Purgatory for those who don't believe?

baby3
51reputation
3589 Posts
Third Member
Contact:

Member since 03/26/2010

View baby3's full profile or recent posts

Posted on 05/03/2012 at 18:12:49 | Reply | Report Abuse | 1

I also wondered when I was in the other churches then Catholic,why we would go to a place of punishment if we were saved and believed in the blood covering of Jesus. Well it is a truth of his blood covering but not if you are a sinner.God hates sin but loves the sinner.All those who believe that you can't loose your salvation did not do their home work.Read and ask questions do not form your own opinion you are then listening to yourself and who you feel.Chances are it's going to come out just the way you want not how God wants it.Most all of the ancient religions but the American ones of today believe in a holding place where you pay for what you did and then are released but the churches of today do not believe in this they feel they are justified by faith and because they believe in Jesus they will go directly to the Lord on departure of this world. They might go to heaven like Jesus said but not until they have done their time in the holding tank and become clean like the Lord wants all of us to be.God will not take sin into heaven.You are not saved until you endure till the end and then God decides what is going to happen to you.Declaring you are saved will not save you and all the rituals on earth will not save you being faithful and keeping His fathers commandments will!!! This is all that the Lord asks of us and how many do we break every day of our lives???? it is not as easy as people are told by lines of this world it is not a quick fix Jesus royal blood paid the Price and he said to follow him pick up your cross and follow Not live high on the hog and hate your brother and sin against him.Yes be sure your sin will find you out!!! Read this please all of unbelieving doubters!! Don;t do it for the Catholic church do it for your own soul,for we are to work out our own salvation with FEAR AND TRREMBLING Why is this??? Because you can't get there form here unless you apply and try not sit back and take the Lords death and sacrifice in vain!!!! B3

The Burning Truth About Purgatory
CURTIS MARTIN
Of all the misunderstood Catholic teachings — and there are a few of them — purgatory is often seen as the most embarrassing.

Of all the misunderstood Catholic teachings — and there are a few of them — purgatory is often seen as the most embarrassing. Thousands of Catholics leave the Church every year. Their faith is questioned and their religious education doesn’t rise to the challenge. You’ve probably heard these questions yourself: “Where in the Bible does it say you have to confess your sins to a priest?” “Where does it say that the pope is infallible?” “That Mary was conceived without original sin?” And, “Where in the world did you Catholics get the teaching on purgatory?”
The typical conversation goes something like this:

Non-Catholic: “So you’re a Roman Catholic?”

Roman Catholic: “That’s right. I’m even a Notre Dame fan.”

NC: “Do you believe everything the Church teaches?”

RC: “Well, yeah, I guess so.”

NC: “Even purgatory?”

RC: “I think so.”

NC: “Well, let me get this straight. You believe in an all-loving God, don’t you?”

RC: “Yeah!”

NC: “Do you believe that this God sent His only begotten Son to die for you?”

RC: “Sure!”

NC: “So let me get this straight: You believe in an all-loving God, who loved you so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die for you, just so you can go to heaven when you die. Yet, this loving God first sticks you in a ‘cosmic oven’ and bakes you for a couple hundred years or so until you’re done?”

RC: “Well, I’ve never really thought about it that way.”

NC: “Where in the Bible does it say ‘purgatory’?”

About this time, our Catholic friend is looking for someplace to hide! He seems to have three equally unsatisfactory options. Option number one is blind faith: “I don’t know why I believe it, but I’m going to keep right on believing it anyway. After all, I’m Catholic, so don’t confuse me with the facts!”

Option two is an over-confident triumphalism: “Silly Fundamentalist! Where in the Bible really!”

The third option is to run for the hills.

Each of these options fails to take the situation seriously. Blind faith ignores the importance of an answer. Triumphalism ignores the importance of the question. And running away fails to see the importance of reality.

There is, however, another way: the way of constructive apologetics, which takes the question and the answer very seriously, and prayerfully begins to search the sacred texts and the storehouses of apostolic Tradition to find the truth about these important issues.

The case against purgatory seems to be based on three major objections. First, the teaching of purgatory seems to contradict the finished work of Christ and offend the basic understanding of God as a loving, all-caring, all-merciful God who has forgiven our sins in Christ Jesus. Second, purgatory seems to offer a “second chance” for those who did not follow Christ in this life. Third, purgatory does not appear to be a biblical teaching. Before examining the truth about purgatory, let’s take a look at these objections and see why they should be taken seriously.

Scripture stresses the truth of God’s love, and Evangelical Protestants have frequently had a powerful experience of Christ’s forgiveness. St. John explains: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the expiation for our sins” (1 Jn. 4:10). Jesus Christ Himself stresses mercy over judgment, stating,

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (Jn. 5:24).

Scripture teaches us about a God who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16). The Christian believer is called to accept the mercy of God as all-powerful, capable of overcoming all sin, and yet the Catholic who holds the teaching of purgatory seems to belittle God’s forgiveness. From this perspective, God appears almost schizophrenic, wanting to forgive our sins and yet meticulously hold us accountable for them, at one time cleansing us from all unrighteousness (cf. 1 Jn. 1:9) and then later deciding to “fry us” for displeasing Him. Have we “passed out of judgment” (cf. Jn. 5:24) or haven’t we? Has Christ forgiven our sins, or hasn’t He?

