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A list of Catholic Scripture
verses that defend Catholic doctrines.
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The Scripture Passages Super Categories
In an effort to demonstrate how many Catholic Teachings are supported by the Scriptures, even from a Protestant translation of the Scriptures, the (NKJV) New King James Version has been used in most Bible citations. The only cases where an approved Catholic translation:
(RSVCE) Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, or
(DRA) Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition
of the Bible has been used is when a passage supports a Catholic teaching from a book our Protestant brethren have not sadly accepted. With the 1947 discovery of Hebrew manuscripts in the Dead Sea Scrolls for deuterocanonical books, (also erroneously called Apocrypha), it is sad that faithful Catholics and Protestant brethren have not been able to come together at least in this area, so that they may all be one. (John 17:21)
It is my hope this page will be helpful for the lay Catholic Apologists who wish to defend Catholic teachings from the Scriptures though I caution them not to be drawn into a phony argument that if there is no direct Biblical support for a Catholic teaching it can't be defended. On the contrary, all Catholic teachings can be defended from the Scriptures, once the Protestant accepts what the first Christians accepted: Oral Tradition.
One day while they were offering worship to the Lord and keeping
a fast, the Holy Spirit said, ‘I want Barnabas and Saul set apart for the work
to which I have called them'.
And he who can see into all hearts knows what the Spirit means
because the prayers that the Spirit makes for God's holy people are always in accordance
with the mind of God.
In Mary's Song, she prophesizes, "All generations will call me
blessed".
Mary, the Mother of God.
Catholic Note: Catholics believe Jesus was a divine person, not a human person. Because mothers cannot give birth to natures but people, the Church teaches that Mary gave birth to the Divine Person, Jesus Christ. Therefore she is the Mother of Jesus, the Second Person of
the Trinity. We do not believe Mary:
came before God
is the mother of the First Person of the Trinity, God the Father, or
The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and
the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will
be holy and will be called Son of God."
But when the completion of the time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law, so that we could receive adoption as sons.
Interested in what the very first Christians thought, taught, and died for?
Commentary: The Assumption of Our Blessed Mother is something the Church has always believed, though how she was assumed is a matter of theological opinion.
Some like the Orthodox and I believe Our Lady gently feel asleep into Eternal Life. The Orthodox celebrate this as the Dormition of Mary.
Others, like St. John Paul II believed she died just like anyone of us would have died.
An ancient Coptic tradition states that when Mary was old and nearing this falling asleep, Jesus appeared to 72 of the disciples. He was on the chariot of the cherubim accompanied by 1,000 Angels, and he told them
He was to take his Mother to himself. The disciples wept and asked that Mary should never die, but the Lord said her time was accomplished.
Patrick
Madrid from "Where is that in the Bible" states:
Revelation 12:1-8 shows us that Mary, Ark of the New Covenant, is truly the mother
of all Christians (even those who refuse to acknowledge her as their mother).
This passage also shows us a vision of Mary, queen of Heaven, and hints at
her Assumption. This gift of suffering no corruption in the grave and being "caught
up" into
Heaven while still alive is perfectly in accordance with Scripture. Similar
assumptions are described below, and are promised to some Christians in 1
Thessalonians.
It was because of his faith that Enoch was taken up and did not experience death: he was no more, because God took him; because before his assumption he was acknowledged to have pleased God. Now it is impossible to please God without faith, since anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and rewards those who seek him.
St. Paul is
using this word all in the collective sense (groups of people), not the distributive
sense (everyone). All means all mankind: circumcised and uncircumcised have
sinned and are deprived of God's glory. Why? Because we are all descendants of Adam,
not Abraham.
Exceptions are implied. e.g.
Unbaptized babies who do not have the use
of reason, obviously cannot sin.
The Old Testament prophets who followed the Mosaic
Law but hadn't heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached to them.
Those very first Christians who didn't have a known Old and New Testament canon of Scriptures until 382 A.D. at the Council of Rome, and
Mary who was
the New Eve.
The Early Church Fathers would say, As the Ten Commandments were in
the all holy Ark of the Covenant, so Jesus was incarnate in the all holy Mary.
Interested in what the very first Christians thought, taught, and died for?
Brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Jude. In Hebrew, there
is no word for cousin. In this Hebrew culture, a non-blood line relative was called
a brother.
e.g. Lot is described as Abraham's brother in Genesis 14:12-16 and Genesis
29:10-15 in the King James Bible but Lot was the son of Aaron.
Brothers advise like elders: "His brothers said to him, 'Leave
this place and go to Judea, so that your disciples, too, can see the works you
are doing.' "
There is one Body, one Spirit, just as one hope is the goal of your calling by God. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, over all, through all and within all.
