Every now and then I'll see an ally on Universal Salvation say something like "The Catholics were right about Purgatory" and even I have bordered on the sentiment in the past. However that completely misunderstands the purpose Purgatory has in Augustinian, Mediaeval and Tridentine Theology.
The root word that Purgatory comes from is Biblical, there is talk about Purging Fire in Scripture, however it is used as a verb not a noun. Purgatory as a name of a plane of existence is based on pointing to the verses that most undeniably refer to Corrective Judgment like in Malachi 3 and 1 Corinthians 3 and all the Refining Fire passages The Total Victory of Christ likes to talk about and saying they are referring to something different from The Lake of Fire in Revelation or from the Gehenna Fire Jesus warned of . While those of us who have a proper Biblical understanding of Universal Salvation conclude those are all the same and can't be separated from each other.
Augustine was clear that Purgatory was only for the Baptized. It was in origin explicitly about rejecting Universal Salvation by creating an alternate explanation for the existence of Corrective Punishment passages.
It also when combined with the Platonist denial of Soul Sleep created a teaching that Purgatory is a place many of the dead currently are in, and this is where the idea of Praying for The Dead came from, which lead to the whole Indulgences thing, the Indulgences never claimed to get anyone out of "Hell" they were about shortening one's potential stay in Purgatory. I however view all of the relevant passages as not happening till The White Throne Judgment after the Bodily Resurrection of even Unbelievers.
Purgatory was not an incidental doctrine that came to be labeled Catholic during the Reformation, it was actually vital to understanding the inciting Incident, MartÃn Luther wasn't even agaisnt the Office of the Papacy yet when he nailed the 95 Theses, everything he initially talked about were Symptoms of the false Doctrine of Purgatory.
Purgatory isn't a term for affirming Corrective Punishment, it's a term for limiting it only to Believers.
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