The second objection against purgatory is that it is a manufactured second chance. If you don’t really want to follow Christ, you can still get to heaven through the “backdoor.” Yet Scripture is clear that spiritual mediocrity is unacceptable (cf. Rev. 3:15-16). Jesus calls for complete commitment. He is either Lord of all, or He isn’t Lord at all. There is no second chance; we are either for Christ or against Him (cf. Lk. 11:23). The doctrine of purgatory seems to be an “end run.” But Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me” (Jn. 14:6).

The third argument against the doctrine of purgatory flows from a main dogma of Protestant theology, sola scriptura (“the Bible alone”). After all, where in the Bible do we find purgatory? A quick word check in any concordance will demonstrate that the word is nowhere to be found in Scripture. There’s no discussion of some third place between heaven and hell. Surely something as important as purgatory would be clearly taught in the pages of Scripture!

Purgatory also appears to be “guilty by association”: The doctrine is caught up in the “Catholic collection” of the intercession of the saints, indulgences, the sacrifice of the Mass, and other items that are perceived as “unbiblical” and the fruit of mere human tradition. As Christ warns, “[F]or the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God” (Mt. 15:6).

These views are held by very sincere Christians, men and women with whom we are united in Baptism. Catholics have an obligation to take these issues seriously.

When I began to investigate the teaching of purgatory, I knew that it wasn’t enough to simply ask, “Where in the Bible is purgatory?” As a Christian, the two most fundamental truths that I held were the Trinity — three Persons in one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and the Incarnation, that the eternal Son, at a point in history, took on human nature and became man like us in all things but sin. And yet the words “Trinity” and “Incarnation” were nowhere in Scripture. That is to say, the words weren’t, but the teachings were.

I now needed to go to the Bible and examine whether the teaching of purgatory — whether the word was there or not — was to be found in the teachings of Christ and the apostles. I began to search the Gospels to see if Jesus gave any teachings concerning judgment or purification at the end of our earthly life. I began to see that several of Our Lord’s teachings, far from disproving purgatory, seemed to point to the possibility that there might be some debt of justice that would be paid after our earthly life.

As Christ teaches about the importance of forgiveness, He gives the example of a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. He brought in a man who owed a great deal of money and forgave him the debt. The forgiven man in turn went out and met one of his fellow slaves, who owed him but a fraction of the amount, and demanded repayment. The just king summoned his slave back and said,

“You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me; and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his lord delivered him to the jailers, till he should pay all his debt (Mt. 18:32-34).

What was Jesus talking about? Scripture clearly teaches, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). And yet Our Lord Himself gives the example of a man who had been forgiven, afterward acted unjustly, and finally was handed over to repay all that he owed.

Again in St. Luke’s Gospel, Our Lord challenges His followers to make peace with one another, so that they will not be handed over to the magistrate who would throw them into prison: “I tell you, you will never get out till you have paid the very last copper” (Lk. 12:59; cf. Mt. 5:26). Christ calls the believer, who has passed out of condemnation — the sentence of hell — to live a life of justice which will be exacted to the last cent. If this is not the case, then the teachings of Jesus make no sense. The Catholic teaching about purgatory is that if, at the end of a Christian’s earthly life, this debt of justice was not satisfied, he shall be purified in purgatory before entering heaven. The teachings of Christ did not seem to contradict this. But lack of contradiction is still a long way from proof.

In St. Matthew’s Gospel there is a tremendous confrontation between Christ and the Pharisees, in which they accuse Him of exercising authority over demons by the power of Beelzebul, the “prince of demons” (Mt. 12:24). Jesus then warns them of the sin against the Holy Spirit and states,

Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come (Mt. 12:31-32).

If this sin cannot be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come, some sins might be able to be forgiven in the age to come. Without using the word “purgatory,” Jesus is presenting teachings that seemed in harmony with the Catholic teaching on purgatory and were a bit difficult to interpret from an Evangelical perspective. While I was far from ready to accept that Jesus was referring to purgatory, I was finding myself hard-pressed to come to any other conclusion. This “forgiveness of sins” and “the age to come,” the reference to a prison in which we would not be released until we had “paid the last cent” — this is certainly not heaven or hell. We never get out of hell, and heaven is no prison.

I came across a passage in the New Testament that I found very surprising. While addressing the very issue of sin within the Christian community — those who were believers and had accepted the Lordship of Jesus Christ into their lives — St. Paul writes:

For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble — each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire (1 Cor. 3:11-15).

The passage is quite clear: Gold and silver, when placed into a furnace, would be purified; wood and hay would be burned away. As this is done, Scripture says we will suffer loss, but be saved “as through fire.” The image of purgatory was becoming more vivid as I read. What else could St. Paul be referring to? He can’t be referring to hell, because it’s clear that the people who undergo this “purifying fire” will be saved, while those who are in hell are lost forever. And yet he can’t be referring to heaven, because he mentions the suffering of loss, while in heaven every tear will be wiped away (cf. Rev. 21:4).