"God is one and Christ is one, and one is His Church, and the faith is one, and His people welded together by the glue of concord into a solid unity of body. Unity cannot be rent asunder, nor can the one body of the Church, through the division of its structure, be divided into separate pieces." (On the Unity of the Church, 23)
Tertullian (c. 197 A.D.)
"We are a society with a single religious feeling, a single unity of discipline, a single bond of hope." (Apology 39, 1)
St. Hilary (c. 4th century)
"In the Scriptures our people are shown to be made one, so that just as many grains collected into one and ground and mingled together, make one loaf, so in Christ, who is the Heavenly bread, we know there is one holy, in which our whole company is joined and united." (Treatise 62, 13)
Interested in what other Christians in the Early Church thought, taught, and died for?
I confer a kingdom on you, just as my Father conferred one on me: you will eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
Peter appointed to be the chief shepherd. (That Peter's faith may not fail.)
When the Lord says: that your faith may not fail, the your is in the single, not plural, tense.
Jesus gives to the Apostles the power to offer the sacrifice. (The Eucharist.)
St. Irenæus (200 A.D.)
"... the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although she is disseminated throughout the whole world, yet guarded it, as if she occupied but one house. She likewise believes these things just as if she one soul and one and the same heart; and harmoniously she proclaims them and teaches them and hands them down, as if she possessed but one mouth." (Against Heresies 1, 10, 2)
Eusebius of Caesarea (4th Century)
"But the brightness of the Catholic Church proceeded to increase in greatness, for it ever held to the same points in the same way, and radiated forth to all the race of Greeks and barbarians the reverent, sincere, and free nature and the sobriety and purity of the divine teaching as to conduct and thought." (Ecclesiastical History 4, 7,13)
St. Augustine of Hippo (392 A.D.)
"The Catholic Church is the work of Divine Providence, achieved through the prophecies of the prophets, through the Incarnation and the teaching of Christ, through the journeys of the Apostles, through the suffering, the crosses, the blood and death of the martyrs, through the admirable lives of the saints... When, then, we see so much help on God's part, so much progress and so much fruit, shall we hesitate to bury ourselves in the bosom of that Church? For starting from the apostolic chair down through successions of bishops, even unto the open confession of all mankind, it has possessed the crown of teaching authority." (The Advantage of Believing 35)
Interested in what other Christians in the Early Church thought, taught, and died for?
"For where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there the Church and every grace is. The Spirit, however, is Truth." (Against Heresies 3, 24, 1)
Interested in what other Christians in the Early Church thought, taught, and died for?
Upon this rock (Peter) I will build my Church. And the gates of Hell can never overpower it.
Note: Our
Protestant brethren will say to understand Matthew 16:18, we have to get behind
the English to the Greek. They will go on to say in Greek, the word for rock is petra, which means a large, massive stone. The word used for Simon's new name is different; it's petros, which means a little stone, a pebble.
In order to give the proper Catholic reply to Matthew 16:18, we have to get behind the
Greek argument to the Aramaic.
Although we don't know if the original Biblical manuscripts were in Aramaic
or not, many scholars believe Our Lord probably spoke Aramaic because it
was the native tongue for Jesus' immediate disciples.
In Aramaic there is
onlyone word for rock: Kepha. So he would have said:
"Blessed are you Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood have not revealed
this to you but my Heavenly Father. So I say to you thou are Kepha and
upon this Kepha I will build My Church and the gates of Hell will
not prevail against [it|Her]."
The only manuscripts we have
of Matthew are written in Greek but Greek scholars — even non-Catholic
ones — admit, the wordspetros and petrawere synonyms in first century Greek. They meantsmall stone and large
rockin some ancient Greek poetry, centuries before the time of Christ,
but that distinction had disappeared from the language by the time Matthew's
Gospel was rendered in Greek. The difference in meaning can only be found in
Attic Greek, but the New Testament was written in Koine Greek — an entirely
different dialect. In Koine Greek, bothpetros and petra simply meant rock.
If
Jesus had wanted to call Simon a small stone, the Greek lithos would have been
used.
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven.
Peter spoke saying: "My brothers, he said, .... But we believe
that we are saved in the same way as they are: through the grace of the Lord Jesus." The entire assembly fell silent,
and they listened to Barnabas and Paul describing all the signs and wonders God
had worked through them among the gentiles."
Peter is mentioned 191 times in the New Testament. All the other Apostles names combined are mentioned only 130 times. And the most commonly referenced apostle apart from Peter is John, whose name appears 48 times.
Interested in what the very first Christians thought, taught, and died for?
Let someone else take over his office. Out of the men who have been with us the whole time that the Lord Jesus was living with us, from the time when John was baptizing until the day when he was taken up from us, one must be appointed to serve with us as a witness to His Resurrection.
