls" are supposedly punished forever. So the world's
concept of "hell" is admittedly a product of human
thinking--of pagan speculation--as men puzzled over the
eventual fate of the wicked.
History shows that the teachings of Clement of
Alexandria, Origen and others gradually turned most
professing Christians from the belief of a literal
1,000-year reign of Christ on earth. The floodgates were
opened. Hellenistic philosophy, which had borrowed heavily
from ancient Egyptian mythology, began to replace the
teachings of the Bible as the source of doctrine. Prevailing
concepts such as the immortality of the soul, an ever
burning hell, purgatory and heaven all came directly out of
ancient mythology! The popular church, in order to become
universal, adopted and taught these prevailing pagan
philosophies rather than the plain teachings of the Bible!
There is nothing in the Bible to support a purgatory.
The whole idea goes against the plan of God and flies in the
face of repentance, forgiveness and the fact that people are
dead when they die until the resurrections.
For more on this fact, which will refute this idea of a
purgatory, read the booklet, “After I Die, What Happens
Next?” which is posted at the web site at:
http://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/pubs/whenidie.htm |