Scripture teaches that God is a “consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). The point St. Paul seems to make is that, as God draws us to Himself after death, there is a process of purification in the fire of God’s holy presence. God Himself purifies us of those imperfect deeds: the wood, hay, and stubble. And those works that are performed in faithfulness and obedience to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, those of gold and silver, are purified. This purification is necessary because, as Scripture teaches of heaven — the new Jerusalem — and the temple within it, “Nothing unclean shall enter it” (Rev. 21:27). The biblical images of the purifying fire, through which the believer is saved while suffering loss, were now beginning to sound more and more like purgatory.

But where is the word “purgatory?” I began to see that this question revealed an ignorance on my part. The Scriptures were written in Hebrew and Greek. “Purgatory” comes from the Latin word purgatorium. In Scripture, we do find references to an afterlife that is neither the hell of the damned nor heaven. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word sheol is used to describe this condition; in the New Testament, the Greek term is hades. I had always thought that hades was hell, but Scripture teaches very clearly that hades is not hell; it is distinct from gehenna, or the lake of fire which is the hell of the damned. In fact, the Book of Revelation describes how, at the end of time, death and hades are thrown into hell (gehenna). This is the second death, the lake of fire. Scripture teaches that at the end of time, there is no more death; and once the purification of all souls has taken place, there is no more need for hades. This same concept of sheol (in Hebrew), hades (in Greek), and purgatorium (in Latin) is purgatory as we have come to know it today (cf. Catechism, nos. 1030-32).

The major objection to purgatory is that somehow it undermines the finished work of Christ. Is Christ’s death sufficient? Of course it is! It is sufficient to win our redemption and to allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify us. The work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, however, is the work of purification and sanctification. It is the application of the divine life won by Christ. Purgatory in no way should be viewed as a “second chance,” by which those who did not believe in and follow Christ can somehow “suffer their way into heaven,” despite their rejection of the Christian life. Jesus is clear that those who refuse to follow Him are guilty: “[H]e who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (Jn. 3:18). Spiritual purification is possible only for those who have been reconciled to God in this life (cf. 2 Cor. 5:18-20).

The concept of purification after death dates back to the Jews of pre-Christian times. Evidence of this can be seen in the Second Book of Maccabees. Catholics will quickly cite this as scriptural evidence for the reality of purgatory, but we must remember that Protestants do not accept 2 Maccabees as scriptural. Nevertheless, objective readers will have to note that, even if the seven books of the Old Testament accepted by Catholics and rejected by Protestants are not biblical, they are godly writings and worthy of our consideration. In 2 Maccabees, following a battle, the faithful Jews found out that their fallen comrades each carried with them sacred tokens of idols, which the law forbade the Jews to wear:

[T]hey turned to prayer, beseeching that the sin which had been committed might be wholly blotted out. And the noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen. He also took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering (2 Mac. 12:42-43).

The sacred text notes that this was an honorable deed, and the passage closes with the statement, “Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin” (2 Mac. 12:45).

What is striking about this passage is not what it asserts, but what it takes for granted. This episode is not told in an apologetic style, as if to prove that prayer for the dead was a pious act, but rather assumes it. Moreover, once the Catholic Church is accepted as the Church that Christ founded, and thus as the Church that defines the canon of Scripture, the teaching in Maccabees takes on greater weight as inspired Scripture (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16).

What is clear and undeniable is the solidarity the early Christians felt with the deceased. Many ancient Christian monuments call out for prayer. For example, the epitaph of a bishop named Abercius, composed toward the end of the second century, provides: “Standing by, I, Abercius, ordered this to be inscribed; truly, I was in my seventy-second year. May everyone who is in accord with this and who understands it pray for Abercius.” This practice of prayer for the deceased predates a fully developed defense of this practice, which was provided at the ecumenical councils of Lyons II (1274), Florence (1439-45), and Trent (1545-63).

As I began reading the Church Fathers, I was struck not only by the confidence of these holy men and the reality of the purifying fire (cf. 1 Cor. 3:15), but also by how deeply the teaching was rooted in the apostolic Tradition. The historic evidence clearly pointed to a belief in a state of purification that would later be called “purgatory.” This term corresponded to the Hebrew concept of sheol, and to the Greek term hades in the New Testament. This third and temporary state of purification is biblical, apostolic, historical and, most of all, true and completely reconcilable with the teachings of Jesus Christ in the Gospels.

The doctrine of purgatory is completely reconcilable with a loving God who is a consuming fire. As we are drawn up into His love, into His very divine life — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — we begin to burn with that same divine fire, and those impurities to which we have clung in this life must be burned away. This will inevitably involve suffering, as we let go of those imperfect things to which we are attached.

The hidden mystery behind the teaching of purgatory is our calling to live in God for all eternity, which requires us to give perfectly of ourselves (cf. Mt. 5:48). Even with deep faith, the Christian life is difficult. We are called to manifest heroic generosity, and yet generosity hurts in this life. No matter what we’re asked to give, we seem to run out — of time, of energy, of money. God calls us to acknowledge this weakness, this poverty, and to turn to Him and cry out for help that He might fill us with His grace.