Some non-Catholic Christians believe that Baptism is necessary and sets us free
from sin. Many others think it is merely a symbol of one's desire to follow Christ,
having no real effect upon the soul. The Catholic Church teaches that Baptism is
both necessary for salvation and regenerative, causing us to be reborn as children
of God. Through Baptism we receive the life-giving, sanctifying grace of the Holy
Spirit. This grace wipes away Original Sin that stains each soul because of the
fallen nature we inherited from Adam and Eve. The Church prescribes Baptism by
water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as the normative gateway
to God and his family, the Church. While most Protestants agree the Baptism is
a good idea, many do not believe it is really necessary; and many think is unbiblical
to baptize babies. The Church has baptized infants from the earliest times and
continues to do so today. The Church also teaches that catechesis must follow Baptism
to properly assist the baptized on his Christian journey. Some fundamentalists
believe that the only acceptable Baptism is by immersion. Both immersion and sprinkling are acceptable forms of Baptism in the Catholic Church. To learn more about the
Church's teaching on Baptism, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church CCC 1213-1284.
So by our baptism into his death we were buried
with him, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's
glorious power, we too should begin living a new life.
So as we go in, let us be sincere in heart and filled
with faith, our hearts sprinkled and free from any trace of bad conscience,
and our bodies washed with pure water.
"It is the baptism corresponding to this water which
saves you now — not the washing off of physical dirt but the pledge of
a good conscience given to God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ."
"Baptize first the children; and if
they can speak for themselves, let them do so. Otherwise, let their parents or
other relatives speak for them." (The Apostolic Tradition 21)
Origen (post 244 A.D.)
"The Church received from the Apostles the tradition
of giving baptism also to infants." (Commentary on Romans 5, 9)
St. Cyprian of Carthage (252 A.D.)
This council [Council of Carthage] condemned the opinion that infants must wait until the eighth day after birth to be baptized, as was the case with circumcision. (Letter 64 (59), 2)
Interested in what other Christians in the Early Church thought, taught, and died for?
While most Protestants believe the Last Supper was significant and often
agree that communion is important, they don't believe that Jesus literally
meant He wanted us to eat His Flesh and drink His Blood. They argue that
Jesus used many symbols to refer to Himself — He called Himself a door,
a vine, etc. And since eating human flesh is cannibalism, they argue
that Jesus could not have been speaking literally in John 6. The Eucharist,
however, is a unique and miraculous reality in which we consume the entirety
of the living Christ — although his natural condition is veiled by the
sacrament.
The Church has consistently understood Christ's words to be
literally referring to His True Flesh and Blood, as is evident in the
writings of the early Church saints like:
St. Ignatius of Antioch (50-107 A.D.)
St. Justin Martyr (100-165 A.D.)
St. Irenæus of Lyons (125-203 A.D.)
St. Ambrose (340-397 A.D.), and
St. Cyril of Jerusalem (315-386 A.D.)
Although all the faithful
in the Church have always believed in the concept of transubstantiation,
there was no need to formally define it until 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council dogmatically which said: that while the outward appearances of bread and wine remain {the taste,
touch, smell and looks}, their inward realities or substance has become
the living Christ. Because Jesus is truly present — Body, Blood, Soul
and Divinity — we adore the Eucharist with profound reverence.
to symbolically eat and drink ones body and blood back in Jesus' times
means to assault. This would make our Lord promise life everlasting to the
culprit for slandering and hating Him, which would reduce the whole passage
to utter nonsense. Christ would be saying
This is the bread that comes
down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living
bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live
forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life
of the world. The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, How
can this man give us (his) flesh to eat? Jesus said to them, Amen,
amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my
flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him
on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true
drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and
I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because
of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because
of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your
ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live
forever. These things he said while teaching in the synagogue
in Capernaum. Then many of his disciples who were listening said, This
saying is hard; who can accept it? Since Jesus knew that his
disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, Does
this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending
to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the
flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and
life.[See note 1.]But there are some of
you who do not believe. Jesus knew from the beginning the ones
who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, For
this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it
is granted him by my Father. As a result of this, many (of)
his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer
accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, Do you also
want to leave? Simon Peter answered him, Master, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to
believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.
Does this shock
you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was
before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no
avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
What Our Lord says here is not intended as a Maldonatus thought, to increase
the scandal, but to rectify what was simply a cannibalistic interpretation
of what he has just said. The Ascension will perhaps surprise the recalcitrants
more, but it will eliminate the chief difficulty about eating the flesh
of One who in celestial glory takes his place where he was from eternity.
Note 2: - Notice that the close followers of Our Lord,
the disciplesleft Him because this was a hard saying. Then Our Lord asks Peter if he
will leave him too. Peter representing the 12 Apostles says:
Master, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to
believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God. (John 6:69)
St. Ignatius (110 A.D.)
