What is limbo

Essentially, it is an intermediate between Heaven and Hell, outside of the presence of God but free of the torment associated with Hell. According to Catholic doctrine, only those who accept Christ's gift of salvation and become baptized may enter Heaven and live eternally in the presence of God. This becomes problematic in the case of those who are for any reason unable to meet these requirements during their lifetime, although they have not done anything offensive enough to be comfortably consigned to Hell.

There are two main categories of limbo: limbus patrum or "Limbo of the Fathers" and limbus infantium or "Limbo of the Children. Limbo of the Fathers is a temporary state where righteous people who died before the coming of Christ spent their afterlife until Christ's death opened Heaven to mankind.

The achievement of its electoral goals without new links to government left the association in a sort of functional and political limbo. Rhinelanders, always much impressed by legality, existed in a state of limbo throughout the intervening period. See all examples of limbo. These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of limbo? Browse limber. Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes. Image credits. Word of the Day kind-hearted. About this. Blog Outsets and onsets! Read More. Neither decision is without its hurts and set backs, but one decision keeps you in limbo while the other sets you free.

All rights reserved. Filters 0. Words form: limbos. See word origin. Limbo is defined as a state where you uncertainly await something important, such as a decision about your future or, in some Christian religions, a place where babies go after they die if they have not been baptized. A condition of prolonged uncertainty or neglect.

Management kept her promotion in limbo for months. The warring courts that left two men in legal limbo and ultimately resolved nothing? The 26 cases the Center found moved into that legal limbo when the courts sent out letters. We're stationed out here in this limbo to watch Saturn and report any activity we see coming from there.

The chamberlain, with an ineffable gesture, wafted the taxi-cab away into some limbo appointed for waiting vehicles. He took me up to my own room, and I heard him going out to wake Limbo to harness, and at last heard him driving away in our coach.

Let the cult of that lusty Titan, the Limpet, sink awhile into the limbo of outworn idolatries. One day there came a letter, and I learned that, in a commercial crash at home, my income and my expectations had gone to limbo.

In the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church regarding the afterlife, the condition of innocent persons who die without benefit of baptism ; those in limbo do not suffer damnation , but they do not enjoy the presence of God.