In heaven, generosity will not hurt; the lack of generosity will hurt. That is because in heaven God will give Himself to us fully and completely, holding nothing back. Our ability to receive from Him will be completely contingent upon our ability, in turn, to immediately give back. Otherwise, the gift of God would destroy us. Like strapping a water balloon onto a fire hydrant nozzle, we would explode! It is only when we learn the habit of complete and total self-giving that we will be able to experience the joy of heaven.

Christians are called to accept the finished work of Jesus Christ, and to allow that work to be applied to our lives by the work of the Holy Spirit, so that those who are justified will be sanctified. For us it is impossible. But with God, all things are possible.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Martin, Curtis. “The Burning Truth About Purgatory.” Lay Witness (November, 1999).

Reprinted with permission of Lay Witness magazine.

Lay Witness is a publication of Catholic United for the Faith, Inc., an international lay apostolate founded in 1968 to support, defend, and advance the efforts of the teaching Church.

Answer this question

baby3

God4me
-1212reputation
6828 Posts
First Member

Contact: PM

Member since 03/06/2010

Location: United Kingdom

View God4me's full profile or recent posts

Posted on 05/04/2012 at 00:15:00 | Reply | Report Abuse | -1

quote:
Originally posted by baby3

I also wondered when I was in the other churches then Catholic,why we would go to a place of punishment if we were saved and believed in the blood covering of Jesus. Well it is a truth of his blood covering but not if you are a sinner.God hates sin but loves the sinner.All those who believe that you can't loose your salvation did not do their home work.Read and ask questions do not form your own opinion you are then listening to yourself and who you feel.Chances are it's going to come out just the way you want not how God wants it.Most all of the ancient religions but the American ones of today believe in a holding place where you pay for what you did and then are released but the churches of today do not believe in this they feel they are justified by faith and because they believe in Jesus they will go directly to the Lord on departure of this world. They might go to heaven like Jesus said but not until they have done their time in the holding tank and become clean like the Lord wants all of us to be.God will not take sin into heaven.You are not saved until you endure till the end and then God decides what is going to happen to you.Declaring you are saved will not save you and all the rituals on earth will not save you being faithful and keeping His fathers commandments will!!! This is all that the Lord asks of us and how many do we break every day of our lives???? it is not as easy as people are told by lines of this world it is not a quick fix Jesus royal blood paid the Price and he said to follow him pick up your cross and follow Not live high on the hog and hate your brother and sin against him.Yes be sure your sin will find you out!!! Read this please all of unbelieving doubters!! Don;t do it for the Catholic church do it for your own soul,for we are to work out our own salvation with FEAR AND TRREMBLING Why is this??? Because you can't get there form here unless you apply and try not sit back and take the Lords death and sacrifice in vain!!!! B3

The Burning Truth About Purgatory
CURTIS MARTIN
Of all the misunderstood Catholic teachings — and there are a few of them — purgatory is often seen as the most embarrassing.

Of all the misunderstood Catholic teachings — and there are a few of them — purgatory is often seen as the most embarrassing. Thousands of Catholics leave the Church every year. Their faith is questioned and their religious education doesn’t rise to the challenge. You’ve probably heard these questions yourself: “Where in the Bible does it say you have to confess your sins to a priest?” “Where does it say that the pope is infallible?” “That Mary was conceived without original sin?” And, “Where in the world did you Catholics get the teaching on purgatory?”
The typical conversation goes something like this:

Non-Catholic: “So you’re a Roman Catholic?”

Roman Catholic: “That’s right. I’m even a Notre Dame fan.”

NC: “Do you believe everything the Church teaches?”

RC: “Well, yeah, I guess so.”

NC: “Even purgatory?”

RC: “I think so.”

NC: “Well, let me get this straight. You believe in an all-loving God, don’t you?”

RC: “Yeah!”

NC: “Do you believe that this God sent His only begotten Son to die for you?”

RC: “Sure!”

NC: “So let me get this straight: You believe in an all-loving God, who loved you so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die for you, just so you can go to heaven when you die. Yet, this loving God first sticks you in a ‘cosmic oven’ and bakes you for a couple hundred years or so until you’re done?”

RC: “Well, I’ve never really thought about it that way.”

NC: “Where in the Bible does it say ‘purgatory’?”

About this time, our Catholic friend is looking for someplace to hide! He seems to have three equally unsatisfactory options. Option number one is blind faith: “I don’t know why I believe it, but I’m going to keep right on believing it anyway. After all, I’m Catholic, so don’t confuse me with the facts!”

Option two is an over-confident triumphalism: “Silly Fundamentalist! Where in the Bible really!”

The third option is to run for the hills.

Each of these options fails to take the situation seriously. Blind faith ignores the importance of an answer. Triumphalism ignores the importance of the question. And running away fails to see the importance of reality.

There is, however, another way: the way of constructive apologetics, which takes the question and the answer very seriously, and prayerfully begins to search the sacred texts and the storehouses of apostolic Tradition to find the truth about these important issues.