[heretics] abstain from the
Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist
is the Flesh of Our Savior Jesus Christ. (His Letter to the Smyrnaeans
6, 2)
St. Justin Martyr (150 A.D.)
not as common bread, nor
common drink do we receive these; but ... as we have been taught, the
food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer
set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh are
nourished, is both the flesh and blood of that Incarnated Jesus." (His First
Apology 66, 20)
St. Irenæus of Lyons (195 A.D.)
He [ Jesus ] has declared
the cup, a part of his creation, to be His own Blood from
which causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of his creation,
He has established as His own Body from which He gives
increase to our bodies. (His Against Heresies 5, 2, 2)
St. Cyril of Jerusalem (350 A.D.)
"He himself,
therefore, having declared and said of the Bread, 'This is My Body',
who will dare any longer to doubt? And when he himself has affirmed
and said, 'This is My Blood' who can ever hesitate and say it is not
His Blood." (Catechetical Lectues: Mystagogic 4, 22, 1)
"Do not regard
the bread and wine as simply that, for they are, according to the Master's
declaration, the Body and Blood of Christ. Even though
the sense suggest to you other, let faith make you firm. Do not judge
in this manner by taste, but be fully assured by faith, not doubting
that you have been deemed worthy of the Body and Blood of Christ."
(Catechetical
Lectues: Mystagogic 4,22,6)
Interested in what other Christians in the Early Church thought, taught, and died for?
"Whoever eats and drinks without discerning the
body, eats and drinks judgment on himself."
(Receiving the Eucharist unworthily
makes us guilty of his Body and Blood.)
The Paschal lamb [prefiguring of the Eucharistic Lord
Jesus, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.] Yahweh ordered a
male lamb to be slain and eaten by the Jewish people to fulfill the Passover.
Staying at home eating food that looked like lamb and remembering Jesus would
not fulfill the law. You had to eat the lamb. This is a foreshadowing of receiving
the Lamb of God at Holy Communion because each Mass is the Passover.
"It is God who gives us, with you, a sure place
in Christ and has both anointed us and marked us with his seal, giving us as pledge
the Spirit in our hearts."
Let us leave behind us then all the elementary teaching
about Christ and go on to its completion, without going over the fundamental doctrines
again: the turning away from dead actions, faith in God, the teaching about baptisms
and the laying-on of hands, about the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
Protestants have a hard time thinking that a man can give absolution for another's sins. They claim there is only one mediator between God and man: Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). Catholics believe Christ gave His Apostles the power to forgive sins, a power that has been handed down for generations through Apostolic Succession. The sacrament of Reconciliation is Christ's gift to us. The root of all sin is pride; its antidote is humility. Confessing one's sins to God's appointed representative is thoroughly biblical, and calls for tremendous humility. The priest does not act on his own, He acts in the name of God and on behalf of His Church, administering God's forgiveness (absolution). The sacrament of Confession wipes away our sins, increases sanctifying grace in our souls, and reunites us with Christ and His Church.
Interested in what the very first Christians thought, taught, and died for?
"Any one of you who is ill should send for the elders
of the church, and they must anoint the sick person with oil in the name of
the Lord and pray over him."
Interested in what the very first Christians thought, taught, and died for?
He took the bread, said the blessing, broke it and said to the Apostles, Do this in memory of me.
(The bishops are the successors of the Apostles. Priests partake in the bishops work.)
"As the Father sent me, so am I sending you. After saying
this he breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's
sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone's sins, they are retained."
Those are not to be accepted who have married again after the death of their first wife lest this should prove an occasion for criticism. Celibacy as a law for the clergy was of later ecclesiastical institution, although as a counsel it was urged by St. Paul, himself.
1 Timothy 4:1-3 — The Spirit has explicitly said that during the last times some will desert the faith and pay attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines that come from devils, seduced by the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are branded as though with a red hot iron: they forbid marriage and prohibit foods which God created to be accepted with thanksgiving by all who believe and who know the truth.
St. Paul objects to these prohibitions when they are the outcome of false principles which would regard marriage and certain foods as impure, but he has no objection to abstaining from marriage when properly understood and based on sound principles.
This is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, and the two become one flesh. They are no longer two, therefore, but one flesh.
Jesus revealed that Moses allowed divorce in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 as a temporary
provision because of the "hardness of their hearts" (Matthew 19:7-9). But Jesus restored God's original plan of indissoluble marriage (Matthew 19:3-9); therefore, the Catholic Church continues to teach that a valid marriage between a baptized man and baptized woman cannot be dissolved for any reason except death. It can't be ended by a civil divorce (or even by an annulment, which is not a "Catholic divorce" but rather the determination a marriage was not valid in the first place.)
Some Protestants claim that Matthew 5:32 and Matthew 19:9 allow exceptions to Jesus' teaching on indissolubility:
"whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity [porneia], and marries another commits adultery."
