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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.
The Catholic Church believes that the living can help those whose purification from their sins is not yet completed not only by praying for them but also by gaining indulgences for them [20] as an act of intercession. [4] All Souls' Day commemorates the souls in purgatory. The Late Middle Ages saw the growth of considerable abuses, such as the ...
Roman Catholics who believe in purgatory interpret New Testament passages such as 2 Timothy 1:18, Matthew 12:32, Luke 23:43, 1 Corinthians 3:11–3:15 and Hebrews 12:29 as supporting prayer for souls who are believed to be alive in an active, interim state after death, undergoing purifying flames (which could be interpreted as analogy or ...
The Catholic Church does not believe in Christian universalism (i.e., all or most people go to heaven), in double predestination (i.e., some, most, or all people are destined to sin and hell), in Feeneyism (i.e., non-Catholics and excommunicated Catholics cannot be saved), or in how many people will go to heaven or hell (either most or few or ...
These days, you can get a deal on anything. Even salvation! Pope Benedict has announced that his faithful can once again pay the Catholic Church to ease their way through Purgatory and into the ...
Thus, for Catholics, the term "Church" refers not merely to a building or exclusively to the ecclesiastical hierarchy, but first and foremost to the people of God who abide in Jesus and form the different parts of his spiritual body, [146] [147] which together composes the worldwide Christian community. Catholics believe the church exists ...
The Catholic Church teaches that the eternity of Hell is due to the "irrevocable character of [the damned's] choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy". [12] The choice to not love God by the angels at their Fall and by human beings at death is a permanent choice so that no future repentance by them is possible.
Some Christians believe that death is a period of dormancy, or sleep in the body, or an intermediate state, on Earth, or in the Bosom of Abraham, in which there is no consciousness and no Heavenly activity has yet begun – no judgment, no trip to heaven nor hell – based on their interpretation of the following scriptures: "The dead know not ...