The case against purgatory seems to be based on three major objections. First, the teaching of purgatory seems to contradict the finished work of Christ and offend the basic understanding of God as a loving, all-caring, all-merciful God who has forgiven our sins in Christ Jesus. Second, purgatory seems to offer a “second chance” for those who did not follow Christ in this life. Third, purgatory does not appear to be a biblical teaching. Before examining the truth about purgatory, let’s take a look at these objections and see why they should be taken seriously.

Scripture stresses the truth of God’s love, and Evangelical Protestants have frequently had a powerful experience of Christ’s forgiveness. St. John explains: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the expiation for our sins” (1 Jn. 4:10). Jesus Christ Himself stresses mercy over judgment, stating,

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (Jn. 5:24).

Scripture teaches us about a God who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16). The Christian believer is called to accept the mercy of God as all-powerful, capable of overcoming all sin, and yet the Catholic who holds the teaching of purgatory seems to belittle God’s forgiveness. From this perspective, God appears almost schizophrenic, wanting to forgive our sins and yet meticulously hold us accountable for them, at one time cleansing us from all unrighteousness (cf. 1 Jn. 1:9) and then later deciding to “fry us” for displeasing Him. Have we “passed out of judgment” (cf. Jn. 5:24) or haven’t we? Has Christ forgiven our sins, or hasn’t He?

The second objection against purgatory is that it is a manufactured second chance. If you don’t really want to follow Christ, you can still get to heaven through the “backdoor.” Yet Scripture is clear that spiritual mediocrity is unacceptable (cf. Rev. 3:15-16). Jesus calls for complete commitment. He is either Lord of all, or He isn’t Lord at all. There is no second chance; we are either for Christ or against Him (cf. Lk. 11:23). The doctrine of purgatory seems to be an “end run.” But Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me” (Jn. 14:6).

The third argument against the doctrine of purgatory flows from a main dogma of Protestant theology, sola scriptura (“the Bible alone”). After all, where in the Bible do we find purgatory? A quick word check in any concordance will demonstrate that the word is nowhere to be found in Scripture. There’s no discussion of some third place between heaven and hell. Surely something as important as purgatory would be clearly taught in the pages of Scripture!

Purgatory also appears to be “guilty by association”: The doctrine is caught up in the “Catholic collection” of the intercession of the saints, indulgences, the sacrifice of the Mass, and other items that are perceived as “unbiblical” and the fruit of mere human tradition. As Christ warns, “[F]or the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God” (Mt. 15:6).

These views are held by very sincere Christians, men and women with whom we are united in Baptism. Catholics have an obligation to take these issues seriously.

When I began to investigate the teaching of purgatory, I knew that it wasn’t enough to simply ask, “Where in the Bible is purgatory?” As a Christian, the two most fundamental truths that I held were the Trinity — three Persons in one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and the Incarnation, that the eternal Son, at a point in history, took on human nature and became man like us in all things but sin. And yet the words “Trinity” and “Incarnation” were nowhere in Scripture. That is to say, the words weren’t, but the teachings were.

I now needed to go to the Bible and examine whether the teaching of purgatory — whether the word was there or not — was to be found in the teachings of Christ and the apostles. I began to search the Gospels to see if Jesus gave any teachings concerning judgment or purification at the end of our earthly life. I began to see that several of Our Lord’s teachings, far from disproving purgatory, seemed to point to the possibility that there might be some debt of justice that would be paid after our earthly life.

As Christ teaches about the importance of forgiveness, He gives the example of a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. He brought in a man who owed a great deal of money and forgave him the debt. The forgiven man in turn went out and met one of his fellow slaves, who owed him but a fraction of the amount, and demanded repayment. The just king summoned his slave back and said,

“You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me; and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his lord delivered him to the jailers, till he should pay all his debt (Mt. 18:32-34).

What was Jesus talking about? Scripture clearly teaches, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). And yet Our Lord Himself gives the example of a man who had been forgiven, afterward acted unjustly, and finally was handed over to repay all that he owed.

Again in St. Luke’s Gospel, Our Lord challenges His followers to make peace with one another, so that they will not be handed over to the magistrate who would throw them into prison: “I tell you, you will never get out till you have paid the very last copper” (Lk. 12:59; cf. Mt. 5:26). Christ calls the believer, who has passed out of condemnation — the sentence of hell — to live a life of justice which will be exacted to the last cent. If this is not the case, then the teachings of Jesus make no sense. The Catholic teaching about purgatory is that if, at the end of a Christian’s earthly life, this debt of justice was not satisfied, he shall be purified in purgatory before entering heaven. The teachings of Christ did not seem to contradict this. But lack of contradiction is still a long way from proof.

In St. Matthew’s Gospel there is a tremendous confrontation between Christ and the Pharisees, in which they accuse Him of exercising authority over demons by the power of Beelzebul, the “prince of demons” (Mt. 12:24). Jesus then warns them of the sin against the Holy Spirit and states,

Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come (Mt. 12:31-32).

