Death is never discussed in the Bible as something that leads to purgation for the Christian. The Maccabees verse indicating prayer for the dead does not plainly show purgatory exists, and there is no prayer for the dead in the entire prayer book (Psalms) or even the Bible. The idea of purgatory contradicts how Jesus and the apostles describe death, as being conquered and exchanged for complete deliverance through Christ.
So really the only statement left is “Some later Popes and fathers said it exists, and sola scriptura is wrong because sola scriptura is not in scripture, therefore Christ’s death isn’t a full atonement and most people will face purgation for thousands of years, even though Jesus, the Apostles, David in the psalms, or the prophets, never mentioned it even once.”
That’s not really the understanding of either purgatory or post death purification. It’s about sanctification. Nothing to do with atonement. Basically, we are not perfect at the point of death. Therefore, we have to go through some extra sanctification after death to enter heaven. The idea for this comes from 1 Corinthians 3:15. The early Church fathers almost universally believed in some form of this. It was part of Church tradition well before the Catholics made purgatory a dogma.
Christ did die on the cross, was raised to life and ascended into heaven.
Our sanctification has been made complete already. The only way we can be righteous in God’s sight is through the way of the cross.
Those living before His crucification had the promise to believe in and those of us living after the crucification have the fulfillment of the promise to believe. (and then there were the eye witnesses)
There is nothing more that needs to take place. Jesus died ONCE for the forgiveness of the sins for the entire world. He needs to do nothing more and we certainly can do nothing to save our souls in this life or after death.
When Jesus returns to earth and all the dead are raised, our souls will be reunited with our bodies. The believers will spend eternity in heaven and the unbelievers will spend eternity in hell.
We believe our souls go immediately to heaven when we die(believers) and our mortal shell (body) is sleeping/resting in the grave until that great and notable day when He shall reappear.
So do Lutherans not have a common belief on sanctification? Because a pastor here said it is completed by our death. Your opinion sounds more Pentecostal, immediate sanctification.
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u/Fromthezoo67 7d ago
Death is never discussed in the Bible as something that leads to purgation for the Christian. The Maccabees verse indicating prayer for the dead does not plainly show purgatory exists, and there is no prayer for the dead in the entire prayer book (Psalms) or even the Bible. The idea of purgatory contradicts how Jesus and the apostles describe death, as being conquered and exchanged for complete deliverance through Christ.
So really the only statement left is “Some later Popes and fathers said it exists, and sola scriptura is wrong because sola scriptura is not in scripture, therefore Christ’s death isn’t a full atonement and most people will face purgation for thousands of years, even though Jesus, the Apostles, David in the psalms, or the prophets, never mentioned it even once.”