Limbo: “Closed For Business”

Limbo: “Closed For Business”

First things first – “limbo” is not a biblical word or concept, so it would be only fair to allow the Catholic church to state what this infamous word means to them, taken from an official publication, with the Vatican’s official imprimatur:

“The Latin word Limbus (or “fringe”) was used in the Middle Ages for that place on the fringe of hell in which the just who died before Christ were detained till our Lord’s resurrection from the dead. It likewise signifies a place (also supposed to be beneath the earth and on the outskirts of hell) inhabited by infants who die in original sin” (p. 512).

Only two verses are cited in this 1960 publication, to demonstrate “evidence” of limbo: Luke 16:23 and 1 Pet. 3:19, 20.

Now part of this needs to be clarified. While it is true that God created a holding area for those who died in Christ before He came and was resurrected (known as Hades, Luke 16 or Paradise, 1 Pet. 3), what Scripture never alludes to is even the possibility that children or infants remained there or outside after the Resurrection of Christ.

The Apostle Paul taught very clearly that to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8.)

And Hebrews 9:27 also said how:

“It was appointed ONCE to die, and after this the JUDGMENT.”

(The latter verse also obliterates Purgatory as well).

The next part of this publication is a historical view of Limbo:

“Limbus Infantium – It is an article of faith that those who die without Baptism, and in whose case the want of Baptism has not been supplied in some other way, cannot enter heaven” (p. 512).

Because the Catholic church and some other apostate denominations hold to the heresy of baptismal regeneration (another non-biblical concept, which states that one is put into Christ by water baptism), they panic when a person isn’t baptised (or at least they used to), because for them without the h2o formula, one isn’t saved. However, with today’s Catholic church working overtime to feed and drive the ecumenical monster, such a view as this is played right down, with limbo also being an embarrassing doctrine to now hold to.

Also because of this humanistic approach to the sovereignty of God (as if God needs man to do anything for Him or others), i.e., help God out with the Salvation of another person, the following is rather bizarre and yet totally Catholicity in its odd way of interpreting Holy Scripture:

“St. Barnard (De Baptismo, c. i. n. 4, c. ii. n. 1) thought that possibly such infants might be saved by the faith of their parents” (p. 512).

And if this wasn’t bad enough, we then have another theologian, this time, Albertus a Bulsano, who “believed that God might commission angels to confer Baptism on infants who might otherwise perish without it” (p.512)

Again, one would think that God is totally lost without man to help Him out!

At this turn in the road, they cite one of Rome’s most famous son’s, St. Augustine:

“The theologians of the Augustinian order (e.g. Noris and Berti) held to the opinion at the opposite pole – viz. that the infants in question were punished both by exclusion from heaven and by positive pain, though much less pain that is inflicted on those who died in actual mortal sin. This undoubtedly is the opinion of St. Augustine (Serm. 294, PL, xxxviii.1337), where he teaches that unbaptized infants were consigned to eternal fire, though their damnation will be “the lightest of all” (p. 513).

What a strange thing to say. Clearly, Augustine never met the mercy and love of God.

Before we conclude, and yes we know that Rome never made limbo an official part of its dogma, the following is rather helpful for them, when it comes to them quietly removing limbo from their statute books:

“The existence of the limbo of Infants has never been defined by the Church, although the Jansenist Council of Pistoia was censured by Pius VI for scoffing at it as a Pelagian fable” (p.513).

Three verses need to be cited to show that all infants are saved and go straight to Heaven when they die, whether baptised or not (Deut.1:39; Rom. 4:15; 5:13).

Source: A Catholic Dictionary, St. John’s Seminary, Wonersh, England, 1960.

 

JGB

October 2006

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