Why would this be? Why would God leave out from the scriptures such a key part of our afterlife if it really is what some have in store for them enroute to heaven? Why only oblique scriptural references cited in support of the doctrine? Why not the same direct treatment as "heaven" and "hell"?

The word "trinity" does not appear either, BTW. Nope, not "Incarnation" neither.

"It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they might be loosed from their sins" (2 Macc 12:46)

There are dozens of scriptural referents to purification, and many invocations to pray for the souls of the deceased. Would the souls require it if they simply jump straight from earthly life to eternal bliss?

The book says that nothing impure achieves heaven. ("Nothing unclean shall enter heaven"--Rev. 21:27) How does a soul go from impure and earthly to pure and worthy of closeness to God? There must be, if the claims are spot on, some kind of purgation. It has been the belief of Christianity since the very first and earlies Christians, who gathered to pray for the deceased. The belief in expiation, as it preceeds the birth of Christ, even preceeds the establishment of the Church itself.

jps