Hi -- This is my second post at this forum (the first was very brief, about conversion). By way of introduction, I'm an ex-Southern Baptist, ex-agnostic, ex-atheist, industrial-strength Catholic.
Rosz, the reason you don't believe in Purgatory is that you're too young
. Or, rather, your church (Protestant, I presume) is too young. Your origin was the 16th century or later. All Protestant churches are disconnected from historical Christianity, having originated from their founders' interpretation of the 66-book version of the Bible.
Jesus and the Apostles were Jews, and the first-century Jews believed in purification of the soul after death. The Apostles taught this belief to the Church (and by Church I mean Catholic), before the New Testament was ever written. Many of their earliest converts were Jews, who didn't have to be taught -- they accepted purification of the soul after death as part of Judaism, and that belief was carried over into Christianity. Even today, 21 centuries later, Jews still pray for their dead. The Church gave the name "purgatory" to this process of purification, from the Latin "purgatio" (cleansing); the verb is purgare -- to cleanse, to purify. Jews don't have a name for it. The other ancient Christian Church, the Orthodox, also pray for their dead; but they, too, have no name for it. Only the Protestants reject this historical Jewish-Christian belief.
Purification of the soul after death is in the Catholic Bible, in 2 Maccabees 12:44-46. Martin Luther removed eleven books from his German translation of the Bible (1522-34) and put them in a separate section -- an appendix -- at the back. He declared his rejection of them in prefaces to these writings. The NT books -- Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation -- were later restored to their rightful place in the canon by Luther's followers, so Protestants have the same 27 books that were in the original Bible canonized and formed by the Catholic Church. However, seven books and parts of Esther and Daniel, canonized by the Catholic Church in the same decrees from the same councils, are still missing from the Protestant OT. The original KJV (1611) followed Luther's system and placed these books in an appendix, separated from the writings he considered "Scripture." Later editions eliminated them altogether. So when Luther declared his new doctrine of Sola Scriptura, he had in mind the 'Scriptura' with Maccabees cut out. Very clever fellow, that Luther.
So it's in my Bible, but not in yours.
Peace be with you, ArkieOlogy (Jay)