My Bible tells me that Jesus took all my sins on Himself at the sacrifice that He did at the Cross. Pope Benedict thinks that this is now his role as Governor of Purgatory.
For my Catholic readers. There is no purgatory and indulgences are a damnable heresy. What Pope Benedict XVI said in this article makes him a false prophet and an old religious fool who appeals to silly old women and gullible superstitious people. Catholicism needs to return to true Christianity rather than to medieval doctrines of heretics.
Trips to Lourdes to cut time spent in purgatory – Telegraph: “Pope Benedict XVI is offering relief from purgatory to Roman Catholics who travel to Lourdes over the next year, the Vatican said yesterday.”
“Pilgrims to the shrine in south-west France will receive “plenary indulgences” from the Pontiff, which the Church says reduce the time spent being “washed” of sin after death. The indulgences will be available from this weekend until Dec 8, 2008″
I agree. If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you have eternal security. In Islam, for instance, all people go to hell or some form of purgatory, including the ‘believers.’ And even the believers are not entirely sure as to their salvation. They don’t know whether Allah has chosen them to go to paradise or if they will remain remain in hell. Even Muhammad expressed his concern about his ‘eternal security.’
Apparently, Catholicism, like Islam, doesn’t know what salvation in a biblical Christian sense means either!
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.”‘ (John 14:1-4)
The following verses simply refer to how we have lived our lifes after we accepted Christ. It does not involve any form of tormenting before being allowed to go to heaven:
‘For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation (i.e. Jesus Christ) with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.’ (1 Co 3:11-15)
This is simply God’s judgment and no reference to any form of punishment or purification. St Paul is comparing our works in Christ with gold, silver, wood and other materials. Some of these material are destroyed by fire (i.e. wood), others (i.e. like gold) will only shine brighter because of the allegorical ‘fire.’
A purgatory would allow even those who rejected Christ to be ‘purified’ and enter God’s kingdom. The reason they interprete these verses as proof for a purgatory is because they think one’s salvation is in works rather than faith. A profoundly unbiblical and delusional idea.
Crazy, nutso, absolutly in sane! The Catholic church is so evil and many are deceived who partake there.
What a nut, the pope!
I am so glad I am saved by grace and redeemed!
Then let us proclaim the truth to the Catholics themselves so they may be truly saved. Engaging in lengthy and heated debates against the Catholic Church as an institution is not in the interest of those who are part of it. The Roman Church is unlikely to ever change much anyway.
>”My Bible tells me that Jesus washed away all my sin by the sacrifice He did at the Cross.”
That’s interesting because my Bibles all say Jesus sacrifice removed the eternal effects of my sins and that baptism washed away all my sins.
>”For my Catholic readers. There is no purgatory, indulgences are a damnable heresy and Pope Benedict XVI is a demented old religious fool “
For your Protestant readers. False, false, and false.
>”It does not involve any form of tormenting before being allowed to go to heaven:”
The Catholic Church don’t teach anything regarding “tormenting before being allowed to go to heaven”.
>”This is simply God’s judgment and no reference to any form of punishment or purification”
Um, your words that follow do NOT support that statement. Is this judgement after death and before entry into heaven? If so, you would be describing the particular judgement as taught by the Catholic Church.
Making gold shine brighter by fire certainly seems to be purification as that is in fact how gold is purified in real life.
BTW, purgatory is purification of the soul and not punishment. That’s a common misunderstanding.
>”they think one’s salvation is in works rather than faith. A profoundly unbiblical and delusional idea.”
I agree. Salvation in works is a “profoundly unbiblical and delusional idea”. Fortunately, that is NOT what the Catholic Church teaches. Catholics believe and teach that salvation is by grace, which coincidentally is exactly what the Bible says.
>”The Roman Church is unlikely to ever change much anyway.”
Correct. It is the mission of the Church to preach the Gospel as handed down from the Apostles and to make disciples of all the world. No changes allowed.
God bless…
Then what about those born-again Christians whose works are compared with wood, hay and straw? These materials are destroyed by fire. To me that would seem to indicate simply that their works have had little value to the Lord and in view of the last verse, that it is only due to their faith in Jesus and God’s grace that they will not be ‘cast in the lake of fire.’