If this sin cannot be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come, some sins might be able to be forgiven in the age to come. Without using the word “purgatory,” Jesus is presenting teachings that seemed in harmony with the Catholic teaching on purgatory and were a bit difficult to interpret from an Evangelical perspective. While I was far from ready to accept that Jesus was referring to purgatory, I was finding myself hard-pressed to come to any other conclusion. This “forgiveness of sins” and “the age to come,” the reference to a prison in which we would not be released until we had “paid the last cent” — this is certainly not heaven or hell. We never get out of hell, and heaven is no prison.

I came across a passage in the New Testament that I found very surprising. While addressing the very issue of sin within the Christian community — those who were believers and had accepted the Lordship of Jesus Christ into their lives — St. Paul writes:

For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble — each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire (1 Cor. 3:11-15).

The passage is quite clear: Gold and silver, when placed into a furnace, would be purified; wood and hay would be burned away. As this is done, Scripture says we will suffer loss, but be saved “as through fire.” The image of purgatory was becoming more vivid as I read. What else could St. Paul be referring to? He can’t be referring to hell, because it’s clear that the people who undergo this “purifying fire” will be saved, while those who are in hell are lost forever. And yet he can’t be referring to heaven, because he mentions the suffering of loss, while in heaven every tear will be wiped away (cf. Rev. 21:4).

Scripture teaches that God is a “consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). The point St. Paul seems to make is that, as God draws us to Himself after death, there is a process of purification in the fire of God’s holy presence. God Himself purifies us of those imperfect deeds: the wood, hay, and stubble. And those works that are performed in faithfulness and obedience to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, those of gold and silver, are purified. This purification is necessary because, as Scripture teaches of heaven — the new Jerusalem — and the temple within it, “Nothing unclean shall enter it” (Rev. 21:27). The biblical images of the purifying fire, through which the believer is saved while suffering loss, were now beginning to sound more and more like purgatory.

But where is the word “purgatory?” I began to see that this question revealed an ignorance on my part. The Scriptures were written in Hebrew and Greek. “Purgatory” comes from the Latin word purgatorium. In Scripture, we do find references to an afterlife that is neither the hell of the damned nor heaven. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word sheol is used to describe this condition; in the New Testament, the Greek term is hades. I had always thought that hades was hell, but Scripture teaches very clearly that hades is not hell; it is distinct from gehenna, or the lake of fire which is the hell of the damned. In fact, the Book of Revelation describes how, at the end of time, death and hades are thrown into hell (gehenna). This is the second death, the lake of fire. Scripture teaches that at the end of time, there is no more death; and once the purification of all souls has taken place, there is no more need for hades. This same concept of sheol (in Hebrew), hades (in Greek), and purgatorium (in Latin) is purgatory as we have come to know it today (cf. Catechism, nos. 1030-32).

The major objection to purgatory is that somehow it undermines the finished work of Christ. Is Christ’s death sufficient? Of course it is! It is sufficient to win our redemption and to allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify us. The work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, however, is the work of purification and sanctification. It is the application of the divine life won by Christ. Purgatory in no way should be viewed as a “second chance,” by which those who did not believe in and follow Christ can somehow “suffer their way into heaven,” despite their rejection of the Christian life. Jesus is clear that those who refuse to follow Him are guilty: “[H]e who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (Jn. 3:18). Spiritual purification is possible only for those who have been reconciled to God in this life (cf. 2 Cor. 5:18-20).

The concept of purification after death dates back to the Jews of pre-Christian times. Evidence of this can be seen in the Second Book of Maccabees. Catholics will quickly cite this as scriptural evidence for the reality of purgatory, but we must remember that Protestants do not accept 2 Maccabees as scriptural. Nevertheless, objective readers will have to note that, even if the seven books of the Old Testament accepted by Catholics and rejected by Protestants are not biblical, they are godly writings and worthy of our consideration. In 2 Maccabees, following a battle, the faithful Jews found out that their fallen comrades each carried with them sacred tokens of idols, which the law forbade the Jews to wear:

[T]hey turned to prayer, beseeching that the sin which had been committed might be wholly blotted out. And the noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen. He also took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering (2 Mac. 12:42-43).

The sacred text notes that this was an honorable deed, and the passage closes with the statement, “Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin” (2 Mac. 12:45).

What is striking about this passage is not what it asserts, but what it takes for granted. This episode is not told in an apologetic style, as if to prove that prayer for the dead was a pious act, but rather assumes it. Moreover, once the Catholic Church is accepted as the Church that Christ founded, and thus as the Church that defines the canon of Scripture, the teaching in Maccabees takes on greater weight as inspired Scripture (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16).

What is clear and undeniable is the solidarity the early Christians felt with the deceased. Many ancient Christian monuments call out for prayer. For example, the epitaph of a bishop named Abercius, composed toward the end of the second century, provides: “Standing by, I, Abercius, ordered this to be inscribed; truly, I was in my seventy-second year. May everyone who is in accord with this and who understands it pray for Abercius.” This practice of prayer for the deceased predates a fully developed defense of this practice, which was provided at the ecumenical councils of Lyons II (1274), Florence (1439-45), and Trent (1545-63).