Here
porneia is used in a technical sense to forbid incestuous marriage among close
relatives (as in Acts 15:20 and 1 Corinthians 5:1). These illicit unions are not
valid marriages in the first place. Note that not a single Greek-speaking Church
Father ever saw in Matthew 5 and Matthew 19 exceptions to Christ's law of indissolubility.
Until Martin Luther declared that marriage was only a civil union in 1520, all
Christians unanimously held that marriage is indissoluble and the divorce from
a legitimate marriage cannot be followed by remarriage.
Misperception Alert: There is a common misperception that divorced Catholics cannot receive Holy Communion. This is not true! They may! If they wish to remarry though, before they do, the Church has to stand by Jesus' Teachings on Marriage and ensure any previous marriages were not valid, otherwise the Church would be blessing bigamy — which wouldn't be very Christian, and think of what our enemies would say!
"The two shall become one flesh ... what God has joined together, no human being must separate." To divorce a wife from a valid marriage and remarry is adultery.
A wife must not be separated from her husband or if she has already left him, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband and a husband must not divorce his wife.
A married woman, for instance, is bound to her husband by law, as long as he lives, but when her husband dies all her legal obligation to him as husband is ended. So if she were to have relations with another man while her husband was still alive, she would be termed an adulteress; but if her husband dies, her legal obligation comes to an end and if she then has relations with another man, that does not make her an adulteress.
Even though Ecclesiasticus and 2 Maccabees are not in any Protestant Bible, one cannot deny the historical reality of the events in these sacred books.
When talking with friends and family about Purgatory, it's important they know the basics:
Purgatory does exist.
Purgatory is not a third place along with Heaven and Hell nor is it a second chance.
Purgatory has nothing to do with Limbo, which was only a theological opinion and was never a doctrine of the Church.
Souls in Purgatory have been saved just as much as the souls in Heaven.
Purgatory is like the Holy Hospital of Heaven.
Purgatory refers to a temporary state of purification for those who have
died in the state of grace but still need to get rid of any lingering imperfections
(venial sins, earthly attachments, self-will, etc.) before entering the perfection
of Heaven.
Purgatory has nothing to
do with one's justification or salvation. Those in Purgatory are justified; they are saved. Purgatory
has to do with one's personal holiness and the burning away of remaining self-love. Revelation
21:27 It's our personal holiness because each person uses their free will differently in life to make good or bad choices on our pilgrimage to our particular judgment.
The Scriptures tell us, Our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:29) We believe that All Consuming Fire is Our Very Lord Jesus Himself burning away all the self-love from our souls.
This article by Emily Stimpson from Our Sunday Visitor (osv.com) September 29, 2013 will also be helpful.
If you struggle to understand the Catholic view of Purgatory, this analogy may help:
Think of sin as a self-inflicted wound in your life.
When we physically hurt ourselves, many times we have to be brought to the hospital and the doctor or nurse will put an alcoholic disinfectant in our cut or wound. It will hurt ... a lot!!! but it's a good hurt; it's a holy hurt, that is needed to make us physically better.
We also have to distinguish between less severe physical injuries where we cut ourselves and require stitches and more severe injuries, like a NASCAR racing driver who gets into a major collision and ends up with third or fourth-degree burns over 90 percent of their body. There are varying degrees of damage that we do to our bodies, not only physically, but spiritually too!
Because Revelation tells us that nothing impure can enter Heaven (Revelation 21:27) and because God Himself is all Holy, we too, have to be all Holy to enter Heaven. To achieve this, any remaining self-inflicted spiritual wounds (meaning self-love) from our pilgrimage on earth has to be burned off, healed, and purified.
If our spiritual injuries are along the line of just needing stitches, that healing period where our self-love has to be burned off will be short;
but if our self-inflicted injuries are along the line of third or fourth-degree burns, the healing process will take longer.
Saints in the past have had private revelations from the souls in Purgatory. They, (the Holy Souls in Purgatory), have shared that, while the (healing|burning) fires of God's Love in Purgatory are painful (Hebrews 12:29, Exodus 3:1-6), at the same time they had an internal, burning joy because they knew they were being conformed to the image of God and their final destiny would be Total Union with Him.
Instead of the alcoholic disinfectant that the doctor gave us to heal our physical injuries so we can re-enter the Earthly world again, in Purgatory, we experience a holy, healing pain under Jesus' Care which purifies our souls and prepares us to enter Eternal Life with God who is all Holy. Our prayers and good works can also help the Holy Souls currently in Purgatory by 1.) purifying their souls and 2.) preparing them to enter Eternal Life with God, who is all Holy.
Interested in helping the Saved, Holy Souls in Purgatory?
