ESCHATOLOGY - PAGE 3
Offers Scriptural verses and explanations on doctrines, including Pergatoryhttp://www.scripturecatholic.com/purgatory.html
http://catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0041.html (“The Burning Truth about Purgatory”—a GREAT article by Curtis Martin)!!
http://catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0041.html Wikipedia—definition from the free encyclopedia
http://ic.net/~erasmus/ERASMUS6.HTM Dave Armstrong’s page on Purgatory and Penance
http://www.turrisfortis.com/purgatory.html The Purgatory Option? (Common Myths Regarding the doctrine of Purgatory)
An Anti-Catholic reaction to Purgatory and Prayers for the dead:
It seems appropriate to mention this, in order to highlight an extreme. It’s a little anecdote about someone I know (a minister of a non-denominational local church). His reaction to graveyards and tombstones, I thought (as a young Catholic who wasn’t yet into apologetics) was strange. He didn’t desire to ‘visit them’, he said once, because the person ‘wasn’t there anymore’. This, he spoke, of his own parent’s tombstone. Now, being a young Catholic, and not even knowing what his underlying problem was, I still had the brains to think, “Well, duh.”. Of course not. As a Catholic, I didn’t believe that the person was still there either. Bodily remains, yes. But the soul, of course, was no longer there. Not until later did I realize that his entire disdain for tombstones was really about his firm objection to anything Catholic (being a devout anti-Catholic)—in this case, the Catholic practice of prayers for the dead and the doctrine or Purgatory. It was his way of remaining apart from ‘us’. I always wanted to turn back the hands of the clock so that I would have the opportunity to respond to him back then. If I could, I would have explained that tombstones are not unlike monuments. In Washington, D.C., many people of Protestant denominations and other religious affiliations, non-Christians included, go and ‘give their respects’ to those that have died at many different sites there and elsewhere (the 9/11 Memorials, etc..). I remember standing at the Vietnam War Memorial, when I had the opportunity to visit, and was emotionally moved by the experience. There are no souls there, of course…….and no remains of bodies either! It’s simply a ‘place’ for ‘remembering’ the dead. Of course you can ‘remember’ someone without actually standing at their grave. For that matter, a Catholic can ‘pray for the dead’ while anywhere. But I’d have to mention that there are teams of people in charge of the upkeep and maintenance of these ‘sites’. Visitors place candles and flowers there. Some simply remember a person or the event itself. Some pray (for the soul of the departed, or perhaps for peace in the world and the cessation of war, terrorism, and violence). Regardless, standing at those sites is a very profound experience (much more than standing in one’s livingroom). It is giving a reference for rememberance. And so we visit them, out of our love and sacrifice, our honor, our respect, and our memory. So, what’s the harm in ‘visiting’ a dead parent’s grave? To light a candle and a flower there? To pull a few weeds? There is none. Mistakenly, he felt that his parent would not know whether or not he stood there, so it didn’t make a difference. However, he forgot one important fact. Regardless of his problems with Catholic doctrines, a few people did know. It mattered to his siblings. Therefore, I firmly believe, that it did, in fact, matter to God as well. It is something I stayed with me.
AS A BYZANTINE CATHOLIC, I WANTED TO INCLUDE SOME FURTHER 'EASTERN CATHOLIC' INFORMATION ON THE DOCTRINE OR PURGATORY:
From Wikipedia:
“Eastern Catholic Churches of Greek tradition generally avoid the image of fire, as well as the name "Purgatory", which is popularly associated with the idea of a place within space, while fully agreeing on the substance of the teaching about purification after death of Christians for final union with God.[16] For the process of preparation for union with God, these Catholic Churches of Greek tradition may use, instead of the term "purgatory", the term "theosis",[17] a concept accepted throughout the Catholic Church (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 460), though usually not explicitly linked with final purification. A Father of the Church, who belonged to the Greek tradition, seems to have linked theosis with the idea of an after-death process of purification by fire, writing that a person "... may afterward in a quite different manner be very much interested in what is better, when, after his departure out of the body, he gains knowledge of the difference between virtue and vice and finds that he is not able to partake of divinity until he has been purged of the filthy contagion in his soul by the purifying fire" (emphases added).[18] Eastern Catholic Churches of other traditions freely use the name "Purgatory".[19]”
more to be added soon..........
LINKS TO MORE INFORMATION ON ESCHATOLOGY:
http://www.amazon.com/Rapture-End-Times-Error-Leaves-Behind/dp/1928832725
http://www.paulthigpen.com/apologetics/rapturefever.html
http://www.phatmass.com/directory/index.php/cat/26
http://jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/eschatology/index.html
http://www.ewtn.com/library/SCRIPTUR/ESCHATON.TXT
http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/audio.htm
http://www.catholic-convert.com/Portals/0/Documents/Dispensationalism.doc
Find MANY ARTICLES at:
http://socrates58.blogspot.com/2006/11/hell-devil-eschatology-last-things.html
See the website of Carl Olson, author of “Will Catholics Be Left Behind”:
http://www.carl-olson.com/wcblb%20materials/wcblb_reviews.html
bravenet.com