Facts about Purgatory

Others hold that some undergo much of their purgatory in their sufferings and trials encountered during their temporal lives.

Specifically, many ecclesiastical authorities in the Catholic Church were, at that time, raising large sums of money by encouraging living relatives to monetarily “ransom” their departed loved ones from the torments of purgatory.

The major theological impetus for the development of the doctrine of purgatory is the ubiquitous description of the Divine as a God of Justice.

Purgatory (from the Latin: purgare “to purify”) is the Roman Catholic doctrine of an intermediary state between physical death and heavenly salvation where souls must make retribution for their sins.

Martin Luther eventually went beyond rejecting the doctrine of purgatory to reject even the idea of prayers for those who have died.

The doctrine of purgatory is somewhat similar to Buddhist and Hindu conceptions of hell, which is likewise conceived of as a temporary residence.

The majority of Protestant denominations, however, reject belief in purgatory, especially those who stress the sola scriptura principle (as the doctrine is not mentioned by name anywhere in the Bible).