Think of the number of saved Faithful Departed who have passed from this life to the next since 33 A.D.: many with major spiritual injuries. There's a lot! This is why praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory is very important — and they can't wait to be purified for Heaven! (Revelation 21:27) If there are any Catholics (who live in the United States) reading this answer, who have a strong devotion to praying for the Holy Souls, check out my other website at:
I work with another colleague, Brian Bagley on this. Together we are trying to re-kindle this devotion among the lay faithful and Catholic clergy in praying for the Holy Souls and for those interested. We will send out a FREE Purgatory Prayer Program for you to get started.
It's true that the
word Purgatory doesn't appear in the
Bible (neither do the words Trinity, Incarnation or even Bible). Purgatory is a Latin word and, up until the beginning of the fifth century, Greek was the spoken language among the people. That said, Greeks weren't going to give us a Latin word. Nevertheless, you'll see the sentiments of the teachings on Purgatory from the Early Church Fathers and the Scriptures. What's important is not the word, but the doctrine.
That said, the doctrine of the final
purification of the elect, apart from Heaven or Hell, is clearly taught in both
the Old Testament and the New Testament as attested to in the following Scripture passages:
39 Next day, they came to find Judas (since the necessity was by now urgent) to have the bodies of the fallen taken up and laid to rest among their relatives in their ancestral tombs. 40 But when they found on each of the dead men, under their tunics, objects dedicated to the idols of Jamnia, which the Law prohibits to Jews, it became clear to everyone that this was why these men had lost their lives. 41 All then blessed the ways of the Lord, the upright judge who brings hidden things to light, 42 and gave themselves to prayer, begging that the sin committed might be completely forgiven. Next, the valiant Judas urged the soldiers to keep themselves free from all sin, having seen with their own eyes the effects of the sin of those who had fallen; 43 after this he took a collection from them individually, amounting to nearly two thousand drachmas, and sent it to Jerusalem to have a sacrifice for sin offered, an action altogether fine and noble, prompted by his belief in the resurrection. 44 For had he not expected the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead, 45 whereas if he had in view the splendid recompense reserved for those who make a pious end, the thought was holy and devout. Hence, he had this expiatory sacrifice offered for the dead, so that they might be released from their sin."
Note: Though this book was rejected by the Protestant reformers and therefore is not in Protestant Bibles, one cannot ignore the historical reality of this event and the reality of the words which were said.
All the main ideas upon which an indulgence is based are found in the Bible: the
Church's power to bind and loose, vicarious atonement among members of the Church,
and penance. Although the doctrine has developed, like all others, it is not unbiblical.
The Catholic Church adds no more in essence to the
practices and theological presuppositions of indulgences than these
two passages.
If you want more, this Primer on Indulgences from our colleagues at Catholic Answers may help.
The scandal of selling indulgences is thought to be the precipitating
cause of the Protestant Revolt. The Catholic Church forbade the sale of indulgences
at the Council of Trent (abuses of the practice were previously condemned in Council
in 1215, 1245, 1274 and 1312). But Martin Luther went beyond a critique of the
abuse of indulgences, and declared the entire practice null and void and contrary
to the Bible. This is not correct:
Many saints suffer more than enough to satisfy God's justice. Jesus Christ (and
Mary in Catholic theology) didn't have any sin and yet suffered greatly. The Catholic
Church gives credit for this suffering to persons who have repented. Thus it indulges these
persons, not in their sin, but in taking away punishment for the sins. This act
is called an indulgence. The Catholic Church will not do away with this beautiful
concept and practice (rightly understood) because of the occasional criminal misuse
of it in the past. The doctrine of indulgences is closely connected with the Communion
of Saints. The transfer of merit through an indulgence is a profound act of "community" and
a taking seriously of the communal and unified nature of the Mystical Body of Christ.
In a papal decree given in 1968 by Pope Paul VI, it was made abundantly clear that
the pious disposition of the seeker of an indulgence was of paramount importance.
In other words, an indulgence was not a piece of magic which existed apart from
the spiritual state of its user. It is inconsistent for Protestants to find fault
with the Catholic Church for mitigating the austerities of penance in granting
an indulgence since their own fundamental principle is the notion of faith alone
without good works (as pertaining to the nature of salvation). Thus, indulgences
are merely a limited application of a concept which Protestantism raises to universality.
Death cannot separate us from Christ.
So Catholics are praying to and asking for help from saints that are alive. We pray to Jesus and the saints. The Communion of Saints is not an either or issue, it is a family affair!
On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
Never get tired of staying awake to pray for all God's holy people, and pray for me to be given an opportunity to open my mouth and fearlessly make known the mystery of the Gospel.
I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ.
The angels in Heaven are always before the face of God.
We venerate angels because of their great dignity, which comes from their union with God. Saints are also in united with God. Veneration or honor is not worship.
Catholics worship [God|Jesus] alone.
You become imitators of us and of the Lord to all believers.
We believe we are called to "become imitators . . . of the Lord".
This is what Saints are for Catholics and all mankind: Examples of holiness to live by.