As I began reading the Church Fathers, I was struck not only by the confidence of these holy men and the reality of the purifying fire (cf. 1 Cor. 3:15), but also by how deeply the teaching was rooted in the apostolic Tradition. The historic evidence clearly pointed to a belief in a state of purification that would later be called “purgatory.” This term corresponded to the Hebrew concept of sheol, and to the Greek term hades in the New Testament. This third and temporary state of purification is biblical, apostolic, historical and, most of all, true and completely reconcilable with the teachings of Jesus Christ in the Gospels.

The doctrine of purgatory is completely reconcilable with a loving God who is a consuming fire. As we are drawn up into His love, into His very divine life — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — we begin to burn with that same divine fire, and those impurities to which we have clung in this life must be burned away. This will inevitably involve suffering, as we let go of those imperfect things to which we are attached.

The hidden mystery behind the teaching of purgatory is our calling to live in God for all eternity, which requires us to give perfectly of ourselves (cf. Mt. 5:48). Even with deep faith, the Christian life is difficult. We are called to manifest heroic generosity, and yet generosity hurts in this life. No matter what we’re asked to give, we seem to run out — of time, of energy, of money. God calls us to acknowledge this weakness, this poverty, and to turn to Him and cry out for help that He might fill us with His grace.

In heaven, generosity will not hurt; the lack of generosity will hurt. That is because in heaven God will give Himself to us fully and completely, holding nothing back. Our ability to receive from Him will be completely contingent upon our ability, in turn, to immediately give back. Otherwise, the gift of God would destroy us. Like strapping a water balloon onto a fire hydrant nozzle, we would explode! It is only when we learn the habit of complete and total self-giving that we will be able to experience the joy of heaven.

Christians are called to accept the finished work of Jesus Christ, and to allow that work to be applied to our lives by the work of the Holy Spirit, so that those who are justified will be sanctified. For us it is impossible. But with God, all things are possible.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Martin, Curtis. “The Burning Truth About Purgatory.” Lay Witness (November, 1999).

Reprinted with permission of Lay Witness magazine.

Lay Witness is a publication of Catholic United for the Faith, Inc., an international lay apostolate founded in 1968 to support, defend, and advance the efforts of the teaching Church.

catholics don't believe the Bible, They believe the pope's porkies and the catholic con-men.
catholics don't believe what Jesus did was surficient gor cleansing Forgiveness or salvation,
So the have penance, indulgencies, works and purgatory to compleate the work they believe Jesus didn't finish.
catholic insuld Jesus and what He did for them.
Even at their eucharist they says,
"Lord I'm not worthy".
Not believeing that Jesus has made us worthy. WHAT AN INSULT.

baby3
51reputation
3589 Posts
Third Member

Contact:

Member since 03/26/2010

View baby3's full profile or recent posts

Posted on 05/06/2012 at 13:09:17 | Reply | Report Abuse | 3

G4 Read this please!!!
Does the Blood of Jesus Make Us Worthy?
May 5, 2012 By Greg Maxwell
Every so often I come across an idea that is held by most professing Christians, myself included, that turns out not to be supported by scripture. I am not referring to silly sayings such as, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”, or, “God helps those who help themselves.” I’m talking about theological positions that have been repeated for so long that they have become a part of our mindset. One such idea is the belief that we are made worthy by the blood of Jesus. Recently I was challenged by the Holy Spirit to investigate this claim, and what I found was both humbling and illuminating.
I have been taught that the blood of Jesus makes us worthy for as long as I can remember. And sure enough, a quick search of the Internet reveals a plethora of results that echo this idea of being made worthy. There are both gospel singing groups and gospel songs named “Made Worthy” as well as numerous articles and blog entries that assure the reader that God has indeed made them worthy. Maybe you will be shocked, as I was, to discover that this doctrine is not taught in scripture! If you don’t believe it, look up ‘made worthy’ in a good concordance- you won’t find a single verse of scripture that promises worthiness to believers by the blood of Jesus. Even worse, what you will discover is that the Apostles place the emphasis for worthiness on our own shoulders! Blasphemy!

As I searched this out, I found that we have confused two biblical terms with each other. We have substituted one for the other in a dangerous way that has paved the road for the false grace message that has permeated the western church. These two terms are righteousness and worthiness. Beloved, the blood of Jesus does not make us worthy, it makes us righteous. You might be tempted to say, “Whew, glad we cleared that up! I have been made righteous, it’s all good.” If the truth is known, most of us stop there in our hearts because we believe that righteousness and worthiness is mostly the same thing, and God is responsible for imparting them to us. This is one of the important areas of doctrine where the modern church has deviated from the teachings of Jesus and His apostles. God has given us the free gift of righteousness, but He calls us to appropriate His grace to walk worthy as a result of the free gift. These are two very different things and misunderstanding either of them will rob us of power, intimacy with the Lord, and will cause us to live with a lukewarm, dull spirit.