Also, it would seem to me that those whose works were comparable to hay or straw burning in fire, that is these people who would need ‘purification’ rather than those whose works were comparable to silver or gold.
‘If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Baptism in itself doesn’t save. It follows acceptance of Christ and it is an outward sign to men and the angels that from now on you belong to God’s heavenly kingdom. It illustrates how your old sinful nature died in Christ (as Christ died on the cross) as you submerge in the water, and when you rise up from the water, how you have been born-again in Christ with a new nature (Christ’s ressurection and His conquering of death). I also believe that baptism upon salvation should be a deliberate choice and not one made by your parents (infant baptism).
As far as faith through works vs faith is concerned, the Roman Church has a long history of emphasizing works rather than faith and so far I’ve never heard any pope talk of being born-again. Perhaps the Catholic church you attend is more biblical in that regard – which is good but doesn’t take away the fact that I’ve never heard any pastor in a Catholic Church mention how we need to be born again in Christ.
The Catholic Church believes it is God’s kingdom on earth with the Pope as the replacement of Jesus on earth (temporary or not I don’t know, but I’ve never heard any Catholic pastor preach the gospel of the coming kingdom of God and Jesus’ return), it sees itself as if it had replaced the physical people of Israel and worships Jesus’ virgin mother Mary as a godess. Not to mention a load of other pagan influences over the centuries. With all due respect but as a born-again Christian, I cannot support such a Church.
And for the record, although my views are mostly Reformed/Calvinist, I don’t consider myself a Protestant and I don’t follow this or that church’ teachings. I simply try to live by what the Bible tells me rather than whatever Catechism or fallible man says.
I find it ironic that Timothy would attempt to tell a couple of former Roman Catholics what the Catholic Church teaches.
I went to Catholic schools when they still had Nuns, Brothers and Priests teaching Catholic doctrine to us daily. What Catholic training have you had?
The Catholic Church teaches that purgatory is a place of torments were souls are purged of all impurities before they can advance to Heaven. The reason they teach this is because they do not believe that Jesus paid for sin after you reach the age of accountablity unless you confess those sins to the church and pay penitence and/or are absolved of those sins by a priest.
They teach only the totally pure who die without unconfessed sin will go straight to Heaven. The exception might be those who accumulated enough merits through their own good works and indulgences from the Church to escape this place of torments.
The Pope would not be offering indulgences to advance Catholics through Purgatory if he did not think almost all of his church will go there.
Even if there were a Purgatory and there certainly is not, indulgences are loony. You really believe you can pay for future sins before you commit them?
In this case by taking a pilgrimage to Lourdes? Where by the way, they honor a demonic manifestation of the Queen of Heaven who is not Mary at all. How do I know? What this demon is reported to have said is contrary to what is written in the Bible. The demon has a salvation by your own goods works theology and the demon places itself as a intercessor between mankind and Jesus.
If being in a place of torments for your sins in not punishment for your own actions I do not know what is?
Contrast this with what true Christianity teaches. Jesus paid for all sin past, present, and future at the cross and whoever believes in Christ’s righteousness will be saved.
The Bible teaches for those who are saved, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
The Bible teaches there is no purging place for your sins because if you are in Christ you are covered by the blood of Jesus and God sees you as His Son who has no sin.
The Bible teaches that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus who are called according to His purpose.
Anyway Timothy, next time you tell former Catholics what your Church teaches please give us the page number in your Catechism that affirms your views. I have one right here. Do You? If so have you read it?
I just came across your site earlier and I am very much enjoying your posts. I was born and raised in a Catholic family in Northern Ireland. I was taken in by many things in the RC church until I started researching properly and reading the bible more carefully. I am happy to say that my thinking and ideas and beliefs changee completely. I love Jesus and follow his words and teachings and not the Pope in Rome. Kepp up the great work, this is truly a great blog! Thank you 🙂
Thanks Mark, If you have not already, read my latest post of Mid March 2013. We are on the Roman Catholic Church topic because of the new Pope.