Commentary: Only images of strange gods were prohibited as appears not only from the words in Exodus 20:4-5 and
Deuteronomy 5:7 but also from the cherubim (Exodus 25:18-19) and the brazen serpent (Numbers 21:8-9) which Yahweh ordered to be made and from the mural decorations of the Jewish synagogues in the early Christian period as excavations abundantly attest.
There is question therefore not of a separate commandment which forbids the worship of all images but of an application of the precept forbidding the worship of strange gods. The prohibition of image worship, already discussed, does not contemplate the case of an image of Yahweh, most probably forbidden in the Book of the Covenant. Deuteronomy 4:16 insists, however that he did not appear in material form lest the people should be led to make an image out of him and misapprehend his spiritual nature. The prohibition of idols is found in the Book of the Covenant. It appears here in an amplified form most probably as a later addition to the decalogue to illustrate and safeguard the first commandment. The Latin division of the commandments is thus the more reasonable one and the more likely to be original.
Commentary: No one in the Church can defend the indefensible. For my team at AskACatholic.com, we apologize for the behavior of some of our members and in no way wish to rationalize their behavior. The following passages from the Bible only demonstrate the history of our fallen human nature as Jesus testified to when he said, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:41)
The Spirit has explicitly said that during the last times some will desert the faith and pay attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines that come from devils, seduced by the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are branded as though with a red hot iron: they forbid marriage and prohibit foods which God created to be accepted with thanksgiving by all who believe and who know the truth.
St. Paul objects to these prohibitions when they are the outcome of false principles which would regard marriage and certain foods as impure, but he has no objection to abstaining from food and drink when properly understood and based on sound principles.
Scripture clearly describes homosexual acts as abominations. The city of Sodom
(Genesis 18-19) was not destroyed for its lack of hospitality to the angels of
the Lord. It was destroyed for its homosexual depravity. The Church teaches that
homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2357), yet the Church also calls us to embrace homosexuals with love and to encourage them to live lives of chastity.
Regardless of the source of homosexual inclinations, which the Church says are objectively disordered, the urges themselves
are not sinful. For most people, these urges constitute trials which must be resisted
like any other temptation. In short, the Church teaches us to hate the sin of homosexual
acts, but to love the sinners who engage in those acts. See more about the Church's
teachings in CCC 2357-2359.
"... Handed them over to impurity . . . mutual degradation of their bodies" . . . "female
exchange natural relations for unnatural . . . Males did shameful things with males."
Call No Man Father? — 9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in Heaven. (Matthew 23:9)
Catholic Note:
All human titles
are only shadows of God's authority from which they derive their authority as understood in Ephesians 3:14-15.
In reference to the phrase in Matthew 23:9 Call no one on earth father. Father is
a term sometimes used of the great Rabbis. Note our Lord is not a grammarian regulating
the use of terms: he is the Doctor of the Spirit. He forbids any acknowledgement
of fatherhood that obscures the fatherhood of God, nothing more. If we make no
allowance for the concreteness and brevity of His phrases we either reduce them
to absurdity or Him to inconsistency. He would not forbid a human son to use the
word father nor would He forbid the term if addressed to one who is God's representative;
in this second case, indeed, it serves to remind its readers of the fatherhood
of God, nor must the Christian disciple pose as an independent spiritual guide.
He Himself is subject to one Teacher and one Guide — to the Lord Himself.
St. Stephen calls the Jewish leaders fathers and before his glorious martyrdom in his speech to the Sanhedrin, mentions the word fathernine times! Is Stephen sinning during his martyrdom?
Paul's letters can be difficult to grasp and interpret.
St. Athanasius (360 A.D.)
Let us note that the very tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church from the beginning, which the Lord gave, was preached by the Apostles, and was preserved by the Fathers. On this was the Church founded; and if anyone departs from this, he neither is nor any longer ought to be called a Christian. (Four Letters to Serapion of Thmius 1, 28)
Origen (230 A.D.)
"The teaching of the Church has indeed been handed down through an order of succession, from the Apostles, and remains in the Churches even to the present time. That alone is to be believed as truth which is in no way in variance with ecclesiastical and apostolic tradition." (Fundamental Doctrines 1, preface, 2.)
Interested in what other Christians in the Early Church thought, taught, and died for?
Commentary: The Pharisees complained that the disciples did not observe the prescribed ceremonial
hand washings before, during and after the meal. These prescriptions were carefully
laid down not in the Law but
in the oral tradition of the ancients e.g. the early rabbis. Toward the end of the 2nd century they were codified in written form in the Mishnah. Such traditions were held in even higher esteem then the Law itself. Our Lord declines an aimless discussion of sophistries and sharply attacks the spirit that prompted the objection. As once before he might have denounced explicitly the legal zeal that they had suffocated charity. Instead he fights them on their own ground and shows how this blind devotion to the tradition of the ancients had driven them to transgress the
law of God himself.
