Well all so far have been good explanations of Purgatory. The only correction may be that while most Protestants do not accept I and II Maccabees, it has been accepted as part of the Canon of Sacred Scripture from the earliest days of the Church…
As for the rest, Jon et al did a good job of showing the exsistance of Purgatory.[/quote:2eq1542c]
Hello LA Robert,
allow me to clarify, Though not considered Sacred Scripture, as early as Jerome, The Canon is not settles as of yet, I honestly thought Sacred Scripture: ‘Canon’ different from 2nd canon deuterocanonical.
I was trying to make the distinction between Sacred Scripture, and Scripture, Deuterocanonical “Second Canon’ upon further review yes, the early Church regarded them as Scripture but Jerome had placed them together in the middle of his Vulgate. Jerome referred to them as scriptural and quoted from them despite describing them as “not in the canon”.
Having used a Jerome Biblical commentary for yrs. I stand corrected!
Thank you, however in trying to get a Protestant to consider these Books, I have used the term ‘historical;’ “Good for inspiration” [M.Luther], so they ought not be objected to.
I know why the Hebrew counsels left them out, but I wasn’t fully aware the Church had always called them Sacred.
The deuterocanonical (from the Greek deutero meaning second) books are those books of the Bible that were under discussion for a while until doubts about their canonicity were resolved (e.g. Sirach and Baruch of the Old Testament, and the Johannine epistles of the New Testament).
However:
The Council of Laodicea, c. 360, produced a list of books similar to today’s canon. This was one of the Church’s earliest decisions on a canon.
Pope Damasus, 366-384, in his Decree, listed the books of today’s canon.
The Council of Rome, 382 a.d., was the forum which prompted Pope Damasus’ Decree.
Bishop Exuperius of Toulouse wrote to Pope Innocent I in 405 a.d. requesting a list of canonical books. Pope Innocent listed the present canon.
The Council of Hippo, a local north Africa council of bishops created the list of the Old and New Testament books in[b:2eq1542c] 393 a.d. which is the same as the Roman Catholic list today.[/b:2eq1542c]
[quote:2eq1542c][url:2eq1542c]http://www.ewtn.com/library/answers/deuteros.htm[/url:2eq1542c]
Following the Protestant attack on the integrity of the Bible, the Catholic Church infallibly reaffirmed the divine inspiration of the deuterocanonical books at the Council of Trent in 1546. In doing this, it reaffirmed what had been believed since the time of Christ[/quote:2eq1542c]
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Thanks for the rebuke!
As far as Eph 2:8, context of the letter, not the one verse is what is important, it is speaking of the unity of the Church Gentile and Jew in Christ, not the individual.
When asked are you saved? The correct catholic response is, “I am saved, I am being saved, I hope to be saved,” Salvation is a process.
God bless,
John