SCRIPTURAL REFUTATION FOR PURGATORY. It can be easily proven from Scripture that the doctrine of purgatory is not biblical. The Bible says nothing about any such place, and in fact the most devastating arguments against purgatory come from those inspired pages. Christ made not even so much as a passing allusion to purgatory. Instead he said: “he that hears my word, and believe it him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but had passed out of death unto life.” (John 5:24) Hence eternal life is already possessed by the soul that believed on Christ and there can be no possible condemnation of that soul. When Jesus said to the penitent thief on the cross, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43), the clear inference was that at his death he would go immediately to heaven. Christs words, “it is finished” (John 19:30), spoken at the end of his suffering on the cross, meant that the work of redemption which he came to perform has been accomplished, finished, not partly, but completely. Furthermore, there is no transfer from one realm to another after death. Those who go to the place of outer darkness cannot cross from that sphere to the other: “Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, and they that would pass from thence to you may not be able, in that none may cross over from thence to us” (Luke 16:26). The apostle John teaches exactly the same thing: “The blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sins... If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:7, 9). Hence our sins, all of them, are forgiven through the sacrifice of Christ, and none are left to be purged away human merit. And again: “and I heard a voice from heaven saying, Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them” (Revelation 14:13). Pauls teaching on this subject is also quite relevant. He anticipated no purgatory, but said that to depart was to “be with Christ,”and that it would be “far better” (Philippians 1:23). While we are “at home in the body,” we are “absent from the Lord”; but to be “absent from the body”is to be at home with the Lord” (II Corinthians 5:8). To the Philippians he wrote: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (1:21). In answer to the question, “what must I do to be saved?” he gives a straightforward and unqualified answer: “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). I see absolutely no reference there to confession to a priest, and its, purgatory, or any other thing such as a religion of works attaches. Those who put their trust in Christ atoning death do not come into judgment: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Peter, the alleged founder of Roman Catholicism, declared: “Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (I Peter 3:18). Hence we cannot be made to suffer for that sin a second time. The writer of the book of Hebrews says that God not only forgives, but pledges Himself never to bring our sins to his remembrance: “and their sins and their and iniquities will I remember no more” (10:17). What a contrast there is between these words of Scripture concerning the state of the righteous immediately after death, and that teaching which would have us believe that the sufferings of purgatory may be endured indefinitely, perhaps for years! Roman Catholic Church knows, of course, that this doctrine of purgatory, which is of such great importance to it, is not in the Bible. And that undoubtedly is one of the reasons that through the ages it has The Bible from the people. Purgatory is, therefore, a travesty on the justice of God. Gods justice has been fully satisfied once and for all by the one time sacrifice of Christ, and God cannot exact double punishment, once from Christ, and again from those for whom he died. Hence the redeemed soul goes not to any midway place between death and heaven, but directly to heaven; and the sacrifice on Calvary was sufficient to purge all our sins without the need of any purgatory. A Roman Catholic cannot approach his deathbed and the certain prospect of an interminable fires of purgatory with anything other than fear and dread. For as he is true to the doctrines of his church he can see only great fires beyond. It is difficult to conceive of a belief so groundless and yet so frightening as that of the doctrine of purgatory. But what a marvelous, glorious thing it is that there to go straight to heaven! And what good news it is for Roman Catholics when they learned that there is no such place as purgatory, no suffering for the redeemed soul beyond the grave! Matthew 12:32—“And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” Does Jesus is a statement about no forgive us in this life for the sins mentioned in this verse support the Catholic doctrine of purgatory? In this passage Jesus said there would never be forgiveness for blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. From this verse noted Roman Catholic scholar Ludwig Ott infers that this “leaves open the possibility that sins are forgiven not only in this world but in the world come” (Ott, 1960, 483). Does this verse really support the Catholic belief that believers will be punished for the temporal consequences of their sins and purgatory? The New Catholic Encyclopedia frankly acknowledges that “the doctrine of purgatory is not explicitly stated in the Bible” (11:1034). Indeed, it is not implicitly taught in Scripture either, since the Roman Catholic church use of Scripture to support purgatory does violence to the context of the text employed. The Catholic use of this passage to support the concept of forgiveness of the temporal consequences of our sins after death fails for several reasons. First, this text is not speaking about forgiveness in the next life after suffering for sins, but rather indicates that there will be no forgiveness for this sin in the world come. How can the denial that this sin will not ever be forgiven, even after death, be the basis for speculation that sins will be forgiven in the next life? According to Roman Catholic teaching, purgatory involves only venial sins, but this sin is not venial; it is mortal, being eternal and unforgivable. How can a statement about the unforgiveness of a mortal sin in the next life be the basis for an argument that non-mortal sins will be forgiven then? What is more, the passage is not even speaking about punishment, which Catholics affirm will occur in purgatory. So how can this text be used to support the concept of purgatory all punishment? If this passage did imply punishment, it is not for those who will eventually be saved, as Catholics believe is the case with those who will go to purgatory, but of those who will never be saved. Again, how can a passage not speaking about punishment for the saved after death be used as a basis for belief in purgatory which affirms punishment for the saved? In view of the strong differences, the fact that Roman Catholic scholar site this verse in support of the doctrine of purgatory indicates the lack of real biblical support for this doctrine.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 18:10:16 +0000
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