Commentary: Jesus challenges the principle of these traditions and denounces the insincerity and hypocrisy which characterize the conduct of the Pharisees. The words in which Isaiah 29:13 denounced the insincerity of his contemporaries in their worship of God are applicable to Christ's opponents. In their eagerness to maintain traditions which had their origin in the opinions of earlier teachers, they neglected the essential obligations of God's law.
Seductive philosophy according to human tradition.
Commentary: He ends the doctrinal part with an appeal for loyalty to Christ: the root of their religious life, the principle of their cohesion and progress in Christ. The time has come to confront the false teaching. Though it goes by the name of philosophy it is really a kind of bait for error —'an empty deceit based on the traditions of men closely allied to the [elements|principles] of the world. This last expression seems to note observance of days, months and years. In other words, the elements are connected with the sun and moon, or with cosmic forces generally.
The Catholic reply
is: "I have been saved, I am being saved, and I hope to be saved."
There are three distinct events: Past, Present, and Future that have to be addressed because we are living people with free will from the time we are born until to the time of our particular judgment.
It would have been better for them never to have learned
the way of uprightness, than to learn it and then desert the holy commandment that
was entrusted to them.
Interested in what the very first Christians thought, taught, and died for?
The Spirit himself joins with our spirit to bear witness that we are children of God. And if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, provided that we share his suffering, so as to share his glory.
This will be a clear sign, for them that they are
to be lost, and for you that you are to be saved. This comes from God, for you
have been granted the privilege for Christ's sake not only of believing in him
but of suffering for him as well.
It makes me happy to be suffering for you now, and in my own body to make up all the hardships that still have to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church.
Jesus is the eternal high priest. Because Our Lord is one Divine Person, His one sacrifice happened in time and eternity. Catholic priests enter into that one sacrifice of Jesus every time they celebrate Holy Mass. There is not another sacrifice. By His choice we participate in his priesthood by bringing the Gospel to those that have not heard it. By doing this we don't undermine his one mediation, but participate in it as co-mediators in Christ, just as Protestants do when they share the Gospel with others.
Our Lord does not condemn the practice of praying in public assemblies (Luke 18:10); the words here are hyperbolic.
He does not condemn the practice of praying in the streets. He condemns the practice of deliberately striking a pious attitude for public notice.
Repeat day and night, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord".
The Second Coming of Jesus.
Catholic Note:
A common misconception about the end times is the secret Rapture theory, popularized
by the 1909 Schofield Study Bible and the more recent Left Behind books.
According to this theory, Jesus will return secretly and invisibly to snatch away
(rapture) all true Christians from the earth into Heaven. This will allow them
to escape a vicious 7-year persecution, known as the Tribulation, when the Devil
will take control of the world through his human puppet, the Antichrist. After the
Tribulation, Jesus will visibly return again to destroy Satan's kingdom and reign
on earth for 1,000 years (the Millennium).
The Church has rejected this notion of
a literal 1,000-year earthly reign of Christ (See CCC 675 to 682). The 1,000-year reign mentioned
in Revelation 20:1-10 is usually interpreted as referring to the long period between
Christ's first and second comings, when Jesus reigns imperfectly through his kingdom
on earth, the Church.
The Catholic and scriptural view is quite different from the secret
rapture: there will be a Tribulation and the rise of the Antichrist. However, true
Christians will not escape this persecution. Jesus will return once and visibly,
gloriously triumphing over evil and bringing an end to history. At Christ's Second
Coming, living Christians will be raptured (caught up to join in Christ's
triumphant procession, the dead will be resurrected, and all shall be judged
at the final judgment.
"Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught
up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall
always be with the Lord."
"So stay awake, because you do not know the day when
your master is coming. You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder
had known at what time of the night the burglar would come, he would have stayed
awake and would not have allowed anyone to break through the wall of his house.
Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of man is coming at an
hour you do not expect."
Remember how you first heard the message. Hold on to
that. Repent! If you do not wake up, I shall come to you like a thief, and you
will have no idea at what hour I shall come upon you.
"Immediately after the tribulation . . . they will see the Son
of Man coming upon the clouds . . . he will send out his angels with a trumpet
blast, and they will gather his elect."
"We shall not all fall asleep, but we will all
be changed . . . at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will
be raised incorruptible."
"Coming of the Lord . . . with the voice of an
archangel and with the trumpet of God . . . Then we who are alive . . . will be caught
up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air."
"With regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ and our assembling with him . . . Let no one deceive you in any way. For
unless the apostasy comes first and the lawless one is revealed . . . whom the
Lord [Jesus] will kill with the breath of his mouth and render powerless by the
manifestation of his coming."
Resurrection of the
Dead will also occur at the Second Coming.
"We shall not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed . . .
at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible."
**