To be righteous means to be just, lawful, innocent, or holy. Since man became inherently unjust, guilty, a lawbreaker, and defiled by his very nature after the fall, it is not possible for any of us to attain righteousness by our own effort. The best of humanity comes far short. No one, from the apostle Paul to Mother Theresa, is righteous. But thanks be to God, He gave us His righteousness as a free gift through the sacrifice of Jesus! The unrighteous must pay for their evil deeds; Christ paid our penalty Himself on the cross and His innocent blood satisfied the requirement of our own death sentence. We have been made righteous through no effort of our own, but we have been made the very righteousness of God.

For if, by the trespass of the one (Adam), death reigned through the one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:17)

Do you realize that Jesus is not more righteous than you are? Or to state it another way, you are no less righteous than the Son of God? If your mind bristles at this statement, you have confused righteousness with worthiness. Claiming the very righteousness of God is offensive to the religious mind but it is the teaching of scripture:

…even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ to all and on all them that believe… (Romans 3:22 )

We have been given the righteousness of God Himself. No lesser justification would allow us access to His holy presence. We know instinctively that we are guilty and that a price must be paid. Our minds and our flesh are constantly trying to come up with a way to earn God’s favor and to pay for our own guilt. When we humble ourselves and finally come broken to the cross (and to the free gift of righteousness that was paid for on that cross) we are able to enter into a new place of intimacy with the Lord. This is part of what Jesus meant when He taught us that the portal of entry into spiritual blessing was to become poor in spirit. (Matt. 5: 3) When the proud human spirit comes to the cross and admits that it is powerless to pay its own debt, the impartation of God’s own righteousness takes place.

Worthiness is a completely different matter. The biblical definition of worthiness means to be competent, fit, able, suitable, or appropriate. As stated earlier, we have combined and confused worthiness with righteousness resulting in the assumption that God makes us worthy. He does not. In fact, many Christians would reject as bad doctrine any teaching that says we must make ourselves worthy, believing that such a doctrine is in conflict with the free gift of God’s grace. The irony is that God’s grace is given to us so that we might choose to walk worthy of our calling; nowhere does the scripture state that we are “made worthy.” In fact as we study the scriptures we find that we are told that the issue of worthiness falls upon us! This certainly takes the grace of God to accomplish over a lifetime, but it is a perversion of grace to claim that God does it all for us and all we have to do is receive it. We cannot do God’s part, but He will not do our part.

Grace is the gift of God to press into a deeper knowledge of Him, greater obedience, prayer, fasting, and boldness… grace is not an excuse to live with a lukewarm spirit while God winks at us. We speak of a “grace period” where we might, for example, pay a bill late with no penalty. We have corrupted the beauty of God’s grace by adopting a definition of grace that means we don’t have to press hard after Jesus, walking in a worthy manner of His calling, taking up our cross, partaking in the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformable to His death. We go about our lives with a dull spirit, lukewarm about God’s Word, and we excuse ourselves by saying that we are under grace. Brethren, this is not what the apostles taught the early church!

That you might walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God (Col. 1:10)

As you know how we exhorted and encouraged and charged every one of you, as a father does his children, that you would walk worthy of God, who has called you unto his kingdom and glory. (I Thes. 2:11-12)

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation by which you are called (Eph. 4:1)

According to Paul, the responsibility for being found worthy in God’s sight is on us and the daily decisions we make. The ultimate expression of this idea of worthiness is seen toward the end of the book of Revelation. The brief period of seven years known as The Tribulation will accomplish something that two thousand years’ worth of church programs and man-centered leadership could not do: The Bride will have made herself ready.

Let us rejoice, be glad, and give him glory, because the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. (Rev. 19:7)

Note that the sacred text does not say that God has made her ready; she made herself ready! This is synonymous with saying that the Bride began walking with God in a manner worthy of her calling. Can you imagine the folly of a bride who showed up at her wedding looking a mess, unprepared, and who claimed that as soon as the bridegroom appeared she would be transformed into a beautiful bride? Such a one would be well-advised to go back and GET READY! So it is with the Bride of Christ; those who are not making themselves ready but who expect to simply be changed when He appears are in for a surprise.

There are degrees of worthiness. We will never be as worthy as the Lord Jesus because we are weak and broken vessels and we fail often. It is important that we strive for 100% obedience to the Lord as we endeavor to walk in a manner worthy of Him. But only Jesus is ultimately found worthy:

And no man in heaven, or in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the scroll, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the scroll, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders said unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll, and to loose the seven seals thereof. (Rev. 5: 3-5)

In conclusion, we must embrace both righteousness and worthiness with right understanding. If we do not understand the free gift of righteousness, we will have a guilty spirit before the Father that blocks intimacy and our enjoyment of His presence. We will be robbed of the grace and understanding to pursue worthiness. And if we lack understanding about our responsibility to pursue a worthy walk, we will assume that everything is cool and that God understands. Jesus referred to such an attitude as being lukewarm and declared that it would make Him vomit.

Righteousness is free; worthiness is on us.

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Looking diligently lest any man fall short of the grace of God… (Heb. 12: 14-15)

B3 God Bless if your up to it:)

baby3

Purgatory for those who don't believe?

Newest Topics

by baby3...

Recent Topics

Newest Updates