How Can Limbo Just Be Abolished?

[pizzaman777]

Quote:The Pope may be about to abolish the notion of limbo, the halfway house between heaven and hell, inhabited by unbaptised infants. Is it really that simple?

Pope Benedict XVI's anticipated pronouncement on limbo will have been informed by the International Theological Commission - a group of leading Roman Catholic theologians who have been meeting to consider the issue.

The Pope, himself, has been quoted in the past as saying that he would let the idea of limbo "drop, since it has always been only a theological hypothesis".

He was quoted as saying that limbo has never been a "definitive truth of the faith".

So what is limbo?
According to the BBC's Religion and Ethics site, the church held that before the 13th Century, all unbaptised people, including new born babies who died, would go to hell. This was because original sin - the punishment that God inflicted on humanity because of Adam and Eve's disobedience - had not been cleansed by baptism.

This idea however was criticised by Peter Abelard, a French scholastic philosophiser, who said that babies who had no personal sin didn't even deserve punishment.

It was Abelard who introduced the idea of limbo. The word comes from the Latin "limbus", meaning the edge. This would be a state of existence where unbaptised babies, and those unfortunate enough to have been born before Jesus, would not experience pain but neither would they experience the Beatific Vision of God.
But limbo has long been a problem for the Church. Unease has remained over reconciling a Loving God with one who sent babies to limbo and the Church has faced much criticism.

The current review of limbo began in 2004, when Pope John Paul II asked the commission to come up with "a more coherent and enlightened way" of describing the fate of such innocent babes.

This review is part of a wider re-examination of the notion of salvation that has been taking place within the Church.

Many Catholics would see the abandonment of limbo as a good thing - there is little doubt that some interpretations of the teaching may have caused untold misery to the millions of parents whose children have died without being baptised.

But there are those who argue that it is not simply a "hypothesis" that can just be swept aside; that the notion that unbaptised children do not go to heaven has been a fundamental part of Church teaching for hundreds of years.

Then, of course, there is the argument that if this can be abolished, what else is disposable?....

Full article HERE

Changing of beliefs because it is "unpopular"? Sounds strange to me... <_<

[deathstickboy]

When you make shit up, somtimes you have to change it as you go along...

[pizzaman777]

LOL :LOL:

I have to quote this comment at the bottom of the page because it's a valid question:

Quote:As an atheist I'm confused about this news. Has purgatory gone now too? If I get baptised, does Jesus pay for all my sins, or just the old ones? Is there a sliding scale of sins, or does he wipe them all out? It sounds like all the fundamentals are up for debate, so we might as well start on the basics.
John Bates, Leeds, England

Too many rules to follow...

[The Mekon]

Personally I like it when an institution like that drops a dogma...

On the other hand it would be better if they did something like "The Further Adventures of Christ" and made some more stuff up :LOL:

[sivle]

It's fine if they want to drop it or whatever, the problem is what beleifs that are held today and dropped 5 years from now. Does it make it correct now and incorrect later? Were people wrong in their beleifs prior to the change or just when the church changed it's mind. Yeah it's bush league.

[deathstickboy]

The fact that they make up and then later take away entire spiritual realms (only to help flesh out their dogma at one point, and streamline it at another) it shows you exactly what the Catholic Church is.

A huge steaming pile of lying, manipulative, cultish crap.

[tsoldrin]

Limbo

You are floating in a formless void, detached from all sensation of physical
matter, surrounded by swirling glowing light, which fades into the relative
darkness around you without any trace of edges or shadow.
There is a "No Tipping" notice pinned to the darkness.
100h>
Puff says, "My god! It's full of stars!"
100h>

[standvast]

Someone tell 'em to redefine or just erase "hell" while they're at it.

[ov3rkomer]

Are they going to abolish any other unbiblical doctrines?
Since its inception, Roman Catholicism has polluted the Christian world with her false roman catholic doctrine and unbiblical teaching.

Roman Catholicism is easily exposed by holding her many false doctrines against the light of the Bible. some good examples of Roman Catholic doctrine are:
[after abolishing limbo they should abolish the following, and more:]
the Rosary,
confession to a priest,
infant baptism, the Mass, Holy Communion,
transubstantiation,
Mary as co-redeemer,
Easter,
purgatory, prayer to the saints, papal infallibility, etc
.these are all false catholic doctrine and man made fairy tales without any biblical foundation whatsoever.

For too long the Roman Catholic Church has fooled billions with her claim that she is the "one true church" Jesus founded. A cult is characterized by brainwashing her members to the point that they are not to question the "authority" of the cult itself over religious things. For this reason many roman catholics are what The Bible calls, blind guides leading the blind never to question their church or leaders. Luckely the world is beginning to wake up to the truth about this counterfeit church. Roman Catholicism is white sepulcre counterfeit christianity.

[The Mekon]

Quote:The fact that they make up and then later take away entire spiritual realms (only to help flesh out their dogma at one point, and streamline it at another) it shows you exactly what the Catholic Church is.

A huge steaming pile of lying, manipulative, cultish crap.

This made me laugh when I replaced "spiritual realms" and "the Catholic Church" with "models" and "science".

[deathstickboy]

Quote:Someone tell 'em to redefine or just erase "hell" while they're at it.

But stadvast, then they would have no means of scaring people into believing...

[Enemy]

And no theological terrorism, no means to con people out of their money, no more palace for the pope.

[DHammer]

Does it even matter what the chatolic church has to say ? Why must I hear satan and his opinions on the word of God ? Why should I care what a demonic-unregenerated so called "pope" who calls himself the "anointed man of God on earth"has to say about anything what so ever ?? It's like asking Bush for his take on 9/11. WHO CARES ? It all comes down to the Bible, not the chatolics, nor anything else.

CHATOLIC CHURCH =/= BIBLE