Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise”, not you’ll someday be with me in paradise after you’ve gone through a purgative fire for several thousand years.
This was a doctrine purely and simply invented by and exploited by a church that had a monopoly on doctrine and sought to extract as much money from the populous as they could. It was the famous rejoinder “a penny in the coffer sings, a soul from purgatory springs”, along with the selling of indulgences that prompted Luther to seek the real church. Roman Catholics have been reeling for years since.
This was a doctrine purely and simply invented by and exploited by a church that had a monopoly on doctrine and sought to extract as much money from the populous as they could.Nope. From the Bible:
If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.-- 1 Cor 3:15And more:
For [human fathers] indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful ... -- Hebrews 12:10-11
So tell me where the Catholic Church states that Purgatory is either a time or a place. The Catechism refers to it as a "state".
Here's a few passages, for starters, of Scripture you've apparently never read Carl:
"And Noemi answered her: Blessed be he of the Lord: because the same kindness which he shewed to the living, he hath kept also to the dead. And again she said: The man is our kinsman." Ruth 2:20
"O Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, hear now the prayer of the dead of Israel, and of their children, that have sinned before Thee, and have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God, wherefore evils have cleaved fast to us." Baruch 3:4
"But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure was taken for misery: And their going away from us, for utter destruction: but they are in peace. And though in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality. Afflicted in few things, in many they shall be well rewarded: because God hath tried them, and found them worthy of Himself. As gold in the furnace He hath proved them, and as a victim of a holocaust He hath received them, and in time there shall be respect had to them. The just shall shine, and shall run to and fro like sparks among the reeds." Wisdom 3:1-7
"Then they all blessed the just judgment of the Lord, who had discovered the things that were hidden. And so betaking themselves to prayers, they besought Him, that the sin which had been committed might be forgotten. But the most valiant Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin, forasmuch as they saw before their eyes what had happened, because of the sins of those that were slain. And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection, (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,) And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with Godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." 2 Machabees 12:41-45
"Be at agreement with thy adversary betimes, whilst thou art in the way with him: lest perhaps the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing." Matthew 5:25-26
"But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment." Matthew 12:36
"And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done no evil." Luke 23:41
"Jesus saith to her: Do not touch Me, for I am not yet ascended to My Father. But go to My brethren, and say to them: I ascend to My Father and to your Father, to My God and your God." John 20:17(emphasis added)
"But thou, why judgest thou thy brother? or thou, why dost thou despise thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God. Therefore every one of us shall render account to God for himself." Romans 14:10-12
"According to the grace of God that is given to me, as a wise architect, I have laid the foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid; which is Christ Jesus. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble: Every man's work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are." 1 Corinthians 3:10-17
"For we must all be manifested before the judgement seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil." 2 Corinthians 5:10
"Wherein you shall greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in divers temptations: That the trial of your faith (much more precious than gold which is tried by the fire) may be found unto praise and glory and honour at the appearing of Jesus Christ:" 1 Peter 1:6-7
"Because Christ also died once for our sins, the just for the unjust: that He might offer us to God, being put to death indeed in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit, In which also coming He preached to those spirits that were in prison: Which had been some time incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noe, when the ark was a building: wherein a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water." 1 Peter 3:18-20(emphasis added)
"For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to the dead: that they might be judged indeed according to men, in the flesh; but may live according to God, in the Spirit." 1 Peter 4:6
"Dearly beloved, think not strange the burning heat which is to try you, as if some new thing happened to you; But if you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice that when His glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy." 1 Peter 4:12-13
"And account the longsuffering of our Lord, salvation; as also our most dear brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, hath written to you: As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction." 2 Peter 3:15-16(emphasis added)
"I counsel thee to buy of me gold fire tried, that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore, and do penance." Apocalypse 3:18-19
"There shall not enter into it any thing defiled or that worketh abomination or maketh a lie: but they that are written in the book of life of the Lamb." Apocalypse 21:27
that prompted Luther to seek the real church.
If you think that the actions of Johann Tetzel; which weren't sanctioned by the Church, alone caused the paranoid, schizophrenic, anti-semitic, alchoholic who couldn't control his libido, aka Martin Luther, to formulate his own doctrine then you're as ignorant of that nut as you are of Scripture.
By the way, what's your explanation for Luther siding with the rabbinic Jews who rejected Jesus in removing seven books; while proposing to remove a total of ten books from both the Old and New Testaments, from the Old Testament, adding the word "alone" to his version of Romans 3:28 and calling the Epistle of James "an epistle of straw"? Does anybody in Marietta even give that more than a passing thought or is it part and parcel of your exercise in revisionist history?